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MEMEX Inc. to Demonstrate an Array of World-Class IIoT Solutions at IMTS 2016

BURLINGTON, ON–(Marketwired – Sep 8, 2016) – Memex Inc. (“MEMEX” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: OEE) is proud to announce that it will be unveiling and demonstrating an array of world-class Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) software and hardware platforms at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago, between September 12th to the 17th.

With these announcements, MEMEX is redefining what it means to truly know what is happening in your plant. MEMEX has long been recognized as the leader in both shop floor monitoring, as well as providing MTConnect software and hardware solutions for any piece of manufacturing equipment on the plant floor.

Doug Bellin, Global Lead for Manufacturing and Energy Industries at Cisco, stated, “Since early 2015, Cisco has been working closely with MEMEX on IIoT security solutions based on MTConnect. Cisco is excited about the upcoming announcements at IMTS 2016. This further demonstrates MEMEX’s global leadership and their ability to connect all devices on the plant floor, using Cisco’s secure networking solutions, thereby turning that raw data into secure actionable information for the operator, plant manager and CxO to use to improve manufacturing productivity.”

New Product Announcements at IMTS 2016

On Monday September 12th, 2016 MEMEX will unveil MERLIN Tempus™ and MERLIN Tempus Enterprise Edition (EE). MERLIN Tempus is an open and extensible Manufacturing Execution System (MES) platform which offers the next generation of tools such as dynamic easily configurable dashboards and advanced reporting along with many other manufacturing analytical capabilities that enable time-saving execution of continuous improvement initiatives using Real-Time and historical data.

Developed using state-of-the-art software engineering technologies, MERLIN Tempus delivers green-light metrics and analytical capabilities to effectively reduce downtime while increasing throughput and profits. MERLIN Tempus EE extends the capabilities of MERLIN Tempus with full Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and integrated job scheduling. MERLIN Tempus EE creates an opportunity for a dramatic increase in OEE based on accurate Real-Time information collected using a true shop-floor-to-top-floor communication network connecting all machines, old and new.

On Tuesday September 13th, 2016 MEMEX will introduce the MTC-One. MEMEX has established itself as the company that addresses “the last meter” and leaves no machine behind when it comes to legacy connectivity on the plant floor. The MTC-One is the “Swiss army knife” hardware device for legacy machine connectivity enabling any machine on the plant floor to become MTConnect® capable.

On Wednesday September 14th, 2016 MEMEX will introduce MERLIN Financial Overall Equipment Effectiveness™ (FOEE™), MERLIN DNC and MERLIN Continuous Improvement (CI) Professional Services (PS). The holy grail for manufacturing is not simply knowing how effective a specific machine tool or the entire plant is, but rather it is knowing both the effectiveness and the profitability or loss of any given machine tool as well as the entire plant. MERLIN DNC is a reinvention of DNC fitting to current software and hardware platforms with the emphasis on ease of use and feature capabilities. MEMEX CI-PS is a new and much needed service where MEMEX consultants will assist customers in achieving the highest possible in-plant productivity using the MERLIN platform.

Dave Edstrom, CTO of MEMEX Inc., author of “MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know”, as well as former President and Chairman of the MTConnect® Institute, stated, “These announcements at IMTS 2016 represent years of research and development investment. We will be demonstrating and delivering state-of-the-art technologies with industry leading features that will further distance MEMEX from its competition.”

MEMEX’s entirely new software and hardware platforms are built upon the success of the current award-winning MERLIN software suite, which has enabled manufacturers to achieve upwards of 50% increase in productivity, a 20% plus increase in profit based on a 10% increase in OEE, along with securing payback in less than four months which equates to an Internal Rate of Return greater than 300%.

David McPhail, CEO of MEMEX Inc., and Mr. Edstrom, will be in booth E3368 to discuss and demonstrate these new game-changing software and hardware along with other MEMEX industry experts. Both Mr. McPhail and Mr. Edstrom have been recognized as two of the top 30 Advanced Manufacturing Visionaries by Smart Manufacturing Magazine.

About MEMEX:

MEMEX, the developer of MERLIN, an award winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in Real-Time, is the global leader in machine to machine connectivity solutions. Committed to its mission of “Successfully transforming factories of today into factories of the future” and encouraged by the accelerating adoption and success of MERLIN, MEMEX is relentlessly pursuing the development of increasingly innovative solutions suitable in the IIoT era. MEMEX envisions converting every machine into a node on the corporate networks, thereby, creating visibility from shop-floor-to-top-floor. MEMEX, with its deep commitment towards machine connectivity, offers solutions that are focused on finding hidden capacity by measuring and managing Real-Time data. This empowers MEMEX’s customers to effectively quantify and manage OEE, reduce costs and incorporate strategies for continuous lean improvement.

