Stakeholders in the manufacturing industry, including suppliers, machine builders and users, strive for continuous advancement over what came before. Increasing productivity is a key goal, but manufacturers must focus on fine-tuning best practices by holistically perfecting the use of people, processes and technology through plant-wide optimisation.
Plant-wide optimisation is a continuous process in which all departments within a manufacturing organisation play a role in identifying improvement opportunities that exist throughout the manufacturing life cycle. “It represents a new era in manufacturing. Companies making the investment are better positioned to address new sustainability objectives and respond to changes in consumer demand,” says Rockwell Automation CEO, Keith Nosbusch.
It is no longer a race to see who can produce and distribute the most automobiles, cereal boxes or soda cans off the assembly line and into the marketplace. It is about determining the best, most cost-effective, competitive and sustainable way to do it.
While plant-wide optimisation is an ongoing journey, it is more achievable than manufacturers might think. Today’s automation and information systems offer unprecedented levels of visibility and flexibility to change quickly with the market. In addition, simplification of functionality and systems makes it easier to scale and combine functionality, technology and systems as situations dictate.
Enabling technologies
In the past, manufacturers had to rely on a pieces-and-parts and one-size-fits-all approach to building automation and systems. Often, these approaches left users with a myriad of incompatible technologies, obsolete systems and competing standards without an accurate view of data from the plant floor. Users had to alter their manufacturing strategies to fit the equipment. As a result, total horizontal and vertical integration in manufacturing remained a pipe dream, and the costs and complexity outweighed the benefits.
All that has changed with the advent of automation and information systems built on complete, scalable integrated architecture solutions that bring together platforms for control, networking, visualisation and decision support. These systems are designed for optimum performance based on today’s technology and flexibility to upgrade for tomorrow’s advances.
State-of-the-art integrated architectures use common development tools that allow for reuse of engineering resources and less retraining. They also offer a mix of dedicated and open systems hardware, software and media choices for the best fit within the application. In addition, integrated architectures allow for vertical integration with the rest of the enterprise using standards-based technologies.
This strategic approach to plant automation results in decreased time to market by allowing new systems to be deployed and upgraded faster. It helps lower the long-term costs associated with training, configuration and maintenance, and allows operational excellence and efficiency through advanced technology. In addition, it provides flexibility to expand while leveraging existing investments and more effectively managing information from plant floor to enterprise.
For example, the evolution of distributed control systems (DCS) and programmable logic controllers (PLC) is converging manufacturing disciplines into a single technology programmable automation controller (PAC) platform. Automation and information companies, such as Rockwell Automation, offer comprehensive functionality for process, batch, discrete, drives, motion and safety in one control engine, design environment and service oriented architecture (SOA).
Companies need to chart their own paths to plant-wide optimisation, based on industry, market position, manufacturing strategy and business priorities. Those improvements exist throughout the entire manufacturing life cycle, including design and commissioning, operation and maintenance.
Cost-effective design and commission
Determining the best way to design and build a system that meets application requirements is one of the core disciplines of plant-wide optimisation. Proper design and commissioning helps lower total cost of ownership and decrease time to market. Methodologies include virtual design, extensible engineering, secure access and IT convergence.
A prime example is the convergence of IT and automation systems. IT-ready automation systems are adept at information generation, delivery and visibility throughout the enterprise and across the global supply chain. Successful convergence of IT and automation systems requires a collaborative, creative mindset among employees and a new look at processes based on real-time information and business knowledge. In addition, convergence requires manufacturing and production processes to act on information presented in a way that provides context and insight.
When, for example, a large aluminium company in the Middle East recently needed to provide access to production data, maximise production and meet an aggressive deployment schedule, it leveraged the Cisco and Rockwell Automation developed EtherNet Reference Architectures. This design guide helped the company integrate real-time production data with information from business applications through an end-to-end networking architecture. This provides connectivity, collaboration and integration from the device level to the enterprise business systems.
Furthermore, quality-of-service mechanisms help to make sure that mission-critical and time-sensitive information is delivered in real-time to the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
At the same time, EtherNet connectivity provides flexibility for adding speciality products in the future to accommodate particular manufacturing applications. This flexible approach will enable the company to adapt quickly and efficiently to changing business requirements and supply-chain management needs. Deeper insight into operations and real-time collaboration between manufacturing, engineering and suppliers also helps improve decision quality and shorten lead times.
Achieving operational excellence
Another way to achieve plant-wide optimisation is by ensuring a system executes the operation, and the engineering team looks for continuous improvements. Methodologies to achieve plant-wide optimisation through operational excellence include better asset utilisation, functional safety, real-time information, intelligent energy management and advanced process control.
Maintenance for optimal performance
Determining the best way to keep a system running optimally requires a rigorous maintenance programme that encompasses routine maintenance, upgrades and conversions to new, improved systems. An à la carte approach to maintenance – strategies and initiatives without regard for the bigger picture – makes maximising the programme difficult.
Taking a more holistic approach and considering a broad mix of predictive, preventive and reactive solutions provides a better opportunity for plant-wide optimisation and ties maintenance to business performance. Ways to achieve plant-wide optimisation through strategic maintenance include system migration strategies, asset management, global-standards compliance and life-cycle management.
For example, as part of its quest to improve reliability and operability, Schweppes Australia upgraded its syrup room control systems at its Huntingwood facility. The upgrade included integration of the process control functionality, previously the remit of a legacy DCS, into a control system based on the PlantPAx Process Automation System from Rockwell Automation. The control system is key to the management of the predominately automated process. An operator uses the control system to call up a batch menu, and to enter details of required batch volume and the destination tank to be allocated. The system automatically ensures volumes and proportions are correct, and that the necessary cleaning-in-place has been completed before routing the mixture to the final destination tank. “We had the choice to either upgrade the system to a current version of the DCS or to integrate the DCS functionality into the Rockwell Automation system,” explains Warren Ung, Schweppes Australia project engineer. “Migrating the process control functionality to the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix platform was the natural choice, as this can achieve the same level of functionality as a DCS, but allows for greater flexibility for future expansion.”
Commit to plant-wide optimisation
As decision-makers from the top floor to the shop floor look into the future of their organisations, it is important to view plant-wide optimisation as a continually evolving process, rather than as a goal that has a final, specific end point. Just as runners around the world strive to fine-tune their regimens to finally surpass the world record in their sport, so too must manufacturers and machine builders identify and implement measures for improvement to stay competitive and sustainable.
For more information contact Sean Homan, Rockwell Automation, +27 (0)11 654 9700, [email protected], www.rockwellautomation.co.za
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