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The Next Generation of Manufacturing Automation

Its All About Productivity

A White Paper

Entivity, Inc.

Ann Arbor, MI 48108

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This paper will discuss the productivity factor

within the smart factory, and how PC-based

control users are able to drive productivityacross the entire automation system. PC-based

control users are gaining competitive advantages

which dramatically affect the time it takes to get

a new system to market, lower the control

system design costs, and increase the up-time of

equipment.

Lets face it. Its not getting any easier out

there. The macro-economic world has changed

considerably from the early 1970s to today, as

we face the turn of the century. In the 70s and

early 80s, inefficiencies in manufacturing could

be more easily hidden by price increases

attributed to inflation. Today, were seeing

mergers and acquisitions all around us, resulting

in more and more economic buying power

moving into fewer and fewer hands. Price

increases in manufactured products are not only

unacceptable, but can result in a significant loss

of business and customers.

Suppliers are being forced to sign contracts with

their customers that guarantee annual price

decreases every year for five years. Across the

board, manufacturers are being driven to cut

prices to their customers. If you cant do it, there

is a competitor somewhere in the world ready to

take away your business at a lower price.

Inefficiencies across the board are brutally

punished in the market place. Manufacturers

must find ways to continually cut costs or face

downsizing and perhaps the closing of their

organization. As a result, manufacturers are

driving out inefficiencies across the entire

supply chain. They are examining every aspect

of their business, from the point of supply to the

delivery and installation to the customers end

product. Investments are being made in systems

that drive higher levels of productivity in the

supply chain, production scheduling and

planning, and production data collection.

OEM Equipment manufacturers and system

integrators are also being driven to become more

efficient. Equipment suppliers and integrators

are finding themselves more frequently facing

fixed price, turnkey projects - with very few

ways to differentiate their offerings. Competitors

are buying the same hardware at similar

discounts. Engineering costs are increasing at a

rapid rate, and OEMs are finding themselves

more frequently in the high risk, low reward

business.

Time-to-market also remains a critical factor in

the success of a new product launch. Its often

said that the first 6 months in any new product

release represents up to 50% of a new products

total profit contributions to the corporation.

With all of these pressures, manufacturers and

OEMs alike are asking: How can we increase

our manufacturing productivity? As they ask

these questions, they are finding their traditional

The Next Generation of Manufacturing Automation: Its All About Productivity 2

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legacy control systems, based on 30-year-old

PLC technology, are the bottleneck to improving

their manufacturing productivity.

The Manufacturing Hierarchy

In the traditional view of the manufacturing

system hierarchy shown in Figure 1, enterprise

& supply chain management have been the key

focus of the ERP systems that sit at the top of

the hierarchy. These systems provide a financial

and management view into the operations,

suppliers, and customers. The goal of these

systems is to provide the tools to optimize the

financial returns to the corporation and manage

the supply chain activity as efficiently as

possible.

ERP

MES

Automation

Enterprise & Supply Chain Management

Manufacturing Scheduling & Planning

Manufacturing Automation

Figure 1. The Manufacturing System Hierarchy

Production planning and scheduling has been the

key focus of the Manufacturing Execution

Systems (MES) which represent the next layer

down. MES systems provide the tools to

optimize the use of internal manufacturing assets

by effectively planning and scheduling the

manufacturing operations.

At the bottom of the hierarchy is the automation

system - responsible for machine control,

production automation, and equipment

efficiency (machine uptime). Until 5 years ago,

little attention had been paid to improving the

legacy automation systems. There were enough

fires to fight at other layers in the model. But as

money has been invested to drive better supply

chain management and better production

planning systems, improving the automation

efficiency has gained the attention of many

manufacturing executives.

To understand why, lets take a look at the

manufacturing hierarchy from the perspective of

information and product flow. Through the

systems over time, we see how the functions of

the manufacturing hierarchy play together in a

sequence of delivering product to the customer

(see Figure 2.)

