Emerson Process Experts

While in Asia last week, I had the opportunity to catch a presentation by Bob Lenich, Director of Emerson's Data Management Services. With the announcement last year of Emerson's acquisition of Decision Management International and the Compliance Suite manufacturing execution system software, Bob has been busy integrating the organizations.

The Compliance Suite software is being used by many process manufacturers, especially in highly regulated industries such as Life Sciences—Pharmaceutical and Biotech manufacturers. The starting point for applying manufacturing execution system software is the data model defined by the ISA-95 (S95) standard. The S95 standard describes the architecture of information flow between the plant floor, the automation system, the manufacturing execution level and the enterprise resource planning levels. Getting these workflow activities and the flow of information between them right is what defines highly efficient, customer-responsive manufacturers.

Bob described the place to start as understand the challenges of improving quality, improving throughput and/or increasing process availability/uptime as a few examples of what can drive process manufacturers to look at improving the flow of information around the organization. You have to understand the problems and needs in order to improve things.

As an example, in the area of quality, typical issues are to reduce deviations. These can be caused by ensuring the right material is available to add at the right time or eliminating manual error in calculations. Also, much time and effort currently spent just doing all the paperwork and paper work tracking required to meet today's regulatory needs. Converting from paper to paperless systems can eliminate all of these problems

In addition to eliminating problems, reducing these deviations also improves throughput by reducing batch variability, reducing batch cycle time and reducing the overall batch release time as there aren't as many problems to address.

Solving these problems requires addressing a mixture of automated and manual processes. Bob noted that the best way to address these issues should begin with a look at the current workflow, to understand where efficiencies can be gained.

The workflow should look at equipment, people, materials, documents and existing information to develop the business justifications and information architecture to address the areas of inefficiencies. Once a good benchmark is established, improvements can be made and the results quantified.

There many opportunities to do this and Compliance Suite is a great tool to use for enforcing these changes. Bob stressed that these changes are typically strategic in nature for the process manufacturer and require the upfront planning and design work to focus the efforts to the areas of greatest efficiency gains and continuing to prioritize the areas of improved data management and flow over time.

Tags: ISA-95 | s95 | manufacturing execution system | MES | manufactuting workflow | material management | batch cycle time | batch variability |

January 22, 2008 in Data Management, in Enterprise Integration, in Life Sciences | Comments (0)

In the process of moving hydrocarbon through the supply chain from producer to consumer, terminals play an important role. They receive liquids and gases from many sources including ship, rail and pipeline. These gas and liquid hydrocarbons are stored in tanks or vessels until required to move via other methods of transportation including barge, truck and pipeline.

I had the chance to view an upcoming article featuring Emerson's Cor Vermeijs. He's based in the Netherlands. The article explored ways for terminal operators to use automation to optimize the inventory management and operational efficiency of their terminals. The goal is to improve the quality, productivity and availability of the terminal and help the owner of the terminal lower the costs of operations and maintenance, improve environmental and safety compliance, and reduce energy usage.

He notes that many terminals today are manually operated from planning all the way to manually operated valves and pumps. This limits the availability of real-time information to make the most efficient schedules. These delays affect the throughput of the terminal, which directly affects its profitability.

In the article, Cor stresses the starting point should be to study the current operational processes. The key is to look for areas of inefficiency that can be automated. The study typically includes a cross-section of the organization from operations, sales and management. The output of this study is:

…a plan to optimize these processes, to automate them, and to implement them wherever necessary. The results of this site audit are issued in a report that gives the solution for the concept, a cost-benefit analysis, the payback period and a performance guarantee. It's all based on the best possible use of the storage tanks, the pumps, the pipelines and the jetties. The objective is as many product movements as possible without running the risk of product contamination or tank overfills.

