Process control - an integrated approach
An integrated approach to process control can have immediate tangible benefits with the potential to enhance efficiency and the bottom line.
As well as facing up to more demanding market forces, many modern manufacturing operations also have the additional, but necessary, burdens of enhanced and more stringent security, safety and legislation to contend with.
With these extra commitments in mind, the management of processes and procedures has leapt to the top of many priority lists. By taking a step back and looking at plant operations from a machine or process point of view – it becomes obvious where enhancements can be made that will not only result in significant savings and efficiency improvements, but also help address more stringent legislation. Rockwell Automation’s Integrated Architecture philosophy provides the foundations for this type of approach by providing scalable solutions for the full range of automation disciplines.
By utilising a single control infrastructure, Integrated Architecture provides a modular and flexible remedy to the challenges created by external market forces and legislative issues. It can give companies the potential to enhance process control by reducing lead times, improving productivity and optimising plant assets and availability, while also reducing the total cost of ownership.
With Integrated Architecture, the sharing of actionable information can help improve response time and decision-making. Time and money can also be saved thanks to improved efficiencies such as reductions in engineering and implementation time, operator response times, maintenance costs and downtime. Increased productivity is also a realistic expectation, while increased speed and cost savings can also be realised when implementing or making batch changes using standards-based batch production management embedded in the system.
Integrated Architecture does more than simply provide access to data; it collects and stores it for presentation as secure, actionable information
To maintain batch-to-batch quality within process environments including – but not exclusive to – food, pharmaceutical and chemical processing, automation and production management systems must follow defined procedures and provide early detection of off-quality production. By combining automated process control with easily managed procedures, you gain production reproducibility. One example of a unified approach, being adopted across a variety of process-based industries, is the adoption of common batch standards.
Rockwell Automation’s batch solutions are based on standard ANSI/ISA-S88.01-1995, commonly known as S88, and its IEC equivalent IEC 61512-01 – two of the most widely adapted standards for batch processing in Europe and the United States. They define a common set of models and terminology to be used with batch processing systems.
PhaseManager, a feature recently introduced into the latest version of RSLogix 5000 programming software, embeds ISA S88-compliant code into all Logix family controllers. This provides a standard framework for configuring and sequencing phase state logic directly in the controller or by using Rockwell Software’s RSBizWare Batch. It executes phases based on industry standard S88 and PackML data and control structures.
“By utilising a single control infrastructure, Integrated Architecture provides a modular and flexible remedy to the challenges created by external market forces and legislative issues”
The Logix control platform enables users to choose the most cost-effective controller for the application. All Logix controllers are programmed through a single software package that lets the customer choose ladder, function block, sequential function chart or structured text languages in which to program.
NetLinx open networks provide a network infrastructure for information flow. NetLinx networks share a common protocol that enables the seamless flow of information from the smallest plant floor device to the enterprise business system, without additional programming.
View visualisation platforms provide a scalable, unified suite of operator interface and supervisory level monitoring solutions that share the same development software, offering faster development and implementation, flexibility and lower cost of ownership.
FactoryTalk is a suite of software services embedded in Integrated Architecture components that dramatically simplifies data production, movement and use. FactoryTalk services give the user the capability to create a tag only once and reuse it throughout the entire control system.
Many companies realise that there are significant benefits to be gained from an integrated approach to process automation and factory control; it is the reticence to take the first step that prevents many of them becoming adopters. With multiple successful installations worldwide, Rockwell Automation – with its capabilities reaping rewards for customers in a great many different markets – is well placed to help companies take that tentative first step and then support them through the entire adoption and installation process.
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