Empowering people. Exceptional services. Delivering on promises. MONSANTO ASP TRANSFORMATION A Profile Prepared for Monsanto by ESCO Group, March 30, 2016 Grinnell, Iowa
Monsanto Company Monsanto is a sustainable agriculture company that delivers agricultural products that support farmers all around the world. They are focused on empowering farmers large and small to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world s natural resources, such as water and energy. They do this with their leading seed brands in crops like corn, cotton, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables. Monsanto also produces leading inthe-seed trait technologies for farmers, which are aimed at protecting their yield, supporting their on-farm efficiency and reducing their on-farm costs. Monsanto strives to make their products available to farmers throughout the world by broadly licensing their seed and trait technologies to other companies. In addition to their seeds and traits business, they also manufacture Roundup and other herbicides used by farmers, consumers, and lawn-and-garden professionals. Farmers are Monsanto s customers--the lifeblood of the company. More important, farmers are the support system of the world s economy, working day in and day out to feed, clothe and provide energy for our world. Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 2
Grinnell, Iowa The ASP ( Advanced Seed Production ) Facility transformation is a multi-year endeavor tasked with: Decreasing production variability Improving seed purity and quality Enhancing field to bag batch traceability ASP is the application of industry leading agronomic practices, information technology, and standardized equipment capabilities to improve access to data, enhance customer experience, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs. Leveraging technology advancements in instrumentation, scales, imaging seed counters, cameras, laser positioning, new seed equipment, software and OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) data visualization, an ASP Facility creates global standards for modernizing our systems and processes. Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 3
Monsanto focuses on their customers the farmers. Reducing production variability by modernizing systems and processes ensures that the right product, in the right quantity, is delivered at the right time. As Monsanto evolves to offer more services and information to farmers, they will concurrently have to transform to effectively and efficiently deliver on this model. Coordinating together across initiatives and between regional and global teams will maximize the value of their efforts. The impact these capabilities have is undeniably valuable by reducing seed mixes/losses, increased capacity, and inventory updates throughout the process, and improved operational decision making. It also enables analysis for future improvements, and creates real-time data for planning, and customer care. Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 4
Large scale projects on major production facilities always provide challenges. The objectives and scope of ASP required a level of collaboration between Monsanto Business, Global Engineering, Monsanto IT, Monsanto Production and its contractors that was unprecedented in work we ve done on the corn, soybean, cotton, and vegetable seed platforms. In January 2015 Monsanto brought a high level vision of ASP to ESCO to begin conceptual design and general scope development. Truncated timelines challenged both the Monsanto and ESCO team. The of the project required the evaluation of a broad spectrum of technologies to evaluate their viability, collaborative efforts between all groups and parallel work streams were crucial to executing this work to a timely completion. The implementation of ASP required the Network Transformation Initiative to occur during ASP, coordinating work between efforts proved challenging, but ultimately the deadline was achieved and a quality product was produced. Design encompassed March and April of 2015. In May, procurement and panel construction took place, with the plant construction phase beginning in June and concluding in August, in time for harvest. Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 5
The ASP project required new design concepts, many involving untested systems and strategies. New concepts for hardware were used throughout the plant including: wireless RFID systems, laser distance measurement, device level distributed networks, a full integration of Process control and Business IT networks, and much more. This represented the first time much of this equipment was used in a seed production facility. Prior to the project, Monsanto lacked an OEE reporting software. ESCO collaborated with Rockwell Automation & Monsanto Global Engineering to deploy FactoryTalk Metrics and Vantage Point. With this new software, Monsanto employees can now monitor the equipment more efficiently. Infrastructure upgrades were essential for this project. Existing control system hardware needed to be updated to create the foundation for changes to come. Additionally, the Process Control Network was updated, including elimination of older networks and upgrades to others, providing a platform more capable of supporting newer technology. HMI systems were transitioned to thin clients to increase overall availability, reliability and upgradability. Small portion of overall system architecture Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 6
In order to successfully complete a project with this many moving parts and this many different departments, we needed to focus on several key areas: Provide control system and infrastructure upgrades, implement current data and development standards Advanced instrumentation driving Data Collection MES/OEE development Improved information for operations Batch Traceability to ensure accuracy Entire system operational for Harvest Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 7
All Legacy PLC and HMI hardware were ungraded, current development standards were implemented, distributed networking components were redeployed with modern day standards Through the commissioning of modern instrumentation and standardized collection methods, enhancements were made to both real-time and historical data information. A plant wide OEE system was developed and stood-up using off the shelf products using standardized reporting and data structures. Furthermore, additional MES features were added to utilize the plant wide connectivity and instrumentation. Through enhancements made to the MES, enhancements to the control system and newly developed OEE reporting model operations has information available at their fingertips to make timely decisions and operational adjustments. These analytical tools increased efficiency during the harvest season. Electronic RFID readers, and enhanced control system data transfer has ensured that Batch Traceability is seamless and more accurate. Elimination of manual-entered product information. A multi-front deployment model was utilized to ensure that construction activities, infrastructure upgrades, and overall commissioning were completed to ensure an on time harvest. Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 8
Phase I of the ASP transformation project in the Grinnell, Iowa facility was a success. The employees have been empowered with resources, the customers are receiving the right product, in the right quantity, at the right time, and the efficiency of the plant operations has increased. Phase II of this project is currently under construction. Some of the enhancements this year will include: Expanded instrumentation for flow leveling, line balancing, inventory tracking and quality. Variable adjust equipment controlled by downstream equipment and loop control. Power Quality and Energy Monitoring (PQ&M) for the electrical and natural gas systems. Comprehensive changes to packaging including: improved capacity equipment, enhanced machine safety and notification, additional instrumentation and data collection, enhancements to OEE reporting and dash boarding and dynamic inline tag printing. Additional process control upgrades to eliminate remaining obsolete control hardware and to ensure consistency across lines. Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 9
What OEE and ASP has done for us, it s allowed us to see just exactly how efficient those machines are running. For all of you that are going to get ASP, welcome it. Be excited for it. It s going to help you in your job. Grinnell Production Seed Technicians The of the ASP project have left Monsanto with efficient and motivated employees. They are empowered with resources that allow them to, for example, have overall batch traceability from the field to the finished packaging. There is an OEE for individual processing areas of the plant, and overall system communications from the device level through the enterprise level. Through the utilization of FactoryTalk View SE over mobile devices, the visibility plant-wide has been increased. This is the first successful implementation of an OEE reporting system within the row crop division of Monsanto. ESCO Group, Des Moines 2100 Dixon Street, Ste. C Des Moines, IA 50316 (515) 263-8482 phone (515) 263-2773 fax www.theescogroup.com Joshua Earls Sr. Manager (515) 975-1330 c Mark Kraft Account Manager (515) 494-0130 c Profile prepared by ESCO Group, March 30,2016 Page 10