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CONTENTS
5 Contributors
8 Introduction
9 SECTION ONE: Recipe Management & Batch Software
CONTENTS
35 Start with Recipes to Program CIP Controls
CONTENTS
86 How to Avoid Mistakes with Control System Remote Access
1
01 Asset Reliability a Performance Indicator
115 Four Tips for Dealing with Wireless Latency and Bandwidth Issues
Dave Woll
Devkant Gandhi Hector Re
Vice President
IQA
ARC Advisory Group Inc.
INTRODUCTION
Everywhere you look, new technologies, new standards and a new generation of engineers
By Jeanne Schweder are transforming the control of industrial processes. Automation and information
Contributing Editor technologies are increasing our knowledge, and changing expectations and best practices as
for Automation World well. These powerful tools range from intelligent instruments to wireless communications
and everything in between.
This 2014 edition of Automation Worlds Batch Process Playbook continues our goal of providing
hands-on information on automation implementation tips and best practices specifically for
batch process industries. It also explores some of the many trends affecting how work gets
done, from recipe management and food safety regulations to OEE and asset management.
Among the many topics addressed in this playbook are clean-in-place systems, batch
software selection, skid-based equipment, Ethernet and wireless communications, product
tracking, automation project management and more.
As always, we thank the many industry experts and process engineers who have contributed
their experiences and expertise to this playbook. This peer-to-peer knowledge sharing is a
hallmark of what makes Automation Worlds playbooks unique.
We hope youll find this Batch Process Playbook to be a useful source of information now and
in the years ahead as you plan for new projects or upgrade existing production functions.
SECTION ONE
Recipe Management & Batch Software
10 / 117
2. Split screens. Recipe screens should follow in the same order as the operation and
troubleshooting manuals. Use split screens so the operator can see the specific screen on one
window and the sequential state of the specific step in the overall process in another window.
The larger the screens and the more uniform the fonts/colors, the easier the information will
be to access and operators will make fewer mistakes.
3. Maintain recipe control. Centralized control of recipes is essential. These should not
continued be kept at the plant level, but must be checked out from a centralized (controlled) database.
Limiting the number of people who can change the recipe, or at least throttling down the
Nine Tips for
parameters available, can help limit mistakes from incorrect recipe changes. Also critical is
Achieving Balance in protecting the intellectual property of these tangible assets. Have a safe practice to transfer
Recipe Management the recipe from the nutrition department to the plant. It could be wireless. Make sure it has a
buffer to keep the new recipe until the old one is done.
4. Simplify changeovers. Follow ISA S88 standards for quick and automated
Two principles for recipe changeovers. Procedures are clearly defined and can be monitored. If a specific process cell
development is troublesome, it can be isolated, analyzed and corrected. The correction could range from
Take into account two basic rewording the procedure to improving the instrumentation or automating the processall
principles when developing a without requiring a facility rebuild. Miscategorizing CM, EM, phase and other values can make
recipe: for long, cumbersome recipes or inflexible ones. The clues are in ISA-88 and ISA-106TR.
1. Recipe cost. Estimate the 5. Simulate programs. Control process recipes are usually developed by technologists
final cost of the new recipe, who understand the processes but who often dont understand the problems of
including extra costs arising from programmers. Formalize recipe descriptions to avoid ambiguity in their interpretation by the
industrial trial, designs and OEE. programmers. It is very useful to simulate recipe-based processes to demonstrate the work
of the program that implements the specified recipe. After the first such demonstration for
2. Scalability. Dont forget to recipe authors, it is highly probable that the recipe records will need to be changed.
check the recipes viability from
the point of view of industrial
6. Keep ingredients separate. Avoid contamination in any changes that are made
by keeping the ingredients separate. Form/fill/seal machines have to be cleaned thoroughly
scale, including all matters
when changing from one mix to another. Once changed, be sure to run a batch for checking
like cleaning due to allergens,
the components of the mix. Any software changes have to take into account all the items
flowability, pieces per minute, etc.
contained in the original software.
continued 7. Database concerns. Recipe management software should be based on the dynamic
Nine Tips for of current standards for each country. Common classifications for these countries should be
located in the same database. How the database, names, classification, etc., are developed is
Achieving Balance in
critical. In terms of classification, there should be a different database for food components
Recipe Management functions and their relative importance for the recipe. It is also important to provide a
database for manufacturers, distributors and issues related to final potential users, such as
diabetic or allergenic concerns.
8. Open and expandable. Stick to open platforms as much as possible, while seeking
vendors that will provide the service and support associated with a traditional propriety
product. Make sure the system is upgradeable or expandable. Always perform an electrical
power survey first when considering upgrades.
9. Servo solutions. Servo control makes it easier to change line speed than with cam
control, which often causes problems. Servo control also allows for quick and repeatable
product changes. Connecting the servo drives to a field bus also minimizes wiring.
2. Link very tightly the various components of procedural model of batch process system
software with components in the process control system.
3. Have a flexible route management method for material transfer to avoid equipment down times.
5. Follow ISA S88 batch standard physical and procedural models to develop a batch plant model.
6. The recipe model should be designed so that all shared equipment is open and that run
time status information coming from the process controller can be acquired to define the
production process flow.
7. Ensure that the batch process software selected is also able to access runtime status data
from the process control system and not just at the end of batch.
Although originally designed for batch manufacturing processes, the ISA-88 standard is also
helping users save time and money in automating continuous production processes.
The standard sets forth a set of building blocks for process control at all levels: enterprise,
site, area, process cell, unit, equipment module and control module. The three highest levels
explain how the standards language can interface with the business systems of the area,
plant site and business enterprise as a whole.
continued The next two levels, process cell and unit, are the building blocks of the production
How Reusable Code process. One or more units are contained in each process cell. Each unit is a collection
of controlled equipment.
Streamlines Recipe
Management Within the unit are the equipment and control modules. An equipment module defines a
small group of equipment with a process function and can contain control modules and
subsidiary equipment modules. The control module contains the equipment and systems that
perform the actual process control.
Universal Structure
The standard can be applied to either simple or complex processes, so that one programming
system can be used for all production processes in a plant. Using this methodology, users and
programmers can:
continued
Recognize equipment capabilities used during recipe and procedure driven
How Reusable Code production; and
Streamlines Recipe
Management Recognize the need for modular and reusable control functionality.
Reusable software code blocks are central to the ISA-88 standard and are programmed using
IEC 61131-3-compliant software, which is available from all major automation vendors. Code
can be programmed in ladder diagram as well as structured text, function block diagram,
instruction list or sequential function chart languages.
Each vendor includes libraries of reusable control modules and algorithms that define
common machine functions and recipe steps in their software. Once the initial process or
recipe has been programmed, modular code blocks can be reused for the same functions
with minimal modifications. This eliminates the need to reinvent the wheel for different
recipes, and allows future changes to be made almost dynamically.
Broad Applicability
Industry experts say an estimated 50 percent of all U.S. manufacturing is now accomplished
using techniques and technologies consistent with the ISA-88 standard, which has been
proven in thousands of applications and can be applied in either DCS or PLC control
environments.
continued The ISA-88 standard can be so widely applied because its central objectives are to:
How Reusable Code
Streamlines Recipe Reduce a user's time to reach full production levels for new products;
Management Enable vendors to supply appropriate tools for implementing batch control;
Enable users to better identify their needs;
Make recipe development straightforward enough to be accomplished without the
services of a control systems engineer;
1. Use lab batches to assure quality. Normally the manufacturer relies on the
approved supplier to guarantee performance and adhere to specifications. Repeated audits
of suppliers and requalification of their products is needed. However, if the manufacturing
process of the ingredient cannot be stabilized, then 100 percent inspection of each incoming
batch is required. Ultimately, and to minimize scrap with expensive or time-consuming
production runs, specifically if large batches are to be made, run a small lab batch first to
assure quality.
