How to Maximize Production Capacity with Caddis

Is your shop floor at its absolute limit? Demand is up, but the cost of a new production line, more floor space, or another shift is staggering. Before you make a massive capital investment, what if you could unlock 10%, 20%, or even 30% more capacity from your existing equipment assets?

This untapped potential is often called the "hidden factory"—and the key to unlocking it is machine data. By using machine monitoring, you can move from "feeling" like you're at capacity to knowing precisely where your potential is being lost and how to get it back.

Here are five proven ways Caddis machine monitoring helps you maximize production capacity.

1. Eradicate Unplanned Downtime

Unplanned downtime is the number one killer of production capacity. The first step to eliminating it is understanding it. Machine monitoring platforms automatically capture every second of downtime and allow operators to categorize the reason with a single touch.

Instead of relying on vague logbook entries, Caddis provides you with helpful reports and dashboards showing your biggest sources of downtime. This gives your maintenance and operations teams a data-driven roadmap to attack the most costly problems first, instantly adding productive minutes back into every shift.

2. Optimize Cycle Times and Crush Microstops

A machine that is running is not the same as a machine that is running efficiently. Performance loss is a subtle but significant drain on capacity. This includes:

• Slow Cycles: When a machine runs slower than its ideal or engineered cycle time.
• Microstops: Small, frequent stops of a few seconds or minutes that operators often don't even log.

Caddis machine monitoring tracks cycle times in real-time, alerting you the moment a machine's performance drops. It adds up all the microstops that fly under the radar. Fixing these small, chronic issues can often lead to a 5-10% increase in a machine's output, creating new capacity out of thin air.

3. Squeeze Time Out of Changeovers

For many manufacturers, setup and changeover time is treated as a fixed cost of doing business. But some of the most dramatic capacity gains can be found here. By precisely timing every step of your changeover process, machine monitoring helps you see the reality of your SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) initiatives.

The data will clearly show where time is being lost. Are technicians waiting for tools? Are materials not staged on time? By identifying these bottlenecks, you can shorten your changeover times, increase asset availability, and run smaller batch sizes more profitably.

4. Reduce Rework and First-Pass Yield

Every minute spent making a defective part is a minute of capacity you can never get back. Poor quality is a direct drain on your potential output.

Caddis monitoring solutions can track machine conditions alongside production quality. By correlating factors like temperature, pressure, or vibration with defect rates, you can identify the root causes of scrap and rework. Improving your first-pass yield means more good parts are made in the same amount of time, directly increasing your effective production capacity.

5. Enable Data-Driven Production Planning

Accurate data is the foundation of effective planning. When you know the true performance rates, changeover times, and availability of your machines, your production planners can create schedules that are realistic and achievable.

This eliminates the chaos caused by overpromising and under-delivering. It ensures a smoother production flow, reduces bottlenecks, and maximizes the throughput of the entire facility, allowing you to confidently take on new orders.

Stop searching for hidden capacity. Start seeing it. Our platform provides the real-time visibility you need to get more out of the assets you already have.

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