I am thrilled to be able to offer the standard TrakSYS™ Basic Training to our clients, partners and prospects in Raleigh, NC on July 27-29.
TrakSYS™ is one of the most popular Real-time Performance Management System available to present OEE, downtime, KPIs, EBR, and more with detailed reporting – particularly in Pharmaceutical and Food & Beverage industries where agility of reporting can be achieved in NON Validated (Non GMP) systems.
This open enrollment TrakSYS™ training course is one of the first to be held in the Southeast.
5 reasons you might want to attend:
1. You will be in a class with other users. Some have very sophisticated systems - others have more basic functionality - but all have insight to what works for them.
2. You will be in a class with Certified Integrator Partners (CIPs) that can offer insight and on-going help.
3. You can form relationships with other students that might allow you to support one another on an ongoing basis.
4. You will save travel costs associated with the training.
5. Prospects will gain great knowledge and understanding of Performance Management Systems in general. Most of the reporting and actions of the system will be applicable for any system.
Learn more about the training and sign up at http://www.sylution.com/services/Training.htm
Friday, June 4. 2010
A Historical Look at the Process Historian
Evolution is present everywhere in business. New ideas build upon old ideas and the lineage of any one invention can trace its roots through many products and practices. So too, the process historian is a tool that was invented as an improvement to do a better job than the previous tools. Today, computer savvy professionals in manufacturing management may not understand the basic functionality of a process historian. I invite you to read through this article to learn the background of the process historian and to remove some of the mystery and sales jargon that keep many professionals today from even understanding what they are buying.
Turn back the clock to 1982: No computers, no internet, you have a secretary that types memos and letters. After a two year project and a long startup, you are walking around your state-of-the-art powerhouse control room singing “Physical” by Olivia-Newton John to yourself. You survey the control room and see that the old bench board of pneumatic controllers is now replaced with a row of computer consoles like NASA’s mission control. Operators can see graphic representations of the process and control the boiler from the computer. The electronic controls are making the process run better than ever and real-time information is available in the office or maintenance shop – for about $100,000.00 for a console. But now you look beyond the consoles to see the old panel board of ink and paper chart recorders. Dang, you wish you could have replaced that mess but there is just not enough money in the company to replace our historical records with electronic records.
Fast forward to 1992: You have a 486 computer wedged under your desk, a 15 inch monitor and keyboard on your desk – and a sore neck every evening. You walk through the control room singing “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred to yourself and see that all of the ink charts are gone - replaced by a process historian. The operators have two new computers specifically to show trends that replace the ink and paper charts. The new process historian uses a proprietary controller interface and a sophisticated delta-slope storage algorithm to store the least amount of data on the server's huge 500 MB hard drive. The historian proprietary trend tools will allow your people to call up the process variable and time in trend displays. The system is slick – not only does it allow you to replace the ink and paper recorders but you can see the real-time or historical trends on your 486 computer in the office!
Present: You have never had a secretary. You have a smoking laptop with a 120 GB HD connected to your docking port in your cubical where you spend too much time on FaceBook and reading Aston Kutcher's latest tweets. You are walking to the conference room meeting concerning a new system for performance management and for some reason you can’t get the music video “Young Forever” by Jay-Z and Mr. Hudson out of your mind this morning. The company coming in to talk about a solution today has a solution called “Management System” or “SuperBad Platform” or something. You have some concerns but you know that IEEE has created standards for getting real-time data from any controller or historical data from any process historian.
Many companies need a good process historian and excellent trending and reporting tools to enable operators and engineers to improve the process performance. Companies with hybrid processes (some process control and discrete manufacturing) also need trending and lots of process data. But the process historian is still today a tool of recording a Process Variable and time and storing that data long-term for retrieval. Its fame is the speed of storage and compression but the process historian is for most purposes and facilities a commodity decision. The technical aspects are rate of storage and rate of retrieval. This is still an engineering decision to determine the rate of storage of data from the process needed for the application. IEEE standards like OPC-HDA and OPC-UA assure users that hundreds of independent software companies the world over will continue to write user tools and software packages for use with any historian.
In closing – it is important to state that the process historian will always be an important tool. But, the process historian may not be the best foundation for process improvement in industry. The historian was the electronic replacement for a strip chart recorder – it is not a relational database. Process Intelligence systems are independent of a process historian and the historian might actually be a backwards step to a real solution to address your needs.
Turn back the clock to 1982: No computers, no internet, you have a secretary that types memos and letters. After a two year project and a long startup, you are walking around your state-of-the-art powerhouse control room singing “Physical” by Olivia-Newton John to yourself. You survey the control room and see that the old bench board of pneumatic controllers is now replaced with a row of computer consoles like NASA’s mission control. Operators can see graphic representations of the process and control the boiler from the computer. The electronic controls are making the process run better than ever and real-time information is available in the office or maintenance shop – for about $100,000.00 for a console. But now you look beyond the consoles to see the old panel board of ink and paper chart recorders. Dang, you wish you could have replaced that mess but there is just not enough money in the company to replace our historical records with electronic records.
