Plant-focused software vendors correlating energy with production management
The last few days have seen more announcements from plant automation software vendors that point to growing interest in correlating energy with production management. While the idea of using software to match real-time energy trends with production trends isn’t exactly new (OSIsoft began talking about this nearly 10 years ago), it seems that vendors are accelerating the move toward prepackaged software options for merging the two areas.
One of the latest announcements that shows this convergence is from GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. On Monday, the GE unit and one of its partners, IT consulting services firm EnteGreat, announced the availability of Proficy SmartStart for Manufacturing Energy Management, a packaged software and services solution aimed at energy savings by correlating energy costs with manufacturing context. Using experience and best practices EnteGreat gleaned from setting up Proficy software for similar purposes in the past, the partners have developed a template approach to combining energy and production management functionality. The offering also uses a structured engagement model, and other aspects of GE’s “SmartStart” foundation. The solution is said to enable results in as little as 30 days by helping people in manufacturing gain visibility over energy and production management trends, and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Tuesday, I got the chance to talk with Scott Dixon, VP of business development at EnteGreat, about the solution. He said there is interest from companies in a variety of manufacturing verticals–and not just the most energy intensive ones. Dixon said these varied sectors include food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, pulp & paper, and automotive. The overriding goal for these companies, he adds, is to be able to gain visibility over energy trends in near real-time, correlate them to production factors like material data, shift data, or events like downtime, and thus be able to do something about energy efficiency while the trend is still unfolding, as opposed to reacting well after the fact. “Typically, in the past, energy management was seen as something that happens on the back-end,” Dixon says. “From my own experience in working in manufacturing, if there was a problem that came up, we would be told to look into it, and maybe we could look for possible problems like leaks with air compressors, but it was completely reactive.”
By using software that correlates energy trends with production context, says Dixon, users can do things like compare which shifts, machines, operators, or materials encountered spikes in energy use, or conversely, which were more energy efficient. For example, says Dixon, analysis with this sort of solution might find that a particular operator was able to squeeze more energy efficiency out of an operation by the way he or she powered up a piece of machinery, or by slightly varying the speed at which a machine moves up or down. “Now we can begin to see these little differences and trends, and learn lessons from them,” he says.
In addition to the technical help that goes with setting up the software, says Dixon, another aspect that Entegreat brings to this type of solution is change management guidance on how to institute improvements. While the software can reveal areas in which energy can likely be saved, ultimately, the actual changes need to be managed jointly by a team of operators, plant managers, industrial engineers, maintenance managers, and others involved with production. So part of the services, explains Dixon, is aimed at the change management aspect of what to do after trends are spotted.
Other plant-focused vendors also offer software that combines aspects of energy and production management. Rockwell Automation, for example, has been talking up its “sustainable production” concept in a big way this past year. It also offers energy monitoring software, and lists energy management as one aspect of its VantagePoint plant intelligence application. Wonderware offers software that can relate energy costs to operations events, while also working with partners to address energy management as part of its human machine interface (HMI) and supervisory control software capabilities. I suspect other plant-focused vendors are involved in this trend as well. The bottom line is that plant-focused vendors increasingly are merging energy management with manufacturing intelligence. The driver for this is user interest in making energy a more controllable cost–an input to production that can be managed, not just absorbed.
All of this vendor activity brings to mind a question: do we need a new moniker for this type of solution? Perhaps Manufacturing Energy Management Systems (MEMS)? OK, maybe not. For starters, MEMS is already taken (micro-electro mechanical systems). And more importantly, trying to pin a new label on this convergence is missing the point: production management software should be able to provide energy management insights. While vendors may offer more narrow “energy monitoring” applications, I think that MES, manufacturing intelligence, and production management software vendors will simply make energy management part of their dashboards and reporting options. No new aconym needed!
