by Gary Mintchell | Feb 13, 2015 | Asset Performance Management, Automation, News, Operations Management
Asset performance management joined the Industrial Internet of Things as a key topic at the 2015 ARC Forum in Orlando. Here is a release from Meridium that reflects many of the trends—data collection, analysis, configurable display, mobility.
Meridium Inc., global supplier of asset performance management (APM) software and services, announced the availability of Asset Answers V2.0. The company claims this as the only cloud-based asset performance diagnostics solution that provides comparative analytics, delivering instant visibility into asset data, and supplying organizations with the insights to drive safer, more informed, and more profitable decisions.
Asset Answers 2.0 delivers next-generation APM insights into industrial assets and their health and overall performance, an improved user interface that includes dashboards and enhanced mobility on a variety of handheld devices that provides true anywhere/anytime availability. Since the introduction of Asset Answers to the market, more than 130 sites in the Petrochemicals, Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities, and Manufacturing industries rely on Asset Answers to support continuous improvement initiatives with the ultimate goal of achieving operational excellence.
For example, Dow Chemical was able to collect and analyze reliability audit report data for 25 production units across 4 plants in less than 1 day, saving 175 man-days of effort and remain focused on cost, availability, and reliability optimization for the company. Another Asset Answers client, Profertil, reduced costs for 30 straight months and was able to readily identify and highlight savings of $900,000 and counting.
According to Roy Whitt, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Asset Answers, “For organizations in asset-intensive industries, Asset Answers 2.0 uncovers the true cost, reliability and availability of asset groups and individual pieces of equipment with the click of a mouse. Subscribers can easily view performance criteria across sites and benchmark themselves anonymously against global industry peers. Combining data mining and preconfigured metrics, reliability engineers can investigate equipment data to identify assets that represent the best opportunities for improving maintenance costs and reliability. With access to the objective truth about asset performance, management can act with confidence to intelligently cut costs while increasing production, especially in times of shrinking margins.”
Asset Answers can identify and evaluate better performing equipment manufacturers and highlight predominant failure modes for specific equipment models. With this analysis, Asset Answers also can create opportunities for equipment improvements and automatically track the savings these improvements have provided.
Whitt also added that, “Asset Answers uses comparative analytics or ‘intelligent benchmarking’ that enables organizations to conduct ‘apples to apples’ comparisons of industrial equipment in production units across multiple plants within an organization. That same information helps organizations compare the relative performance of their assets against industry peers to gain a deeper understanding and a competitive advantage, optimize total cost of ownership (TCO) for critical assets and make better asset purchasing decisions.”
This approach both improves collaboration between Reliability, Engineering & Maintenance and also enables continuous and systematic improvement of operations and production output over time. Benefits of Asset Answers 2.0 include:
- A proven, systematic and secure approach to continuous improvement and Operational Excellence
- Improved plant and operator safety
- Mitigated operational and financial risk
- Improved insight into non-financial performance
- Lower asset total cost of ownership (TCO)
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 3, 2015 | Operations Management, Software
Mike Roberts at LNS Research has posted a blog 11 Tips for Stimulating Enterprise Software Adoption. Many, if not all, of these tips have been written about before. This is a useful compilation of them in one place. Reading between the lines, I wonder if he’s talking about putting in one of those huge, monolithic software solutions that, in reality, have a spotty record of installation and adoption. Even so, these are more important than ever.
I’ll summarize a few here. Head over to the blog to catch them all along with their
- Ensure Executive Sponsorship and Buy-In for the Project
Executive sponsorship is key to getting budget approval for an enterprise software investment, but the role of leadership has to extend beyond that. One aspect that may facilitate executive buy-in and use is evaluating solutions with robust executive dashboards and reporting capabilities early on.
- Include Users in the Solution Selection Process Upfront
It’s important to not alienate the professionals who will actually use the solution from the processes of developing user requirements, selection, and coming up with a deployment plan.
- Put Together a Deployment Team to Support the Project over Its Lifecycle
Because every company has a unique set of IT resources and user requirements, it’s feasible to forecast on-the-fly adjustments will be required during the deployment to create a better user experience or to troubleshoot a system issue.