Fast forward to 1992: You have a 486 computer wedged under your desk, a 15 inch monitor and keyboard on your desk – and a sore neck every evening. You walk through the control room singing “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred to yourself and see that all of the ink charts are gone - replaced by a process historian. The operators have two new computers specifically to show trends that replace the ink and paper charts. The new process historian uses a proprietary controller interface and a sophisticated delta-slope storage algorithm to store the least amount of data on the server's huge 500 MB hard drive. The historian proprietary trend tools will allow your people to call up the process variable and time in trend displays. The system is slick – not only does it allow you to replace the ink and paper recorders but you can see the real-time or historical trends on your 486 computer in the office!
Present: You have never had a secretary. You have a smoking laptop with a 120 GB HD connected to your docking port in your cubical where you spend too much time on FaceBook and reading Aston Kutcher's latest tweets. You are walking to the conference room meeting concerning a new system for performance management and for some reason you can’t get the music video “Young Forever” by Jay-Z and Mr. Hudson out of your mind this morning. The company coming in to talk about a solution today has a solution called “Management System” or “SuperBad Platform” or something. You have some concerns but you know that IEEE has created standards for getting real-time data from any controller or historical data from any process historian.
Many companies need a good process historian and excellent trending and reporting tools to enable operators and engineers to improve the process performance. Companies with hybrid processes (some process control and discrete manufacturing) also need trending and lots of process data. But the process historian is still today a tool of recording a Process Variable and time and storing that data long-term for retrieval. Its fame is the speed of storage and compression but the process historian is for most purposes and facilities a commodity decision. The technical aspects are rate of storage and rate of retrieval. This is still an engineering decision to determine the rate of storage of data from the process needed for the application. IEEE standards like OPC-HDA and OPC-UA assure users that hundreds of independent software companies the world over will continue to write user tools and software packages for use with any historian.
In closing – it is important to state that the process historian will always be an important tool. But, the process historian may not be the best foundation for process improvement in industry. The historian was the electronic replacement for a strip chart recorder – it is not a relational database. Process Intelligence systems are independent of a process historian and the historian might actually be a backwards step to a real solution to address your needs.
Tuesday, May 11. 2010
Can you arrange a site visit?
Can you arrange a visit to see the system being used at another site similar to ours - preferably in the same business with my same equipment?
As a supplier of solutions often the first request of a client is to see the system running at another plant. I understand this because I was on the buying end of systems for a long time. When you look at a system that someone else is using you get a better understanding how you might use it too. It is also a way to lower the risk of the purchase - if I can see someone else using this tool successfully then I will have more confidence that I can use it too.
This works great when you want to see their lift truck or boiler. However, seeing the implementation of another person's imagination, needs, prejudices, existing assets, and constraints is not necessarily a good first step for anyone. Why? Because a performance management system has to help you make better margins with your systems and assets. Seeing a system designed for someone else is too limiting for a first step.
When possible I guide clients to use a little different sequence of events to getting their best solutions – even if the steps are very quickly done. But I do keep in mind the client always dictates the process.
• Learn: Get educated on what it possible. Last year’s information is too old. Start from a position of what can be done. Watch webinars and let sales professionals educate you. Don’t worry there is time to “get back to the real-world”.
• Big Picture: See the "Big Picture" in your business. This is really a one shot opportunity because once the conversation goes to exact solutions and working details … it’s hard to see the big picture again. I think this is why we see some companies that have multiple systems and solutions doing similar if not exactly the same things. Involve everyone else who needs real-time performance information? Operators, Management, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Quality, Corporate, etc.
• Focus: Focus the view on solving specific problems, initiatives or improving certain key performance indicators at the facility. Consider existing assets today and known plans as well as the “big picture” discussions. Focus on an area that will provide success.
• Prove ROI or need: Many projects die when the project champion skips the step to show the return for the investment for a performance management system. The ROI is never obvious to everyone. Make this part of the next step.
• Mitigate risk: A site visit, reference calls, product demonstrations, pre-engineering scoping, a trial using the LEANTrak™ mobile system, and pilot projects are all excellent ways to mitigate risk. A trial with LEANTrak™ or pilot is best because they involve Your systems.
• Establish Success Factors: know what you have to do to be successful. This includes using the System. Using the system has to be required to all levels. Put the information on LED marquees in every area so that everyone knows how they are performing right now!
So back to the original question, “Can you take me to see the system being used at another site similar to ours - preferably in the same business with my same equipment?
Answer: Yes, I can – but would you rather see a demonstration at your own site on your own equipment?
Please call Kevin Totherow at 800 254-9140 x 11 to see LEANTrak™ operating at your facility.
As a supplier of solutions often the first request of a client is to see the system running at another plant. I understand this because I was on the buying end of systems for a long time. When you look at a system that someone else is using you get a better understanding how you might use it too. It is also a way to lower the risk of the purchase - if I can see someone else using this tool successfully then I will have more confidence that I can use it too.
This works great when you want to see their lift truck or boiler. However, seeing the implementation of another person's imagination, needs, prejudices, existing assets, and constraints is not necessarily a good first step for anyone. Why? Because a performance management system has to help you make better margins with your systems and assets. Seeing a system designed for someone else is too limiting for a first step.
When possible I guide clients to use a little different sequence of events to getting their best solutions – even if the steps are very quickly done. But I do keep in mind the client always dictates the process.
• Learn: Get educated on what it possible. Last year’s information is too old. Start from a position of what can be done. Watch webinars and let sales professionals educate you. Don’t worry there is time to “get back to the real-world”.