Architecturally, when manual processes are automated, the information is collected in a single system. This information becomes the basis for a route planner. The system takes the recommended route with the corresponding pipeline segments, valves and pumps and links it to the data from the work order. This information can include the time when the route/transfer can be started, how long it will take, which ship or train will deliver the volume, and who is the owner. Cor sums this up:

…all information is available not only to the operator in the control room, but also to the man on the jetty, the planner and perhaps even to the captain of the unloading or receiving vessel. And it all takes place in real time, with immediate feedback of events such as a delay along the line, so that you can adjust your planning while the work goes on without interruption, thus increasing your terminal's efficiency.

Terminal management includes a number of processes including custody transfer accounting, inventory tracking, security management, loader or driver verification, load requests and initiation, permissives management, ticket generation, custom reports, remote dock monitoring, event logging, and system integrity management.

Tags: terminal management | oil movements | terminal operator | terminal inventory |

December 3, 2007 in Data Management, in Project Services, in Terminal | Comments (0)

Standards play an important role in fostering technological progress—both in the willingness of consumers to adopt the technologies and suppliers in developing products to meet the standards.

In our world of process automation, standards have continued to advance from base-level digital communications protocols to higher-level data communications standards for process manufacturers. The ISA-95 (S95) or IEC/ISO 62264 family of standards as they are globally known are an example of a set of data standards for the interface between enterprise planning systems and automation systems.

I had a chance to get a preview of a whitepaper that Emerson's Shenling Yang is developing around S95 and the XML-based implementation of this standard called Business To Manufacturing Markup Language (B2MML). You may recall Shenling from an earlier post on project timelines. She is now a data integration specialist in the Life Sciences industry center.

As stated in an ISA press release this past January on B2MML improvements:

B2MML was developed by the WBF's XML Working Group to provide manufacturing companies with a freely available XML Schema implementation of the ISA-95 Enterprise - Control System Integration Standard.

You can get a sense for just how detailed and comprehensive these standards are by viewing some of the schema documents available on the World Batch Forum's B2MML web page. Beyond the common schema organized around the S95 data model, other schemas exist for equipment, extensions, maintenance, materials, personnel, process segments, product definitions, production capabilities, production performance, and production schedules. Warning, these schema documents are not light reading!

On projects requiring workflow improvements and/or paperless operations, Shenling and the team follow B2MML data definitions to be consistent with the S95 standard. Because leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like SAP support B2MML, Shenling finds that it simplifies connectivity and reduces the overall engineering effort for integration between the ERP and manufacturing execution systems like Compliance Suite. Ongoing maintenance is also reduced since the information exchanged between applications follows well-defined data definitions.

An example is an order coming down from SAP in an XML-formatted document complying with the B2MML Production Performance schema. The project team used transaction templates, along with the Compliance Suite support component and the process order XML from SAP to generate the actual transaction documents to be passed from the ERP to Compliance Suite. The automated parts are handled by the DeltaV Batch system and other parts of the process like materials management, laboratory information, and proof of personnel training are sent to their respective workflow processes.

The results of these workflows and batch data from the automation system are consolidated in an electronic batch record, which is a critical piece in reducing the overall cycle time on the way to releasing the product for sale.

Update: Gary Mintchell reports on his Feed Forward blog today that the World Batch Forum has announced version 4 of the B2MML standard and some of the additions to this standard. Here's the announcement from the WBF.

Tags: ISA-95 | s95 | IEC 62264 | ISO 62264 | B2MML | World Batch Forum | WBF | Life Sciences |

July 3, 2007 in Data Management, in Interoperability, in Life Sciences, in Project Services | Comments (0)

I caught up the other day with Michael Barrett who manages some of Emerson's relationships with providers of production management software like OSIsoft.

Michael strongly believes that production management is a key success factors for process manufacturers competing in a global market. He defines production management as the area of management information systems that work with the planning and scheduling applications that drive the manufacturing operations in a Continuous Improvement Loop. This supports a company's Supply Chain Management by insuring the availability of right product at right time at the lowest cost.

