Vorne is pleased to announce the release of DHCP support for all XL products, enabling IP addresses to be assigned to XL devices from a centralized server. For XL devices installed on networks without a DHCP server, IP addresses can be assigned with a simple utility included on the XL Tools CD. DHCP support is available as a FREE upgrade for all XL customers. Contact Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN or email us for more information.

Vorne is pleased to announce the release of an all-new automatic time update feature for XL products. One of the most popular features of XL visual displays is showing a count down timer of remaining break time for plant floor employees. This feature has now been enhanced with time synchronization capabilities that enable XL devices to keep highly accurate and coordinated time. XL devices can synchronize with internal or external time servers and feature automatic failover to one or more alternate time servers if the primary time server is not available.

The automatic time updates feature is available as a FREE upgrade for all XL customers. Contact Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN or email us for more information.

Cosmetic Essence, a global provider of outsourced solutions for the personal care and household product industries, has achieved a 22% improvement in OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), with XL products playing an integral role. According to Cosmetic Essence, XL enables them to monitor all of their production lines in real time, and more importantly, it enables them to address problems in real time. Plant Manager Mike Hildick states: “With XL, our entire team sees downtime, and eliminates downtime. We count on Vorne XL to show us what area's we need to address, and we take immediate action from there.”

To learn more about XL, watch this brief, informative movie. To learn more about OEE visit our educational site www.oee.com.

Vorne was selected by Canon Communications to lead a three-hour OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) workshop during National Manufacturing Week 2008 in Chicago. The workshop, conducted jointly with Argo, Inc., presented seven proven and practical tools for improving OEE. One of the workshop highlights was using real-world OEE data to understand and analyze common plant-floor scenarios.

If you are interested in learning more about field-proven techniques for improving OEE, contact Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN for a free consultation with one of our lean specialists.

Gate Gourmet, the worlds largest independent catering and logistics provider for the airline industry, recently completed a pilot project where the XL600 was used to apply lean manufacturing techniques to a key value stream. The result: 30% labor savings and a one month payback. The Gate Gourmet project focused on training employees to work to takt time, and the XL600 was configured to provide real-time visual feedback for TAE (Target, Actual, and Efficiency).

Try XL in your plant. Contact Vorne for a free 90-day trial.

Vorne is pleased to announce the release of an enhanced Text Box visual control for the XL800. The enhanced Text Box enables multiple data registers to be embedded into as many as 16 individually defined visual display regions, with real-time updates and automatic pagination. Free-form text can be easily combined with register data to significantly enhance the delivery of KPIs and visual communications to your plant floor.

The enhanced Text Box visual control is available as a FREE upgrade for all XL800 customers. Contact Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN or email us for more information.

A frequent question from Vorne customers is how to leverage OEE to rapidly enhance plant productivity and improve their bottom line. One of the companies Vorne regularly works with, Argo, Inc., has put together two 3-day workshops that combine Kaizen techniques with OEE to deliver rapid and sustainable improvements. These are intensive, hands-on workshops, where you will have an opportunity to learn and experience best practices amongst your peers. A broad range of topics will be covered including OEE best practices, OEE signature curve analysis, autonomous maintenance, data visualization, developing effective Kaizen teams, and more.

For further information contact Argo at 312-988-9220 or download the Argo OEE Workshop flyer.

The June issue of Plant Engineering magazine features Hermes Abrasives, a Vorne XL customer, in an OEE case study. The article highlights common pitfalls of collecting performance data, the importance of choosing the “right” KPIs to drive continuous improvement, and how to motivate the plant floor by coupling real-time goals with real-time feedback. XL products were used to automate data collection and deliver real-time performance feedback that helped Hermes achieve OEE improvements ranging from 10% to 20% within the first year. According to process engineer Cindy Woodward: “We have made a few minor changes within the department, but I think the displays have been the single most influential addition”.

Change the way you see your plant floor. Call 1-877-767-LEAN for a free 90-day XL trial.

Recognized as an industry leader on the topic of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), Vorne delivered a specialized OEE workshop to a packed session at Noria’s Lean Manufacturing 2008 Conference in Nashville. Vorne’s workshop focused on the “how” and “why” behind OEE, and also provided practical tips on maintaining an effective OEE program.

Are you interested in OEE? Call Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN or email us for a free copy of the OEE Pocket Guide.

More than 300 attendees gathered in Louisville, KY for the seventh annual Honda Lean Network Conference to share best practices for achieving world-class manufacturing. Recognized as industry experts in visualizing manufacturing performance data, Vorne was selected to lead several workshops on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The workshops focused on a “best practices” approach to delivering the right information to the right people at the right time.

Vorne regularly leads presentations and workshops on lean topics such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and KPIs. Vorne also offers free resources, such as the Fast Guide to OEE and the lean manufacturing Learning Center.

In today’s manufacturing environment, achieving optimal efficiency is not just important; it’s a crucial part of remaining competitive. If you are a manufacturer looking for a competitive edge – a proven way to increase plant floor productivity, then you need to watch this new, informative XL movie from Vorne.

Want to learn more about XL? Talk to a Vorne lean-trained professional at 1-877-767-LEAN.

Vorne is pleased to announce the release of the XL Quick Start Guide. XL is easy, and the Quick Start Guide makes it even easier. The XL Quick Start Guide facilitates fast deployment, enabling users to go from shipping carton to plant floor performance management in about an hour. How? It leverages the fact that XL is preconfigured with a rich set of production monitoring and performance management tools that provide immediate, out-of-the-box functionality.

Learn more by contacting Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN, or email us and request your own copy of the XL Quick Start Guide.

The all-new XL Tools CD from Vorne brings a whole new level of simplicity to configuring XL devices. Innovative “quick-start” templates provide out-of-the-box, ready-to-go performance management functionality and make XL easier and faster than ever to get running in just about any manufacturing environment. Plus, a new point-and-click, browser-based configuration interface makes it easy for end-users to customize XL operation for their specific applications.

The XL Tools CD includes the latest version XL firmware and is available as a free upgrade for all XL customers. Contact Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN or email us for more information.

Vorne is pleased to announce the release of an all-new role-based security feature for XL products. Three easy-to-use predefined roles provide layered access control to the XL web page interface. The Guest role provides access to real-time and historical production KPIs and metrics, and does not require login. The Supervisor role adds access to device settings such as takt time, ideal cycle time, goals, job ID, and shift ID. The Administrator role adds access to device configuration and advanced diagnostic tools.

The role-based security feature is available as a free upgrade to all XL customers. Contact Vorne at 1-877-767-LEAN or email for more information.

The challenge: Corporate management needed a solution that could collect real-time data from literally hundreds of production assets across more than a dozen manufacturing plants and seamlessly feed this information to their SAP ERP system. After studying a wide range of solutions the Vorne XL400 was selected for its ability to non-intrusively collect real-time performance data from virtually any production asset and cleanly deliver this data to a wide range of enterprise systems.

The result: XL enabled the customer to focus on beating their competition instead of managing costly and time-consuming integration projects.

XL solutions start at around a thousand dollars. Call 877-767-LEAN for a free 90-day trial.

Vorne is pleased to announce that it has achieved its third consecutive year of record sales. Strong growth in 2007 was driven by Vorne’s unique combination of lean manufacturing expertise and easy-to-implement performance management products, such as the highly innovative XL800 Productivity Appliance™.