• Big Picture: See the "Big Picture" in your business. This is really a one shot opportunity because once the conversation goes to exact solutions and working details … it’s hard to see the big picture again. I think this is why we see some companies that have multiple systems and solutions doing similar if not exactly the same things. Involve everyone else who needs real-time performance information? Operators, Management, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Quality, Corporate, etc.
• Focus: Focus the view on solving specific problems, initiatives or improving certain key performance indicators at the facility. Consider existing assets today and known plans as well as the “big picture” discussions. Focus on an area that will provide success.
• Prove ROI or need: Many projects die when the project champion skips the step to show the return for the investment for a performance management system. The ROI is never obvious to everyone. Make this part of the next step.
• Mitigate risk: A site visit, reference calls, product demonstrations, pre-engineering scoping, a trial using the LEANTrak™ mobile system, and pilot projects are all excellent ways to mitigate risk. A trial with LEANTrak™ or pilot is best because they involve Your systems.
• Establish Success Factors: know what you have to do to be successful. This includes using the System. Using the system has to be required to all levels. Put the information on LED marquees in every area so that everyone knows how they are performing right now!
So back to the original question, “Can you take me to see the system being used at another site similar to ours - preferably in the same business with my same equipment?
Answer: Yes, I can – but would you rather see a demonstration at your own site on your own equipment?
Please call Kevin Totherow at 800 254-9140 x 11 to see LEANTrak™ operating at your facility.
Tuesday, March 9. 2010
Advice to me.
I have been an engineer for 28 years. The first 18 were as a plant automation engineer. During this time I never considered myself as a salesman. The last 10 years I have worked as a consultant and system sales professional. Now I tend to think that we are all sales people.
I started my career installing large and expensive distributed control systems, and then expensive process historians, and new and better operator interfaces, upgrading controls and controls rooms and more. We didn't replace pneumatic controls with digital controls because the old ones weren't supportable or didn't work. We installed new digital controls because you could make more and better product lowering the cost of manufacturing. Likewise, we didn't justify a process historian to replace chart recorders because we could save money on chart paper or ink or because the chart recorder was obsolete. I handled large budgets and I did ROI analysis. I thought I was selling my projects.
Now I think not. I just came along at a good time for increasing capacity.
How often did I find these solutions and initiate these projects rather than being asked about them by others? How hard did I work at finding standards to save money rather than innovations that could lower the cost of manufacturing? I came along at a good time in manufacturing and really had it pretty easy to get capital if you could use it to put more widgets out the door.
I also came along when many of us engineers got buried in programing and configuration of the electronic solutions we employed. We became technicians that could manipulate the systems rather than business people.
When I talk to manufacturing companies as a consultant or as a sales agent - I challenge them to be the lowest cost producer when the plant is pushing capacity and when the plant is cutting back. You want a company name on the door and people working inside and the only way to do this is to be able to keep making a product at a low margin. Effective manufacturing, increasing product mix, lowering changeover time, increasing first pass yield, increasing uptime are all highly important to remain profitable. Facilities are closing and corporations are smart enough to close the highest cost producer.
I believe engineers should be at the forefront of making business decisions in manufacturing.
Advice to myself 25 years ago:
• Look to increase margins on products rather than just saving money.
• Get funding for your projects based on ROI - rather than just abating risk.
• Don’t ask how much a solution costs – ask how you will make money by using the product.
• Don’t assume there is a spending freeze on capital for a project that will make money. Most businesses find money for a project that has a payback in 3 or 4 months.
• Negotiate business solutions. Explore the ability to lease a product or pay based on savings.
• Always sell your project based on local business needs to the person that can say yes.
• Assume that a business unit manager will find money for a good investment – or make them say no to your project. It will let them know you are thinking in terms of business.
What do you think?
I started my career installing large and expensive distributed control systems, and then expensive process historians, and new and better operator interfaces, upgrading controls and controls rooms and more. We didn't replace pneumatic controls with digital controls because the old ones weren't supportable or didn't work. We installed new digital controls because you could make more and better product lowering the cost of manufacturing. Likewise, we didn't justify a process historian to replace chart recorders because we could save money on chart paper or ink or because the chart recorder was obsolete. I handled large budgets and I did ROI analysis. I thought I was selling my projects.
Now I think not. I just came along at a good time for increasing capacity.
How often did I find these solutions and initiate these projects rather than being asked about them by others? How hard did I work at finding standards to save money rather than innovations that could lower the cost of manufacturing? I came along at a good time in manufacturing and really had it pretty easy to get capital if you could use it to put more widgets out the door.
I also came along when many of us engineers got buried in programing and configuration of the electronic solutions we employed. We became technicians that could manipulate the systems rather than business people.
When I talk to manufacturing companies as a consultant or as a sales agent - I challenge them to be the lowest cost producer when the plant is pushing capacity and when the plant is cutting back. You want a company name on the door and people working inside and the only way to do this is to be able to keep making a product at a low margin. Effective manufacturing, increasing product mix, lowering changeover time, increasing first pass yield, increasing uptime are all highly important to remain profitable. Facilities are closing and corporations are smart enough to close the highest cost producer.
I believe engineers should be at the forefront of making business decisions in manufacturing.
