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Automation Today

• Overview:
  Plant-wide Optimisation – working towards the ultimate goal

Customer applications

• Cheesemaker reduces wastage with precision portioning thanks to integrated architecture
• Simplicity and standardisation helps Sollas become a market leader in the film wrapping sector for perfumes
• Helping Cadbury optimise line control and enhance safety functionality
• Intendis chooses Rockwell Automation for state-of-the-art MES
• BASF benefits from fast implementation and reduced maintenance costs

Technology watch

• Plant-wide optimisation: The "unreachable" is now closer than ever before
• Convergence smooths the path towards plant-wide optimization
• Standards and interoperability – the keys to plant-wide optimisation for machine builders

Plant-wide optimisation: The "unreachable" is now closer than ever before

There are a whole host of different goals in industry, but there is one that is increasingly becoming a reality for many organisations... Plant-Wide Optimisation (PWO). Through many initiatives such as energy saving, operational excellence, cost reduction and regulatory compliance, companies are beginning to see the convergence of these becoming a reality. With its experience of working with manufacturers around the world, Rockwell Automation is seeing organisations achieving this goal.

Marc Baret, Director of Marketing Rockwell Automation - EMEA

Plant-Wide Optimisation has many facets and means different things to different parts of an organisation. Put simply, its primary objective is to get all parts of a manufacturing environment working to maximise asset utilisation, productivity and uptime and seamlessly integrate this with all other aspects of the organisation. It is not just a one-step process either; it requires constant management and monitoring to help move towards continuous improvement across the enterprise, throughout the plant lifecycle.

Plant-wide optimisation covers a lot more than just managing technological assets. At the enterprise level there are many other internal and external elements that must also be factored in; because if they are not, the plant cannot claim to be truly optimised.

Track and trace & serialisation are all gaining significant footholds in industries outside their more traditional pharmaceutical markets, as customers demand more transparency and industry bodies enforce tighter regulation. Many suppliers are also faced with demands from companies they supply; with regards to the use of standards, such as S88, and commonality of communication protocols for the machines they supply.

Sustainability is another very hot topic as organisations across the world strive to not only reduce their energy consumption, but also manage what energy they do use effectively, in order to minimise their environmental footprint. Energy costs can be addressed in simple applications through the use of variable-speed drive technology or intelligent motor control systems. In more complex applications, it can be evolved through advanced power management programmes that predict, assess and audit usage and then create plans and procedures to help optimise energy usage.

These enterprise level issues can only be successfully addressed if the right information is available to the right people at the right time. Thanks to data visibility, scalability and interoperability – all across a common Ethernet network – Rockwell Automation can help many companies achieve a richer, information enabled enterprise. By connecting and combining discrete automation devices and system data with that from process control systems and ERP systems, seamless information flow becomes achievable and once this data is available it can then be put to use in the most effective manner.

Marc Baret, Director of Marketing, Rockwell Automation – Europe, Middle-East and Africa, explains: "Arguably the most important element of any plant-wide optimisation programme is the 'backbone' that acts not only as the conduit for the data, but also for all the automation and safety functions of the machines and processes. With multiple networks, protocols and suppliers, bottlenecks are inevitable, as data is transposed from one format to another, adding unwanted complexity and delays to any process. Through the use of a single network, in this case a standard, unmodified Ethernet Industrial Protocol network (EtherNet/IP), Rockwell Automation is revolutionising the seamless transfer of data from point to point; be it the simplest component-level I/O block, all the way up to the overarching company MES system."

With EtherNet/IP providing the link between discrete control, process, safety, automation and motion, investment in training, software licenses, machine design, programming, parts management and data handling can be significantly reduced. Why reinvent the wheel? With the single network approach utilising Integrated Architecture, the proven automation platform from Rockwell Automation, the sharing of data, from high-level programmes all the way down to simple on/off signals is made incredibly simple. Another important area to consider is safety. Baret explains: "In all instances, safety should be considered as an intrinsic, value-adding part of an installation, both in terms of cost and performance – not as a costly addition, as is seen in many cases." Rockwell Automation’s leadership position in industrial safety allows automation control and safety control to co-exist on a single platform, further reducing integration costs, unwarranted production stops and installation overheads. This way, not only is the need for safety compliance achieved but, the productivity of the plant is maximised.

"With our portfolio of EtherNet/IP-enabled devices growing on an almost daily basis, and our burgeoning relationships with Strategic Alliance Partners such as Cisco System, this open standard is spreading into just about every element of the enterprise." Baret elaborates. "Our value as a supplier is not just restricted to the technology and services we can deliver. Now it is also measured on how we can help manufacturers – either directly or via our comprehensive worldwide network of system integrators and distributors – optimise their operations; helping them towards getting the best possible performance from their investment.

Baret concludes: "The world of industrial manufacturing is changing, as plants, their technology and industry legislation evolve, so does the need for plant-wide optimisation. Rockwell Automation can help get companies onto the right path to take full advantage of today’s modern Automation technology to maximise their competitiveness on the global stage.”

For more information, please e-mail us at: info_at@ra.rockwell.com with ref: PWO