2. Real-time test results. Start with ingredient purchasing standards, then conduct
the standard tests you have established. Near-infrared spectroscopy is a good tool to achieve
fast and reliable results from testing. NIR functions (collection, analysis and integration) can
provide real-time data and enable real-time adjustments.
continued select the most sensitive analyzer and evaluate the possibility of multiple sensors for at least
Four Ideas for two points. If any variability appears, it will require enough delay time to allow you to correct,
remix and retest. This can be done in a closed loop with feedback. Knowing the quality of
Active Ingredients incoming raw materials is essential to reducing corrections.
Management
4. Logistics essentials. Active ingredient management affects all business processes
in logistics for materials that contain one or more concentrates, or one or more active
ingredients. It enables you to directly process transactions in quantities of active ingredient.
It is important to maintain master data, entering the actual proportions of individual
active ingredients in each batch in batch specifications. You can store the material in
planned proportions of the individual active ingredients and also a planned interval for the
allowed active ingredient proportion. The active ingredient proportions are defined in the
classification system as characteristics. This data is essential for accurate bills of materials
(BOM) and purchase orders so that you can maintain required inventories.
He says, Its a standard developed so we could all speak the same automation language. Its
not a rule. Its just a really good guideline for how to break things up in a modular way, and its
based on a simple but powerful concept: We need to code what the equipment can do, and
we want to configure what people want to do with the equipment.
In S88 terms, the equipment model defines what the equipment can do and the procedural
model defines what people want to do with it. Recipe editor software is used to configure the
procedural module, but the program module doesnt change if the process changes. Thats because
S88 isolates how to control temperature from get me the temperature I want, says Parraga.
What does this mean? It means the people formulating products at the plant dont need to
be engineers, says Parraga. They dont need someone to make controller or code changes
when they want to make new products or make changes to existing ones. Operations doesnt
have to code stuff!
continued And because recipe changes are separate from control changes, people have the ability to
ISA-88: Recipe make changes without feeling like they will risk the code or the process, adds Parraga. They
will tend to make small improvements that will lead to best practices long term. Recipes will
Changes Kept mature, or have the ability to mature or become more robust, if you implement a new system
Separate from without risk.
Control Changes
A good example of recipe-driven incremental improvement is in clean-in-place and
sterilization cycles. Normally these are solidlocked up and never changed. But if you have
the ability to tweak the processtransfer dirty water downstream and do a preliminary rinse
of the next tank to save water, for exampleyou could make the whole process quicker, says
Parraga. The modularity of S88 allows you to make such improvements.
1. Keep software specific. The software should be designed for the particularities
of your process where possible. It should be able to integrate demand with raw materials,
provide information about costs, and communicate with the equipment and operations. Keep
the variables and data points that the batch processing software manages on the relatively
large side and make sure it easily integrates with other systems.
4. Batch factors. Batch processing involves many factors, including the speed of many
pieces of machinery, the precision of equipment and scales, the anti-plugging design of
hoppers and holding bins, as well as the reports printout on each batch. Anything out of
tolerance needs to be reviewed before you can proceed to the next step.
1. Select a batch processing system with an open architecture that is compliant with ISA S88
and can be easily interfaced with the process control system from any vendor.
2. The batch process software model should be able to run concurrent batches with
different recipes.
3. Create a flexible batch process integration model in the software, giving it the most
flexibility for common resources used in the plant (for example, a valve matrix for material
transfer, common equipment like blenders, etc.) so that many batches with different recipes
can be run concurrently with less equipment downtime.
4. The batch process model should easily interface with the process control system. The
process control logic should be designed to be intelligent enough to make these dynamic
flexibility decisions.
continued 5. The batch software should be able to archive and send reporting data for batch reporting
Eight Best Batch as well as MES modules for analysis and interface with the enterprise system.
Software Practices 6. The batch software should have a material tracking module, preferably to get the material
information and trace it.
7. The batch software should have a user-friendly client with an SFC run-time display for
recipe monitoring as well as features to take individual operations and phases in control.
8. The batch processing software suite should be complemented and supported with an
electronic workflow management system to automate SOPs as well as manual actions to
record authentications and comply with 21 CFR Part 11.
1. Avoid proprietary software not based on the software and hardware platform widely used
in your company.
2. Work with suppliers that have a 24/7 programming and troubleshooting infrastructure.
3. Train maintenance personnel on simple troubleshooting steps and make sure they know
the contact information when additional support is needed.
4. Use object programming as much as possible, with standard proven modules available in
the control system (and backup) library.
SECTION TWO
Food Safety & Clean-in-Place
28 / 117
The 10 Principles of
Sanitary Machine Design
By Bob Sperber Suppliers have also played a role in the past, and can continue to assist food companies in
Contributing Editor evaluating compliance with various standards that are consistent with the FSMA, such as the
Automation World 10 Principles of Sanitary Design developed in the early 2000s by the Equipment Design Task
Force of the American Meat Institute. The task force included engineers, quality managers and
sanitarians from companies including ConAgra, Excel, Kraft, Hormel, Smithfield Meats, Sara
Lee, Tyson and others. The goal was to improve the sanitary design of equipment to reduce
and eliminate potential harborage areas as well as help to maintain and extend product shelf
life and other product quality attributes.
These principles have been widely supported and expanded by groups including the Grocery
Manufacturers Association, for Facilities Design and Equipment for Low Moisture Foods. These
principles and associated checklists will prove useful as the FDA follows the lead of USDA-
regulated meat and poultry plants to require a new level of sanitation.
10. Validated cleaning and sanitizing protocols: Procedures for cleaning and
sanitation must be clearly written, designed and proven effective and efficient. Chemicals
recommended for cleaning and sanitation must be compatible with the equipment and the
manufacturing environment.
continued 3. Control through batch manager. Clean-in-place should be done with recipes
Seven Ways to in the batch manager, just as for production. The BMS enforces that cleaning is performed
consistently. Compliance data is collected as the batch record. End users can optimize
Improve Clean-in-
cleaning via the easier-to-understand recipe interface.
Place Systems
4. Use the pros. Invest in custom fabricators when preparing a new process for a
CIP install. The right professionals may cost a little more up front, but the ROI is realized
significantly sooner, with reduced rework and fixture ease of use and cleaning.
5. Focus testing on first batch. It makes sense to implement a testing regimen that
runs a complete battery of microbiological tests on the first units produced from the first
batch that runs on the machine/line after running CIP systems. The results are then tracked
in a database and used as immediate feedback to the efficiency and efficacy of the cleaning
process. By finding cleaning problems sooner rather than later, it minimizes the amount of
product subject to contamination and takes advantage of the tighter feedback loop. This
approach is superior to doing a statistical sampling of each batch.
continued In its place use some type of transport for solid raw materials. Once prepared, the CIP system
Seven Ways to should be circulated in the best order possible to exhaust the solution, by organizing for the
number of cycles and how many modules are going to be cleaned.
Improve Clean-in-
Place Systems 7. Use bolted connections. Using bolted connections makes it easier to do
fitting changes. Make sure your stainless steel piping and fittings are of a grade that
prevents corrosion.
1. Do an energy audit for CIP systems in the plant. Identify improvement areas to make the CIP
system more aware and efficient.
2. Design a modular CIP automation system. This includes predefined CIP recipes and CIP routes.
Smaller-distance routes ensure less CIP times, as well as less consumption of resources. Follow
ISA S88 compliant modular programming schemes (state engines) to execute CIP recipes.
3. Have a CIP optimization tool in the architecture to capture all CIP execution data for
analyzing, including utilization, consumption and waste in the CIP system. This will help you
take the necessary actions to improve CIP system efficiency.
4. Include a predictive intelligence capability in the architecture to analyze the run time as
well as historic information. This will enable you to provide optimized CIP recipe parameter
data for the equipment CIPs.
1. Develop a method of providing recipes that uniquely identifies the procedures for the
preparation of detergent solutions and the cleaning process itself. Here its useful to employ
the tabular method of describing the recipes, in which each step in the recipe procedure
describes the conditions necessary for being in the step, the actions that will be performed in
the step and the conditions for transition to other steps in the procedure.