As an example, Michael cites a refiner who imports heavy crudes. They may have several locations to decide where to process it. The refinery ultimately receiving this heavy crude must ensure that they have available tankage to receive the crude, processing capacity to run it and logistics capability to handle the products. They must also make sure they are receiving precisely the quantity for which they are being invoiced. One of the challenges is accurate measurement of water in the crude receipt. If a refinery needs to wait on a 2MM Barrel parcel to let it settle in a tank to accurately measure water--that takes time and at the current price of crude is huge investment tied up ($50/Bbl times 2MM = $100,000,000).

They also may have to consider the hydrogen and fuel requirements to keep the refinery in hydrogen and fuel balance. Doing monthly or even weekly mass balance on the refinery and the internal units does not generate enough visibility to maximize the operational efficiency for the refiner in a global market. To accomplish these objectives many sites are facing a measurement shortfall. An obvious example is the water in crude measurement. Typical errors here can translate into millions of dollars paid for water. Many refineries also have issues with high levels of unaccounted losses in the loss control reports. Top tier refineries maintain unaccounted losses to less than 0.5% on crude. That kind of performance is not possible if you only measure the loss once per month.

Companies are engineering new refineries today coming on-line in 5-7 years in parts of the world where the owners will own the crude feed. They are being designed with digital communications technologies in the processing equipment and systems to interact more tightly with the scheduling and planning systems to maximize and optimize these assets and the added value products coming from the crude.

Michael believes the challenge for existing refineries is to improve and integrate the production management systems to account accurately on a daily basis actual verses planned production. This allows the planning and scheduling departments to improve asset utilization and squeeze more efficiency from existing equipment. Production Management systems should provide key metrics for operations management to make decisions that maximize response to market demands, spot opportunities and operating flexibility to better differentiate themselves from their competitors. This agility coupled with improved asset utilization will help existing refiners better compete as the modern, high-tech refineries begin to come on-line.

Michael recommends beginning with a thorough analysis of the production management system as a first step. This can be the basis of building a business case for change to more agile production. Developing and providing decision alternatives with their business impact is an important part of this improvement plan. There is no one thing, but rather a combination of tools, work flow changes and operational discipline which can reveal the scale of performance improvements possible.

Tags: production management | management information systems | mass balance |

April 23, 2007 in Data Management, in Enterprise Integration | Comments (1)

As reported in my DeltaV News RSS feed, Emerson's Michalle Adkins and Dawn Marruchella have written a great piece in the AIChE's Chemical Engineering Progress Magazine entitled, Ask the Experts - Avoiding the Pains of Systems Integration.

In it, they recognize some of the issues process manufacturers have faced with manufacturing execution system (MES) integration projects and they share their expertise about how to reduce concerns about integrating existing batch process and achievable business benefits.

Their initial guidance is to analyze the integration needs and current business processes and develop a solution weighing the costs and risks against the sought benefits.

Functionality can overlap in both the MES and control system. If your control system has well integrated batch capabilities, Michalle and Dawn recommend using it to manage recipe execution and historical data collection around the batch. This reduces the complexity of the integration between the MES and control system and helps simplify the requirements for the MES. Then ease of MES and DCS integration and specifically capturing the information required for the electronic batch record would be the focus of the integration efforts.

Also, as mentioned in prior posts, they recommend that the solution have:

Support for web services, a service-oriented architecture, and the use of XML schemas, such as ISA-S95's business-to-manufacturing markup language (B2MML)…

Their final recommendation is to review successful implementations to understand not only the software and integration, but also the experience of the project team who implemented the solution.

The benefits for these efforts must accomplish the highly sought after business objectives. If these objectives are to reduce the cycle time for product release, you can incorporate much of the current after-the-fact documentation into the running batch process. Examples cited include:

• Manual setup, cleaning, and maintenance activities
• Review and approval processes for master and batch documents
• On-line data validity checks, electronic signatures, and completed calculations
• Exception-based reporting tailored for intended audience

By executing these tasks during the production of the batch, process manufacturers can increase their right-first-time metrics and shorten the post-batch approval cycle time. The article cites other achievable benefits based on the identified business objectives such as reducing deviations, significantly decreasing manual data entries, and eliminating paper log books.

