Do you want greater visibility into your production process? What are the questions you should ask?
As a child, I was encouraged to ask the five Ws. They were Who, What, Why, When, Where and How. 
(Yes, that’s right, there’s actually 6, and one is not really a W!) Business training tells us to ask the 5 Whys. That is, ask why, then ask why again, then keep asking it until you get to the bottom of the real reason why. Both the 5Ws and the 5 whys are useful tools for most activities in life.
When designing systems intended to give you visibility or 
insight into your manufacturing systems, you need to ask the three Ws. The three most important questions to ask, in order, are Who, What, and then Why. The answers 
will affect what system you need to implement. For example, operators need to know different things to managers; different departments have different criteria and therefore different data needs. Therefore, they need it presented differently. When you ask the following questions, you can provide the correct solution: 
Who needs to know what? Why do they need the information? What outcome are they seeking?
The modern trend in most SCADA systems is Situational Awareness (SA), which emphasises placing information in context and highlighting the abnormal. It is excellent for personnel at the line level who have direct control over equipment, but it is a long way from the needs of the quality department or other supporting activities. They will want SPC charts, historical information, and spreadsheets. If you want to know more about SA, see our article, How to improve plant operations through better visualisation.
Once you ask Who and Why, you can make more suitable decisions about the How. The solution may be hard wiring, PLC, DCS, HMI, SCADA, MES, Database, Phone App, Web Application, IoT, Cloud, or something else. These days, the multitude of choices is incredible.
Some examples:
- We recently put in a system that had no visibility
other than a green indicator light (On) and red indicator light (Fault). At first, it sounds primitive and ‘behind the times’, but there was no need for anyone to know anything else. - We visited a customer requesting us to put in a SCADA system. With a system labelled HMI already installed on-site, operators could access the information for any machine from various terminals. Effectively, a SCADA was already in place. (Incidentally, one of the nicer ones I’ve seen.) They were after KPI information and overall line status/progress for managers. The installation of an MES would meet their requirements better.
- Another customer wanted to install a second independent SCADA to act as a gateway between the cloud and production PCs. The gateway concept makes sense, especially from a cybersecurity point of view. Alternatively, an OPC server, edge device, or other solution would offer the same security, improved performance, and reduced engineering/cost.
- We recently put in a system that had no visibility
If you want to increase your visibility into production or have digitisation needs, the earlier you involve us in your discussions, the more we will be able to assist you in implementing the most suitable solution. Call us today on 0387511579 to discuss your requirements.
