Silae Apps FAQs
Production Floor Management. Automated. Simplified. Supercharged.
The Silae Suite of apps are designed to empower your factory floor managers to automate and easily perform a range of critical day to day jobs .
With Silae apps, you can:
Reduce line change over times
Reduce line setting time
Monitor production floor with digital twins of layouts
Monitor real time performance of each step of their production lines.
Identify bottlenecks are they emerge
Automated performance tracking of operators
Common questions we hear from factories
Our teams are very hesitant to adopt technology. Why will they try Silae?
Yes, we know the production floor can be chaotic. There are lots of line changeovers, attrition, lack of data, and more.
We've spent years studying the factory floor realities, and formulated a few golden principles for the app:
Any design that requires factory staff to type or manually enter data is almost certainly going to fail
A design that requires factory staff to adapt to a new system will likely not work
Unless we adapt to the way the factory floor adapts, we won't be successful
These principles helped us design Silae apps. We think your staff will love it because:
They do not have to type anything - the app works with just clicks, taps and scanning QR codes
The app complements data collection from Silae sensors. Factory staff do not have to worry about filling reports
They can perform tasks that were painful (like line setting, tracking bundles, etc.) faster and with less errors. This leaves me free to manage the floor
They don't need to rely on a shared Industrial Engineering resource for every small decision
All information that is required on the floor is available in a mobile friendly format.
Let's look at how they can handle typical cases in your factory.
How do I explain Silae to my team?
Silae lets your factory staff work smarter, not harder.
Today, your floor supervisory staff spend a lot of time on:
Working with Industrial Engineers to identify line setup for Operation Bulletins
Mapping machines to different steps of the Line
Tracking operators assigned to each machine and their hourly production
Identifying which steps are running slower than planned and identifying what to do to address this
Filling in hourly reports on production
Identifying which machines have issues and arranging for fixes
Managing absenteeism and attrition
Assigning new employees mid-way to steps to improve productivity
And so much more
Silae apps helps address a lot of these issues:
Automatically get information on operation bulletins and line setup requirements
Easily create new lines using the app and assign machines by scanning their QR codes
Assign or reassign employees by having them tap their RFID cards on the Silae machine
See a digital twin of every line with details of production and loss time for each step in real time
With Silae, there's no need for the team to fill in hourly reports on production as these are auto-generated. They can focus on improving productivity for each step. In factories using Silae, we find that floor supervisors quickly realize that Silae is an aid and not a burden.
My main job is to keep an eye on the production floor. How do I trust that you can give me data that's in excel sheets on the mobile?
If we're absolutely honest, we'd all agree that people on the floor spend more time looking for data in papers and excel than acting on it.
This got us to wonder if we can build something intuitive and powerful.
What would that be? As we ideated around this, we thought - what if we could create a spot for each step of a line and let the supervisor see data related to the step?
So, here's the revolutionary Silae interface to help your staff monitor their lines. Simply pick a line, and Silae shows relevant data for each step.
All data that powers real-time monitoring screens is auto-generated by Silae sensors, so there is no scope for manual errors.
Silae's monitoring screen lets you quickly spot steps that are underperforming and focus just on that.
What's more, it also shows you data about all previous sessions of the day, so you can quickly see which operator has been consistently slow, or how your line production varies through the day.
Production numbers are good to have. But what I really need to focus on are delays compared to plan.
We hear you.
What you need to improve productivity is a clear idea of how much time is lost at different steps. Fix errors, and your line becomes more efficient.
Silae lets your staff view Loss Time in a similar format to Production Monitoring - for each step.
This is auto-calculated against each step's SAM value and allowance. Silae also estimates how many pieces are lost so you can focus on critical issues first.
Silae automatically maps out times when the machine isn't running, and lets you assign reasons for stoppage. This helps different teams stay accountable for their actions.
With Silae, you can fight loss time effectively and improve your productivity.
This sounds like a plan. But we actually spend a lot of time creating our lines from the OB. This is what slows us down, especially when we have too many line changeovers. Got anything for that?
Yes, we do!
We know that there is a lot of time wasted in mapping an OB to a line. But not with Silae.
Your IE team can create Operation Bulletins for styles and publish them on the Silae portal. The Silae Smart Factory app lets you scan these and pick the right one for the line.
What's more, it maps existing lines servicing the OB, and also lets you create a new line. All in all, it probably takes 10 minutes to go from OB to a new line.
10 minutes sounds too good to be true. Our challenge is not just mapping an OB, but creating a line layout.
Of everything we designed in the Silae Smart Factory app, we think you'll love this the most.
Why do we say that? Because we follow a simple but powerful idea for line setting - creating it spatially.
In a normal course of events, your team would probably scan a physical area, assign locations for steps and helpers and then start collecting data.
In Silae, you can pretty much do the same.
To start, just click any location. Silae automatically assigns the first step of the OB to the location. To assign the second step, simply tap another location and Silae will pull the next step from the OB for you to assign it there.
We cannot begin to tell you how liberating this can be. You can quickly and easily build simple or complex layouts visually - be they linear, zigzag, horseshoe or even your custom layout - all by just tapping the right location for the next step.
Go ahead, give it a try. We promise you'll love it.
Okayyy....even if we do this quickly, we still have to enter details of the machines for each step. And that involves data entry and is error prone.
Yes, we know.
That's why we built not one, but two ways to assign machines to a step
The simplest way is using QR codes.
During the Silae setup, we get machine names and details from you. And we auto-generate unique QR codes for each machine.
Before you get started with Silae, simply paste the machine QR code on it.
When assigning a machine, you can simply scan the QR code and Silae will automatically fetch details and assign the machine.
Silae is smart enough to know when a machine type does not match the requirement and throws an error.
And what happens if the QR code sticker can't be read?
Then we have a fallback option - again, no manual entry, we promise.
During installation, we hand over a bunch of Line Setting RFID cards to your production manager.
To assign a machine where the QR code isn't clear, simply get one of the Line Setting RFID cards and scan the QR code on it using the app.
Then, tap the RFID card on the Silae sensor on the machine.
That's it. Silae will show you details for the machine that you can then assign to your step.
See, we told you it would be simple.
Ok, I've got another case. Suppose a machine breaks down. How do I assign a new machine to the step?
Like everything else with Silae, this too is simple.
Simply tap the edit button on the step details card view. Confirm you want to remove machine assigned to the step and tap on a pre-defined reason.
That's it.
The older machine is unmapped from the step. Now just go ahead and assign a new machine using a QR code or Line Setting RFID card like before.
That seems simple enough. How do I end an existing line?
Just go to the Manage Lines and Shifts view and choose the Line you want to end.
By default, Silae shows you live lines, draft lines and completed (or archived lines).
You can pick your live line and just tap End Line.
Once ended, a line will be visible under archived, so you can still analyze its production and loss time history.
Looks like Silae simplifies most of my floor activities. Can it also handle line feeding?
Line management, line setting, bundles... all the setup parts seem covered. But what about my operators? Is there any info I can get about them as well?
During Setup, we map each operator with a unique Silae RFID card that you can hand over.
If you have a lot of contract employees, you can asssign them an RFID card for the day.
All they need to do is tap the card on the Silae Sensor before they start. Silae will automatically map the work they do so you can run your analysis later.
Your floor staff can simply tap a step to see operator assignment history.
So my floor staff can see performance history of lines and operators?
Sounds great! How do I get started?
Just visit www.silae.io and book a demo. Our strategic partners will get in touch with you to walk you through Silae.