Advice to myself 25 years ago:
• Look to increase margins on products rather than just saving money.
• Get funding for your projects based on ROI - rather than just abating risk.
• Don’t ask how much a solution costs – ask how you will make money by using the product.
• Don’t assume there is a spending freeze on capital for a project that will make money. Most businesses find money for a project that has a payback in 3 or 4 months.
• Negotiate business solutions. Explore the ability to lease a product or pay based on savings.
• Always sell your project based on local business needs to the person that can say yes.
• Assume that a business unit manager will find money for a good investment – or make them say no to your project. It will let them know you are thinking in terms of business.
What do you think?
Wednesday, February 17. 2010
Getting Results from Lean initiatives
Today I attended Parsec's Webinar "Finally Getting Lean Results from Lean Iniatives". I don't know if the Lean Results are what most of our clients want to get but I will say that this webinar was one of the very best I have ever seen. This webinar shows manufacturer how to USE a system to make manufacturing more profitable.
What did the webinar show?
We saw Tools that will help your operators be more productive;
Tools that will show your process team where problems are happening;
Tools that will organize downtime by TPM categories for your maintenance group;
Tools that will track changes to manual processes - like changing the procedure of a set-up activity - and show you if set-up was shorter as a result;
Tools to automatically escalate a production problem and alert the right people - even if they are not watching reports;
and finally we saw Tools to help you manage and report on energy use as a function of productivity.
This webinar showed TrakSYS™ but did hawk the product - it was right where the users need to be - helping them run the process better.
We can make the recording of this webinar available to be viewed later. This one is well worth it.
What did the webinar show?
We saw Tools that will help your operators be more productive;
Tools that will show your process team where problems are happening;
Tools that will organize downtime by TPM categories for your maintenance group;
Tools that will track changes to manual processes - like changing the procedure of a set-up activity - and show you if set-up was shorter as a result;
Tools to automatically escalate a production problem and alert the right people - even if they are not watching reports;
and finally we saw Tools to help you manage and report on energy use as a function of productivity.
This webinar showed TrakSYS™ but did hawk the product - it was right where the users need to be - helping them run the process better.
We can make the recording of this webinar available to be viewed later. This one is well worth it.
Thursday, February 11. 2010
FINALLY Getting Lean Results From Your Lean Initiatives
Our Partner, Parsec Automation, is doing another open webinar aimed at helping manufacturing be more profitable. The latest in the series of webinars is on getting results from lean initiatives. This webinar fits nicely with our own OEE Workshop - where we concentrate on understanding and use of the tools - rather than features of a product.
The information below presents an overview of the webinar but beyond this webinar we encourage our customers to continue to allow us to work with you on your goals. We certainly have what is aurguably the best performance management tool available. But this tool is no good to anyone unless you know what you need to accomplish AND you know how to use the tool to make the result easier to achieve.
Below is the introduction of the webinar from Parsec. I hope to see a lot of our Sylution friends in the webinar.
Lean Manufacturing, TPM, Six Sigma, and OEE all guarantee results that are too valuable to ignore. Manufacturers worldwide are adopting these methodologies in an effort to control costs, streamline their business processes, reduce production losses, and continuously improve the productivity and throughput of their existing assets and systems.
So why are many companies still struggling to obtain the results they were hoping for? Because most manufacturers don't have access to accurate and timely information on which to base their decisions.
Take the guess work out of the decision-making process and find out how you can make fact-based decisions by analyzing the impact of various factors across the value chain with the help of TrakSYS.
Join us Wednesday, February 17th to see how you can significantly improve the efficiency of your manufacturing operations quickly, measurably, and economically without disruption or infrastructure changes. Come see how Parsec's TrakSYS™ decision support and productivity management solution helps you to:
• Make intelligence-based decisions in real time to consistently improve operations
• Get more from your existing assets, resources, suppliers
• Eliminate the root causes of costly production losses throughout the value chain
• Significantly reduce production lead time and waste
• Improve overall business sustainability
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 at 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM EST
Go www.sylution.com or www.parsec-corp.com to register.
The information below presents an overview of the webinar but beyond this webinar we encourage our customers to continue to allow us to work with you on your goals. We certainly have what is aurguably the best performance management tool available. But this tool is no good to anyone unless you know what you need to accomplish AND you know how to use the tool to make the result easier to achieve.
Below is the introduction of the webinar from Parsec. I hope to see a lot of our Sylution friends in the webinar.
Lean Manufacturing, TPM, Six Sigma, and OEE all guarantee results that are too valuable to ignore. Manufacturers worldwide are adopting these methodologies in an effort to control costs, streamline their business processes, reduce production losses, and continuously improve the productivity and throughput of their existing assets and systems.
So why are many companies still struggling to obtain the results they were hoping for? Because most manufacturers don't have access to accurate and timely information on which to base their decisions.
Take the guess work out of the decision-making process and find out how you can make fact-based decisions by analyzing the impact of various factors across the value chain with the help of TrakSYS.
Join us Wednesday, February 17th to see how you can significantly improve the efficiency of your manufacturing operations quickly, measurably, and economically without disruption or infrastructure changes. Come see how Parsec's TrakSYS™ decision support and productivity management solution helps you to:
• Make intelligence-based decisions in real time to consistently improve operations
• Get more from your existing assets, resources, suppliers
• Eliminate the root causes of costly production losses throughout the value chain
• Significantly reduce production lead time and waste
• Improve overall business sustainability
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 at 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM EST
Go www.sylution.com or www.parsec-corp.com to register.
