The achievement of Platinum level partnership with Rockwell Automation further strengthens E Tech Group’s ability to deliver clients cutting-edge solutions that effectively address ever-complex manufacturing problems. As a Platinum partner, E Tech Group has been working within Rockwell Automation’s Early Adopter Initiative for PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager, bringing clients the next generation of industrial manufacturing tools that facilitate alarm rationalization.
Author Contribution: Pradeep Paul, Director of Manufacturing Intelligence
E Tech Group is honored to have been named a Platinum Partner in the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork™, an elite distinction earned by less than one percent of all partners worldwide. It is accomplished by demonstrating the highest level of technical excellence and certifications in Rockwell Automation products, along with a proven commitment to strategic collaboration. A prime example is E Tech Group’s involvement in Rockwell Automation’s Early Adopter Initiative for PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager, detailed below.
Early Adopter Initiative for PlantPAx Analytics: Engagement with Rockwell Automation’s Latest Technology
As a Platinum Partner, E Tech Group’s Manufacturing Intelligence team has been participating in Rockwell Automation’s Early Adopter Initiative for PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager.
Rockwell Automation’s Early Adopter initiatives grant select system integration partners privileged access to new technologies before they reach the broader market, enabling qualifying clients to adopt and obtain the benefits from next-generation tools sooner. In addition to early access, participants provide Rockwell Automation with valuable real-world feedback that helps shape the final product’s features. Clients who meet the program’s prerequisite can gain access to cutting-edge tools at a reduced cost, with some initial setup and configuration work offered at reduced rates as a proof of concept.
As a Platinum Partner and participant in the Early Adopter Initiative for PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager, E Tech Group can offer qualifying facilities early exposure to this SaaS platform that extends the capabilities of the PlantPAx distributed control system (DCS). The program’s prerequisite is that facilities must be operating PlantPAx 5.0 or above.
The Challenge of Alarm Management
In industrial manufacturing environments, excessive low value alarms are a common issue that negatively impacts operations. Without effective methodologies for generating and interpreting alarms, sites face numerous operational challenges. Poor alarm management can have several negative impacts including:
- Slower response times, as operators struggle to distinguish genuine process issues from nuisance alerts.
- Missed opportunities for improvement, as critical process insights are lost amidst too many unimportant alarms.
- Increased reliance on cumbersome external reporting to trace production problems.
- Alarm flooding, which overwhelms operators with simultaneous alerts making it difficult to discern the root cause of an issue.
- Alarm fatigue, leading to operators becoming desensitized to alarms when many are neither effective nor actionable.
Alarm Rationalization and ISA 18.2
Alarm rationalization involves reviewing, prioritizing, and categorizing alarms so that operators only receive relevant, actionable alerts. By reducing nuisance or unnecessary repetitive alarms, organizations ensure critical issues stand out, improving operator response times and ultimately leading to better decision-making, faster troubleshooting, and overall improved operational efficiency.
Officially titled Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries, the ISA 18.2 standard provides a structured methodology for alarm management within industrial control systems, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of alarms. Its purpose is to ensure alarms are meaningful, actionable, and free from unnecessary repetition. By following ISA 18.2 guidelines, organizations can maintain a more efficient, reliable alarm system which supports plant safety and improved operator response times.
How PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager Works
FactoryTalk PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager facilitates alarm rationalization by aggregating data from many PlantPAx data sources, including site alarms, events, historical logs, device information, and operator activity from multiple sites, consolidating them into a single cloud-based enterprise reporting solution. With this data consolidated, the tool’s analytics capabilities readily identify frequently occurring nuisance alarms. Many of the tool’s calculations are based on the ISA 18.2 standard of alarm categorization. Alarm Manager can also help users uncover alarm information that may be tied to fundamental process issues or frequent process failures. As a result, it can help identify the underlying causes of persistent problems in a plant’s operation to target for improvement. Finally, for manufacturers with multiple lines or sites, Alarm Manager can provide insights across the organization, simplifying comparative analysis between lines or locations.
For facilities operating PlantPAx 5.0 or above, setup is nearly plug and play. Once all data sources are connected, predefined dashboards automatically populate within one to two days.
Building on the Early Adopter Experience: Overcoming Version Constraints
Initially, E Tech Group planned to roll out Alarm Manager across multiple client sites running PlantPAx 4.x. However, when Rockwell Automation updated the program’s requirements to version 5.0 or above, many of the identified facilities no longer qualified. Despite this shift, E Tech Group has partnered closely with Rockwell Automation to find alternative ways of bringing similar alarm rationalization benefits to clients not yet operating version 5.0.
In addition, as a part of its early adopter feedback, E Tech Group recommended broadening the software’s compatibility beyond Rockwell Automation-only environments to meet the needs of clients whose plants have standardized on mixed systems.
Solutions for Non-5.0 Users: DataMosaix and Customized Dashboards
To address the immediate need of clients still on PlantPAx 4.x, E Tech Group has begun developing customized alarm analytics solutions using the DataMosaix platform. DataMosaix is used to centralize alarm-related datasets. Customized dashboards are then designed to provide similar insights as the PlantPAx Analytics Alarm Manager platform. By replicating many of the features of Alarm Manager, these dashboards offer similar benefits, including clear visualization of alarm frequency, nuisance triggers, and overall operational trends.
Through proof-of-concept demos, E Tech Group plans to show how these insights can help identify production bottlenecks and the root causes of frequent failures, thus enabling data-driven decisions on where to focus improvement efforts. For companies with multiple sites, these templates can be deployed to provide broader insights across all facilities.
In effect, E Tech Group is creating its own “early adopter” experience for clients not yet prepared to upgrade to Rockwell Automation’s latest revision of PlantPAx. This work ensures that even sites on PlantPAx 4.x can benefit from streamlined alarm management, actionable analytics, and clear visibility into plant performance.
Commitment to Innovation
E Tech Group’s focus remains on delivering practical, results-driven analytics, regardless of a client’s current PlantPAx platform version. By combining Rockwell Automation’s cutting-edge PlantPAx Analytics platform with E Tech Group’s integration and analytics expertise, manufacturers can improve operator response times, obtain better process visibility, and simplified enterprise-wide reporting. In addition, E Tech Group’s clients contribute real-world insight that shapes the future of next generation tools. Together, E Tech Group, its clients, and Rockwell Automation are collaborating to expand what’s possible in industrial controls and manufacturing intelligence.
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