|
 |
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 |
New podcast where I discuss new software from GE Fanuc that meets the competitive challenge and raises the ante, extend a challenge to OMAC to keep its momentum going, discuss wireless sensor products, green automation, an upcoming Wireless Webcast and the Packaging Automation Forum.
10:07:58 AM 
|
|
Two more presentations this morning at WBF. Agnes Shanley, editorial director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine said that pharma manufacturers are beginning to adopt Lean Thinking from the Toyota system. Systems integrator Doug Bourgeois of Complete Systems Automation is presenting the idea of using the ISA88 modeling system earlier in the project in order that integrators (and others) can provide more accurate bids for integration work--and even finding potential problems that may delay a project if discovered later on. As a former project person, I think this is a great idea. Sounds as if the audience agrees.
10:03:21 AM
|
|
Got a little behind. I took some time off at Easter, drove home Monday morning in time to check messages, pack and catch a plane to Philadelphia. Was at WBF all day yesterday. Today I'm at WBF this morning then I'm heading to Interphex for this afternoon and evening.
This is only the second WBF (organization formerly known as World Batch Forum) meeting, but I've really missed out on an education. Someone just wrote to me and said he was the team leader for automation for a company and wanted to know where to go to learn about automation. Well, no matter what manufacturing you do, you'd learn a lot here both from the excellent presentations and from the hallway conversations. There are some really smart people here.
I can't give you the whole education here, but you can buy the entire history of papers from WBF for $50 (US) on a DVD. Here are a few thoughts that I learned.
Roger Kilmer, director of the manufacturing extension partnership program at NIST, explained how this part of the US government can actually help small and medium manufacturers with technology transfer, marketing help, workforce development, supply chain help and more. The mission of the partnership is "to strengthen the global competitiveness of US-based manufacturing by
providing information, decision support and implementations of
innovative approaches focused on leveraging technologies, techniques
and business best practices."
One of the reasons to come to WBF is that the leaders of the various standards committees are here and accessible. A technical report of ISA88, TR88.00.2, has been released to translate the PackML state model into ISA88 state model. The ISA88 part 1 standard underwent its mandated review and updates are about completed. The ISA88 part 5 committee is finishing its work. Formerly known as "Make2Pack," the group's name is now Modular Equipment Control or MEC to reflect its broader focus beyond packaging machines. The technical report TR88-95 describes how ISA88 and ISA95 map. There is also a lot of work in various stages going on with ISA95. As I write this, Dennis Brandl is explaining a new concept within ISA95 defining "work" and work flows and such that lie within an MES that works with a batch process.
To show some of the original thinking revealed at the meeting, here is a summary of some talks.
Frede Vinthger of nne Pharmaplan presented an idea for modular, flexible batch processing for pharma manufacturing. Essentially this would be modular skids with no fixed piping so that they can be rearranged as needed for different production runs.
Jim Parshal of Lily showed how sustainable (green) manufacturing is good for business. He hadn't even seen the March issue of Automation World with my article on the same topic! It must be an idea catching on. He alluded to, and there will be a presentation later today that I'll miss, on how to incorporate sustainable manufacturing into the ISA88 model.
By the way, celebrate Earth Day on March 29 at 8 pm (your local time) by turning off all your lights for an hour. This simple act can save a lot of generating capacity. (You can leave your television on to watch March Madness--the college basketball tournament in the US if you must.)
Concerned about manufacturing working with IT? Jack Greene is an IT professional who discussed making all applications ISA88 and 95 aware to make communication better, reducing the number of connections to data that require additional IT work.
Bianca Scholten, an IT consultant and Automation World columnist, showed why companies should adapt the concepts and terminology of ISA95 even down to the operator level in order to enhance communication effectiveness when people talk about the processes and business.
On significant undertone at the conference was the divisive nature of the work of the Part 5 committee. The classic ISA88 standard is specifically for batch processing. Part 5 is taking the concepts of 88 and extending them to the equipment layer--including discrete machines. There are batch "purists" who don't see the reason for this extension. On the other hand, many companies see tremendous value for having a standard way of thinking and talking about manufacturing in its entirety. I agree with the latter, but I understand people who either only do batch or who have spent many years developing the batch standard who have trouble adapting to changing requirements and technologies--that's just human nature and shouldn't be derided. But I see that same attitude in OMAC, in that case with the packaging people who have accomplished much but are reluctant to see the work broadened to include all discrete manufacturing (eg, changing Make2Pack to Modular Equipment Control). See my editorial in March on this subject.
The WBF is a great organization with an illustrious history. It recognizes people who have devoted time and intelligence to propel the industry. This year the major award, the Thomas G. Fisher Award, was presented to Ted Williams. Williams was a professor at Purdue for almost 30 years and was director of the laboratory of advanced process control. He was also one of the developers of the Purdue Reference Model, a model of manufacturing still used. The Guido Carlo-Stella Award went to Hans Koning-Bastiaan of Genentech for his pioneering work in applying ISA88 batch control.
9:38:05 AM
|
|
I just received a request to find a copy of a magazine called Automation--the March 1963 issue. Can anyone help? Just post a comment here would be fine. Thank you.
6:27:24 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2008 Gary Mintchell.
|
|
|
