Director of Business Development, Laurie Cavanaugh presented a webcast for Control Engineering on Data Analysis with Matt Ruth of Avanceon. Below are a few participant questions and answers from the webcast. Who is typically the driving force to engage on analytics in a manufacturing plant? A top-down approach to data analytics is typically driven by corporate and involves corporate IT and the use of accessible data in the form of financials and some operational data that has been consolidated (transactional data) based on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence software. A bottom-up approach is typically driven by manufacturing departments or sites and starts with granular detail (time-series data) using historian databases and extraction tools offered by automation and controls manufacturers. Where true value and insight can be experienced is in the convergence of these two analytics’ efforts to connect the corporate financial and operational data with the more granular process execution data to provide a more thorough and holistic view of key factors that drive organizational decisions from top to bottom. What do you see as the future of analytics in manufacturing? The future is now. User expectations and demand for contextualized and intelligent information, driven by the tools used outside of the workplace, are countering old excuses or reasons for the failure to deliver fact-based analytics, directed decision making, and immediate access to critical information. Technical tools and platforms are not lacking. What is lagging is the complete understanding and response to the non-technical bottlenecks and barriers. Greater awareness of how analytics applies to processes and proper context for critical decision factors produce the value that addresses those non-technical barriers. Do you realistically see the wall between information technology (IT) and OT disappearing? The IT/OT wall or divergence must be overcome for the sake of shared responsibility: the … Continued
Challenge
Distilled spirits have complex processing needs. To stay competitive, spirit producers often turn to batch processing and blending solutions to improve their operational agility; however, this can be compromised as their systems become outdated. This was the case for a global leader in the spirits industry who needed to update their existing blending system to better support recipe management, faster quality verification, and adaptive ingredient delivery. The global spirits leader engaged E Tech Group and their industry partner Barnum Mechanical Inc. to provide a turnkey solution given their collective process design and control system integration expertise.
Solution
The first step was to understand the customer’s recipes and batch execution methods. This included their ingredient applications, equipment processes, and final product expectations. The project team introduced the customer to ISA-88 batch process management; a set of standards published by the International Society of Automation (ISA) for managing batch control systems. It divides a batch process into a hierarchy of subdivisions to better optimize the utilization of assets and operational performance.
Using the ISA-88 standard, the project team divided the production environment into logical blocks to separately analyze units, equipment, and control modules. With these separated, the sequencing of the process could be well-outlined and then proven for accuracy and reliability. The project team utilized Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Batch and View Site Edition networked software to provide seamless integration across all aspects of the system. The team also integrated electrical design and automated reporting solutions for classified areas to help safeguard assets, equipment, and people. Once completed and thoroughly tested, the project team stayed onboard to train operations staff on how to quickly adapt to the updated system and take advantage of its enhanced features.
Results
The complex project lasted eighteen months to design, develop, commission, and decommission the existing system. E Tech Group and Barnum Mechanical Inc. enjoyed the opportunity to collaboratively leverage their process knowledge to design the batching and CIP systems, as well as support PLC and HMI programming. For the global spirits leader, the updated system supported increased productivity with greater system reliability in addition to improved quality with more precise control strategies using ISA-88 standards.
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E Tech Group’s Vice President of Business Development, Laurie Cavanaugh was a presenter for this Control Engineering webcast, where she and Matt Ruth, President of Avanceon, discuss what “just enough data analysis” is, pros and pitfalls, and the future of data analysis in automated manufacturing. The webcast included live Q&As from the audience, and was followed up with an article offering even more answers to automation professionals’ questions about data analytics in their plant processes. Just-in-time supply chain strategy limits were exposed in a global pandemic. Is just-enough industrial data analysis working for operations? Is the right data getting to the right people to optimize operations in time? Where are the bottlenecks and how are they being addressed? Where’s data going to become information and who’s seeing it? In the cloud or on premise or both? Are your knowledge brokers seeing the right information quickly enough to make the right decisions, or are your analytics too much, too late to be effective? Utilizing case studies as illustrations and an interactive format, Cavanaugh and Ruth advise control system integrators on how to: Determine if just-enough data analytics provides enough benefits to operations. Identify if enough data intelligence (results of analytics) is getting to people who matter. Examine bottlenecks in data analysis and how to address them. Review tools and architectures for eliminating bottlenecks. See lessons learned in applying data analytics (too little too late or just enough in time). This presentation focused on the future of data analytics in industrial manufacturing, including obstacles control engineers need to overcome in order to move forward in the industry and embrace the new role data analysis will take in the field. Visit E Tech Group’s blog for more automation industry news and insights.
