Specifications

17
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Joy Mining Machinery
Project: New digital signage network
Major benefit: Improved productivity and morale
Major challenge: Centralizing control of the company’s branding and messaging
The background.
Active on five continents and with a network of 55 facilities spanning
China, Russia, India, Poland, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa,
and the United States, Joy Mining Machinery, a subsidiary of Joy Global,
Inc., is a worldwide leader in the manufacture of underground mining
equipment. Wherever coal, iron ore, copper, and other embedded
materials are mined, chances are good that Joy Mining loaders,
conveyors, and other products are hard at work.
Because Joy Mining customers and employees are spread from Tychy,
Poland to Tianjin, China, the Joy Mining Machinery marketing team
proposed a network of digital video displays in facility lobbies to convey
both local and company-wide information, all with a consistent look.
“We knew that to control the branding and messaging, we would
have to manage the network from our graphics and video production
unit,” recalled Chuck Fickter, Marketing Information Manager for Joy
Mining. “The only way to do that is with a powerful, easy-to-operate
content management system.”
The solution.
The Joy Mining team discovered iCOMPEL
™
from Black Box. “Many
of the units we looked at were complicated to use. Others didn’t have
all the functions we wanted,” Fickter said. “But iCOMPEL is very easy
to hook up, with software that’s easy to learn.”
Nearly all the company’s 55 facilities eventually received a digital
display in their lobbies, all controlled by iCOMPEL devices. But little
did anyone know at that point how far the project would go. First, the
company’s engineering staff came to Fickter with an idea. “We were
presented with the notion of using the digital screens to provide
engineering metrics — performance data and the like. We saw the
potential and immediately began rolling out the information to 19
screens around the network,” says Fickter.
Possibly the most innovative idea, however, came from a company
task force working to optimize manufacturing quality and efficiency. Its
proposal: Use digital screens on the factory floor to display “Kanban”
inventory information in real time. Kanban, a Just-in-Time manufacturing
discipline, tells workers which parts are in inventory, which are in transit,
and in what bins particular parts are found. It also feeds information back
to off-site fabricators, ensuring that appropriate parts are being produced
only as needed, and just in time for use.
“To execute the Kanban idea, we needed to pull information from
our SAP Enterprise Resource Planning system. All we had to do was
create a Web service by pointing our iCOMPEL units to the correct IP
address,” says Fickter.
Joy Mining has installed a number of Kanban displays at its Franklin,
PA manufacturing plant with impressive results. Its next move is to link
the Franklin facility to other Pennsylvania plants as well as its South
African operations.
BLACK BOX CASE STUDY
Display Enclosures
Protect your expensive displays indoors and out!
• A fully sealed and tamper-resistant, key-locked enclosure for protecting expensive LCD
screens in digital signage applications.
• Anti-reflective window on the front enables clear viewing when the cover is closed.
• Integrated fan cooling, exhaust ports, and air movement features. Display depth allows
air to circulate at the front of the window. (AC cooling also available as option.)
• Cable entry from behind.
• Durable aluminum body with silver finish. Custom colors also available
to match your organization’s color scheme.
Call us for more information.