Friday, January 15. 2010
Workshops for OEE or Process Intelligence
What is the difference between a meeting and a workshop? What is the difference between a presentation and a workshop? What is the difference between routing a functional specification for comments/approval and a functional specification workshop? There are several true answers.
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Understanding
Team work
Lean process
Consensus
The term workshop denotes a team “hands on” working session. If you go to a photography seminar you expect to hear about photography. If you attend a photography workshop you expect to take some pictures.
The company that uses a workshop approach can achieve a goal efficiently and effectively. I saw this personally years ago as process controls engineer. We formed Process Improvement Teams (PIT) to analyze and correct problems, inefficiencies, and increase productivity in any number of areas. The teams had varying success depending on the team leader and the assignment. In some cases outstanding successes were accomplished by these multi-disciplined teams. But these teams also tried to tackle some huge often - poorly defined goals with metrics of success that were too general.
Sylution Incorporated is a value added reseller of performance management and lean tools and services. The difference between a meeting and a workshop to us is often the value we can quickly bring to a client. The workshop approach that Sylution uses is focused on the client's improvement objectives. The client organization should have representatives from engineering/operational excellence, operations management, process controls and possibly maintenance to get more than one perspective or interpretation of needs and the value that improvement brings . Sylution engineers participating in the workshop can instantly answer questions about relative cost of different options, time to implement, skills required, training, change management and insight from other projects. A workshop causes discussions that lead to prioritizing objectives and great insight to rank and payback of various objectives - even if there is more work to be done outside the workshop.
Sylution offers several different levels of workshops from a lunch & Learn to a multi-day custom workshop with a process audit. None of the workshops are completely free. Everyone participating must contribute time for the meeting and preparation so that they bring in domain expertise and information. But the rewards can be high. Participants will have a much better understanding of their problems, opportunities, and the ability, cost and ROI for correcting the correction of the problem. In short, a workshop allows the client to buy a solution that meets their needs rather than being sold a system.
Thursday, January 14. 2010
It's a joke, son!
Most of us already know that the old Warner Brothers cartoons were written to be appealing to a cross generational audience of movie goers from the 1930s to the 1960s. Kids would love them because they were animated and funny. Some of us can see some of the humor that was written into these cartoons for adults. Topical and political references are noticed today - even if they have lost much of their humor. But few see a lot of the connections in these old cartoons that would have made them very interesting and humorous to the adult above 35 years of age watching them at the movie theater.
What do you know about Foghorn Leghorn and his distinctive voice and oratory style? "Pay attention now, Boy! What, I say, now what do you know about Foghorn Leghorn?"
Well Foghorn, sans the name, was said to be originally developed based on a character from an LA radio station in the 1930s known as "The Sheriff". But if Foghorn was based solely on The Sheriff – then he changed. By his second or third appearance in cartoons almost all movie goers would immediately know that the loud mouthed chicken was a parody of the real Senator Beauregard Claghorn of South Carolina. That’s a joke, son! You know a funny!
Senator Claghorn was Kenny Delmar's very fictional character that appeared regularly on the Fred Allen show from 1945 through the end of the show in 1949. Delmar’s wildly popular character was bolstered by great writing and cast on Allen’s top ranked radio show of 1946-47season. Senator Claghorn appeared in a movie in 1947 titled “It’s a joke, Son”. Kenny Delmar played the Senator, or a derivation thereof, in numerous shows, commercials and Broadway. Mel Blanc was the original voice of Foghorn Leghorn although Delmar went on to voice several cartoon characters himself. Interestingly, Warner Brothers copyrighted Looney Tunes in the 1960’s and Kenny had to ask permission to use his old catch phrases thereafter.
Appropriately, the Yankee hating Senator Claghorn was created by a Yankee from Boston, MA. Now – that’s a joke, son! Kenny Delmar died in 1984 and is buried in Long Ridge Union Cemetery in Stamford, CT.
Back to Foghorn… as you can tell immediately when Warner Brothers got around to naming the loud-mouthed chicken - Foghorn Leghorn is more than just a little like Claghorn.
Listen for yourself to Kenny Delmar from the Fred Allen show.
FredAllen.wma
See the picture below of Delmar's grave stone.
What do you know about Foghorn Leghorn and his distinctive voice and oratory style? "Pay attention now, Boy! What, I say, now what do you know about Foghorn Leghorn?"
Well Foghorn, sans the name, was said to be originally developed based on a character from an LA radio station in the 1930s known as "The Sheriff". But if Foghorn was based solely on The Sheriff – then he changed. By his second or third appearance in cartoons almost all movie goers would immediately know that the loud mouthed chicken was a parody of the real Senator Beauregard Claghorn of South Carolina. That’s a joke, son! You know a funny!