Tags: manufacturing execution system | MES | system integration | ISA-95 | S95 | B2MML | cycle time |

March 23, 2007 in Data Management, in Enterprise Integration, in Life Sciences | Comments (0)

Manufacturers increasingly look to optimize their businesses by integrating their business processes with their manufacturing processes. ANSI/ISA-95 (S95) is an international standard for developing an automated interface between enterprise and control systems.

Over the last several years our Life Sciences Industry Center has been working with pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers on this optimization process in pursuit of operational excellence. I caught up with integration consultant, Dick Seemann, who discussed some commonalities he sees in integration transactions between enterprise planning systems like SAP business software, manufacturing execution system (MES) software and control systems like the DeltaV system.

A key transaction is the process order download which comes from the planning and scheduling software to the manufacturing system in the form of a request for a campaign of process orders or a single process order. The transaction contains a process order number, material components, equipment requirements, and specific parameters that are exchanged through standard web services. The team typically uses Compliance Suite as the MES software between the SAP software and the DeltaV system.

The MES software combines this information from the production, material management, and quality management software and then manages the order execution, performs weigh and dispense, and executes the manual work instructions in conjunction with the automated control system tasks. A complete electronic batch record is maintained at MES level, since it combines recorded manual processes and procedures with electronic information at the control system and enterprise planning system levels. Alarms, events, operation actions, and batch history are passed as transactions from the control system to the MES.

The process orders as the campaigns are being executed provide status transactions back to the planning systems on status changes during execution and upon completion of the process order. Materials consumed during the production and recorded by the manufacturing execution system are passed back as transactions to the material management module to accurately reflect what is available for planning future production.

Start and end times for each of the steps in the batch are also passed back as transactions to the planning systems to provide and accurate picture of equipment utilization and how long production steps take compared to standard times.

Dick notes that all process manufacturers have different business processes and that there are many more transactions that can occur between the three levels. As these paper-based processes are moved into an integrated, transactional world, end-to-end cycle times are reduced resulting in greater manufacturing efficiency.

Transcription errors are also reduced when all communications is electronic-based versus the paper batch sheets. Also, troubleshooting problems becomes easier when a history of electronic batch records is available to review to analyze where inefficiencies have begun to occur.

Tags: ISA-95 | S95 | MES | manufacturing execution systems | electronic batch records | equipment utilization | pharmaceutical | biotech |

February 16, 2007 in Data Management, in Enterprise Integration | Comments (2) | Trackback (0)

When modernizing your automation systems to take advantage of the digital technologies today’s systems offer, you need to also take a look at the historical data you may have been collecting over the life of the system.

Recently Emerson’s Clarence Presha presented a paper with a customer who looked at how to take 10 years of historical data collected by the Biles AIM historian and move it to OSIsoft PI System. The driver was that this data is the foundation for production reporting, process troubleshooting, and process improvement. Over this period of time, quite a bit of reporting and visualization tools have been built including using Excel spreadsheets for basic graphics, and Excel macros for reporting functions. This solution built over the years had limited capacity, slow frequency data (60 sec scan rate), and had custom code that was difficult to maintain and improve.

Clarence and the team identified more than 10,000 tags that needed to be converted. The agreed upon approach was to take a thin slice to demonstrate the proposed data management modernization solution. For this thin slice phase, sample PI tags were created with simulated history. Performance equations were added replacing the existing AIMcalcs. PI ProcessBook displays with a proposed graphics standard were created to improve visualization. Some existing production reports with custom Excel macros were updated standard PI functions. Finally, RtPortal was used to show plant information which could be made available to engineering, operations, and management via web browser.

Clarence and the Emerson data management experts provided design, configuration, data migration, testing, training of the operations, technical, maintenance, and engineering staff, and on-site deployment services for this project.

