Factory Information Integration and Utilization Prepared by: Pete Larochelle Director of Informatics and Owner - NeoMatrix, Inc. Mark Fehlmann Director of Engineering and Continuous Improvement Madico, Inc.
1 Background The initial steps to a six sigma project aimed at improving an existing business process are to define the problem, then measure and analyze the data. Having the ability to mine and analyze critical business information on demand is invaluable to troubleshooting manufacturing problems. Businesses have invested and developed many different information systems to manage their business processes (CRM, ERP, MRP, QMS, etc.) Organizations recognize the critical importance of sharing information across these systems and across different roles within the enterprise in order to remain competitive. In manufacturing organizations, plant floor operations are a critical aspect to the success of the company. Over the past twenty years, manufacturing information systems have evolved to provide invaluable data pertaining to the reality of what s happening on the shop floor. Madico, a small coating operation, located in near metropolitan Boston, is an early adopter of automation manufacturing information systems, and is poised to continuously implement improvements as their business progresses. Working with NeoMatrix, a specialist in automation and manufacturing information systems, Madico has developed an overall business strategy for automation and information systems. The team has evaluated available technologies and implemented systems based on business benefit. The result is an information infrastructure which provides immense benefit across the entire organization and positions them to continue the evolution of their automation and information systems assets. The remaining sections will define the core building blocks of the plant floor information system, analytic tools and the integration to other business systems which significantly enhances the organizations continuous improvement initiatives. Figure 1: Typical Layers in a Manufacturing Information System (Wonderware)
Contents 1 Background... 2 2 Automation Building Blocks... 4 2.1 Machine Control... 4 2.2 Human Machine Interface (HMI)... 4 2.2.1 Alarming... 4 2.2.2 Trending... 4 2.2.3 Recipes... 5 2.3 Vision Systems... 5 3 Measure and Analyze... 6 3.1 Plant Historian... 6 3.2 Analytical Tools... 6 3.3 Real Time Status... 7 3.4 Alerts... 9 4 Connecting to the Enterprise... 8 4.1 Quality Management Systems (QMS)... 8 4.2 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration... 8 5 Advanced Analytics Downtime & Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)... Error! Bookmark not defined. 6 Business Benefit Summary... 11 6.1 Plant Floor Automation... 11 6.1.1 Machine Control:... 11 6.1.2 HMI (Alarming, Trending & Recipes):... 11 6.1.3 Vision System:... 11 6.2 Data Collection & Analysis... Error! Bookmark not defined. 6.3 Enterprise Connectivity Business Benefit Summary... 11 6.4 Advanced Analytics OEE... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2 Automation Building Blocks A typical manufacturing plant today has a considerable amount of automation: Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Human Machine Interface (HMI) systems, vision systems, etc. Over the past twenty years, Madico has implemented these automation solutions has crating the foundation for exposing critical plant floor information required to make informed decisions in a continuous improvement initiative. 2.1 Machine Control Before PLCs became the prevalent method of machine control in the 80 s relays and dedicated process controllers were used to control manufacturing. Updating the systems was an extremely time consuming and expensive process. With a PLC the Inputs and Outputs are wired to the device, but the logic is configured with software. Making changes to the logic does not require any electrical or mechanical configuration, simply a download of a new program. An industry leading PLC platform was chosen as the standard for plant process control. The PLC monitors and controls oven temperatures, line speed, tension, coating pan levels, etc. With a number of PLC s throughout the plant there are tens of thousands of I/O points being continuously monitored. In the 2000 s Ethernet became popular in industrial information systems and the technology was implemented on all of the PLCs and control devices throughout the plant. Ethernet provides many benefits including but not limited to remote programming/troubleshooting and reduced media costs. 2.2 Human Machine Interface (HMI) The HMI will interact with the system by providing feedback on the process, changing set points and starting and stopping processes. The graphical visualization of the plant makes tasks intuitive and makes the system easy for new operators to learn. The following figure depicts a coating line overview the operator uses to monitor the process: 2.2.1 Alarming Figure 1 Sample Coating Line HMI Graphic One of the most important features of an HMI is the alarm and event system. The system monitors critical process variables and creates an alarm event when a parameter is outside its normal operating ranges. The system notifies the operator of an alarm condition so they can take appropriate action. The alarm system gives operators actionable information in real-time and is critical due to the large number of I/O in the process. 2.2.2 Trending Process values can be stored relative to time and made available to operators in the HMI. Operators can evaluate both real-time and historical trends as a tool to troubleshoot and improve their processes. This allows the operator to get to why much more quickly. What was the set point? What was the status of the motor? What was the line speed? Was the valve open or closed?