2. If for some reason you cannot use commercially available software, the new program
should have the state machine, which is independent of the recipe, and the diagnostic
subsystem to determine whether process parameters are in acceptable conditions. Such a
program should be designed taking into account the fact that the cleaning recipe inevitably
will require adjustments.
3. Its very useful to have a technical screen so that the CIP operator can see the whole recipe
state: steps already performed with actual values for their parameters, the current step of the
recipe with the values of the actual parameters, and the steps that have to be done.
Automation as a Means of
Compliance with the Food Safety
Modernization Act
By David Greenfield With FDA food safety requirements and inspections on the rise in response to the Food
Director of Content/ Safety Modernization Act deployment, the first question for most people involved in the
Editor-in-Chief food industry is: Who does this law affect? In reality, it affects everybody from one end of the
Automation World
supply chain to the other. Primarily, it will affect food producers and processors, as they will be
tasked with identifying where the risks are in their systems and controlling them.
The following advice comes from by Dr. David Acheson, managing director for food and
import safety practice at Leavitt Partners. Dr. Acheson has also served as Chief Medical Officer
at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for food safety and applied nutrition, as
well as serving as associate commissioner for foods at the FDA. The points detailed here were
drawn from Dr. Achesons keynote presentation at The Automation Conference 2012.
Production Tracking
The food industry has long struggled with product tracking, but this new law requires one-up,
one-back tracing capabilities, which is a big challenge for supply chain control.
continued Food producers now have to truly understand the safety and security of the supply chain.
Automation as a For example, if you are relying on imported shrimp from China, what do you know about the
shrimp farmer? What do you know about the drugs that he is putting in that pond to control
Means of Compliance bugs and keep the shrimp healthy?
with the Food Safety
Modernization Act If you dont know the answers to these questions, you are at risk. Thats why product tracking
in supply chain systems is critical. You have to be able to show through some form of
automated documentation process exactly what you are doing to control those risks.
As an example, say you have raw nuts going in one end of your roasting process and roasted
nuts coming out the other end. What matters are the temperature of the roaster, the speed of
the belt through the roaster, and the depth of the nuts on that belt. If the belts moving too
fast, the nuts wont get cooked enough. If the depth of the nuts on the belt is too deep, then
the ones underneath wont get enough heat.
With production tracking software, its simple to monitor, react and record all this information
on a continuous basis. You simply have to monitor these three factors to know when
something is going out of spec so that you can take corrective actions and youll have
recorded verification that the corrective actions have worked.
Validation capabilities also need to address equipment cleaning. With allergens, for
example, a food company will typically run products containing allergens at the end of
a day or at the end of a run; but then you need an effective and documented cleanup
process before you run a product through the system with no allergens.
Recognize that packaging equipment comes into contact with food. The notion that
packaging is an inert item in your production process wont fly any more. Machinery
comes into contact with food. As such, this is a relevant risk that the FDA now
recognizes and around which documentation needs to occur.
Labeling control (i.e., a product is not correctly labeled with regard to its contents) is
another issue falling under tighter control with the Food Safety Modernization Act.
This is an especially critical matter on the subject of allergens. This is a simple issue to
address with a product tracking system.
1. Ideal system. Design and install food safety systems that are locked down to prevent
human bypass and that navigate through garbage-in, garbage-out temptations while
remaining extremely user-friendly.
2. Use FDA/3A-certified devices. For process instrumentation that must come into
contact with the food products, definitely look for an FDA/3A certification when selecting
appropriate devices for CIP and SIP (sterilize in place) applications.
3. Look to operators. Safety in the processed food industry depends on the operators
proficiency in the operation and maintenance of the equipment. Well-written procedural
documentation, whether its a single-point lesson or a repeatable maintenance procedure, is
an invaluable teaching aid in achieving the optimum speed, output and efficiency from any
piece of equipment. A well-informed and well-trained operator and maintenance tech is an
integral part of food safety in processing equipment.
continued leave the production line. You will need enough inventory to keep the products in a safe place
Six Tips for and wait for all testing to be confirmed before selling the product.
Complying with Food 5. Track from origin through distribution. The FSMA requires that any
Safety Requirements contamination be prevented. This means following a product from the origin of raw materials
to product distribution. The most convenient method, apart of training, communication and
following GMP, is to use sensors in the different stages: in origin, loading and transportation
of raw materials. Manufacturing processes require the most continuous analysis possible. You
need to establish processes to track products through distribution as well.
Good automation system practices that can help you do these jobs to ensure food
safety include:
2. Use various sensors like IP cameras and monitoring systems, access control systems, etc., to
provide a tight surveillance on production areas of the plant.
Below are some of the key areas food production and packaging professionals should expect
their equipment and packaging manufacturers to focus on in order to help production and
packaging facilities maintain leadership in FSMA compliance:
2. Provide the key monitoring data that will determine the verification of validated
systems as they operate to control risk.
continued 3. Allow the electronic capture of data for the ongoing new record-keeping requirements.
The Key Role of
4. Can be built into product tracking systems.
Equipment and
Packaging in Food Ensure that equipment can be readily cleaned to avoid environmental
Safety contamination concerns
Considerations include:
1. Being sensitive to the growing need to address allergens. This includes features for easy
equipment cleanup (dry or wet), as well as fail-safe mechanisms to ensure the correct
label is applied.
2. Designing systems that facilitate the gathering of ingredient and finished product
information to ensure accurate and easy capture of product tracking data.
SECTION THREE
OEE & Skid-Based Manufacturing
47 / 117
Is OEE just a nice-to-have? No, it is a simple yet powerful roadmap that helps production floor
people and management to visualize and eliminate equipment losses and waste.
OEE is not a fad. First of all, OEE has been around for decades in its elemental form. The words
efficiency and effectiveness have been around longer, but have only been used in a confused
manner in the last decade or so. To start, we have to make a clear distinction between
effectiveness and efficiency before we can discuss OEE.
Effectiveness is the relation between what theoretically could be produced at the end of a
process and what actually came out or was produced at the end of the process.
If your machine or system is capable of making 100 quality products an hour, and it makes only
70, then it is 70 percent effective, but we do not know how efficient it was, because nothing is said
continued about what we had to put in (how many operators, energy, materials, etc.) to get the 70 percent
How to calculate effectiveness.
Overall Equipment So if a machine or system runs 50 percent effective with one operator and becomes 65 percent
Effectiveness: effective with 2 operators, the effectiveness goes up 30 percent (yes, 65 is 30 percent more
A practical guide than 50) but its efficiency dropped down to 50 percent, based on labor!
The same goes for yield or more commonly known as quality (basically saleable product).
If you are bottling a beverage, all filled, labeled and capped bottles could theoretically be
perfect, so the quality would be 100 percent. But if you throw away half the filled bottles
because of packaging or material defects, your yield or quality is only 50 percent. In this
example you would be 100 percent effective but only 50 percent efficient.
A Simple Example
Basically, OEE is about (as the name says) effectiveness: It is the rate between what a machine
theoretically could produce and what it actually did. So the fastest way to calculate it is
simple: If you take the theoretical maximum speed (for example 60 products per minute) you
know that at the end of a 480-minute shift there should be 28,800 units.
continued Then we need to count what we produced at an end point in the production process such as
How to Calculate whats on the pallet going to the warehouse. If there are only 14,400 good products on the
pallet, your effectiveness was 50 percent, right?
Overall Equipment
Effectiveness: Not rocket science so far.
A Practical Guide
The A-P-Qs of OEE
OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality
Why does the OEE formula in OEE = B x D x F
Figure 1 include availability (A), A C E
performance (P) and quality Availability
continued Here is the power of OEE. OEE, when broken into its three main components, is going to track
How to Calculate down where we lost it. Every day that we run 50 percent OEE, we can lose units in different
ways, and every loss has its own cost structure.
Overall Equipment
Effectiveness: If we lose 14,400 products because the machine ran flawlessly, with no quality loss but at
A Practical Guide half the maximum speed, thats completely different from producing 28,800 products at full
speed, and then dumping 14,400 out-of-spec products into the landfill.