Senator Claghorn was Kenny Delmar's very fictional character that appeared regularly on the Fred Allen show from 1945 through the end of the show in 1949. Delmar’s wildly popular character was bolstered by great writing and cast on Allen’s top ranked radio show of 1946-47season. Senator Claghorn appeared in a movie in 1947 titled “It’s a joke, Son”. Kenny Delmar played the Senator, or a derivation thereof, in numerous shows, commercials and Broadway. Mel Blanc was the original voice of Foghorn Leghorn although Delmar went on to voice several cartoon characters himself. Interestingly, Warner Brothers copyrighted Looney Tunes in the 1960’s and Kenny had to ask permission to use his old catch phrases thereafter.
Appropriately, the Yankee hating Senator Claghorn was created by a Yankee from Boston, MA. Now – that’s a joke, son! Kenny Delmar died in 1984 and is buried in Long Ridge Union Cemetery in Stamford, CT.
Back to Foghorn… as you can tell immediately when Warner Brothers got around to naming the loud-mouthed chicken - Foghorn Leghorn is more than just a little like Claghorn.
Listen for yourself to Kenny Delmar from the Fred Allen show.
FredAllen.wma
See the picture below of Delmar's grave stone.
Monday, January 11. 2010
Lean Manufacturing
Almost every segment of manufacturing is being affected by the downturn in the economy. Some are in a full crisis. I was at the site of a prospect two weeks ago. Their demand is low and their warehouse inventories are high. The manufacturing facility is running at about 25% of the capacity that is was only a year ago. Is this the time to put your head down, nose to the grindstone, work and tough this thing out saving every penny? Well I have to admit that is what most of us should do with our own personal spending - but is a manufacturing facility the same as your personal household?
I think not. A manufacturer makes money by producing and selling something. The manufacturer should be selling the unit for more than it cost to make it to be sustainable - but a manufacturer cannot save their way to profits. Cutting and saving leads to antiquated methods and the inability to adapt. A manufacturer must make their product and sell profitably in bad times as well as good. The opportunity that presents itself in lean times is to get good at producing exactly what will sell, when it will sell, at a cost lower than the selling price.
Let’s go back to our manufacturer that is at 25% of last year’s production levels. This manufacturer is doing a lot of things right. They are reducing the warehouse inventory, bringing work back into the plant from contract manufacturing, and they are running less and taking “Dark Days” where they shut down the factory for a week or more per quarter. But can they increase company profits by better manufacturing performance management to real-time metrics?
Probably. We can say yes or no definitely with a short study of a few items but here are three of their opportunities:
The company bought a new injection molding machine to bring work back into the plant. They need to get this machine working at nominal ratings for speed and quality as soon as possible and make it sustainable. A real-time performance system will do this very effectively and allow the manufacturer to sustain their performance.
The company can increase the efficiency of the manufacturing operation to keep production at its highest and take more down days saving labor and energy costs.
Finally, the manufacturer has a very good chance to use real-time performance management tools to measure and reduce change over times with the constraint machines on the line. This will allow the company to profitably schedule a higher mix of products on the lines. This is the ultimate solution for a manufacturer – produce the product that can sell quickly at a profit.
This is lean manufacturing. It is profitable in lean times and incredibly profitable in good times.
The question is will the ones trying to save their way to profits be able to compete with Lean operations when the economy picks up again?
I think not. A manufacturer makes money by producing and selling something. The manufacturer should be selling the unit for more than it cost to make it to be sustainable - but a manufacturer cannot save their way to profits. Cutting and saving leads to antiquated methods and the inability to adapt. A manufacturer must make their product and sell profitably in bad times as well as good. The opportunity that presents itself in lean times is to get good at producing exactly what will sell, when it will sell, at a cost lower than the selling price.
Let’s go back to our manufacturer that is at 25% of last year’s production levels. This manufacturer is doing a lot of things right. They are reducing the warehouse inventory, bringing work back into the plant from contract manufacturing, and they are running less and taking “Dark Days” where they shut down the factory for a week or more per quarter. But can they increase company profits by better manufacturing performance management to real-time metrics?
Probably. We can say yes or no definitely with a short study of a few items but here are three of their opportunities:
The company bought a new injection molding machine to bring work back into the plant. They need to get this machine working at nominal ratings for speed and quality as soon as possible and make it sustainable. A real-time performance system will do this very effectively and allow the manufacturer to sustain their performance.
The company can increase the efficiency of the manufacturing operation to keep production at its highest and take more down days saving labor and energy costs.
Finally, the manufacturer has a very good chance to use real-time performance management tools to measure and reduce change over times with the constraint machines on the line. This will allow the company to profitably schedule a higher mix of products on the lines. This is the ultimate solution for a manufacturer – produce the product that can sell quickly at a profit.
This is lean manufacturing. It is profitable in lean times and incredibly profitable in good times.
The question is will the ones trying to save their way to profits be able to compete with Lean operations when the economy picks up again?
Portable OEE System - LEANTrak(TM)
Portable Machine and Line Analysis Webinar:
Analysis and improvement of machine or line performance does not have to be difficult. LEANTrak™ is a tool that makes collecting, analyzing, and showing performance easy so that your professionals are using their time to improve the process.
Improving productivity (e.g., reduction of maintenance costs, set up & adjustments, cycle time, labor, energy consumption, and defects) is of great importance to all manufacturers. Without accurate information, it is nearly impossible to achieve this all-important business objective. Many manufacturers - while very interested - are concerned with the cost and impact associated with solutions that provide this type of information. Parsec's LEANTrak™ tackles this challenge head on.