2.2.3 Recipes Figure 2 Sample Historical Trend Recipes in a manufacturing process are very similar to recipes in your kitchen. One recipe may call for an oven temperature of 400 F while another can call for 350 F. Manufacturing lines can produce a multitude of products. One product may call for an oven temperature of 200 F and another may call for 300 F. The difference in manufacturing is that there are often hundreds of set points from temperatures and line speeds to valve and motor states. Within the HMI process engineers can specify the critical set points to be captured in a recipe and configure a recipe for every product. The operator can then simply pick the product they are running and instantaneously configure their machine. 2.3 Vision Systems Vision systems have been used for years in manufacturing; but have been more difficult to implement in the coating/laminating world due to issues with the wide array of product mixes, colors, opacity, etc being run on any given manufacturing line. Advancements in the vision technology have resulted in the ability to use cameras to analyze and disposition product quality in real-time. Operators are notified instantaneously of any quality issues and are directed to correct the issue or the line is shut down. The vision system is connected to the entire automation system. Access to the footage counter allows for the generation of accurate roll maps. Roll maps are available for historical analysis by process engineers. Product yield is instantaneously available for reporting purposes.
3 Measure and Analyze With the core automation building blocks in place as discussed in section 0, the plant had the foundation necessary to implement advanced data collection and analytical tools to assist in their six sigma efforts. Maintenance, engineering and operations can depend on accurate data taking the guesswork out of the process. The following sections will discuss some of the prominent systems that have been developed to assist personnel in their continuous improvement initiatives. 3.1 Plant Historian Access to process information was recognized as critical to the continuous improvement initiative and the decision was made to implement a plant historian. With the connectivity to real time data from the plant floor, systems were put in place to give the team actionable information in a timely manner. The deployment of a historian in the late 90 s gave the team and other business applications access to data relating to thousands of process data points. The plant historian was built on a standard relational database which was enhanced to handle hundreds of transactions per second. The data is stored with a loss-less compression algorithm which enables the storing of years worth of data with minimal hard drive capacity. All critical process parameters were configured to be stored in the historian. Oven temperatures, line speed, tensions, motor states, process setpoints, raw material levels and many other parameters were being stored to be available for analysis at any point. The team was now prepared to approach the measurement step of continuous improvement with a significant advantage over their previous position. 3.2 Analytical Tools With the data collection process in place tools were needed to extract the information. The historian which had been implemented was paired with a set of off-the-shelf tools that allowed users to analyze trends and export process information to spreadsheets or other data analysis tools. These tools allowed users to access this data with little to no training or prerequisite knowledge of the automation system or database query syntax. With almost no training, users were able to access any process parameter that had been stored over any period of time with a trending tool. The data within the trend can be easily exported to spreadsheets or SPC tools for further analysis. Figure 3 Trending Tool
3.3 Real Time Status The majority of personnel are located off the plant floor and don t have access to the status of the equipment. The ability to expose key information has allowed the operations and maintenance team to closely monitor machine status and critical plant utilities. Multiple web pages were developed to expose key information about the current status of the process: What machines are running? What products are being made? Is the quality good or bad? What is the status of the compressed air system? The team can access this data from any web browser on their PC s or smart phones wherever they are in the world. Figure 4 Plant Status Page
4 Connecting to the Enterprise Information in the disparate information systems is critical to the day to day operations of the manufacturing site. Linking key data fields in order to relate information across multiple enterprise information systems provides increased value to the organization reducing data mining and manual paper work. The two fields which are common to all these systems are item number and roll number. Utilizing a common system for these fields allow information from the plant floor, quality and business systems to be integrated and analyzed. 4.1 Quality Management Systems (QMS) The Quality Management System handles the change management control for all products and standard operating procedures within the organization. The QMS system, ERP system and plant floor automation system all contain critical information with regards to these products. Operators use the HMI to queue the item numbers in succession for the rolls which are to be run. The recipe system automatically downloads the key parameters to the PLC and vision systems when a new item number is run on the machine. With access to the QMS documents, operators are presented with standard procedures and comments on demand. 4.2 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration The ERP system maintains the bill of materials, raw material tracking and roll number tracking in the business. Information on the plant floor, such as quality maps from the vision system and key process parameters, are be valuable in troubleshooting issues with regards to a specific roll number. Rather than have the operator key the roll number into the automation system, the HMI was interfaced directly to the ERP system. When a new roll starts on a line, the HMI opens a roll number in the ERP system. The HMI coordinates the roll number with all of the plant floor systems. When investigating issues with regards to a roll number, information within the vision system, historian and ERP systems can be very easily related.
