Keys to better manufacturing

Astonishing gains are being made by some manufacturers in a range of industries, yet without having to revolutionise their manufacturing processes. Instead, by exploiting MES (manufacturing execution system) software, they’re increasing operational efficiency, reducing cycle times, slashing data entry times, solving problems and improving quality and customer service. What’s more, that MES layer is working with data that’s already sitting there, observes Paul LeMert, MES and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) software vendor Wonderware’s director of programmes and strategic marketing. “There is a tremendous amount of information generated through factory information systems – critical to the business’ success – that has been ignored up to now,” he says. Exploiting this information, by analysing and responding to it in real time, is the role of MES software, conventionally these days viewed as a layer comprising 11 areas of functionality in product tracking, analysis, scheduling and management. Falling between the shop floor control systems at one end of the spectrum and business systems at the other, the MES layer provides real-time communication of decisions in both directions. Historically, however, it is this very between-ness that has led to it being largely overlooked: it falls between the responsibility stools and definition is not its strongest suit. Nevertheless, automation vendors such as Rockwell, Honeywell and Wonderware provide modules that deliver core MES functionality across a surprisingly wide range of industries. “Today, POMS is mainly used in pharmaceutical, food, milk and brewing, but last year in Germany a company that assembles brakes for high quality cars moved to this technology for traceability,” says Brian Adams, consultant with Honeywell POMS. But such broad potential for MES software is a relatively new phenomenon. “Just over two years ago, we came to the conclusion that MES was market- and application-specific,” says Andrew Ballard, managing director of system integrator Fortetion. “But now, we have the same Mountain Systems product working in everything from consumer packaged goods to building materials and pharmaceuticals.” Common requirements Tim Dudley, senior consultant with Rockwell Automation, says today’s product generality is possible because there are requirements that are common to all manufacturing plants. “For example, knowing how well the plant is performing; knowing its capability from a finite scheduling point of view; knowing the losses; and knowing where a particular production order is and at what stage of completion.” Not every manufacturer will need every piece of functionality, so packaged MES systems remain modular, although certain functionality is fundamental. “All good MES systems need three layers: a control layer, a data repository layer on top of that, and then you have a layer of modules that you buy as appropriate,” explains Ballard. Materials management is one of the most important of those modules, and one that’s generic to most industries. Adams explains: “In any plant, there is typically going to be a materials management layer of activity – materials are bought, released to manufacturing, they change their status, they are no longer the original material, and then you reach the end of the process where you have finished goods.” Materials management provides tracking, traceability. Asset management is another key module that is also reasonably generic to different industries, and one where the integration between MES and shop floor systems can deliver new benefits. Says Ballard: “A lot of people have asset maintenance systems in place, but you can’t schedule something for maintenance until you know it needs maintenance. We help people understand where the inefficiencies are in their manufacturing process and see that in real time; if for example a line has stopped several times in two hours that could reveal a precursor to a major failure.” Not every MES function is so generic. “Batch management can be very industry-specific,” says Adams. “In a pharmaceutical company, if an ERP system issues the order for a batch of material, then it is pretty well defined what equipment and materials they are going to use. But in milk production, that batch could become something totally different. Batch management therefore has to be right for the right industry – we have captured as much as we can from different industries so we do have pre-configured packages.” Pre-configuration helps address an important issue with MES – a degree of flexibility that can leave manufacturers looking at a bewildering array of modules, uncertain which are appropriate to their specific industry or business needs, and which to prioritise. “To address this, we now offer solutions based on vertical markets and process areas within those markets,” says LeMert. “We know, for example, that an automotive manufacturer will need defect tracking, machine utilisation and genealogy (traceability).” This modularisation does give manufacturers the opportunity to start by implementing the most relevant features. “To be totally practical, you can’t always do it all,” points out Adams, “so you can, for example, say I’m just going to do materials management, but not the operation or instructions layer.” Catch 22? Knowing which modules to start with is a bit like