Parsec's LEANTrak Mobile Productivity Solution is a portable package that is rapidly deployed without installation, wiring, programming, infrastructure changes, or production disruption. In minutes, LEANTrak allows users to set up the system through an intuitive configuration wizard (no programming required), and begin collecting and analyzing data. Learn how Parsec's LEANTrak solution can help you to:
• Benchmark productivity levels throughout the plant and enterprise
• Eliminate the root causes of costly production losses throughout the value chain
• Identify and rank opportunities for measurable improvement
• Qualify new equipment during factory acceptance testing
• Non-intrusively involve operators in productivity improvement
Analysis and improvement of machine or line performance does not have to be difficult. LEANTrak™ is a tool that makes collecting, analyzing, and showing performance easy so that your professionals are using their time to improve the process.
Improving productivity (e.g., reduction of maintenance costs, set up & adjustments, cycle time, labor, energy consumption, and defects) is of great importance to all manufacturers. Without accurate information, it is nearly impossible to achieve this all-important business objective. Many manufacturers - while very interested - are concerned with the cost and impact associated with solutions that provide this type of information. Parsec's LEANTrak™ tackles this challenge head on.
Parsec's LEANTrak Mobile Productivity Solution is a portable package that is rapidly deployed without installation, wiring, programming, infrastructure changes, or production disruption. In minutes, LEANTrak allows users to set up the system through an intuitive configuration wizard (no programming required), and begin collecting and analyzing data. Learn how Parsec's LEANTrak solution can help you to:
• Benchmark productivity levels throughout the plant and enterprise
• Eliminate the root causes of costly production losses throughout the value chain
• Identify and rank opportunities for measurable improvement
• Qualify new equipment during factory acceptance testing
• Non-intrusively involve operators in productivity improvement
GREEN Manufacturing
Real-time operational performance is a key to energy management and going GREEN in a manufacturing facility without major expense. Real-time performance systems like TrakSYS™ by Parsec Automation Corporation connect directly to existing control systems or to the real-time information via photo sensors, or even by operator entry. They read the information as it comes into the system and they execute the business rules configured in the TrakSYS™ model to calculate events and key performance indicators. Because the system is always looking for information and evaluating it against the model the system is producing real-time performance information as soon as data gets to the system from real-time controllers to operator entry.
The TrakSYS™ model is also configured to tell the system what to do with the events and key performance indicators. This information is shown in real-time web dashboards, trend charts, email, SMS and voice alerts, as well as reports. The system is built to provide actionable information for real-time correction of performance problems and reporting for analysis of raw material, product, operator and team performance over time as well.
A system like TrakSYS™ described above interfaces to any, and every, control system that the customer may have without adding additional cost to migrate to a single control system due to architecture or communication. Further, logic can be written and executed in TrakSYS™ so that the control systems of different manufacturers and of different generations do not have to be modified in order to accomplish the high level real-time performance management for a corporation. This has a side benefit in that regulated industries like Pharmaceuticals do not have to modify validated systems in order to do real-time operational performance management.
So – what has all of this to do with GREEN?
The manufacturing process is the user of energy and much of the energy use fluctuates proportionally with the production rate. Effective operation of a manufacturing facility is good business and the first step of GREEN manufacturing. Further, the same real-time manufacturing system, TrakSYS™, can also read real-time energy use from meters in the plant. It is very effective to see all forms of energy use such as steam, water, air, electrical use as function of operational rate, product, line, shift and more. In this way TrakSYS™ will be an effective tool to defining real payback for every energy initiative.
See a demo. http://www.sylution.com/promotions/LEANGREEN.htm
The TrakSYS™ model is also configured to tell the system what to do with the events and key performance indicators. This information is shown in real-time web dashboards, trend charts, email, SMS and voice alerts, as well as reports. The system is built to provide actionable information for real-time correction of performance problems and reporting for analysis of raw material, product, operator and team performance over time as well.
A system like TrakSYS™ described above interfaces to any, and every, control system that the customer may have without adding additional cost to migrate to a single control system due to architecture or communication. Further, logic can be written and executed in TrakSYS™ so that the control systems of different manufacturers and of different generations do not have to be modified in order to accomplish the high level real-time performance management for a corporation. This has a side benefit in that regulated industries like Pharmaceuticals do not have to modify validated systems in order to do real-time operational performance management.
So – what has all of this to do with GREEN?
The manufacturing process is the user of energy and much of the energy use fluctuates proportionally with the production rate. Effective operation of a manufacturing facility is good business and the first step of GREEN manufacturing. Further, the same real-time manufacturing system, TrakSYS™, can also read real-time energy use from meters in the plant. It is very effective to see all forms of energy use such as steam, water, air, electrical use as function of operational rate, product, line, shift and more. In this way TrakSYS™ will be an effective tool to defining real payback for every energy initiative.
See a demo. http://www.sylution.com/promotions/LEANGREEN.htm
Alarm Management
Visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral and you can see the Mission Control Center. A few years ago, we visited and stood in Mission Control as they did a dramatic reenactment of an Apollo launch. Prominent were the very large lighted Annunicator Panels that showed the stages of readiness to launch and any alarms.