Some of the key results cited in this presentation were better visualization tools for real-time and historical information for the operators to analyze what was going on in the process. Also some newer equipment that had not been added to the legacy data management solution could now be added extending the operators’ view. The web-based view into the key process parameters opened up more parts of the organization to what was occurring in the process. This view was combined with information from other business systems including the MRP, scheduling, and plant maintenance systems.

Tags: data historian | data management | historical data |

October 24, 2006 in Data Management | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

Anyone who has been a project engineer knows that there are some areas of a project with more inherent risk to schedule and cost more than others. Areas like data integration between hardware, software and systems need early attention so that they can be resolved before the pressures of the critical path are felt.

One of the Emerson Exchange papers being presented in the Project Work Processes track is Data Flow Requirements for Main Automation Contractor (MAC) projects. Emerson’s Mike Simpson and Jim Davis from our West Coast Business Partner, Caltrol, convey processes, procedures, and tools for the information formats, milestones, sequences, and timing for smoother project execution.

Mike notes that many of the decisions for standards and responsibilities are made during Front End Engineering Design (FEED) phase. These have major impact on the data exchange processes during project execution. Their recommendation is to set the communications rules during this phase of the project and confirm all the data sources and predecessors.

The key is to designate a single coordinator for all data exchange. This person establishes the data exchange standards including: data types, formats, media, due date, supplied by, supplied to, risks. A database application with milestone alerts can help to issue project controls for completion and near term due exchange alerts and all long term milestones.

When on a project with a new process or process technologies, Mike and Jim recommend testing to avoid surprises. Split this work into two phases with the first phase, a thin slice phase and the latter, the main phase. The thin slice phase lets you test new hardware, control strategies, and/or communications to discover surprises. This testing helps avoid committing your entire project to the new technology and avoid assumed methods of engineering and implementation without assessing how it will work.

Mike and Jim show examples of how this applies in integrating process units and process skids using serial and digital bus-based communications and taking advantage of software tools like Intergraph’s SmartPlant Instrumentation to manage this project data flow.

Mike notes that it really boils down to early involvement in the FEED phase of these MAC projects where it is critical to plan these well-executed data hand-offs.

Tags: project engineering | project management | data flow | MAC | FEED |

September 25, 2006 in Data Management, in Project Services | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

At the recent conference, Implementing Manufacturing Execution Systems in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry, Emerson Senior Vice President John Gardner presented with DMI International’s Bob Schiros a paper on Integrated Recipe Authoring on the first day of the conference. John is the general manager for the Life Sciences, Food and Beverage, Pulp & Paper, Energy, Metals and Mining industry organizations.

The thrust of their presentation is that manufacturers need to integrate their existing "functional islands". Today people want to get information easier, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Integrating and simplifying the management of documents, personnel qualifications, equipment and material, work activity, automation, various plant floor systems, etc. is where the real operational benefits occur.

John stresses the place to begin is to analyze the causes of deviations in these areas. Eliminating these deviations provides the potential operational improvements at the heart of your business case for change. These areas of opportunities should be broken into manageable phases.

Gaining executive sponsorship for the changes is critical since people and processes are likely impacted, and organizational inertia tends to resist changes.

For pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers, the opportunity comes in reducing the cost of goods manufactured. John stresses the place to begin is to analyze your current functional operations and the causes of deviations in these areas. This will lead to better inventory and yield management, lower regulatory compliance costs, and reduced product release times. John stresses the place to begin is to analyze your current functional operations and the causes of deviations in these areas. Focusing on eliminating these deviations is the most immediate potential improvement and that's at the heart of your business case for change. These areas should then be broken into manageable phases.

John believes the key is to start with the low hanging fruit which is to have a structured integrated recipe authoring process. The process starts by disassembling the recipe into its components: personnel, materials, equipment, data, and documents. These components are optimized and a database of reusable objects is created. Now the recipe can be reassembled with the optimized components and made available for execution of the batch with its associated electronic batch record.

