Increasing Operational Agility with Industrial Automation

We have all heard the phrase "Work smarter, not harder" and have received tips like time management, bundling tasks, don't focus on the totality of a "to do list", etc... Truth is, hard work and smart work is not mutually exclusive and fortunately, with industrial automation, there are systems, tools, and products that enable operators the agility to spot opportunities for greater flexibility, speed, and workforce responsiveness.

      We focus on a few solutions that increase operational agility by:

• Putting together systems to gather, share, and change processes quickly

• A retrofit solution to save labor, energy, and cost while improving quality, accuracy, and precision

• Managing data to spot opportunities and prompt troubleshooting

• Resources for customization when standards don't work

Happy New Year,
Jane Mohr

Increasing responsiveness with real-time information 

Wonderware MES /Performance

Today's operations requires greater visibility, a reduction of product costs, and improvement of product quality. Wonderware MES offers solutions to help operators to recognize how their processes impact the business with key performance metrics. 72% of surveyed MES customers improved equipment uptime by 5-10% or more with MES Software.*
Manage both production and performance by:

• Reducing lead times

• Shortening Time to Market

• Cost Cutting

• Exceeding Customer Expectations

• Streamlining processes

• Managing the global operation

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*Source: TechValidate. TVID:757-8B3-C2E

Retrofit helps operators modernize without the high cost 

ABB Drives and Controls

Operational agility often includes the ability to find solutions for simple and easy modernization. Being able to upgrade without having to go through a huge installation process can: 

• Optimize the budget

• Decreasing maintenance cost

• Increase of productivity

• Reduce production downtime

• Extend the life of existing equipment

With the ABB DCS800 retrofitters can provide up-to-date technology at a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire system. With its special features, the DCS800 makes installation and configuration simple  by allowing you to customize the application to your needs.   

Learn more about the DCS800 special features

Quick troubleshooting to increase operational dexterity

Moxa

Last month we discussed how MXstudio suite delivers easy management, mass configuration, smart visualization, and quick trouble shooting in developing best practices in Network Management. Two software features in this management suite helps operational agility by providing data for quick troubleshooting. The MXview studio offers:  

• Auto discovery of network devices and physical connections

• Event playback

• Color-coded VLAN/IGMP groups and other visualization network data

The N-Snap Industrial Network Snapshot tool:

• Takes network snapshots

• Compares network and device data, and highlights the differences

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 Unprecedented Flexibility:

The new BL67 Ethernet Gateway 

Turck

  Turck's BL67 offers an easy-to-deploy industrial  Ethernet solution. Though it combines the multiprotocol technology (one device - for three Ethernet protocols), it only allows one Ethernet master to control outputs while input is still available to the other protocols.  The BL67 provides unprecedented flexibility -already concealed, you can add more I/O without having to purchase a new, larger enclosure. The BL67 is ideal for harsh environments where conditions may not be conducive to traditional I/O.
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