These were exactly the old alarm panels that were used at the power company plants when I stared as a controls engineer in the early 1980’s. The alarm panels were hardwired to a switch or a relay to create an alarm. Back in those days we didn’t have lots of nuisance alarms but we didn’t have a way to report on the alarms or the sequence of alarms during an upset either.
I was among those that installed first and second generation Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). We were given the ability to easily create alarms – and boy we sure did! We engineers (along with operations managers) created the nuisance alarm. We have hurt the effectiveness of our operations and did a poor job of using the information from alarms to gain process understanding for a long time. Now, we have the tools to help us understand and improve the alarms that our operators depend upon and to use the alarm information to help our process engineers and managers understand the process and determine root-cause for problems.
TiPS Incorporated, one of our partner vendors, has a webinar tomorrow to help prospective clients understand dynamic alarming. The rest of this message is a copied from the TiPS email. Contact us at Sylution Incorporated and we can help you get signed up for this webinar.
Sylution Incorporated
Automatic Alarm Modification
Dynamic alarming is the automatic modification of alarms based on process state or conditions. These advanced methods are used when basic alarm designs do not achieve the performance goals stated in the alarm philosophy.
This educational webinar will present an overview of advanced process control using dynamic alarming.
State-Based Alarming
State-based alarming modifies alarm set point, priority or suppression status based on defined operating states for equipment or processes. Operating states are often determined by:
• Status of a logical variable
• Defined process variable which reaches a specific limit
• Logic that looks at many variables and indicators
• Operator selection
Management and Modelization Techniques
OASYS-AM provides a rich combination of tools and modelization techniques to implement models and state diagrams outside the DCS. These features allow building dynamic alarming systems where the system is aware of the state of any equipment and can automatically decide to shelve or unshelve alarms depending on the equipment state.
Benefits of Dynamic Alarm Reduction
The OASYS-AM dynamic alarming solution delivers significant benefits within only a few weeks:
• Reduce risk of human injury and incidents.
• Reduce cognitive load for the operators
• Avoid plant shutdown, lost product and associated costs
• Better understanding of current process state
• Avoid nuisance alarms, improved fault tracing
• Alarm reduction, reducing operator’s cognitive load
• Reduce risk of critical alarm miss, or acknowledge by mistake
TiPS and UReason Partner for Better Operator Awareness
LogMate® Alarm Management Software from TiPS, Incorporated is a complete alarm management infrastructure with facilities for archival, analysis, trending, reporting, change management, rationalization, and notification. The OASYS-AM Operator Advisory System from UReason is targeted at dynamic alarm reduction and operator advisory alerts, including play-back, pattern mining, rule induction, real-time cause-effect analysis, state detection, topology reasoning, and interactive decision trees.
These were exactly the old alarm panels that were used at the power company plants when I stared as a controls engineer in the early 1980’s. The alarm panels were hardwired to a switch or a relay to create an alarm. Back in those days we didn’t have lots of nuisance alarms but we didn’t have a way to report on the alarms or the sequence of alarms during an upset either.
I was among those that installed first and second generation Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). We were given the ability to easily create alarms – and boy we sure did! We engineers (along with operations managers) created the nuisance alarm. We have hurt the effectiveness of our operations and did a poor job of using the information from alarms to gain process understanding for a long time. Now, we have the tools to help us understand and improve the alarms that our operators depend upon and to use the alarm information to help our process engineers and managers understand the process and determine root-cause for problems.
TiPS Incorporated, one of our partner vendors, has a webinar tomorrow to help prospective clients understand dynamic alarming. The rest of this message is a copied from the TiPS email. Contact us at Sylution Incorporated and we can help you get signed up for this webinar.
Sylution Incorporated
Automatic Alarm Modification
Dynamic alarming is the automatic modification of alarms based on process state or conditions. These advanced methods are used when basic alarm designs do not achieve the performance goals stated in the alarm philosophy.
This educational webinar will present an overview of advanced process control using dynamic alarming.
State-Based Alarming
State-based alarming modifies alarm set point, priority or suppression status based on defined operating states for equipment or processes. Operating states are often determined by:
• Status of a logical variable
• Defined process variable which reaches a specific limit
• Logic that looks at many variables and indicators
• Operator selection
Management and Modelization Techniques
OASYS-AM provides a rich combination of tools and modelization techniques to implement models and state diagrams outside the DCS. These features allow building dynamic alarming systems where the system is aware of the state of any equipment and can automatically decide to shelve or unshelve alarms depending on the equipment state.
Benefits of Dynamic Alarm Reduction
The OASYS-AM dynamic alarming solution delivers significant benefits within only a few weeks:
• Reduce risk of human injury and incidents.
• Reduce cognitive load for the operators
• Avoid plant shutdown, lost product and associated costs
• Better understanding of current process state
• Avoid nuisance alarms, improved fault tracing
• Alarm reduction, reducing operator’s cognitive load
• Reduce risk of critical alarm miss, or acknowledge by mistake
TiPS and UReason Partner for Better Operator Awareness
LogMate® Alarm Management Software from TiPS, Incorporated is a complete alarm management infrastructure with facilities for archival, analysis, trending, reporting, change management, rationalization, and notification. The OASYS-AM Operator Advisory System from UReason is targeted at dynamic alarm reduction and operator advisory alerts, including play-back, pattern mining, rule induction, real-time cause-effect analysis, state detection, topology reasoning, and interactive decision trees.
