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Posted On: 05/02/2006

Automation giants tear down data silos

PlantServices.com

By Michael Ermitage, Managing Editor, Digital Media

Real-time information gathering, processing and presentation systems are ready to change the way plants operate, allowing every level of the operation to identify, prioritize and correct production and equipment problems earlier, and to intelligently take advantage of time-dependent economic opportunities such as raw material or energy price shifts, rush orders or excess capacity.

This month, Iconics, Indus and Invensys have released new and powerful examples of this new breed of asset management software products to meet what is expected to be a growing demand for instant reporting.

Foxborough, Mass.-based Iconics’ Genesis32 v. 9.0 is a comprehensive asset management program centered on easily and reliably integrating information from the most popular communication infrastructures. These include IT infrastructures monitored by SNMP, plant-floor infrastructure communicating via OPC, and enterprise infrastructures through real-time, intelligent data mining. The Iconics software is able to return real-time information in less than two seconds. Unlike other asset management software, Iconics does not use a database system to aggregate data — instead, it is capable of connecting to several data points and instantaneously returning the data specified.

“We can take a snapshot of the system when you need it,” says Mark Hepburn, vice president of worldwide sales. “This software is designed to get you the information where you need it so you can fix operational problems before they become financial problems.”

Other features of the product include the report publishing in HTML, personalized layouts for easy navigation, drill-down capabilities to specifically identify the causes of problems and several analytical tools including alarm reports.

Indus International is introducing its Real-Time Performance Manager this month (more on page 57).

This software is not only capable of automating information-sharing between departments, but also addresses the interdependencies among customer service and field technicians. Each individual user has role-based dashboards that display the most critical information as well as allow the user to drill down to find the exact causes of performance issues. It also features a knowledge management function via a corrective action feature. This feature alerts the user if a KPI reaches a predetermined level, then instructs them what actions to take to return the KPI to the desired value.

“We’ve heavily focused on quick and easy access,” says Ian Wray, vice president of product management. “The information is role-based so the user is getting the information that is most important and useful to them.”

Invensys has introduced an industrial system designed to give what it terms a “true” enterprise view. The InFusion enterprise control system combines capabilities from across Invensys with advanced enterprise information and integration technologies from both Microsoft and SAP to reduce integration costs. With InFusion technology, most existing plant floor and enterprise systems can be integrated into a common system. In conjunction with a suite of new performance services, Invensys’ InFusion system is designed to help industrial enterprises more effectively align plant operations and maintenance departments with the business to optimize overall asset performance management. Its integration includes all plant floor systems, subsystems, and intelligent field devices, regardless of vendor or protocol. It features real-time visibility into both the plant and the business with a view across operations and maintenance domains.

“Maximizing the performance of your manufacturing assets requires a two-pronged strategy: utilize real-time information from every area and plant to inform people and your business systems; and provide a dynamic feedback mechanism to allow you to swiftly respond to changes to optimize business performance throughout the enterprise,” according to Greg Gorbach, ARC analyst. Invensys' Enterprise Control System is designed to work with existing enterprise and plant systems (Invensys or otherwise) to enable this strategy. The ultimate goal is to provide closed loop control for your business processes. At ARC, we believe that this is exactly what manufacturers are looking for.”