Getting Enterprise and Manufacturing Together

Era of Compatibility

Networks link factory to front office.

The concept of seamless networking is becoming reality for more companies. Networks that link front office operations, such as ordering, with plant floor equipment are gaining acceptance. This helps companies streamline operations to cut costs and increase productivity. Enterprise-wide communications have been discussed for years, and many large corporations have been developing their networking and data management capabilities for years. However, it’s been expensive, keeping most firms on the sidelines.

“This was a very hot topic around 1997, but then, control systems could cost $500,000, and the MES (manufacturing execution system) had about the same price,” says Skip Hansen, I/O systems product manager for automation supplier Beckhoff Automation LLC, in Burnsville, Minn.

But that is changing rapidly. Hardware and software prices continue to decline as performance rises, fostering a new level of interest. “Now, you can get packages from many vendors for a few thousand dollars,” says Randy Kondor, marketing vice president at Matrikon, another vendor based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. That’s helping bring this technology to the masses.
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Are Wires Passé? - While many companies grapple with the basics of adding manufacturing nodes to their networks, others are moving beyond conventional networking, joining the wireless revolution. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) offers a pair of specifications, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) and ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), and a number of specialized companies now offer ruggedized proprietary wireless networks designed for manufacturing environments.

Though proprietary networking schemes now dominate the landscape, observers feel that they will slowly give way to the force of standardization. “Wireless has to move toward standards, just like what happened with the field buses,” says Jeremy Bryant, network technology specialist at Siemens Energy & Automation Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based vendor. Regardless of the protocols being used, a growing number of plant managers are using them as an easy way to add sensors and other equipment without the expense and effort of routing cables. As these networks prove their worthiness, they’re seeing rapidly increasing acceptance. “Wireless has become something none of us can ignore. Wireless can provide a whole new way to look at workflows,” says Sean Robinson, global industry manager for Consumer Packaged Goods at vendor GE Fanuc Automation, in Foxboro, Mass.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and notebook computers can give operators and technicians a new level of mobility. Extending wireless to the plant floor can also help companies save money while altering the way workers interact with equipment and gather data. “When your entire plant is wireless, you can get away from two-way radios, replacing them with Voice over Internet Protocol. A lot of money can be saved by using VoIP,” says Siemens’ Bryant. Setting up these wireless networks requires an extra level of care. Without the certainty provided by cabling, network managers need to make sure that signals won’t be lost due to interference or the failure of a single node. That’s particularly true when critical information is being sent wirelessly. “When you’re transmitting data that’s at the core of the automation system, you’ve got to pay attention to sending real-time data over wireless, looking at things like guaranteed signal strength,” Bryant says.

Net Gains for Carpet Maker - Shaw’s integrated network cuts downtime.

The challenge facing Shaw Industries wasn’t unusual. After more than 60 years of making floor coverings, the equipment in its factories was a hodge podge of incompatible systems. “We had multiple networks operating separately from one another, which created considerable complexity and inefficiency,” says Gary Norwood, automation manager of Shaw Industries’ Contract Group. “We needed a single, unified network architecture that would allow us to communicate in real-time and in a standardized fashion.”

Excessive downtime due to unreliable equipment was the driver for Shaw’s need for standardization and better access to information from the plant floor. A big element of that goal was to restructure inefficient network configurations in six factories. Those plants manufacture 25,000 standard styles and colors of carpets, rugs, ceramic, hardwood and laminate flooring.

Once the decision to upgrade was made, Norwood quickly decided that the flooring company, headquartered in Decatur, Ga., needed a technology partner. He tapped Rockwell Automation Inc., the Milwaukee-based automation supplier that worked on Shaw’s most recent technology upgrade that occurred in 2005. Read more...

Keeping Danish Cheese Fresh - Getting dairy products to market on time is a necessity. Knowing the status of machines down to the temperature of production helps Arla Foods get milk from the cow to the grocery store within 12 hours.

The Christiansfeld, Denmark, supplier services 850 stores and more than 1 million people, augmenting milk shipments with organic milk, skim milk, chocolate milk and cultured products such as yogurt. “An efficient manufacturing cycle is key to our goal of delivering quality products,” says Erik Vesløv, production manager at the Christiansfeld Dairy Centre.

“The previous dairy systems were not automated,” Vesløv explains. “The PLCs (programmable logic controllers) were not connected, there was no reporting, and there was no traceability. It was also possible to overfill a tank, leading to unnecessary waste.”

The company’s automation era began in 1998 when the dairy installed a new separation and pasteurization line to produce organic milk. APV - a partner of Lake Forest, Calif.-based automation software vendor Wonderware - provided a turnkey solution that included hardware, PLCs and Wonderware’s InTouch human-machine interface (HMI) software for supervisory control.

A major advance came in 2002, when the dairy was refurbished and upgraded. The Pascon control system used for 25 years was replaced with a plant intelligence system that provides full integration, traceability and visibility into actionable plant data. Arla picked the Wonderware plant intelligence solution, which includes the IndustrialSQL Server historian, InTrack resource tracking software, DT Analyst asset monitoring and OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) software, and the InTouch HMI. Read more...

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