PLANT MANAGEMENT
In the field, manual procedures are linked via the operator’s interface on a mobile or stationary device to the process control platform
bar coders or markers can be integrated. Completed tasks are self-auditing and timestamped for future reference and compliance reporting. In the field, manual procedures are linked via the operator’s interface on a mobile or stationary device to the process control platform through software that enables bidirectional communication regarding equipment status and task completion. “Once the SOPs are in a digital format,
they are much easier to update, streamline, and standardise across the organisation,” says Kourliouros. “Too often, plant A does things one way and plant B another way, even when using the same machinery. Tere are so many variables and nuances that many large companies struggle to standardise procedures across multiple locations; they need tools where comments and other feedback loops can help track best practices to optimise operations and drive continuous improvements.”
CASE STUDY One of the companies using AMP is Praxair, a leading industrial gas company.
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It produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and speciality gases, and high-performance surface coatings from more than 800 plants worldwide, with thousands of smaller stations – each with its own unique SOPs. According to Kourliouros, Praxair was looking to shed the load manually and physically from its operators and prevent potential problems during equipment start-ups and shutdowns, maintenance and complex operational rounds. Among the challenges was that traditional offline SOPs made data inaccessible to analytics, which severely reduced corporate visibility into internal operations. Also, with traditional SOPs, there was no integration with the DCS, no rigid authentic and version control and no archival record-keeping “historian.” According to Kourliouros, the
company’s business process improvement team voiced concerns over two major “disconnects.” Tey wanted to review procedures to identify ways to speed equipment start-up; and they wanted facilities to share procedural information and learn best practices from one another,
a task more easily accomplished in electronic format. To do this, the team sought software with multimedia support in the field to provide access to images, video, QR codes, etc. In addition, the team wanted to support portable or wearable devices, which will play an increasingly important role on factory floors of the future. Finally, the company felt
interconnecting manual work execution with process, batch and state-based control systems could provide an additional level of validation by automatically checking to see if certain required operations are performed. For example, plant safety and efficiency can be improved by automating lower value monotonous tasks as well as critical tasks, such as ensuring a machine’s valve is closed before moving forward to the next step. Because this approach communicates with the control system, it can prompt the control system to close the valve, providing a safeguard to human error and enabling operators to execute work in harmony with an automated control strategy.
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