Knauf Insulation is a German-based company with a fiberglass manufacturing plant in Shelbyville, Ind. The company has recently connected part of its plant data system to a Microsoft SQL Server to monitor product quality. The plant produces thermal and acoustic fiberglass insulation for the residential and commercial markets. Products include fiberglass pipe insulation, insulation board, duct wrap and tank insulation. One of the critical measurements the plant needs as a way to assure quality is the density of fiberglass in the product. “We have very rigorous quality standards,” declares Curtis Davies, a corporate process engineer at Knauf.

Plant operators use a nuclear-based gauging system for density measurements. The business side of the operation wanted to import the data from the gauging system into the SQL Server so managers could build product profiles for analysis and optimization. Operators also wanted the data so they could make on-the-fly adjustments to the manufacturing process. Not surprisingly, complex engineering would have been required to enable the gauging system to communicate the data to the SQL Server. Plant engineers switched the plant’s control system hardware to input/output (I/O) devices from Opto 22, Temucula, Calif., because the Opto 22 controllers use open, standard protocols.

The company also uses software from Wonderware, a Lake Forest, Calif., vendor, which was used to interface with the Opto 22 devices. The Opto 22 system was able to network with other intelligent controllers—
regardless of their original manufacturer. The result was networked connectivity from the control devices to the SQL Server. In all, Knauf is now able to monitor and control more than 30 I/O points, which offers up data to the SQL Server for analysis.

Simple it’s not

As plants begin connecting their manufacturing data to other company information systems, the Knauf experience is typical. Plants exchange data with the business side of the enterprise to solve one problem at the time. Connectivity from control devices to other information systems such as SQL Servers does not necessarily come easily, and the rationale for sharing plant data is usually done on an item-by-item, need-by-need basis. It’s not as simple as plugging the automation system into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Usually, plant operators have to be dragged to the meetings where business people ask for plant data. “What we’re seeing is plants dealing with individual points of pain,” says Ron Monday, chief executive officer of Online Development Inc., an automation connectivity products vendor in Knoxville, Tenn. “The connections are usually driven by the front office, and grudgingly, the shop floor complies.”

Monday notes that different industries have different reasons to connect plant data to the enterprise. Some want to improve efficiency and shave a percentage off manufacturing expenses to improve the bottom line, while other industries make the move in order to comply with regulations. “They buy the connectivity to solve points of pain, or to take the perceived enjoyments of reduced costs,” says Monday.

Jay Coughlin, product manager of HMI at Siemens Energy and Automation Inc., the big Alpharetta, Ga.-based automation vendor, agrees that each individual industry seeks plant data to solve different problems. “The automotive industry is looking for a little increase in efficiency,” says Coughlin. “That’s different from the textile industry, which has a lot of manual processes and doesn’t need as much information. Food and beverage, and chemical—they’re big on asset management, while the pharmaceutical industry has to meet regulation oversight.”

Serving customers more effectively is also a significant driver that’s sending business people down to the shop floor for data. “Companies have to be able to tell the customer whether they can make the product when the customer needs it,” says Colin Masson, research director of manufacturing operations at AMR Research Inc., in Boston. “The business people need to know if the machines are fully loaded, whether they have finished goods, whether they have the raw materials and production capability. If you want to know that in real time, you need automated data collection.”

Connecting—maybe

Over the past 10 to 15 years, companies have used their ERP systems to connect the enterprise from one end to the other. The first connections went naturally to the office functions: financials, human resources, sales and marketing, supply chain and logistics. The final mile of connectivity goes to the plant itself. The information technology (IT) department knows, of course, that the plant runs on ...