PLANT MANAGEMENT
DIGITALTRANSFORMATION T
Digitising manual procedures eliminates the ‘disconnect’ between operators and automated processes
oday, even in highly automated production environments, standard operating procedures (SOPs) for start-up/shutdown, material loading/unloading, line switchovers, clean-in-place, maintenance preparation and other tasks are still completed manually, using paper-based systems. Unfortunately, this creates a signifi cant disconnect between equipment operators and the rest of the automated process. Manual SOPs are completed without coordination with existing control systems and information is not shared in real-time with Historians, LIMS and enterprise- wide systems. When this is the case, process improvement directors, executives and other key stakeholders are robbed of real-time visibility into the production environment along with key analytics that could be used for process improvement. “We have all these productivity tools that make us more effi cient in our jobs, yet if you go into the manufacturing facilities of some of the biggest corporations in the world they are still using paper and pen to check off required
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procedures,” says Chris Kourliouros from NovaTech’s process division, which specialises in continuous control system architecture. “T is creates a digital ‘blind spot’ in the organisation because the worker and the existing systems are not connected and are not communicating with each other.”
But this isn’t just a gap in the sharing of digital information. Paper-based SOPs that are inaccessible, poorly authored, not properly followed, not updated regularly, not based on best practices, not coordinated with control functions and not standardised across facilities can lead to severe consequences, including process
Eliminating the human error that can occur using paper-based SOPs is critical
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