Effectiveness is:
Making the right thing the right product or SKU at the right speed
(Performance)
So how do we find out what we lost and where? And how do we prevent it from happening in
the future?
continued Availability
How to Calculate
Going back to the bottle example, lets track down a normal day. A standard shift takes 480
Overall Equipment
minutes. Our operators take 10+30+10 minutes in breaks as well as do two changeovers of 35
Effectiveness: minutes each and lose 60 minutes of machine downtime during the shift. The rest of the time
A Practical Guide the machine is in the running mode.
This means we lost 180 minutes and there are only 300 minutes left to be effective. Even if we
run the rest of the time at full speed with no quality losses, we can never be more than 62.5
percent effective during this shift. This ratio we call Availability or how time is used.
Lets see how we spent that 62.5 percent of our time that is available
continued Performance
How to Calculate
Let us also assume our packaging system has an ideal cycle time or takt time of 1 second per
Overall Equipment
bottle, which is 60 bottles per minute. (Takt time, derived from the German word Taktzeit,
Effectiveness: which translates to cycle time, sets the pace for industrial manufacturing lines.)
A Practical Guide
This means in the remaining 300 minutes, the machine or system can make 300 x 60 bottles =
18,000. So if at the end of this shift the machine would have made 18,000 bottles during the
time it was running, it performed at 100 percent speed. If production would be at a slower
speed, let us say the cycle time would be 1.5 seconds, it would slow down the maximum
speed by 2/3, and thus its performance would become 66.7 percent. The actual output now at
66.7 percent performance is 12,000 bottles.
Running at 66.7 percent performance in this case equates in time to losing another 300 x
33.3% = 100 minutes or the line ran on average 2/3 x 60 = 40 bottles per minute.
If at this point all output would be within specification or saleable, what would be the
effectiveness?
continued From the 480 minutes we lost 180 minutes in not running and 100 minutes due to too slow
How to Calculate a cycle time; so (480-(180+100))/480 = 41.7% so far.
Overall Equipment (480 minutes (180 minutes + 100 minutes)) 480 41.7% Efficiency
Effectiveness:
A Practical Guide Quality
Whether this is the actual effectiveness depends on how many bottles were within
specification. If from the 12,000 bottles there were 3,000 out of specification, then the quality
rate of those bottles was (12,000-3,000)/12,000 = 75% or converting to minutes would be
3,000 bottles / 60 bottles per minute = 50 minutes lost due to quality.
In other words, we lost 180 minutes by not running; from the remaining 300 minutes we lost
100 minutes by slow running; from the remaining 200 minutes we lost 50 minutes making
scrap. As a result, the line yielded 150 minutes of perfect running at quality and at rate.
Theoretically, we could make 480 x 60 = 28,800 bottles. At the end there were 9,000 bottles
that were saleable, so the overall equipment effectiveness was 31.25 percent.
OEE helps to create this kind of awareness; with operators, with engineers, with logistic
departments, and with anybody else involved in the value adding process. It gives a common
language to everybody involved in manufacturing and leads to effective and efficient
improvements.
OEE and its basic approach have been around for decades in other industries and have
recently moved into the packaging area. Although the concepts are fairly simple, their
definitions and application have varied considerably, preventing any ability to use them
as benchmarks and performance tools within and between plants, let alone between
companies. The idea is to present a common definition and straightforward spreadsheet
format to bring about a clear, common approach.
OEE is defined as the product or cost function or interplay of all availability or uptime of the
operative mode multiplied by the performance or actual resultant production speed (from
actual dialed rate and ramping rates) divided by the normal or steady state speed and then
multiplied by the quality or the output of quality product divided by the input of the critical
component or aggregate of all the inputs (components consumed, lost, reworked, destroyed
or unaccounted for during the production process). For a diagram, please refer back to Figure
1, page 52.
Quality is a fraction that is 1 minus the waste (waste and rework). Rework is usually
considered within quality, but is the most difficult to segregate out. Quality does not typically
relate to defective components not staged to the production line, but once staged to the
production line they have to be considered. This forces out pre-checks, because once it hits
the production line, there are time and impacts to the ongoing production process such as
removing and replacing staged defective products, materials and supplies.
Looking at less than 10,080 minutes (one week) of operating time is not significant in and
of itself for decision making, but may be adequate for trends and verifications of a decision
implemented earlier to ensure positive directions or to ensure the anticipated results are
being achieved.
The reason for this definition of operative mode is to capture all activities required to
ensure the production process could be carried out. Some companies in the past hid their
changeover, PM, holidays, training and cleaning by doing it in the so-called unscheduled
production time or dumping it on a particular off time, but really it is part of the nature of the
production process.
The production scheduled time is the time period in which allotted defined products are to
be produced, but process-dependent activities or situations must be done or considered
beforehand (such as holidays) to ensure the schedule can be met or be reasonable.
continued The calendar hours or calendar time are the sum of operative mode activities and potential
How to Calculate mode activities that make up a week (10,080 minutes) or month (average 43,800 minutes)
or defined period in which the asset as a functioning production element exists in the plant.
Overall Equipment If any asset is removed from the process in such a way as to make the process for a given
Effectiveness: product not viable, then the expected OEE number is considered zero.
A Practical Guide
This also applies to product recalled from the market that is reworked or scrapped. A total
recall in reality yields zero OEE for the period that produced the recalled product. A partial
recall will only deal with the loss of the defined lot or batch within the total, but will depress
the OEE for that period considerably.
Any scheduling and labor considerations are considered integrated within OEE. One
could expand out from OEE with other ratios such as schedule capability in which labor
and scheduling times are evaluated and their interplay is calculated as ratios or costs to
operations, but OEE keeps a top line view that fits for the vast majority of industries and
conditions in a simple but powerful way.
High OEE numbers are indicative of high schedule fulfillment and optimized labor. Schedule
fulfillment and optimized labor are a byproduct of the optimized process. OEE is the roadmap
for insight, direction and verification of all other activities such as continuous improvement,
lean, Six Sigma and upper level accounting information. It gives the correct window in
viewing the cost of quality.
In looking at operations, OEE simply gives the clear and powerful picture window view of the
ability to sustain quality production or how availability (time), quality (good product) and
performance (speed) interact. The Losses portion is the fraction of the time that is lost due to
the inability of the production process to be consistent and under control. These losses relate
to time down or downtime, rate losses in the process, and the scrap and rework generated
during the operative mode.
The operative mode is not only the planned scheduled production time but that time
that encompasses the nature of the production process and its supporting activities that
are connected, dependent or required to be done to ensure the timely production of the
scheduled product. This means that apportioned preventive maintenance, changeovers,
cleaning and/or sanitizing are included.
Holidays are always mandated activities dictated by management, government or both. One
could argue that holidays should be left out, but that is incorrect, since it is a management
decision to not use that time during a normally operative mode and it is not proper to slip it
into the potential mode.
One can break down planned events into as many categories as one likes. Beware, when
holidays are included in the analysis, some days or weeks or months will show depressed
numbers and need to be highlighted. Because of this, there is a tendency to not include them.
But one should include them as they happen.
One can break down unplanned events into as many categories as one likes, but the most
common ones are the unit ops or machines. The unit ops could be further subdivided into
primary and secondary machines, zones, faults, etc.
continued Primary machines (PM) are unit ops that are capital equipment that has a direct involvement
How to Calculate in assembling the package such as unscramblers, rinsers, fillers, cappers, labelers, cartoners,
case packers, palletizers, etc.
Overall Equipment
Effectiveness: Secondary machines (SM) are minor unit ops that convey, manipulate, collate, inspect, code
A Practical Guide or mark the package such as conveyors, combiners, dividers (when separate from a primary
unit op), coders (laser, inkjet, impression, etc.), checkweighers, X-ray, gamma inspection,
independent fill, cap or label detection, rejection units (independent of the major unit op), etc.
One can also look at unit ops as VE (value enabling), VA (value producing or value added) and
NVA (no value added, such as a conveyor that simply needs to get product from point A to
point B without inducing any quality defects).
