Global Plant Engineering - October 2010 - (Page 35)

Optimize the enterprise change cuts two or three times a day, directing product streams to different post-processing units or storage tanks. Viewing such information after the fact not only jeopardizes utilization or yield rate, but they could just as easily relate to safety or environmental regulatory compliance or even profitability. Operators can then react in a consistent and predictable manner, thereby resulting in more stabilized, standard operations and output. A fleet of power generation units, for example, might share a common visual management screen among senior operators and dispatchers, where performance is displayed in forecast trends compared to limits and all “transgressions” (over/under generating) are displayed with the penalty or lost business opportunity. A manufacturing complex might share a common visual management screen showing energy cost rates, emissions, throughput, and product costs, enabling supervisors to adjust performance targets in real time. Specialists could be alerted that a set of equipment is changing performance faster than planned, so that they can make team decisions to change schedules or plan for intervention. Remote and mobile specialists who share responsibilities can be more effective using these techniques. Or, using energy usage and utilities optimization software, operators can view a company energy profile and optimize around supply and costs. The profile might show that it is less expensive to manufacture in the morning and reschedule energy intensive operations accordingly. Such context helps control room operators, maintenance technicians, engineers, and their supervisors to make timely and more effective decisions to control operations in support of strategic metrics. Optimization through process analysis Pepsi Bottling Ventures (PBV), of Nampa, Idaho, was looking to optimize the process by which it manufactures and distributes more than 100 different flavors and brands. With such a wide variety of products, making smooth switches between formulations was central to the plant’s productivity, making changeover a key strategic metric. Prior to the optimization, engineers estimated that changeovers took 60 minutes. Using analysis and visualization software, in this case using Wonderware from Invensys, they were able to identify the chief constraints and their root causes. Armed with this data, they determined that the most critical bottleneck was in the filler process. Addressing this issue improved changeovers by up to 45 minutes and resulted in additional savings in raw materials and packaging. Efficiency on the filler line increased by 10%. “Operators can then consistently and predictably react, resulting in stabilized and standardized operations.” the reliability of the data, it also comes in too late for anyone to take corrective action. Better information can be presented to operators as it is required, for example through combinations of manufacturing execution systems (MES), enterprise manufacturing intelligence, (EMI) or human machine interfaces (HMI), which might present information in a contextualized, visually rich manner enabling relevant process/operations data that relates to the manufacturing process, present operators with alarms when pre-established thresholds are met. This can be in the form of the dashboards shown in Figure 2 or a combination of realtime on-line statistics and rules, and is a comparison of operations behavior to constraints and targets. Empowerment strategies might be based in helping plant personnel visualize operating parameters such as energy cost, raw material

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Global Plant Engineering - October 2010

Global Plant Engineering - October 2010
Contents
Comment
Global Views
Hannover Messe Report
Asia Report
Americas Report
Winning the Race Against Equipment Failure
Take 8 Steps to Debug Process Control System
Optimize the Enterprise: Measurement, Empowerment, and Control are the Essential Ingredients
Air Apparent: Compressed Air Audits Let You Find the Leaks in Your System
The Promise of the Smart Grid: A Flexible, Dynamic Energy Management System
Europe Report

Global Plant Engineering - October 2010

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