- Execute a Pilot Deployment before Transitioning Enterprise-Wide
It’s common for companies to initiate a deployment with a single module or two to attain early user feedback and get the process down.
- Identify & Empower “System Champions” to Support and Drive Adoption
Just like there are early adopters on the technology adoption lifecycle for consumer products, the same can be said in the business world.
- Invest in Change Management that Ensures Long-Term Adoption
Although leadership should anticipate some resistance, they should also have a plan for overcoming it.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 30, 2015 | Automation, Industrial Computers, News, Process Control, Technology
National Instruments (NI)announced a collaboration with CERN, an intergovernmental research organization building the world’s largest and most advanced scientific instruments. The objective is to push the standardization of all CERN control systems to Linux 64-bit OSs, with goals to boost system performance, design cost-effective distributed embedded control systems and enlarge opportunities for small and medium enterprises with expertise in NI and open-source technologies.
NI has been working with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, more commonly known as CERN, since the early 1990s on applications that help explain what the universe is made of and how it began. Notable collaborations include the Large Hadron Collider collimation system, where applications developed with LabVIEW system design software control stepping motors on approximately 120 NI PXI systems, and the MedAustron ion beam cancer therapy center, for which CERN received three awards at NIWeek 2013. These common developments have resulted in valuable training for engineers in the fast-growing embedded systems market, and have led to long-term maintainable systems in mission-critical applications.
A recent collaboration between CERN and NI concentrated on CERN’s infrastructure improvement plans. Prior to the public release of LabVIEW support for 64-bit Linux, the Engineering Department (EN) Industrial Controls and Engineering (ICE) Group at CERN, acted as a lead user to help NI define and refine the software features needed to ensure CERN’s success in continuing to use NI tools. By working with CERN early on to learn about its upgrade requirements, NI was able to prioritize key deliverables and gain valuable feedback from CERN to increase the quality of support for 64-bit Linux.
“The EN-ICE Group appreciates the engagement of NI to develop 64-bit software for CERN in a collaborative way,” said Adriaan Rijllart, section leader of the EN-ICE Group. “This very successful initiative is paving the way for exemplary partnerships between fundamental research organizations and industry.”
Shelley Gretlein, director of platform software at NI said “NI is pleased to have advanced lead users like CERN apply their extensive Linux experience in helping NI continue to release leading-edge products.”
In 2014, LabVIEW 64-bit for Linux was officially released to the public. The support for this OS ensures that CERN, as well as a vast majority of other leading-edge research laboratories and projects around the world, can continue to benefit from the increased productivity of LabVIEW in an open and sustainable operational environment.
“NI values the significance and benefits of Linux and continues to invest in R&D to ensure the compatibility of customizable commercial off-the-shelf technologies with open-source platforms,” said Stefano Concezzi, vice president of the scientific research segment at NI.
NI and CERN are committed to accelerating scientific innovation and discovery. “The vision of NI and CERN overlap very much. That vision is to improve society with our technologies,” said Johannes Gutleber, a CERN staff member and senior scientist.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 26, 2015 | Automation, Commentary, Data Management, Interoperability, Leadership, Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management, Organizations, Technology, Workforce
[Updated: 1/28/15]
Last week I attended the board meeting of the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition. Sometimes I’m an idealist working with organizations that I think have the potential to make things better for engineers, managers, and manufacturers in general. I derive no income from them, but sometimes you need to give back to the cause. SMLC is one of those organizations. MESA, OMAC, ISA, CSIA, and MIMOSA are other organizations that I’ve either given a platform to or to whom I have dedicated many hours to help get their message out.
In the area of weird coincidence, just as I was preparing to leave the SMLC meeting there came across my computer a press release from an analyst firm called IDC IDC Manufacturing Insights also about smart manufacturing. This British firm that is establishing an American foothold first came to my attention several years ago with a research report on adoption of fieldbuses.
