SIGMA, 고객의 생산성 향상 지원

Challenge

Integrated historian software solutions are designed to collect and save process data. However, it is only when this data can be aggregated into meaningful reports that its true value becomes evident. It is only then that companies are in a position to compare production data and batch records, in order to improve not only the quality of their production, but also reduce reaction times in terms in response to changing market demands.

SIGMA has addressed these needs and has deployed just such a solution for the German biotechnology centre. The transition from basic process data capture to a configured data analysis solution now helps provide optimal data collection and collation.

“With process data capture being based on information from 3rd party PLCs and control systems, the challenge was getting effective access to alarms and events data from the existing fragmented database,” says Jochen Hasselbach Site Manager at SIGMA. “If this company could combine the process information with trending, alarms and events, it would improve productivity by eliminating friction points.”

Solution

FactoryTalk® Historian Site Edition offers high performance long-term archiving of production data. In conjunction with the web-based process visualisation available through VantagePoint EMI, the customer now has access to tailored report layouts and can display meaningful representations of this historical data. The report creation and batch comparison reporting toolkit also provides secure controlled access to historical data for a wide variety of access levels.

The SIGMA toolkit helps the customer to gather the dispersed production data and then present it in a coherent manner. OPC DA standard interfaces – distributed interface nodes (FTLD) – are installed as the software interfaces between the control system and Historian for local buffering of data on computers, which also control the production systems. Alarms and events are also archived in FactoryTalk Historian i.e. via OLE DB interfaces. FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI then provides access to the production data and produces analyses and trends.

VantagePoint EMI can access a wide variety of platforms and data sources, such as Microsoft SQL Server or an Oracle database. The easy-to-use report creation toolkit brings in alarms and events, making it possible to show process information together with production information which would normally be hidden in the customer’s control system. This is the content that decision-makers need. “Extended batch-based data analysis functions and comprehensive web-based reporting help our customers to organise this information properly, making it useful and meaningful for a wide range of users at varying decisionmaking levels,” explains Harald Schmidt of Rockwell Automation.

Results

FactoryTalk Historian SE and FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI are proven solutions in highly regulated environments such as life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. The described architecture can do more than just capture and visualise analogue data. Trending and analysis add-on tools can, for example, depict a trend in temperature in a batch and, at the same time, alarms and events highlight specific incidents. Each incident or process alarm at the customer is added to a notification list, which helps the operator to interpret the process.

The toolkit is capable of aggregating these alarms and events and displaying them in the same way as the control system itself. The information, which would otherwise only be available in the control system, is now available in the office environment. Furthermore they can be used for more expansive analyses – even combined with analogue values in one and the same trend.

포괄적인 인터페이스는 특정 수준의 제어 시스템 정보가 때로는 감춰진다는 것을 의미합니다. 그러나 이제는 이러한 정보들도 정상 수준 이상으로 공유될 수 있습니다. 예를 들어, 시그마는 고객의 제어 시스템에 있는 배치 보고 기능을 사용하며 이를 보강해줍니다. 결과적으로 고객은 현 공정을 참조가 되는 기준 배치의 샘플값과 실시간으로 자동 비교할 수 있게 되었습니다. 시스템 운전자는 현재의 공정 품질에 대한 직접적인 피드백을 수신하고 이에 따라 적절하게 대응할 수 있습니다.

조헨 하셀바흐는 "FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI가 제공하는 것처럼 프로세스 데이터를 웹 페이지 형태로 가시화하는 것은 기술 사용자는 물론 비기술 사용자에게도 고유한 혜택을 제공한다"며, "이는 사용자 교육에 필요한 시간을 획기적으로 감소시켜 주며, 기술이나 전문 분야가 다른 여러 사용자가 포털을 운영할 수 있다"고 설명합니다. 간단하게 드래그 앤 드롭하여 비교할 여러 배치를 선택할 수 있습니다. 실질적인 데이터 분석은 확대, 형태 및 룰러 등 사용자가 이미 익숙한 표준 툴들을 사용해 수행되며 이벤트는 플롯 영역에 데이터 세트로 표시됩니다. 이 툴킷은 분석에 사용될 수 있는 여러 표준 보고서를 제공하여 고객이 통합 보고 툴을 사용해 결과를 평가 및 배포할 수 있도록 해줍니다.