Typically, OEE is confined to the production or packaging process, but does not need to be.
Making, distribution, etc., could be included or viewed separately, but the boundaries must
continued be clearly defined and the approach standardized across all lines and plants. Exercise caution
How to Calculate when using and/or comparing inter-company OEE values because they may be useless if the
boundaries are different.
Overall Equipment
Effectiveness: In fact, OEE was embraced by manufacturing industries, from automotive to electronics, long
A Practical Guide before it trickled down to packaging. It is a proven technique, with extensive resources available
in the marketplace, and a useful methodology that can be applied to the smallest operation
with manual data collection to the largest organization with sophisticated OEE software tools
and automated data acquisition systems. And OEE is one of the major applications justifying the
investment to implement PackML.
1. OEE in action. Use simple, very large graphical displays visible to the operators on the
line with ongoing performance vs. planned performance. This is the first step to make OEE
useful. Automatic trend analysis can show the reasons contributing to most of the stoppages
and downtime. Direct translation to lost processing time and lost money is the next step.
Use alarms when a trend has been detected. Its also important to schedule team discussions
about equipment performance at shift changes and again at mid-shift. Reward and celebrate
consistent performance.
2. Empower operators. In developing reporting systems for bottling lines, calculate the
OEE of the line, the OEE of the machines, and the availability of crate and bottle conveyors.
Generate detailed reports to show operators downtime Pareto charts of the machines and
conveyors, including quality and KPI reports. Use SCADA on the plant floor to show operators
the alarms and warnings of the machines they are operating to help them react immediately
if a fault occurs. This system can help improve the efficiency of the line and also reduce
operations staff.
continued
Produced by:
Co-located with:
At The 2012 Automation Conference, Chris Bacon, production manager at Pepsi Bottling
Access Full Presentation Ventures (PBV) in Nampa, Idaho, described how this small facility (which processes just one-
tenth the amount of cases produced at PBVs largest facility), combined the use of automation
Click here to access the full and OEE tracking as part of its improvement efforts. The key for the Nampa facility was
presentation made by PBVs Chris leveraging automation with real-time monitoring controls.
Bacon at The Automation Conference.
Though this PBV example originates in the batch process sector, the approach to OEE and
continuous improvement has lessons for continuous process as well.
This project began as a way to improve the OEE on the facilitys bottling line, but also became
an important bridge towards improving problem solving and developing a continuous
improvement culture.
To remedy this problem, a 7 a.m. startup time became the new standard.
The tracking system was designed to start OEE calculation at 7 a.m. each
morning and capture every minute of non-production time based on release
of the bottle stop or filler. A specific reason code was automatically attached
to accurately reflect the root cause impeding production. These reason
codes were directly pulled from that machine centers PLC.
continued Opting for a very simple design that mirrored the facilitys machine center flow, color
Combining OEE combinations on the HMI screens would correlate to real-time activities of the line in accurate
fashion. Red meant a machine center was in stoppage mode with the reason code available in
and Automation the drop-down visual. Yellow meant a machine or machine centers were idle, either through
for Improved changeover mode or awaiting upstream or downstream machine centers to be released from
Performance stoppage mode.
With an OEM upgrade to the processor and a few creative internal modifications, PBV was
able to reduce downtime by 55 percent at this specific machine center. With this gain in
performance, the OEM upgrade was paid off in five months.
Long-term results with improved performance also exhibited a 43 percent decrease in labor
To learn how Pepsi Bottling over time (from 2009 to 2011).
Ventures used OEE data to
foster a culture of continuous
improvement, see Automation as
a Continuous Improvement Tool
also in this playbook.
1. Create interface layer. To apply S88 in an environment with many different OEM
equipment units, which all have their own way of handling recipes, create an integration
layer for central control, monitoring, and recipe and batch management. Dont force the OEM
vendor to customize his product to your wishes. This creates issues with vendor support,
qualification and additional costs, etc. Use the vendor standard, but implement an integration
layer to do the specific translation of the unit procedure into the OEM equipment language
using the specific required interface (OPC, XML, etc.). The integration layer acts as the only
interface between ISA 95 level 2 and level 3.
2. Skid design tips. All pipe outlets and inlet should be self-sealing and quick connect
on one side of the skid, with horizontal bend of 90 degree (or 45 degree if more convenient).
Inlet and outlet should be marked with an arrow that is etched or otherwise made
permanent. Valves should be accessible for removal from one side of the skid. The skid should
be fully protected and guarded with a controlled interlock if doors are provided, allowing for
continued natural ventilation or directed ventilation if needed. Guards need to be strong enough for
Eight incidental forces. Provide tempered safety glass windows where gauges or mechanical action
needs to be observed for either casual process verification or debugging.
Recommendations
for Designing and 3. Skid construction. Ensure that the materials used in construction are acceptable for
Using Skid-Based the intended plant environment. Some facilities will not allow wooden skids, for example,
Equipment and the substitute for this must be approved well in advance.
5. Modular design. The best way to design a skid is to lay out the design in the
beginning and determine the area required. In the design phase, a layout can be made
to determine the best location fit. Although skid designs vary according to the engineer
involved with the design of the equipment, the best approach is to provide a modular layout
so that in the future changes can be made with the least amount of effort. Modular is the best
layout because it makes it possible to change the requirements.
continued 6. Base skid design on components. Create standard skids based on the most
Eight important and standard components, such as number of membranes for RO units or other
membrane systems, or based on typical capacity of blowers and tanks. Make sure to simulate
Recommendations
the system to determine whether it will permit selection of a range of operation. Work in
for Designing and modules located in parallel or series to increase capacity.
Using Skid-Based
Equipment 7. Size for container frames. If you want mobile equipment, design and choose
the machines that can fit inside a container frame. Some plumbing systems can be pre-
engineered in the frame; install and test these in a dedicated workshop to make sure the
quality standards are met. Mount starters and controls on the wall. Install vacuum pump/
blower setup plugs in with supplied power only, allowing for plug-and-play replacement
of spare units.
8. Test before buying. Thoroughly inspect a demo unit prior to specifying and ordering.
Specify parts that you already have access to in network. Drive standardization.
3. Easily connected and disconnected from the main system. This reduces pipelines,
replacing them with flexible connections through hoses. This makes for a fast and easy interface.
6. Easily interfaced with central control system. Enables handshake status and
commands, status monitoring and control.
7. Supports modular system design. Its scalable with respect to control hardware as
well as software. Skid-based systems also let you take advantage of all reusable software assets.
SECTION FOUR
Automation & Project Management
72 / 117
1. Clearly identify the project specifications. What do you want to do? What is
your existing process? Define operator involvement, quality control issues, interface points
with other systems, and the technological capability available in-house.
2. Conduct a job risk assessment (JRA). Performing a JRA before the start of work
highlights any hazards that could produce undesirable results to personnel or property. A
safety assessment must be completed to ensure that the scheduled work can be performed in
a safe manner and to address any hazards that are uncovered as a part of the review process.
3. Operator training is key. The operators must learn how to navigate and operate
their process in the new control system. The training must be performed just in time
(about two weeks before startup) so that the information is fresh in their minds. During the
instruction, it is critical that the operators be trained using the operator interface graphics
they will encounter.
Four Considerations
for Upgrades and Migrations
By David Greenfield Regardless of whether you want to increase productivity or shorten time-to-market, attaining
Director of Content/ success in these areas depends on the application of suitable automation technologies in a
Editor-in-Chief batch processing plant. Following are the principal steps involved in assessing your plants
Automation World
technology to gauge whether a technology upgrade or migration is in order:
continued for installation? For upgrades, its important to understand what the future outlook is for the
Four Considerations system under consideration. With the significant maintenance and security issues tied to
process control systems, you should always consider your risk of system obsolescence and the
for Upgrades and associated costs incurred with such a scenario vs. the costs of moving to a better-supported
Migrations system. The good news is that, in the process industries, most vendors are very aware of
the long-term use of their systems by end users and thus tend to support their systems for
multiple decades rather a single decade, as is more common with office IT systems. As newer
automation technologies become core components of process control systems, be sure to
talk with your supplier about their support plan for those newer technologies.