The Emerson Life Sciences industry experts use the manufacturing execution system (MES) software product, Compliance Suite, as a platform to help manufacturers achieve this structured approach.

The presentation highlights measurable results which have been achieved including 40-70% reduction in batch record complexity, 30-50% reduction in product release cycle times, 20-40% reduction in documentation authoring and approval cycle times, and up to 40% reduction in errors, omissions and deviations of operational data.

Tags: manufacturing execution system | MES | recipe management | electronic batch record | pharmaceutical | biotech |

August 23, 2006 in Data Management, in Life Sciences, in Process Optimization | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

An interesting paper was presented recently at the Honeywell User Group (HUG) meeting as captured by Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine's On Pharma blog. The post, Abbott dispels MES myths (Notes from HUG II) is interesting for the $1.3 Million USD estimated annual savings from applying Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software.

Why I make particular note of this project is that it was accomplished with the help of Emerson Life Sciences expertise in deliverying ANSI/ISA-95 (S95) solutions.

I caught up with Principal Engineer, Josh Gangl in our Life Sciences / Food and Beverage industry organization who was involved in this project. The selected MES software, POMSnet, was integrated by Josh and the team with the plant's DeltaV Batch system.

As the On Pharma post notes:

For Abbott, the MES was a critical aspect of its pursuit of an integrated and paperless environment.

Josh described the challenge as connecting to manual processing pieces like manual operator instructions and procedures, executing weigh and dispense operations, and other non-automated procedures. These were connected with the continuous, batch, alarm, event, and operator actions performed in the DeltaV system to create an electronic batch record. In addition, batch definition and scheduling was done in the MES layer and integrated with the DeltaV system via campaigns.

As Abbott's David Kircher noted in the On Pharma post:

The customizations we did were related to integrations and custom reports, but everything else was out of the box.

This helped minimize the complexity of the integration effort yet still provide savings from reduced documented exceptions, reduced incorrect operator actions, and reduced documentation errors which contributed to the annual savings realized from the project.

Tags: manufacturing execution system | MES | Abbott Laboratories | electronic batch record | S95 | ISA-95 |

July 11, 2006 in Data Management, in Life Sciences | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

Highly regulated industries like those in which Life Sciences manufacturers operate need efficient solutions manage and properly document their production and use of materials in the manufacturing process.

The production process usually includes both manual and automated operations. The automated part is typically controlled with process control systems with batch software like the DeltaV system.

I spoke with Principal Engineer Todd Ham who coauthored a paper with Senior Technologist Dick Seemann, both in our Life Sciences industry organization. The paper, A Model for Integrating Material Management in a Production Environment, was presented at a past ISA Automation West Conference.

The paper generically describes a solution that Todd and our Life Sciences industry experts implemented at a biotech manufacturing facility. A manufacturing execution system managed the materials for manual parts of the operation.

Todd said the key to the solution was defining an integrated material management model which included support for the processes: batch campaign creation, raw material weigh-and-dispense, manual material charges, and automated material charges.

In their solution, the first step is campaign and batch creation. A unique campaign ID is established which all material information related to the campaign will connect. Also the batch report manager in the process control system can access this campaign ID, to bring in all the material information into a complete electronic batch record, needed for the release of final product. This information is included with the batch history, alarms, events, operator actions, and other data collected by the process control system.

Todd describes a manual weigh-and-dispense operation. An operator logs into a handheld personal data terminal/barcode reader. The system checks and verifies that he has authority and the up-to-date training to perform the weigh-and-dispense procedure. The operator selects the campaign, is presented with the appropriate and available weigh booths, and scans a weigh booth ID barcode. Next the operator selects an intermediate batch container which has been verified by the system as being the correct size, being clean, etc.

With everything properly validated the operator selects from a list of materials presented on the handheld device connected to the warehouse inventory system. Once the material has been retrieved and barcode scanned it is validated for expiration dates, lot numbers, and any other required quality measures. The operator dispenses and confirms the measured weight within the allowed tolerances.