The model is the “Why, What, Who, and How of Smart Manufacturing.” See the image for more information. I find this model interesting. As a student of philosophy, I’m intrigued by the four-part Yin-Yang motif. But as a manufacturing model, I find it somewhat lacking.
IDC insight
According to Robert Parker, group vice president at IDC Manufacturing Insights, “Smart manufacturing programs can deliver financial benefits that are tangible and auditable. More importantly, smart manufacturing transitions the production function from one that is capacity centric to one that is capability centric — able to serve global markets and discerning customers.” A new IDC Manufacturing Insights report, IDC PlanScape: Smart Manufacturing – The Path to the Future Factory (Doc #MI253612), uses the IDC PlanScape methodology to provide the framework for a business strategy related to investment in smart manufacturing.
Parker continues, “Smart manufacturing programs can deliver financial benefits that are tangible and auditable. More importantly, smart manufacturing transitions the production function from one that is capacity centric to one that is capability centric — able to serve global markets and discerning customers.”
The press release adds, “At its core, smart manufacturing is the convergence of data acquisition, analytics, and automated control to improve the overall effectiveness of a company’s factory network.”
Smart manufacturing
This “smart” term is getting thrown around quite a bit. A group of people from academia, manufacturing, and suppliers began discussing “smart manufacturing” in 2010 and incorporated the “Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition” in 2012. I attended a meeting for the first time in early 2013.
Early on, SMLC agreed that “the next step change in U.S. manufacturing productivity would come from a broader use of modeling and simulation technology throughout the manufacturing process”.
Another group, this one from Germany with the sponsorship of the German Federal government, is known as Industry 4.0, or the 4th generation of industry. At times its spokespeople discuss the “smart factory.” This group is also investigating the use of modeling and simulation. However, the two groups take somewhat different paths to, hopefully, a similar destination—more effective and profitable manufacturing systems.
Key findings from IDC:
- Use the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) equation to understand the potential benefits, and tie those benefits to financial metrics such as revenue, costs, and asset levels to justify investment.
- Broaden the OEE beyond individual pieces of equipment to look at the overall impact on product lines, factories, and the whole network of production facilities.
- Technology investment can be separated into capabilities related to connectivity, data acquisition, analytics, and actuation.
- A unifying architecture is required to bring the technology pieces together.
- Move toward an integrated governance model that incorporates both operation technology (OT) and information technology (IT) resources.
- Choose an investment cadence based on the level of executive support for smart manufacturing.
Gary’s view
I’ve told you my affiliations, although I am not a spokesman for any of them. Any views are my own.
So, here is my take on this report. This is not meant to blast IDC. They have developed a model that they can take to clients to discuss manufacturing strategies. I’m sure that some good would come out of that—at least if executives at the company take the direction seriously and actually back good manufacturing. However, the ideas started my thought process.
Following are some ideas that I’ve worked with and developed over the past few years.
- To begin (picky point), I wish they had picked another name in order to avoid confusion over what “smart manufacturing” is.
- While there are a lot of good points within their model, I’d suggest looking beyond just OEE. That is a nice metric, but it is often too open to vagaries in definition and data collection at the source.
- Many companies, indeed, are working toward that IT/OT convergence—and much has been done. Cisco, for example, partners with many automation suppliers.
- SMLC is working on a comprehensive framework and platform (also check out the Smart Manufacturing blog). Meanwhile, I’d also reference the work of MIMOSA (OpenO&M and the Oil & Gas Interoperability Pilot see here and here).
- I’d suggest that IDC take a look into modeling, simulation, and cyber-physical systems. There is also much work being done on “systems of systems” that bring in standards and systems that already exist to a higher order system.
I have not built a model, but I’d look carefully into dataflows and workflows. Can we use standards that already exist to move data from design to operations and maintenance? Can we define workflows—even going outside the plant into the supply chain? Several companies are doing some really good work on analytics and visualization that must be incorporated.
The future looks to be comprised of building models from the immense amounts of data we’re collecting and then simulating scenarios before applying new strategies. Then iterating. So, I’d propose companies thinking about their larger processes (ISA 95 can be a great start) and start building.