The key point to understand about IEC 61508 is that it is designed to establish an engineering
discipline that will generate safer designs and build safer processes. The uniform procedures
built on these disciplines are contingent upon appropriate experts within a company
contributing to projects. In addition, the standard also makes it easy for outside auditors and
governmental agencies to follow the process.
continued IEC 61508 can seem confusing at first, because its underlying philosophy is new for
Safety: The Lifecycle safety standards. Older, more conventional safety standards stipulated specific rules and
specifications for making processes safe. IEC 61508 and its derivative standards, such as IEC
Approach 61511, departed from this approach by being more functional, or performance-based.
A principal aspect of this new approach to safety standards is that it leverages two
fundamental principles: safety lifecycles and probabilistic failure analysis. Unlike previous
standards that claimed to cover the entire lifecycle of a project, IEC 61508 and its offshoots
actually dofrom project conception to maintenance to decommissioning.
In essence, the standards specify safety lifecycle activities that need to be followed over
the entire life of a production system. Safety lifecycle management provides a method or
procedure that enables companies to specify, design, implement and maintain safety systems
to achieve overall safety in a documented and verified manner.
Perform hazard and risk analysis: Determine hazards and hazardous events, the
sequence of events leading to hazardous conditions, the associated process risks, the
requirements of risk reduction and the safety functions required.
Specify requirements for safety system: If tolerable risk is still out of limit, then
specify the requirements for each safety system and its safety integrity levels.
Design and engineer a safety system: Design system to meet the safety
requirements.
continued
Design and develop other means of risk reduction: Means of protection other than
Safety: The Lifecycle programmable safety systems include mechanical systems, process control systems
Approach and manual systems.
Install, commission and validate the safety protections: Install and validate that the
safety system meets the all safety requirements to the required safety integrity levels.
Operate and maintain: Ensure that the safety system functions are maintained during
operation and maintenance.
Modify and update: Make corrections, enhancements and adaptations to the safety
system to ensure that the safety requirements are maintained.
Manage functional safety, safety assessment, and safety audit: Identify the
management activities that are required to ensure that the functional safety objectives
are met.
Plan and structure safety lifecycle: Define safety lifecycle in terms of inputs, outputs
and verification activities.
Verify safety system: Demonstrate by review, analysis and/or testing that the required
outputs satisfy the defined requirements for each phase of the safety lifecycle.
Activities for Phases I to III are typically carried out consecutively, while Phase IV runs
concurrently with the other phases. However, like all models, the safety lifecycle is an
approximation.
1. Assess your systems. Compile an accurate list of all the assets in your plant: make,
model and serial number. Where are your computers? Where are your PLCs? Its difficult to
secure something when you dont know it exists. This should be a high-level assessment in
which you go through your plant and figure out what is high risk and what is low risk, which is
determined by two key factors: How likely is a problem to occur? How serious is the problem?
For example, if something happened to your chlorine tank, it would be really ugly. That chip
pile, not so ugly. Get a feel for the significant risks. Where do you have to focus your effort?
The answer is going to drive your decisions and your capital allocation.
continued 3. Start training. No one is going to follow policies unless they know about them and
Control System understand why they are necessary. All levels of employees that interact with the control
system need to understand what an attack looks like and how to respond to one. You should
Security Tips
end up with a matrix of training for the various levels of users; it doesn't have to be onerous,
but it has to be done.
4. Understand your traffic flows. You need a diagram that shows all the things that
require intercommunication. Smart companies will have a comprehensive diagram showing
that the accounting department needs data out of this area, and maintenance needs data out
of this area, and so on.
6. Leverage safety reports. Those responsible for safety, when they do reports and
analyses, have done a good deal of the work needed to understand the security risks.
7. Use separate networks. Though this step is becoming less and less practical, some
still advocate that the process control network be kept separate from business networks,
and also isolated from the Internet. For this approach, which may not be viable in the longer
term, utilize operating system (OS) implemented security, with active directory domain group
security as the preferred approach.
9. Use unique user accounts and passwords. All users should have unique user
accounts and passwords to minimize the risk of unauthorized access.
10. Provide port security. With this approach, the Ethernet MAC address connected
to the switch port allows only that MAC address to communicate on that port. If any other
MAC address tries to communicate through the port, port security will disable it. Most of the
time, network administrators configure the switch to send an SNMP trap to their network
monitoring solution that the ports disabled for security reasons. When using port security,
you can prevent unwanted devices from accessing the network.
1. Map out your project from the start. When companies fail to map out their
projects thoroughly from the start, they often find themselves saddled with applications
and automation products that dont work cohesively as a single system. Once you start
implementing various silosbe they applications or productsthings get more complex.
This is typical of problems that occur when automation products are implemented hastily,
without doing proper research, planning, or analyzing current and future goals, or without
realizing that implementing remote access monitoring for a facility is just step one of many.
continued 3. Understand users and roles. Understanding users and their roles can have
How to Avoid a significant impact on how the remote access strategy evolves. In most control systems
operations, the roles that may require remote access to control assets could include, but are
Mistakes with Control
not limited to:
System Remote
Access System operators and engineers for local systems;
System operators and engineers for remote systems;
Vendors;
System integrators;
System support specialists and maintenance engineers;
Field technicians;
Business/supply chain partners;
Reporting or regulatory entities; and
Managed service providers.
The roles of users that would require remote access to mission-critical operations can
be extensive, and the assignment of specific access depending on those roles can be
continued complicated. Map out and document all acceptable access policies and procedures related to
How to Avoid allowable network access and coordinate this with industrial control system security experts.
Any user access that goes beyond simple viewing of data and permits changes to system
Mistakes with Control parameters should be extremely limited.
System Remote
Access 4. Know your vulnerabilities. Beginning at the remote user and following the
connection to the data or service, remote access can be compromised at any of the following
points:
The users access device (laptop, PDA, etc.) can be attacked, compromised, and used to
access the control system network.
The target system can be impersonated by an attacker to fool the user and thus gain
credentials or other information from the user system.
continued
The communication can be interrupted or jammed.
How to Avoid
Mistakes with Control Communications can have data injected into them by an attacker.
System Remote
Access Communication can be hijacked after it has been initiated (does not rely on
impersonation) or intercepted during initiation (impersonating both user and target,
also known as a man-in-the-middle attack).
The target communication software listening for requests can be attacked and
potentially compromised.
An attacker can impersonate a valid communications node and gain access to the
underlying communications medium.
Four IT Standards
You Should Understand
By Dennis Brandl Imagine a world without electrical standards, such as 110 V at 60 hz, or 220 V at 50 Hz, or a
Chief Consultant world where every phone had a different type of connection and required a different type
BR&L Consulting Inc. of switchboard. Just as these standards are critical to the basic functioning of electrical
equipment, there are also IT standards used daily to ensure optimal functioning of production
systems in the process industries.
There are four production-related IT standards of special interest to the processing industries:
continued providing a consistent terminology that makes it easier to compare plants within a company
Four IT Standards and across companies.
You Should The ANSI/ISA 88 standard defines the most common and effective method for defining
Understand control systems for batch operations or for continuous and discrete startups and shutdowns.
The ANSI/ISA 95 standard defines the most commonly used method for exchanging
information between ERP systems, such as SAP or Oracle, and the multitude of shop floor
systems. It has also become the de facto standard for defining MES (manufacturing execution
system) and MOM (manufacturing operations management) specifications.
The ANSI/ISA 99 reports define structures and policies for designing effective and secure
networked production facilities.
The new ISA 106 reports define the procedural control strategy for continuous production
during upsets, switchovers, and other types of process changes.
Because these standards establish a commonly accepted terminology, functions and process
models by which technical professionals are trained, and upon which solution providers
develop applications used in batch and process production operations (as well as discrete
manufacturing), they should be of particular interest to those who are new to the field and
those seeking a refresher on the fundamentals of industrial processes.