A label containing all this information, as well as an electronic copy for the electronic batch record is available for the production environment. Similar integrated material management processes are available for manual material charging, automated material charging, and the creation of the batch report.

These integrated manufacturing procedures provide enforced compliance for the manual production activities. And overall cycle times can be reduced since the records captured from these procedures are available in the overall batch record instead of collecting and signing off papers after the fact.

Tags: Manufacturing Execution System | MES | Manufacturing Procedures | Process Control System | PCS | Campaign | Batch | Recipe | Material Charge | cycle time |

May 9, 2006 in Data Management, in Life Sciences | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

I've shared in earlier posts in the data management category, how process manufacturers are looking at their work processes including the information flows to become more responsive their customers. Although my earlier examples were North American, the need is global.

I caught up with Bas Mutsaers in our Rijswijk office in the Netherlands. Bas leads a team of 10 MES/Integration engineers for projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The folks on his team average five years of industry and application experience.

As a result of their project work, they have expertise in applying the ISA S95 and S88 standards, as well industry guidelines and regulations like GAMP, the U.S. FDA's 21CFR Part 11 and MESA.

Bas said that many of the process manufacturers that have applied Emerson's PlantWeb architecture integrate other components on the plant floor from other automation suppliers. By integrating these in a standard way with their scheduling and planning systems using the standards available, the real benefits start to show for the manufacturer's operations group. By using OSIsoft's RtPM software for their other applications connected to their manual processes, their maintenance and quality systems as well as hundreds of other standard applications can be integrated with this supported software platform.

The new PI Protocol Converter product from OSIsoft connects the embedded DeltaV Continuous Historian with OSIsoft client applications like PI Process Book, PI DataLink, PI ActiveView, and PI RTPortal, making the information from the manufacturing process to various people throughout the organization to improve decision making and work flow. Bas' group has built many reusable tools for the many industries Emerson Process Management serves. These include mass balance calculations, nomination tools, emission tools, and standard production reports.

These connections provide the basis for the flow of information about inventories, continuous processes, batch processes, and packaging areas to the scheduling and planning systems to more quickly and efficiently respond to demand. Bas and his consultants develop solutions based upon work processes the process manufacturer is seeking to improve.

The real benefit begins when planning systems are connected to the plant floor and possible schedules are made based on the information in intelligent devices that are often part of the more critical loops. The protocol converter also can connect to the OSIsoft Enterprise Server which integrates a broader range of applications.

Bas believes a successful data management project includes the following elements:

• The right answers are not always found in the technical tools that are under the hood.
• Success lies in the experience working with the various technologies in the field and by applying the knowledge of working processes together with the manufacturer's vision. Bas calls this the recipe for success.
• Implementing the recipe for success requires a team consisting of at least 4 functions: technical architects, current or future users of the solution, experienced Emerson and manufacturer project managers to keep the team focused on the vision, milestones, and scope changes. A sponsor with a vision knows where the opportunities to generate real business results exist.

The people provide the basis for the flows of information about inventories, continuous processes, batch processes, and packaging areas to the scheduling and planning systems to more quickly and efficiently respond to demand. By automating the critical processes in such a way these efficiencies can be realized.

Emerson has worked for more than a decade with OSIsoft starting first with embedded technologies and then in forming an alliance to provide integration services around the world. The demand for these services has continued to grow, with integration teams now in Canada, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Tags: information integration | data management | MES | OSIsoft |

April 24, 2006 in Data Management | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

Process manufacturers are pressed by their shareholders to improve their return on assets. To do this, they must get more out of their plants, people, and systems to respond more quickly to their customer requests than their competitors can respond. This response time can be the difference needed to avoid commodity pricing.

So how are manufacturers integrating their businesses to become more agile and more predictable? It starts by better linking your enterprise resource planning systems to your plants. According to SAP AG's Global Director of the Chemical & Pharmaceutical industries from a 2005 ARC Forum:

If you install SAP for traditional ERP functionality but don’t link to your Plants, you leave about 40 to 60% of the benefits on the table.