These thoughts are a main theme of this blog. Look for more developments in future posts.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 22, 2015 | Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management, Software
I no more had outlined the post generated from Tim Sowell’s latest blog post, when an invitation arrived to talk to the General Manager of Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG) and the CEO of ERP manufacturing software supplier Kenandy about an application based on the salesforce.com platform which is so easily configurable that even the GM can do it.
SFEG produces electrical products, such as motors, blowers, power supplies, transformers, and electromechanical timers, for large and small OEMs and distributors. Its products are used in products such as blenders, commercial printers, consumer appliances, and electrical signs.
Before deploying Kenandy, it had an on-premise ERP system, but the software was very difficult to use and was not agile enough to support their growth objectives.
Encumbered, not enabled
“Our business was encumbered by our ERP system, not enabled by it,” said Rob Goldiez, General Manager at SFEG. “The software was so hard to use that many people simply stopped using it. The data got stale. We wanted the benefits of a modern cloud platform that’s easy to use, has built-in social and mobile capabilities, and is always current with the latest version of the software.”
SFEG wanted to modernize their operations to support business automation and robotics. They also plan to add features to their product that require the support of a cloud-based system. Kenandy enables them to quickly respond to best industry practices and business innovation.
“Moving to Kenandy eliminates legacy challenges and allows us to focus on quickly growing and extending functionality,” said Goldiez. “We’re excited that we’ll be able to use Kenandy to support innovations, such as enabling our products to be connected over the Internet. We’re committed to living and breathing our innovation vision throughout the company, and Kenandy is integral to that vision.”
Since deploying Kenandy in November, SFEG’s operations have become more efficient. With the previous system, SFEG’s controller required physical signatures on purchase orders. With Kenandy, the process is managed through an automated approval process. SFEG also uses Salesforce Chatter to attach conversations to their sales orders and purchase orders, keeping all the related information together for easy reference. The employees enjoy using the system so the data is always current. They also appreciate the real-time visibility into the business, which helps them make decisions more quickly.
“SFEG’s story is not an uncommon one. Because legacy ERP systems are difficult to use, manage and upgrade, they’re written off as a burden by many users,” said Sandra Kurtzig, Chairman and CEO of Kenandy. “Since Kenandy is built native on the cloud, it offers flexibility that just hasn’t been available before. Modern enterprises need an ERP system that helps them adapt to the needs of their business as quickly as possible.”
SFEG was also interested in Kenandy because it’s built on the Salesforce Platform. They were attracted to the ease of customization, the strong reporting tools, and the robust security down to the field level. They also knew they would benefit from the third-party apps available on the Salesforce AppExchange.
“I evaluated other cloud-based ERP systems and Kenandy really stood out. There was nothing else out there that could compete,” said Goldiez. “We also wanted a system that would be easy to implement. We were up and running on Kenandy four months after signing the initial agreement. That’s fast!”
Kenandy met all the key criteria for SFEG’s new ERP system including:
- Ease of use for technical and non-technical staff
- Customizable workflows and approvals
- Real-time, tailored dashboards and reporting
- Customer portal to allow direct access to status and shipping updates
- Collaboration to facilitate communication around orders
- Mobile interface for anytime access to the system
- Business rules enforcement
Goldiez told me in a follow-up interview, that just about everyone in his plant touches the new system. The old system? Well, there were two “experts” who worked with it, but it was so hard to get into that most people didn’t bother. Not only that, SFEG’s system was tied to a paper report system. Another inflexible and cumbersome preventing widespread use.
Using the configurable cloud-based system is so convenient, that when someone needs a new report or feature, Goldiez can configure it with no need for special work orders through IT.
He said that today there are lots of eyes on the system. People are accountable to the data they are supposed to be managing. It is easier to use since it has a familiar interface.
Kurtzig added, “Millennials are coming into the workforce. They need software as easy to use as Amazon. They have higher expectations—and they also expect to use mobile devices.”
Because the application resides in the cloud as Infrastructure as a Service, new business rules and updates can be added without destroying the core and disrupting use.
