Just married
Integration platforms plus automated mapping systems boost continuous-improvement efforts
By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM MDT
Management consultants have long argued that no business process improvement program can succeed without executive support. That's one reason why any effort to continuously improve business performance is substantially aided by executives' ability to track what's going on at all levels of the company, including the plant floor.
That realization has sparked the growth of information technology architectures that allow for compiling data from multiple plant-floor systems and devices, and then presenting that data in formats that give anyone viewing it—including corporate executives—a quick, clear idea of how production processes are working.
Bill Swanton, a VP with Boston-based AMR Research, says these architectures support a new class of software applications known as enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) solutions.
To a degree, EMI solutions represent a marriage of systems that automate the mapping and monitoring of business processes—which typically are deployed at the enterprise or supply chain level—and applications that control and monitor the devices and machines that run production lines.
"EMI applications correlate and synchronize the information generated at these two [levels of the enterprise]," Swanton says. "That makes performance information available to a broad audience, and heightens organizational awareness of what, where, and how various production events affect enterprise performance."
An additional benefit of EMI applications, according to Swanton, is they often summarize plant-floor activities in real time, which "helps decision makers throughout the organization pinpoint opportunities for improvement as they occur—rather than after the fact."
Ontario-based McCain Foods, the world's largest producer of french fries, believes an EMI solution from Activplant has boosted its continuous-improvement efforts in two ways: by giving machine operators the information they need to make better decisions during production, and allowing managers to see the results of those decisions much quicker.
Cutting losses
In a pilot project at McCain's Easton, Maine plant—one of the company's largest—installing the Activplant solution resulted in increased throughput, improved product quality, and lower overall operating costs, according to Lloyd Borowski, VP of global engineering and manufacturing.
"Management and production personnel alike can quickly identify factors affecting quality and throughput—and thus prevent issues leading to production losses," says Borowski, who now is studying which of McCain's other 54 plants around the globe will get the solution.
Arla Foods, a dairy company based in Christianfeld, Denmark, uses an EMI solution from Wonderware to support its "One Arla" strategy, which calls for having a single method of measuring the performance of its production facilities located in Denmark, Sweden, the U.K., and Argentina.
Arne Svendsen, production IT manager, says the Wonderware solution—which is still being rolled out at some of Arla's facilities—allows real-time monitoring of production processes, and already has contributed to increased production capacity.
"This is a huge project aimed at providing all plants with the same processes so all the systems within Arla may be integrated," Svendsen says. "Ultimately, efficiency, quality, and performance data will be reported in a uniform manner so corporate managers may make strategic decisions based on what each plant can accomplish."
In general, EMI solutions—and their supporting architectures—have evolved from decades-long efforts to meld production-control devices from different vendors into cohesive plant-floor networks.
That's where the new plant-floor architectures come in.
Invensysdeveloped ArchestrA several years ago to help companies create new plant-floor processes without having to replace all of their existing applications. In addition to tools for integrating systems, the ArchestrA architecture contains functions that are becoming common parts of contemporary industrial automation solutions. These functions include network security, and alerting and event management capabilities.
A comprehensive solution
Arla Foods is using a suite of Wonderware products—all connected by the ArchestrA architecture. Wonderware's IndustrialSQL Server plant historian forms the core of Arla's solution. It collects data from production equipment and control devices throughout Arla's plants, providing a central repository of data concerning all production processes. A Wonderware application called InTrack logs information about each batch of product before it leaves a factory, thereby generating a detailed genealogy that can be used to compile regulatory compliance reports, or for other purposes.
A program called DT Analyst monitors equipment performance, and information from any of these applications can be viewed through a human-machine interface package called InTouch, which also serves as the primary application for controlling the entire plant network.
"We have more than 65 sites," says Arla's Svendsen. "So it was important to deploy a comprehensive plant intelligence solution that offers an intuitive, easy-to-use way of communicating with controls, and delivering information about equipment."
The Activplant architecture supporting the McCain Foods EMI solution also is based on Microsofttechnology. It starts with a data collection engine called VPCollector that can take data directly from shop-floor machines and control devices, or accept information entered by production workers either by typing it into a PC or scanning bar codes. This engine will send data either to a real-time cache or a Microsoft SQLServer database, depending on the preference of the company deploying the solution.
A portion of the architecture called VPFoundation contains a collection of modules that handle functions such as network security, process monitoring, and alerting. This piece of the architecture also houses reporting and data analysis capabilities.
Data is pulled from the SQLServer database, or the real-time cache, and relayed to a Web server before it is accessed by users, typically through Web browsers. Borowski says this solution gives McCain exactly what it wanted from an EMI solution: "full support for our strategic quality improvement and cost-reduction initiatives."
In brief
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