More bang for your factory IT buck to come from plant intelligence

Plant and factory intelligence software that builds on SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems to provide “serious” production and business benefits is to remain the primary activity of Intellution, Emerson Process Management’s shrink-wrapped plant data presentation business. So says Van Rafael, president of global sales. He says that the company, which had been following two development themes – first, building generalised plant data presentation alarm handling, SCADA, plant historian, batch control and machine downtime software, and second, MESs (manufacturing execution systems) – is now focusing only on the former. Says Rafael: “That’s the direction for the next few years. We’re not an MES company. We’ve decided it’s not our space. We build shrink-wrapped SCADA software for users that want more bang from their buck in terms of plant efficiency, understanding the effects of downtime, comparing batch production runs. “MES solutions are extremely industry specific. If you try to generalise MES you will fail. That was a hard lesson for us… We [now] introduce solution partners who supply their very specific MES products for different industries using our technology. You can see them on our website.” And he refers to systems integrator Fortetion and also to sister company Fisher Rosemount Systems, now (confusingly) Emerson Process Management – with the same name as both firms’ parent business unit! That being the case, the company has now put on general release its iHistorian fast plant-wide database system (trailed early this year) as part of its new ‘Plant Intelligence’ strategy. Rafael says iHistorian is the latest evolutionary stage in Intellution’s push into e-manufacturing – a plant wide repository for all types of production data, as well as analysis and visualisation tools designed to extract, interpret and present plant data in a way that addresses the business of running a manufacturing operation. Beyond that, the ‘Plant Intelligence’ strategy looks set to speak further to manufacturing users that recognise there is a great deal more ‘knowledge’ they could be getting from their existing plant systems. Rafael says it will eventually cover KPIs (key performance indicators), asset utilisation statistics, unscheduled downtime events and so forth with data provided “straight-from-the-source”, and able to provide visibility and thus improve operations. Web visualisation software is likely to be next released, with genealogy and batch tracking software following. The expectation is that all this analysis will provide manufacturers with insight into their production processes, product quality, delivery to customers, resource optimisation and cost effectiveness. And beyond this, Intellution says it is also continuing to provide for the US FDA’s requirements in terms of electronic signatures and batch genealogy and tracking coverage under its 21CFR11 legislation. With the effects of 21CFR11 requirements now spreading into Europe – and touching not just pharmaceuticals, but also the food and beverage sector – the firm says it will support its partners and users with information, guidance and software as necessary.