ERP MES Automation MES ERP

Supply Chain Efficiency

Internal Scheduling Efficiency

Production Efficiency

Figure 2. Product and Information Flow through theManufacturing Systems

The manufacturing organization is bracketed

with the supply chain management tools, to

manage the relationships and product flow

between the manufacturer and its suppliers and

customers. The next layer represents the MES

layer which manages the internal scheduling

efficiencies up front, to optimize the use of an

organizations production assets to meet

production schedules and provide the greatest

ROI. On the back side, the MES system gathers

production data, compares it against

expectations, and adjusts the scheduling and

planning to assure the customer requirements for

volume, delivery, and quality are being met.


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Automation sits right smack in the middle of the

product and information flow model. End-to-end

delivery is dramatically affected by the

efficiency of the automation infrastructure. The

ability to deliver product efficiently and share

production information with the rest of the

enterprise is directly dependent on the

automation infrastructure. In many cases,

however, the automation system is based on 30-

year-old legacy technology. This technology is

neither productive nor efficient.

The Automation Infrastructure

The legacy automation infrastructure used by

many manufacturers and OEMs is based on the

Programmable Logic Controller or PLC. PLCs

were developed in the late 1960s to replace

relay-based automation systems. Early in their

existence, these microprocessor-based hardware

platforms were sold as solid state controllers

to alleviate the fears of using computers on the

factory floor and keep the MIS department out

of the production environment.

While the PLC was an excellent tool in the

1970s and 1980s for replacing relay-based

automation systems, it wasnt designed with the

automation requirements of the 1990s in mind.

The traditional programming language used for

PLCs (called relay ladder logic) is a drawing of

electrical circuit diagrams that emulate the relay

circuits used to control machines in the 1950s

and 1960s. While PLC-based ladder logic

programming does a great job emulating the

technology of the 1950s, PLC designers never

anticipated the need to interface to more

advanced automation systems.

Todays systems require a whole new level of

automation and interface into equipment and

tools that simply werent available even 5 years

ago. They can take advantage of a new

automation infrastructure that can drive

productivity, and increase return on

manufacturing assets.

ERP MES PLC-based Automation MES ERP

PC-basedAutomation

Figure 3. PC-based Control Drives AutomationProductivity

These include automation systems that must

integrate motion control to manipulate or move

parts in production, vision inspection systems to

assure quality, as well as bar code and RF tag

readers to identify and track components for

quality and historical reasons.

Many of todays automation systems require

graphical displays to interact with operators,

serial port interfaces into an interface to smart

devices, or network interfaces to smart I/O

devices that can describe themselves, and

diagnose themselves as fault conditions occur.

Manufacturers have found operator-level

diagnostics can deliver a higher return on assets

by telling the operator how to recover the


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machine and get the equipment back into

production as quickly as possible to keep

production running.

Todays automation systems require functions

that PLCs perform with great difficulty. PLC-

based systems incur high programming expense,

deliver poor flexibility and inhibit an

environment for continuous process

improvement. PLCs once promoted as the core

of islands of automation are now considered

barriers to the information required in today's

smart factory. Data connectivity requirements

across the enterprise demand that manufacturers

look for other solutions.

The Next Generation Automation

Infrastructure: PC-based Control

PC-based control directly addresses todays

automation system requirements. The smart

factory can take advantage of an entirely new

automation infrastructure, and gain a whole newlevel of manufacturing productivity. By

leveraging the economies of scale from the $200

billion PC industry and focusing on

productivity, amazing results have been

achieved by both OEM equipment providers and

manufacturers.

PC-based control consolidates into a single

platform with a single database, replacing what

had previously been accomplished with up to 5

separate PLC system components and 5 different

databases. This eliminates significant hardware

costs ad the configuration workload required to

design automation systems. The PC becomes

the hub of the smart factory, tying all control

components into a single platform as shown in

Figure 4.

PLC

Operator

Station

Input/OutputModules

ProgrammingPC

Cell Control

PC

testing widgets

32passed

0failed

MotionController

testingwidgets

32passed

0failed

SteeplechasePC-based Controller

Figure 4. PC-based Control Integrates Multiple PLCComponents into a Single PC.

