FEATURE SCADA & DATA ACQUISITION
‘LET’S DIGITISE’ – HOW TO MAKE YOUR DIGITAL GOALS A REALITY
In the context of rising costs, an ageing workforce, evolving technology and the changes to the Ecodesign Directive, Andy Graham, Wonderware product manager at SolutionsPT, looks at the changes businesses need to make to their platforms to enable them to access and analyse data effectively
H
MI SCADA software has transformed the efficiency of our operators and
processes, creating immersive user experiences. It is now simple to unite geographically disparate sites and deliver real insight from vast datasets. However, change is now happening so quickly that the lifecycle of industrial applications has become the very thing limiting operational efficiency. Today’s manufacturers face more operational challenges than ever before. The advent of Industry 4.0 and the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), not to mention the need for all modern plants to be fully digitised in order to connect with their multiple data points, have led this culture of change. And, with energy costs continuing to
increase, operating a manufacturing plant is now also more expensive than ever. Yet energy expenditure is one key area where manufacturers have the potential to make savings. Becoming energy efficient is a huge challenge for manufacturers, as it requires them to combine both regulatory and commercial considerations, but it has become so important that effective energy management is now a business necessity, with unlocking the hidden value of big data holding the key.
ENERGY-RELATED DIRECTIVE This issue has become even more pressing since the Ecodesign Directive came into effect from January this year. The directive, which governs all energy-related products including chillers and industrial coolers, has imposed strict new Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for industrial process cooling systems. The new benchmark for an industrial process chiller will be its Seasonal Energy Performance Ratios (SEPR). Minimum SEPRs will be calculated as the ratio between the annual refrigeration demand and its annual electricity consumption. This will inevitably force companies to
place renewed focus on the efficiency of their chillers. Process cooling and refrigeration systems currently account for approximately 60% of a plant’s total life
38 MAY 2018 | PROCESS & CONTROL
cycle cost, so inefficient chillers can contribute to highly inflated utility bills. Manufacturing facilities can reduce their
energy consumption by using the latest automated technologies and through improved monitoring and control of the energy used in infrastructure. Although the prospect of a complete
infrastructure upgrade may seem impractical for many manufacturers, the right platform will allow them to develop a stronger, more insightful understanding of their operations, and enable them to visualise their energy use and identify any inefficiencies immediately.
DATA TRANSFER AND COLLECTION Digitisation advancements within industrial automation are enabling the transfer and collection of greater volumes of operational data across the plant floor. In theory this should support companies in monitoring things such as energy expenditure and efficiency levels. However, not only are many manufacturing businesses unable to take advantage of this potential insight, many plants are finding themselves restricted by the lifecycle of their existing industrial applications. The reality is that connecting plant assets with control systems and business systems requires specialised personnel resources and precious development time. Similarly, application development, deployment and re-engineering significantly raise project costs across the
The next generation of engineers are
discovering solutions do exist which bridge the gap between the OT and IT worlds
lifecycle of industrial applications and, with IIoT-enabled applications requiring specialised scripting and customisation, it’s actually not quite as simple as saying ‘Let’s digitise’.
Andy Graham, Wonderware product manager at Solutions PT
Digitisation advancements within industrial
automation are enabling the transfer and collection of greater volumes of operational data across the plant floor
NAVIGATING THE TRANSITION Yet solutions do exist which are capable of effectively bridging the gap between the OT and IT worlds. Wonderware’s System Platform 2017 is one of the latest platforms helping companies to navigate this transition. The platform helps companies take full advantage of increased IIoT connectedness and digitisation, within a centralised, multi- user collaboration framework. It has benefits for both engineers and operations managers. For engineers, System Platform’s drag and drop application building and remote deployment capabilities will deliver impressive engineering efficiency. Operations managers can achieve contextualised situational awareness by delivering out-of-the-box content and process visualisation standards that simplify the task of achieving the optimal situational awareness of industrial processes. Crucially, what it delivers to manufacturers is a platform that works with any device, providing access to real- time management dashboards and allowing them to monitor energy consumption in the context of each site, line and operator. The ability to easily access and analyse data can transform the way a company works. A company which has a better understanding of their plant’s energy usage has a stronger capability of predicting and managing performance and expenditure. The fact is that much of this data is
readily available and locked in process data historians. Accessing it is simply a question of starting with the right foundation.
Solutions PT
solutionspt.com
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