an information platform, but until recently, plant data has been its own animal.

As companies struggle to become more competitive, they are now looking to see if their plants can become leaner and more adept at meeting customer demand. “They want to be able to respond to changing demand and become a more proactive organization,” says Marc Leroux, manager of collaborative management at automation vendor ABB, in Warminster, Pa. “They’re looking at the plant data and they say, ‘We’re making real-time decisions on month-old information.’

“So they turn to the plant operators and say, ‘Let’s get this connected to the ERP system.’ ” But the plant automation system and the ERP system are not so easily connected. “ERP systems made it quite easy to connect to other ERP systems, but not to the factory floor,” says Leroux. “[ERP vendors] Oracle and SAP knew the plant data was available, but they figured they could load it up every month or so.”

Part of the reason plants have been slow to connect their shop floor data to their business systems is simply because the IT department had its hands full in recent years just connecting the business functions to the ERP system. “Connecting to the plant usually comes later in an ERP implementation. It ends up as an add-on to the ERP," says Kevin Tock, vice president of production and performance management at Wonderware. “Sometimes it takes two years.”

Business needs data

Yet the business side now realizes it needs data from the plant to monitor and trim direct costs. “You can use plant data for real-time performance management,” says Kevin Zamzow, product manager for wireless technology at ProSoft Technology Inc., in Bakersfield, Calif., a wireless solutions company. “If you have the data, you can determine if something has happened at the plant, you can see what’s causing variation and adjust for higher quality products and save energy. You can also monitor recipes. A steel company was able to record information on a recipe for steel, and by automating the plant to hold to the recipe, they were able to eliminate errors.”

Of course, the notion of the business side monitoring and adjusting plant operations to optimize performance strikes terror into the heart of plant operators. In many cases, perhaps most cases, the IT department and plant operators have not been eager to work together to develop plant-to-business connectivity. Mutual mistrust between plant management and IT executives is common across most industries.

 One reason is that the plant has mostly been left alone over the years to develop its unique automation technology. That situation changes when the IT department peeks into the plant in search of data. IT is nervous about security as the plant adopts Web-based connectivity, and the plant operators are worried about safety as IT pokes around in plant data. “IT keeps talking about going after data,” says Monday of Online Development. “And plant operators say, ‘Stop. One of these days you’ll be going after data and you’ll cut someone’s hand off.’ ”

Some believe that IT  will win the battle, as long as the IT department is well funded and savvy about connectivity. But in order for this awkward marriage to work, the IT department has to convince plant operators that its use of plant data  is not going to directly affect plant operations. “In the future, the IT departments with more money and higher connectivity within the enterprise will take more responsibility for the direct connection with the factory,” says Trayton Jay, director of special projects at vendor Mitsubishi Electric Automation Inc., in Vernon Hills, Ill. “The manufacturing people say, ‘I don’t want them to have the raw data.’  But the IT people say, ‘It doesn’t matter. The data is indirect.’ ”

Standards are the key to the connection between a plant automation system and business functionality. But standards alone—and connectivity alone—do not justify the awkward trading of data between the plant and front office. The connectivity decisions are being made and justified point-by-point, problem solved-by-problem solved. The front office needs specific data to comply with track-and-trace regulations. Business needs win the justification for connectivity. Newly emerging standards provide the connectivity.  

For more information, search keywords “shop floor-to-top floor” at www.automationworld.com.

To see the accompanying sidebar to this story - "OPC or Database: How are People Connecting?" - please visit www.automationworld.com/view-3000