Media Contact

Memex Inc.:

David McPhail, CEO

Phone: 519-993-1114

Email: david.mcphail@MemexOEE.com

 

Rashi Rathore, Marketing Specialist

Phone: 905-635-3040 ext 103

Email: Rashi.Rathore@MemexOEE.com

 

Investor Relations

Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations

Phone: 416-565-2805

Email: Sean@SophicCapital.com

MEMEX - DAVID MCPHAIL CEO - SNNLive Interview

David McPhail at OptiSaw West

David McPhail will be presenting at OptiSaw West. OptiSaw is a time-effective and affordable learning and networking opportunity for those driving the future of sawmilling in your operation. The focus is on the future of optimization and automation in our industry, including challenges and opportunities on the cutting edge of this side of the industry.

Date & Time: Tuesday, 14 June 2016 from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM (PDT)

Venue : Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel
7551 Westminster Highway
Richmond, BC V6X 1A3
Canada

For further information and registration click here 

 

MEMEX - Measuring Manufacturing Excellence Logo

Two New Devices Focus on Securely Accessing Data in Legacy Machines

April 202016 | Brett Brune | Smart Manufacturing magazine

A trio of Mazak, Memex and Cisco is beginning to sell SmartBox, a device meant to securely manage manufacturing data—information on axes, spindles, temperatures, cutting times, downtimes and part counts, for starters—culled from machines that have been laboring in a sort of silence for decades. At the same time, a pairing of Forcam and Wago plans to release a similar device it calls the PFC100 Industrial MTConnect device before July.

SmartBox uses I/O links to connect machines and produces MTConnect code in real time. It can use an adapter board from Memex and must be connected to a Cisco router, John Rattray, VP of sales and marketing at Memex, said in an interview with Smart Manufacturing magazine at the MC2 conference in Dallas. It can also use Memex’s factory- and machine-shop-floor-monitoring software, Merlin, to map existing signals and analyze and correlate the data so shops and plants can use it to improve productions.

Companies in the aerospace, defense and medical industries welcome the Cisco router requirement because it assuages their network security concerns, he added.

“We’re talking about IP connections in terms of Ethernet connections,” Rattray said. “You don’t need to have all the security in there to make the connection work. However, one customer of ours, DP Tool in New York, had experienced a situation where a guy who was maintaining a machine put in a USB stick into it and a virus on this USB stick spread to the company’s manufacturing network and whole admin network. It cost the company an enormous amount of effort and grief to get that fixed. You can run without security switches. But smart manufacturers are recognizing we need to secure and lock down our shop floor networks.”

The SmartBox has a “level three” managed switch that will shut the device down automatically if a USB stick comes its way or someone unplugs a particular Ethernet connection, Rattray added.

The emerging device from Forcam and Wago has a combined MTConnect adapter and agent inside the device, as well as a built-in security firewall for cybersecurity, Forcam USA Inc. CEO Mohamed Abuali said. He demonstrated a simulation model at MC2, saying it cost less than the trio’s device.

The Forcam/Wago product will cost less than $1,000, he said. And the Mazak/Memex/Cisco device will cost $4,000 on the low end but could be used on four machines, Mazak President Brian Papke said.

Companies using legacy CNCs will soon be able to choose between bolting their new data-retrieving device together with a Cisco network router or a “quicker solution that can connect to any network,” Abuali said. “The alternative [to these two options] is you have to retrofit the machine and upgrade the controller, which can cost thousands of dollars. In many cases, you cannot even retrofit.”

Both devices are intended to help manufacturers around the world connect their machines securely to a network. About 14.5 million machines still lack connectivity, Rattray said.

Of course, the idea is to then analyze the data to make the best decisions possible about manufacturing and machining processes. And some of those decisions can be made without human involvement, to be sure: “For instance, if a temperature sensor starts to rise above a threshold limit, the machine can send an alert and notify people before it fails,” he added.

Merlin lets companies “take data and make it manageable,” said Papke, who serves on the board for MTConnect. Otherwise, companies end up with “digital exhaust.”

“Forcam wants to define real-time production—from any machine of any age,” Abuali said. “That’s a critical state.”

Memex Chief Technology Officer Dave Edstrom is “very pleased to see more of these type boxes come out—because, as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all ships,” he said.

But he couldn’t stop himself from making a quick comparison with the offering from Forcam/Wago: “The integration of what Mazak is doing with the SmartBox, with Memex and Cisco—making it easier to connect—will resonate very well with manufacturing. You don’t have to sell someone on Memex’s ability to connect anything. And you don’t have to sell anyone on Cisco’s ability to network a lot of devices together and do it securely. So that’s why we think SmartBox is a game-changer.”