Turning data into information

Manufacturing industries of all kinds are constantly seeking to improve product traceability, reduce downtime, minimise product wastage and establish the vital key performance indicators (KPIs) that can maximise the return on investment in plant automation and process control.

This is certainly the case in today's food and beverage industries, where manufacturing execution systems (MES) can provide greater levels of useable, real-time data.

But while a properly integrated MES reporting system will deliver all the necessary production data, it is still up to the individual management team to harness the information and act on it accordingly. Not surprisingly, therefore, the most important aspect before employing an MES system is to decide on the degree of information you want the system to deliver.

You need to think about your processes and the raw data you require. Consider when best to collect it and what conclusions you want to achieve. Decide at what level you will collect the data - for example, at the operator level (via PLCs) or the control level via a Scada system. And allow for the inevitable disruptions to production during the installation, testing and simulation phases before the system goes 'live'. Finally, appoint an 'MES champion' from your management team - someone who knows the business and its systems inside out, is prepared to manage internal resources and to see everything through to fruition.

Once installed, however, an MES system can reap dividends. Manufacturers can capture vital plant information, by both time and event in order to analyse precisely a chain of events that might have led to a particular process, operation or production failure. Process operators and shop-floor managers gain the ability to review in real time the actual status of any particular stage of a process, while senior management is empowered with a whole range of plant-wide KPIs at its disposal.

For example, overall plant efficiency can be reviewed by analysing relevant, ongoing plant data such as energy consumption, volumes of process steam or water consumed, process line status, together with production line and laboratory information. Reliance on paper-based records will become a thing of the past, and immediate decisions made that could increase productivity, reduce downtime, eliminate wastage and improve product quality.

Once all stages and changes in the manufacturing process are being tracked in real time, new levels of accountability and process security become possible. 'Who did what and when?' becomes a matter of indisputable fact - while through the careful analysis of reports and real-time displays, necessary adjustments can be made to plant processes.

With such valuable data at their disposal, manufacturers who invest in MES are also better equipped to give customers accurate information about the status of their orders and when delivery can be expected.

Sidebar: Specialist contracting a speciality

Based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, FMA Process Engineering has been involved in many projects in the brewing, soft drinks, dairy and food industries. Its capabilities range from full turnkey project management to providing real-time data collection through its collaborations with MES specialist Mountain Systems and Fortetion, a UK-based specialist in management reporting tools.

Current projects include FMA's appointment as principal project manager for Diageo's development at the Guinness Nigeria brewery at Aba. Also in the brewing sector, FMA recently completed a contract to replace the keg line management information system at Carlsberg-Tetley's Northampton site. This involved replacing an outmoded Unix-based MIS system on the brewery's keg racker with a Siemens WinCC Scada-based system.

At the beginning of the year, FMA had also successfully commissioned a £12million project involving all five key phases of Dairy Crest's new liquid milk 'super dairy' at Severnside, Gloucestershire. FMA was responsible for all aspects of process design and supply, including process control and management reporting systems. Here, all control systems, developed to give truly integrated production control and incorporating Asi and Profibus PA fieldbus technologies, were designed and managed in-house by FMA.

Paul Bunyan is sales and marketing director of FMA Process Engineering.