“We decided to go with Microsoft because they have created an open work process,” says Greg Millinger, product general manager for Proficy SOA and workflow at GE Fanuc. “Microsoft has opened this application to allow third-parties to add components.” For one thing, GE Fanuc customized the workflow tools to accommodate plants. “Microsoft never thought it would be used in a real-time environment,” says Millinger.

Plants are beginning to use workflow for asset management in order to create a set of processes for maintenance, and rules for responding to alarms. The workflow process determines who gets messages about an asset’s condition and also provides instructions on how to manage any problems. “If there is a degradation on any asset on the control system, our system will inform you there is a degradation,” says Moin Shaikh, process automation manager at Siemens Energy & Automation Inc., Alpharetta, Ga.-based automation provider. “If it has reached 25 percent or 50 percent of its life, you will know what to do proactively.”

Workflow tools are being used for installation and integration at plants. “Based on our experience in executing large projects, we have come up with a preconfigured process for executing projects,” says Shaikh. “We took that whole process and broke it into pieces to help get the project from point A to point B, all the way to installation and integration. It’s been very predictable and risk free.”

Capturing knowledge

Plants across North America are facing a knowledge drain as baby-boom engineers reach retirement age. Workflow tools are showing promise as a way to capture and integrate specialized plant knowledge into the information technology (IT) structure of the plant. “You and I might collaborate and come up with some sort of agreement, and build a process around it that is descriptive,” says Pyke from Cordys. “It’s not ad hoc. It’s within the normal collaboration. You capture it to make sure it’s part of the plant certification.”

Once the workflow is in place at a plant, it can be fine-tuned for optimized efficiency. “Workflow becomes a standard,” says Pyke. “The workflow can be exported and imported from one plant to another as a best practice.”

That best practice can become a template for running the plant. “When you move into templating, you’re moving into an abstract world, and a lot of plant operators can’t get their heads around it. MES is going to completely change because of workflow,” says Millinger from GE Fanuc. “Workflow steps people through what they have to do. With workflow, people are being trained at the same time they do their work. The advances in the training alone are significant.”

Some visionaries believe that years of operator knowledge can be embedded in the control system. That could solve a major challenge facing plants across North America—the coming retirement of highly experienced baby boomers.

Related Sidebar - The Future of Workflow Is Automated Knowledge
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