SECTION FIVE
Smart Devices & Asset Management
93 / 117
Despite that massive investment in intelligent instrumentation, the promised new world of
lower maintenance costs and significantly lower risk of process failures has not yet arrived.
Blame that, say the experts, on the difficulty of changing human behavior and long-accepted
practices. Others point to a lack of sustained management support for following best practices.
Though nearly all of the instruments shipped today have built-in intelligence, companies
continue to follow the traditional inspect and test practices they used with analog devices.
The lack of links from process instruments to digital communications networks also means
workers can access little of the information available from smart field devices, and even less is
actually used as intended to improve diagnostics and process control.
The result is hundreds of thousands of man-hours wasted every year on routine and
unnecessary maintenance, and processes that are no more efficient or safer than they ever were.
continued In a perverse way, the cost cutting and workforce downsizing in the process industries is
finally leading many companies to a tipping point for change. Lacking the number of workers
The Smartest
required to control processes and inspect and test devices manually, theyre being forced to
Instruments Still find ways to make better use of the information provided by their intelligent instruments.
Need Smart Humans
Defining Standards
An industry-wide effort has been underway for several years to define standards and best
practices for smart field device management, make intelligent instruments easier to use, and
train process engineers and maintenance workers on how to apply and benefit from them.
To that end, the ISA-108 committee on intelligent device management (www.isa.org) was
formed in 2012. Co-chaired by Herman Storey, a former Shell Oil employee, and Koji Demachi
of Yokogawa, it is working to define standard templates of best practices and work processes
for the design, development, installation and use of diagnostic and other information from
intelligent field devices.
The first draft of the committees initial report on models and terminology is scheduled for
completion in the first quarter of 2014 and will then be presented as a proposed standard
to an IEC technical committee. Part two, diagnostic work processes, is due in 2015, and part
three, on configuration work processes and guideline templates, in 2016.
These devices dont come from the factory pre-set with the specific configurations needed
for an application, Storey explains. There are a huge amount of options; you have to tell an
instrument what you want it to do. Then you have to create a backup database to maintain
configuration accuracy over the lifecycle of the device.
continued Although traditional test and inspect practices work well for production assets like pressure
The Smartest vessels and piping, which typically fail slowly over decades, automation assets such as
transmitters and valves are more vulnerable and can degrade quickly. Thats where self-
Instruments Still diagnostics are critical and where routine predictive and preventive maintenance practices
Need Smart Humans are of less value.
Storey says condition-based monitoring and maintenance practices are starting to take hold
in a number of industry segments, such as machinery and offshore oil drilling. But for most
process industries, making better use of diagnostics is not part of the culture. People are
focused on keeping things working, not managing assets well over time. A lot of things get
deferred. While a plant may run nicely for a while, its actually in decline.
Industry has been doing inspect and test for years, he notes. Doing asset management in a
different way requires a different culture, and the tools to do it well are poorly developed and
integrated. Standards, he adds, will finally help establish accountability for following good
practices. Its not an instrument, an IT or a vendor problem; its a management problem.
Management engagement, accountability and metrics will drive behavior change.
On the flip side, users are often overwhelmed with all the information they can get from their
instruments, says Erik Mathiason, a member of the ISA-108 committee and an employee of
Emerson Process Management. They dont know what to do with it. Theyre asking suppliers for
help in accessing, managing and assessing the data. They want to know, What does it all mean?
Thats especially true with so much of the process industry workforce retiring. The younger
people are more open to change and hungry for information because they believe it will help
them solve problems. Younger people dont have the instincts honed by years of experience
in a plant. Data is all they have.
Human-Centered Design
Instrument suppliers are working to make life easier for the process industry workforce. This
includes making products that are easier to use and have device dashboards that make it
easier to see data. Suppliers are spending a lot of time and money to learn how customers
need to interact with data. Many include dashboards to display data with a similar look and
feel across multiple devices, even though the devices might do different things.
continued This human-centered design approach owes much to the model established by the consumer
The Smartest electronics industry. Its goal is to design human-technology interactions around how people
learn, think and work.
Instruments Still
Need Smart Humans In the past, there were fewer device types and simpler devices, Mathiason says. That meant
workers did the same things to the same device types many times, building expertise. Today
there are more device types, and devices themselves are more complex. In addition, devices
are more reliable, so worker-device interactions are less frequent but more varied. The result is
unfamiliar human-device interactions and more human error.
Studies show that up to 80 percent of abnormal situations are caused by human error. With
process plants staffed with fewer and less experienced workers, the potential for both minor
problems and major catastrophes rises exponentially. Consistent navigation and operation
across multiple devices, the foundation for human-centered design, can improve the
probability that the correct actions will be taken with fewer errors.
Many suppliers are redesigning their instrument lines to make products more modular. The
redesigns frequently involve electronics, software and even mechanical components such
as connectors, which facilitate simple plug-in modules, allowing replacements to be made
easily in the field. Many have adopted a common platform across all instrument lines to make
devices easier for customer to use. This means all have the same programming requirements,
software interface and approach to diagnostics.
continued Another trend is the development of instruments that can measure multiple variables. End
The Smartest users in the oil and gas industry, for example, want multi-variable instruments that will reduce
the number of pipe penetrations the company is required to make, as well as wiring, which
Instruments Still will save on both installation and maintenance costs.
Need Smart Humans
Driving Adoption
Intelligent transmitters are the most widely deployed intelligent instruments today,
outnumbering analog transmitters by an estimated two to one in heavy process industries.
Also popular are positioners for control valves and flow controllers, which are used in every
industry where custody transfer is critical in controlling process input costs.
Take the example of two plants, owned by the same company but located on opposite sides
of the globe. The two sites made the same products, using identical production equipment,
quality specifications and automation systems. They both spent a similar amount of time on
maintenance. Yet one plant was experiencing constant failures, shutdowns and quality issues,
while the other was performing to goals. The question was, why?
An analysis by an automation supplier found the answer. The findings revealed the root cause
of the disparity: The plant experiencing difficulties operated under a run-to-failure philosophy
for maintenance, spending nearly 35 percent of maintenance time on unscheduled
corrective procedures.
continued In contrast, the plant meeting its goals spent only 8 percent of maintenance time on
Managing for unscheduled activities. More revealing, 34 percent of their maintenance time was spent on
preventive maintenance, and another 12 percent on optimizing assets. Employees at the
Reliability Key to proactive plant also received more than three times the amount of training as those working
Asset Performance at the reactive plant.
Unfortunately, this lack of training is not uncommon at plants with a reactive approach to
asset management. Reactive managers assume its less costly to fix something only when its
broken and they know what to fix. They see training as wasted dollars. But industry experts
will tell you this is a mistake and results in frustrated engineers who take longer to solve a
problem and are unsure of the best practices to use to make sure the problem does not
come back.
Proactive-minded users, on the other hand, have seen the benefits of this service philosophy.
They see training and certification as an investment to ensure not only that results dont
erode, but that production and quality performance continue to improve.
Asset Reliability a
Performance Indicator
By Jeanne Schweder The methodologies for managing assets to ensure reliable performance first began to be
Contributing Editor developed by the airline and power industries and the U.S. military in the 1970s. Over the past
Automation World 15 years, an understanding of the value of asset reliability as a plant performance issue has
spread to all industries.
Many universities began offering programs in reliability management over the past decade,
and graduates are now entering leadership positions in operations and maintenance at many
companies. Theyre realizing that their plants are not executing the reliability methodologies
they learned in school. When they experience too many failure events and issues, they
recognize that this cant go on.
Industries with an active interest in asset reliability include the oil and gas, chemical, refining,
pulp and paper, power, metals and mining, and food and beverage industries. Reliability is
often one of their top three business objectives.