5 Control 5.1 Alerts The concept of process alarms discussed in section 2.2.1 was extended to the entire organization. With the plant floor data being accessible to the higher level business systems, the system was extended to use e-mail and text messaging. Any process parameter can be configured to trigger an alert based on exception or on a scheduled basis. Different groups within the organization are subscribed to alerts applicable to their responsibilities: Organizational Group Planning/Purchasing Facilities/Engineering Operations Alert Actual raw material levels are reported daily. Inventory discrepancies in the ERP system are a non factor. Crtitcal plant equipment & utility parameters (RTO/Compressed Air) are reported instantaneously when outside acceptable operating conditions. Machine downtime is reported when exceeding allowable limits. 5.2 Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Figure 5 Sample Alert E-mail There were many different metrics which were used to measure production performance over time. Operators tracked downtime and recorded it manually during their shifts. While this paper system provided value to the organization; they sometimes led to inaccurate data as well as extra time for the operator to record the information. While downtime is an important factor, it is only one component to the machine effectiveness. Running at lower than targeted line speeds result in less throughput. Running but making bad material impacts the bottom line even more than the line being down. Overall Equipment Effectiveness uses downtime, performance and quality to determine the true effectiveness of a particular asset: Figure 6 OEE Calculation (The perils of back-of-the-envelope OEE calculations - Wonderware Southern Africa - SA Instrumentation & Control) The decision was made to implement an automated system to measure OEE. Through the core automation foundation, all of the data required to calculate OEE was readily available. Line status, line
speed and downtime reasons were available from the PLCs. Product quality information was available from the vision system. The OEE system was configured to link to this existing information and automatically store it in a standardized database. Operators are only required to interact with the system to clarify downtime codes when they are not available from the PLC (i.e. the line stopped for a product changeover). This eliminates the manual paperwork and allows the operator to concentrate on their most important task: ensuring the machine is running properly. The operators have access to the current OEE and immediately know when they are underperforming rather than getting a report at the end of the week or month. Reports are available to mine the data and quickly find areas for improvement. Drill down capability allows them to analyze any component of the metric to determine why the asset is not performing to standard. By closely monitoring these metrics, staff is able to reduce downtime, increase throughput and increase product yield. Figure 7 Example OEE Report
6 Business Benefit Summary The ability to access critical plant floor information and relate it to other enterprise information systems provides extraordinary business benefits to Madico. A summary of these benefits can be found below. 6.1 Plant Floor Automation 6.1.1 Machine Control: Logic modifications can be made quickly and effectively. Wiring costs of initial implementation and future modifications are considerably lower. Critical system configuration is easily maintained and documented. 6.1.2 HMI (Alarming, Trending & Recipes): Provides an intuitive graphical representation of the process. Reduces training time for new operators. Instantaneous notification of process issues. Historical analysis of alarms and events, enhancing the troubleshooting of quality issues. Advanced troubleshooting capabilities. Quick and accurate setup time. 6.1.3 Vision System: Automatic detection and alerting of visual quality details. Historical roll mapping with the ability to analyze by products and defect type. Availability of accurate first pass yield data. 6.2 Measure & Analyze Maintenance, engineering and operations personnel can depend on accurate data taking the guesswork out of the process. Real-Time status and other web reporting tools give the management team instant visibility to the current status of the plant. Exception reporting via e-mail and text messages provides immediate notification to key personnel of potential process, facilities and raw material issues. 6.3 Enterprise Connectivity Business Benefit Summary 6.4 Control Operators are provided with instant access to standard operating procedures. Information with regards to roll number and item number is recorded consistently throughout the business systems. The ERP, QMS, Historian and Vision System data can be related via item number or roll number. The OEE metric provides the true effectiveness of an asset. Using the data from PLCs and vision systems provide accurate and reliable information. Operator s duties are minimal allowing them to focus on their process. They receive real-time feedback on their performance. Data analysis tools are available for the team to evaluate the root cause of any operational losses related to downtime, speed losses and quality losses.
7 Works Cited The perils of back-of-the-envelope OEE calculations - Wonderware Southern Africa - SA Instrumentation & Control. (n.d.). Retrieved from SA Instrumentation & Control: http://www.instrumentation.co.za/article.aspx?pklarticleid=2815 Wonderware. (n.d.). Wonderware Manufacturing Execution System. Retrieved from www.wonderware.com: http://global.wonderware.com/en/pages/wonderwaremanufacturingexecutionsystem.aspx