News & Knowledge

We’re your source for automation news. Keep up with the latest industry updates and E Tech employee spotlights, as well as tips and guidance from our manufacturing experts.  

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Life Sciences Sponsors ISPE 27th Annual Fun Day

E Tech Group’s Life Sciences team was a sponsor for ISPE San Francisco’s 27th Annual Fun Day, where professionals across the automation and pharmaceutical industry got to do a different kind of networking – at golf courses and wineries. We are honored to be involved with ISPE and enjoyed seeing and having a day of fun with so many of our partners and industry colleagues. About the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) ISPE is a non-profit organization that connects pharmaceutical knowledge with manufacturing processes, including things like food sciences and pharmaceutical automation. Their mission is to support and advance pharmaceutical engineering by providing professionals with resources for innovation, networking and industry advancement. The San Francisco Bay chapter has been a particularly active chapter since its inception in the early ‘90s. E Tech Group is proud to be an active participant and sponsor in ISPE’s San Francisco Bay’s initiatives. About E Tech Group: A Nationwide Leader in Pharmaceutical Automation E Tech Group is a leader in automation innovation. Our Life Science division supports clients across the Life Sciences sector, including pharmaceuticals, cultured meats, and biologics. We share the ISPE values of supporting industry advancement and innovation with each client we serve. Offering the best in industrial data analytics, automation services and control system integration, we design, build and support custom manufacturing automation solutions that add value, security, efficiency, and scalability. If you’d like to learn more about E Tech Group’s capabilities in the pharmaceutical field, visit our Life Sciences page.

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E Tech Group Employees Earn PI Certification

Congratulations to our Principal Engineer, Matt Martin, and Senior Project Manager, Tony O’Deay on earning their PI System Infrastructure Specialist Certifications.To complete the PI System Infrastructure Specialist certification an individual must have one year of experience configuring the PI system, complete a set of training modules, and pass a 50-question final exam.  The certifications show our company has trained and is experienced with PI System. E Tech Group is committed to providing expert service and support for the PI system. Thank you, Matt and Tony, for pushing yourselves and sharing this expertise to E Tech Group and our clients!

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E Tech Group Webcast: What is Just Enough Industrial Data Analysis?

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.

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Just Enough Industrial Data Analysis
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Alias Resolution in DeltaV

by Mark Noseworthy, Group Engineering Manager I was recently working at a client and made some DeltaV code changes on the Development system to a composite1 used in a control module. One of the code changes involved adding an Alias2 reference out to a different control module to obtain some information running in that other module concurrently. Once it was all configured and tested, the code was downloaded successfully to the Production system, and I didn’t think any more on it.  Fast forward a few months, and a colleague is modifying the same code for a different project. He was experiencing some odd behavior in the code that he couldn’t explain. He pulled in the client and me to look at it, and none of us could figure out what was happening. The phase that was running on the unit module that contained the control module with the composite that we had both updated would not run successfully the first time through the code, but if manually manipulated, the phase would run as expected subsequent to that first pass through the logic. We troubleshot the issue by first reinstalling the code without my colleague’s changes, assuming that would fix things. It did not. We were flummoxed. Since my colleague’s logic needed to be used in Production, the client indicated that it was acceptable to put on the Production system, attributing the odd behavior as a Development system issue. Upon doing this there were no issues running in Production. Although grateful, we were doubly flummoxed now. Clearly the issue lies in the Development system, but where? Trying to Uncover the Mystery Flaw in the Control System Further investigation discovered a yellow question mark (which generally means some sort of error) on a CALC (calculation) block that was definitely not there when the initial code was verified. This also happens to … Continued

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Material Handling Automation Companies Keep Your Facility Ready to Scale

In the age of e-commerce, direct-to-consumer platforms comprise a significant portion of today’s consumer market. What does that mean for transporters and distributors? More demand to fulfill and less time to do it. Automation system integrators specializing in material handling processes can help these companies meet these ever-increasing benchmarks. An advanced approach to automation design provides operators complete control of a system that is simple to communicate with, access, configure, and expand. You don’t want to have to do a complete system retrofit every time you need to ramp up production. A custom-built control system offers the flexibility, security and scalability distributors need to stay competitive in this new environment.