Carlin said the difficulties thermoformers face in hiring skilled operators are getting worse. Capturing the knowledge of good operators before they leave is critical.
“There are three broad manufacturing challenges, and we’re addressing them head-on,” Carlin said. “The tribal knowledge problem, the retrieval problem and the data utilization problem.”
SprocketAI captures a team’s accumulated knowledge, makes it available across the company and identifies opportunities for continuous improvement.
Thermoform.ai adds more than 25 years of GTTI’s training material and expertise to provide the technical base for problem solving. “It’s like an expansion pack for Sprocket,” Carlin said.
Carlin developed the idea for thermoform.ai and is the owner. He partnered with Strachan, who licensed his technical and training material for the project. Next, he turned to CognitionWorks, based in Seattle, for software development and deployment.
CognitionWork’s software SprocketAI is industry-agnostic in that companies can add their own documentation and connect to their own ERP system, Microsoft SQL, network drives or other manufacturing databases. General, foundational thermoform process information is available to all thermoform.ai users, but data uploaded by a specific company is available only to employees of that company.
On the shop floor, a technician can document a procedure, so that it can be captured by Sprocket for anyone with an iPad or phone to access. The tool supports multiple languages.
“If a younger technician is struggling with angel hair, or flow lines, or PET parts sticking together, he will be able to ask thermoform.ai in natural language. He will be able to say or type, ‘Hey, I’m having flow lines on my PET tray. What do I need to do?’
“It’s going to give him very specific information with citations from specific files, training modules or documents from the GTTI library,” Carlin said.
“There’s dozens and dozens of variables that can impact a good part, and it is not easy to pass that on simply,” Carlin said. “It’s not easy for techs to diagnose issues if they don’t have that experience.”
Carlin has already started demonstrating the software to thermoforming companies. A three-month paid trial period is available. Afterwards, user companies will have the option to fully integrate SprocketAI and upgrade to the combined platform.
While the information in thermoform.ai specifically targets shop floor technicians, Carlin said it will also be useful to process engineers and perhaps tool designers. “There’s quite a lot in there about incoming resin preparation, extrusion and tooling. Designers and processors can use it to validate initial cavity layouts, for example, and how to work through air flow and water flow calculations,” he said.
Thermoform.ai initially focuses on thin-gauge and cut-sheet thermoforming but already includes content for heavy-gauge forming. Additional base content will be added based on user feedback.
Carlin said companies that upgrade to SprocketAI can upload their own training programs, or his team can create AI-generated training modules. Those modules would include quizzes to make sure operators understand the material before moving forward. “This is already on the product roadmap,” he said.
Contact:
Thermoform.ai, Boston, www.thermoform.ai