You may recall Gary Silverman from an earlier post. I spoke with him about the characteristics of projects which have successfully gone down the path of improving their manufacturing processes through better information integration.

Gary says first and foremost, companies need to see this process as a journey. It's much more than point-to-point integration between business and automation systems. Since the impact is on people and existing business processes it requires high-level leadership within the manufacturer. Groups that traditionally have been very separate like Information Technology and Engineering must get on the same page for significant business results to be achieved.

Once on the journey, Gary stressed the key areas to get right around the improvement of manufacturing automation is the data model and the process model.

The data model identifies the capabilities and business functions required at each connection point between the ERP system including: inventory management, production control/scheduling, quality management, and plant maintenance with the automation level including: process control systems, OEM/skid-based systems, batch systems, process historians, and the plant floor relational database.

The process model defines the flow from customer order and/or order forecast back through the business process defining the dependent requirement required to meet the packing schedule. The storage locations contain the physical work-in-process inventories from raw materials to the finished product ready for shipment.

Gary summed up what makes a successful project as strong leadership/vision, a well thought out architecture, and picking the right pilot project looking at factors such as availability, capability of resources, and the ability to execute. Once the learning and benefits can be measured versus the critical success factors, the deployment can roll out more broadly to other plants using the same architecture, infrastructure, and data model.

Tags: business processes | information integration | SAP | MES | history | data model | process model |

April 18, 2006 in Data Management | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)

As competitive pressures drive process manufacturers to run their processes more efficiently, a key area of focus is to improve the management of data from various sources. Better, more timely decisions come from better data.

I spoke with one of our Life Sciences/Food & Beverage industry senior manufacturing consultants and data management experts, Gary Silverman about this need to consolidate and migrate data. He cited several reasons for this:

• Updating a historian and/or operating system because it's no longer supported by the original supplier
• Needing to consolidate data from multiple process automation system platforms and other data sources into a single enterprise historian
• Changing business needs requiring broader dissemination of information from the manufacturing process to plant and corporate personnel with web browser-based technologies.

This process of converting and consolidating data sources has historically been quite intensive and time consuming because of the diversity of data formats and the sheer amount of archived data typically seen. By analyzing the business processes and needs of the people accessing the data, our data management consultants determine what tools, reports, and utilities can be used to streamline this conversion process and provide the information required to those who need it.

One example Gary cited was a DeltaV system upgrade project where an AIM/Bile Historian with 9 years of process data collected from a PROVOX system needed to move to an OSIsoft PI historian. The finished solution collected data from the new DeltaV system, PROVOX and utilities programmable controllers. Emerson is an OSIsoft Platinum Partner as a provider of data management and integration services.

The data management team had developed automated tools and methods to extract the AIM tag database, create the PI tag database and migrate this vast amount of data. The team also built a Process Module Database to streamline the implementation of the OSIsoft RtPortal/WebParts technology. The Portal allows operators, aupervisors or engineers to quickly spot problems and then use ProcessBook and/or DataLink to drill down for in-depth analysis. The Portal also provides a central repository for Shift Logs, Operator Logs, etc.

Another key need was being able to perform batch-to-batch analysis with data from over 70 reactors and make comparisons of critical process parameters to discover any deviations from the best or "Golden Batch." PI Batch configuration and the PI Batch Client Tools provided the customer with a means to do this. They were also able to monitor and improve cycle times as a result of this analysis. In the end the project achieved its objectives to modernize the existing technology disseminate information more broadly and provide critical data in Batch context for continuous improvement.

Given the high interest in having better information to help plants run more efficiently, I'll be checking back with Gary and other data management experts from time to time.

Tags: Data Management | OSIsoft | Life Sciences | Food | Beverage |

March 3, 2006 in Data Management, in Food & Beverage, in Life Sciences | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)