Managing manufacturing efficiency using the concept of automation with human touch

In the era of what is called Industry 4.0, information technologies become a crucial aspect for increasing productivity in the manufacturing sector. They require a certain level of electronic integration with processes and machines in the production plant in order to get relevant data. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the convenience of the concept of automation with human touch, as an alternative approach for developing information systems based on data obtained partially from a manual source (human machine interaction). The case of Mentor Monitor is used for this purpose. It is argued that the concept allows to reduce implementation costs and technology complexity. At the same time, reliable data can be achieved for key performance indicators such as overall efficiency equipment (OEE) and specific energy consumption (SEC). It is also discussed the need for finding mechanisms for preventing error in manual data. Mentor Monitor is an information system developed by Calidad Total Mecatrónic and Universidad La Salle-Arequipa, with the support of Innovate Peru. It was tested at the bottling plant facilities of Industrias San Miguel del Sur, during the first half of 2017 in Arequipa, Peru.