Any reliability program must begin by ranking assets for criticality in terms of the potential
impact of their failure on plant production. Strategies then need to be developed to ensure
the optimal performance of these critical assets and extend their operating life.
continued Finally, decisions must be made about what technologies and what data to use to determine
Asset Reliability asset health. Some examples include when and how often to measure motor vibration
or motor stops and starts, or whether to use wireless vibration sensors or wireless mesh
a Performance networks, which make it easier for companies to get data from assets in places where its
Indicator difficult or dangerous for humans to reach.
Having the right people resources and assuring they have the right skills or adequate training
is another important aspect of reliability management. Its also essential to understand
how work gets done in a plant. It takes multiple people with different skills and properly
documented work orders that provide them with an understanding of what went wrong and
what tools are needed to fix a device.
Smart devices that can diagnose their own health and provide in-depth process information
are key to improving asset management. With more network or wireless connectivity, more
information has become actionable. Software lets you analyze performance and detect a
problem long before it begins, so that an operator or maintenance technician can be alerted
to take action.
The first step in addressing the issue is to get the right balance between predictive, proactive
and reactive maintenance. There is no magic number, no strict definition for what is a good
balance. Although most people will say that keeping reactive maintenance at 20 percent
or lower is optimum, the right service schedule depends on how critical an asset is to plant
and process performance, as well as company objectives in terms of variability, cost and
equipment wear.
Condition-based maintenance that allows you to repair or replace only whats needed, vs. trial
and error work based on historical schedules, can save a typical plant hundreds of thousands
of dollars in costs and thousands of man-hours every year.
After that hurdle has been crossed, you are just beginning a true asset management program.
Reliability is related to predictive, proactive maintenance and knowing when and how to run
to end of life. This understanding can rarely be obtained quickly or simply. Set yourself up for
success by using the boots on the ground as a primary source of input for what works and
doesnt work. Track, report and verify constantly and consistently.
If the people who make the financial decisions are not onboard, your program will fail. Cost things
correctly, comparing the cost of maintenance vs. the purchase of new equipment. Make sure to
include all the factors, such as operator and maintenance training, ease of repair and usage of
equipment, which will affect throughput of product, cost of product and cost of using the asset.
SECTION SIX
Communications & the Mobile Workforce
106 / 117
Source: Moxa
continued The transparent clock supported in IEEE 1588 Version 2 augments the boundary clock used in
the first version and is better able to deal with a very large network topology.
Standards Help
Ethernet Networks Its asynchronous characteristics make it difficult to ensure orderly delivery of packets in real
Stay in Sync time, so many users are adding IEEE 1588 and ODVAs CIP Sync to synchronize all operations.
In high-performance fields like robotic control, test and measurement, and power plants,
these specifications help users run many pieces of equipment at very high speeds. The two
specifications share many traits.
CIP Sync incorporates the IEEE 1588 services that measure network transmission latencies and
corrects for infrastructure delays. The result is the ability to synchronize clocks in distributed
devices and switches to within hundreds of nanoseconds of accuracy. When all the devices
in a control system share a synchronized, common understanding of system time, real-time
control can be accomplished by including time as a part of the motion information.
This ability to transmit signals with known delivery times is extremely important in a broad
range of applications. With IEEE 1588 and CIP Sync, packet delivery times can go into the
nanosecond range.
It is essential that when a control signal is sent to a control device, such as an intelligent
automation device, the system needs to know in real time when the device will actuate. IEEE
1588 gives Ethernet a more synchronous nature, and timing accuracies must be in the sub-
microsecond range.
IEEE 1588 has seen growing usage in recent years. Thats partially because equipment speeds
continued and end user demands continue to rise. Usage has also soared since the completion of
Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Version 2 in 2008.
Standards Help
Ethernet Networks PTPv2 is a method that provides the high degree of accuracy for systems that require
Stay in Sync strict synchronization in their operations. It comes into play when extreme precision is
a paramount requirement.
Though many facets of Ethernet communications will remain the same when IEEE 1588
is used, some must be used carefully or ignored. For example, multicasting could create
synchronization issues, particularly when signals travel long distances.
Multicasting is great in information technology, but for controls, not so much, says Jeff Smith
from American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM, www.aam.com). You dont want a signal from
the grand master clock going to something thats a football field away.
Expanding the distances for synchronized systems was one of the focal points during the
development of IEEE 1588 Version 2. One of its mainstays is a transparent clock. It augments
the boundary clock used in the initial version of the standard.
A transparent clock does not have its own clock, but inserts its own delay so that the end
slave devices downstream can take that into account in doing their calculations. This is
necessary when dealing with a very large network topology.
Several Ethernet alternatives provide real-time capabilities, but most require some special
hardware or mandate that all real-time equipment use the same software. With standards,
there are fewer limitations.
During his presentation at The Automation Conference 2012, Staples said Bayer CropScience
is now looking to extend its use of mobile applications so that plant managers, engineers,
technicians and maintenance can get the information they need at any time without having
to carry their laptops around or refer to a terminal or a PC.
Core to this extension of the mobile workforce at Bayer CropScience is a push for greater
employee and operations connectedness through the use of analytics and communities.
Having a set workflow process accessible via a mobile device, the interaction of operators
with the control systems can be better managed, said Staples. Standard operating procedures
can be kept up to date and automatically pushed to operators. All changes to the system are
instantly recorded and shared.
For operators that may not be fully trained in all production aspects, the operator at the
machine now has full access to the information needed to do the job. The same goes for
maintenance inspections; when coordinated through workflow on a mobile device, all
maintenance activities are captured and accessible for future reference.
What we ultimately want from this is to be able to have a better risk evaluation and faster
notification, said Staples.
For example, if an operator who hasnt been fully trained is interacting via a mobile unit with
a control system on which certain interlocks have been bypassed, managers could remotely
shut the system down or not let it go to the next step until a properly trained engineer or
plant manager is there to review and give the go-ahead to move forward.
continued Community
Leveraging Analytics
Bayer CropScience is actively looking at using social media to help in its operations.
and Community for a
Mobile Workforce One of the questions the company is asking is: Why cant the machine participate in a social
network? After all, since those devices are now connected, they can provide information via
a Facebook page about its health and what its doing. And someone in maintenance at the
facility can access that information just as an engineer in another part of the world can.
Benefits
These are the benefits Bayer CropScience is already seeing and expects to see more of from its
deployment of mobile devices to take advantage of analytics and community:
continued
H igh-velocity collaboration of experts. Communities enabled by mobile
Leveraging Analytics devices are proving to be the best way to get people involved immediately in
and Community for a understanding whats going on and being able to contribute quickly.
Mobile Workforce
B etter, more rapid focus on issues. By giving operators the information they
need to have, Bayer CropScience is creating a collaborative work environment among
all workers no matter where they are located. We can now collaborate on a global
basis to deal with issues that arise anywhere, said Staples.
W
ireless limit switch networks are commonly used to prevent the
overflow of liquid storage tanks. Their operation is simple: As the tank fills
up, the fluid level forces a change in the position of the limit switch. The wireless limit
switch then sends a signal to the pump controller to start pumping out the tank to
lower the level. When the fluid level drops to a safe level, the switch then sends a signal
to the controller to turn off the pump.
1. Need latency tolerance. Todays wired Ethernet connections are full duplex. This
means that each end device can both transmit and receive at the same time. On the other
hand, wireless technologies such as 802.11a/b/g/n are half duplex. This means that when
any one device is transmitting, all other devices must wait. Make sure that your application is
designed to be tolerant of the latency introduced due to the half-duplex nature of wireless.
continued 3. Low bandwidth requirements. Make sure that your applications bandwidth
Four Tips for Dealing requirements are low enough to be satisfied by the lower rates. Many designers overlook
these points and experience problems when moving to wireless solutions. Being aware of
with Wireless Latency
the limitations of wireless technology can ensure that your upfront design will work in a
and Bandwidth Issues wireless deployment.
4. Dont take shortcuts with wireless. Consider the entire system design and the
support lifecycle of the system before choosing technology and vendors. Time spent up front
on site surveys, path loss calculations and fade margin will pay dividends when it comes time
for installation. Design in fade margin. Wireless is very reliable when well designed, but if you
dont design in appropriate fade margin youll have problems in the future.