Introduction Industries worldwide face challenges of achieving faster time
to market, increased pressure to reduce costs, higher quality expectations,
reduced resource consumption, and scarcity of skilled manpower. India is no
exception to this. In this scenario Information and Communication Technologies
will help manufacturers to achieve more with less. Apart from traditional areas like ERP and CRM tremendous
benefits can be derived from plant floor automation systems. Real time data
from plant is a gold mine for taking smart business decisions. This article
introduces one such system for Plant Asset Management – PlantConnect® PAMS.
PlantConnect® Platform PlantConnect® PAMS is
based on Ascent Informatics’ web-based platform PlantConnect® which provides real time monitoring and control infrastructure for
industrial equipment. PlantConnect
acquires real time data from multiple equipment and makes it available on a
central, web-based server. The server provides various features to the users
like real time trends, alarms, dashboards, reporting etc.
PlantConnect® PAMS Plant Asset
Management refers to any system through which an organization optimally and
sustainably manages its assets. There are many aspects of an asset lifecycle
and various systems available in market. Some of these are pure information
based systems which maintain and track information of an asset; whereas some
are end-to-end systems like Manufacturing Execution System (MES) which need
huge efforts in customization. PlantConnect
PAMS is a niche system that focuses on asset performance and efficiency. It has
a combination of pre-defined and configurable functionality which can be up and
running in short time. PlantConnect PAMS offers standard features like real
time data monitoring, historian, alarms etc. But it mainly focuses on 3 most
critical areas for a manufacturing unit – - Energy Management
- Production KPIs
- Maintenance
Below is a
typical deployment diagram for PlantConnect PAMS
Energy Management Module Through this module, user can monitor parameters like power
factor, energy consumption in real time and plan measures to improve energy
efficiency and reduce consumption. Production KPIs
Module This module provides dashboards with various KPIs like OEE,
MTBF etc. The KPIs change depending on user role. Users can also display KPIs
of a machine / production line, compare performance of similar machines etc. Intelligent
Maintenance This module allows users to monitor machine health and
undertake Condition Based Maintenance (CBM). Every machine / equipment starts
giving early indications before it fails. E.g. power consumption of a motor is
related to condition of its windings.
Intelligent maintenance allows users to define alerts based on parameter
data and track maintenance tasks. This ensures ‘Just-In-Time Maintenance’ and
reduces machine downtime as well as cost of maintenance. Case Study Let us see
a case study of a manufacturing plant very briefly. 1. ObjectiveEnergy
management and condition based maintenance
2. Data captured-
Data
from energy meters installed on machines
-
Data
from relays indicating different status, e.g. spindle on/off
- Data
from temperature and vibration sensors installed on machines
3. ConfigurationCondition
based maintenance alerts 4. Key insights / benefits-
Overall
energy efficiency and energy consumption patterns at plant level
-
Energy
efficiency and energy consumption of individual machine
-
Effectiveness
of improvement measures
-
Machine
downtime and improvement in it
- Just-in-time
maintenance alerts
Conclusion PlantConnect PAMS is an ideal platform for manufacturers in
general and for SMEs in particular. Easy to setup and configure, it focuses on
several key areas and maximizes performance of a plant.
| 