Catch-22. “The trick to making this successful is understanding what drives the business,” says Dudley. “So we look at the KPIs (key performance indicators).” But for many manufacturers, it’s the MES layer itself that will bring together – often for the first time – the huge volumes of data necessary for calculating those KPIs in the first place! You might argue that this alone is justification enough for MES, but there are other benefits. At Dompé SpA, an Italian pharmaceutical company, it’s the data collection capabilities that are key. “All process data coming from all the machinery and the people working on the line is continuously collected and tracked,” says Dr Marco Dell’ Uomo, Dompé’s technical director. Not only does this help with regulatory compliance, but the data collected in this way is actually of better quality. Dell’ Uomo: “With manual data collection, when an operator writes down that a check has been made, there’s no evidence that’s what actually happened. However, the system records the actual time when the check is done, so there is no way to lie or make a mistake on the timing, the activity or the value – data is transferred directly to the system.” Furthermore, much more data is collected than would be possible manually, allowing more sophisticated analysis and faster and better problem-solving. “Whereas an operator would normally check something like temperature or pressure at half-hour intervals, the system could transfer the value every 15 seconds,” he says. “If there’s a problem of quality, I then have a full set of data – we know not just that the solution reached the right temperature, but how it was heated, for example.” What you see... MES also provides Dompé with crucial traceability. “If as part of one production process you have two containers with the same weight of the same substance, normally you aren’t able to distinguish them,” explains Dell’ Uome. “But to POMS, each container is singularly identified through a barcode system so there is no way to make swaps even between things that seem to be the same.” Overall, the MES increases Dompé’s competitive performance, believes managing director Dr Gaetano Clavenna. “We have a large spare capacity, which we use to do sub-contract manufacturing for other companies. It’s therefore an important benefit for us to have this MES system, since the clients can control and check all phases of the process.” So far so good, but there is still a problem. While MES software doesn’t change processes, it does impact the way people work with them, and that can sometimes be an issue, as Ballard explains. “Culture is probably one of the biggest barriers to implementation – in this country, we don’t do a great job of sharing information so that everyone understands every other department’s issues and challenges. We have this fear that we’re going to lose control of a situation or be forced down a route that might not be quite right.” Implementing MES requires an unfamiliar degree of co-operation between IT, process and controls people. At Dompé, the reaction to POMS at shop floor level has been surprising. “Most of the time these big projects are for the benefit of the management, and it can be difficult to gain acceptance all the way down,” says Dr Eleonora Marchegiani, IT manager. “But people here feel that the POMS system is something that helps them to avoid making mistakes. They feel more confident, because they have a guardian angel looking after them – they have the reassurance that something is keeping an eye on what they are doing.” Another inhibitor can be the belief that MES may require wholesale replacement of shop floor equipment. But that’s one point that Ballard is quite emphatic on: “You never have to rip anything out – you can build on it.” Indeed, to overcome a natural hesitancy over implementing what could become a major new IT project, especially in today’s uncertain economic climate, Fortetion is offering a compelling way to tackle MES. “We put a lot of smart-start programmes in place,” explains Ballard. “We ask them to pay for engineering support, but lend them hardware and software for a trial period. We’ve never had anyone ask us to take it away when the trial ends.” And that’s not altogether surprising, because MES can show very quick returns. “There are opportunities for savings in any factory,” insists Adams. “The biggest savings are the reductions in cycle time – we have implemented systems where we have reduced cycle time from 50—70%, and in the pharmaceutical industry that’s very significant financially. One customer in the USA was able to demonstrate a 30-times return on investment over a 10-year period.” For two Fortetion customers, spectacular returns were also the order of the day – but in a considerably shorter period of time. One brewery saved the cost of its MES installation within one month – through the revelation of incorrect billing for consumption of materials. And within two weeks, an automotive manufacturer identified downtime issues it had been searching for for more than two years. But perhaps the most important benefit of all isn’t quite so easily calculated. “One of the key measures of a manufacturing supply chain is the ability to respond to changes in demand and supply, and to respond quickly,” says LeMert. “The MES layer – that plumbing – needs to be in place to communicate those events up and down the supply chain.”