With PC-based control and the advances made

in graphical programming languages the

productivity and efficiency of the automation

infrastructure has been dramatically enhanced.

Flow Chart Programming

PC-based control is far more than emulating a

PLC on a PC. When given a tool set which

includes both traditional ladder logic and flow

chart programming tools, over 90% of users

design their systems with flow chart

programming.

Why? Flow chart programming goes well

beyond the boundaries of ladder logic. It allows

the user to focus on the process. More powerful

design and maintenance tools speeddevelopment, provide self-documenting

programs, and automate the development of

operator level diagnostics.

The end result: users leveraging PC-based

control with flow chart programming are cutting


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their design times by 50 to 75%, cutting their

times to market by 50%, and impacting

equipment downtime anywhere from 10 to 90%

depending on their process.

Flow charts offer a unifying approach to

automation programming and integrate the entire

range of automation functions into a single

programming environment that is easy to use

and understand. Flow charts can integrate

functions such as motion control, bar code and

RF identification, vision systems, operator

interface and robot control into a single

programming environment as shown in Figure 5.

MotionMotion

Bar CodeBar Code

VisionVision

RF TagsRF Tags

OITOIT

I/OI/O

RobotRobot

Smart I/OSmart I/O

DiagnosticsDiagnostics

DataConnectivity

DataConnectivity

Figure 5. Flowcharts Unify the Functions of anAutomation System

Interfaces to smart I/O can pull diagnostic

information from sensors, actuators, or other

intelligent devices by simply adding a single

block to the flow chart. Complex data handling

such as sorting algorithms, which could take

weeks to program in a PLC ladder logic, become

simple and straight forward with flow chart

programming and can be programmed in hours.

Operator Level Diagnostics The Key to

Increasing Uptime

Because most manufacturing equipment

involves some form of mechanical operations,

faults, jams, and failures are inevitable. One keyto lowering the equipment downtime is to lower

the overall MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) by

quickly diagnosing, repairing and restarting a

faulted piece of equipment as fast as possible.

The faster a piece of equipment can be

recovered, the lower the downtime, and by

definition the higher the utilization capacity and

return on assets (ROA) on any given piece ofequipment.

Operator level diagnostics are extremely

difficult and expensive to design with PLC

ladder logic and are almost impossible to keep

up to date as the system changes. With

diagnostic management tools available with flow

chart programming, engineers can quickly

design machine diagnostics. Diagnostics can be

built into the control program to automatically

diagnose equipment faults and provide the

operator with repair, recovery, and restart

instructions through HTML-based graphical

instructions. Machine diagnostics become as

easy as 1, 2, and 3:

1. Take digital pictures of the recovery

process.

2. Create HTML pages linking digital

pictures and operator recovery

instructions into a logic fault recovery


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sequence using off-the-shelf tools such

as Microsofts PowerPoint.

3. Link the HTML file through a

Diagnostic Wizard inside the flow chart.

When an error occurs on the machine or during

the process, the operator is immediately

informed of the fault, and provided with

graphical fault recovery tools to bring the

machine on-line as quickly as possible. An

example fault recovery screen is shown in

Figure 6.

Figure 6 Diagnostic Tools Provide Operator Repairand Recovery Instructions

Crossing Organizational Boundaries to

Improve the Process

Another driver behind the rapid adoption of flow

chart programming is the capability to cross

organizational boundaries. Beyond the controls

engineers and electricians, flow charts are also

easily understood by IT managers, process

engineers, mechanical engineers, right down to

the operator.

Process

EngineerProcessEngineer

Mechanical

EngineerMechanicalEngineer

Control

EngineerControl

EngineerElectricianElectrician MechanicMechanic OperatorOperator

IT

ManagerIT

Manager

Ladder Logic

Flow Chart Programming

Figure 7. Flow Chart Programming crosses a numberof Functional Boundaries

Where traditional PLC ladder logic is

understood by the controls engineer and the

electrician, the upstream IT manager, process

engineer, and mechanical engineers are rarely

able understand the cryptic circuit diagram

programming. Down stream, neither the

mechanical skilled tradesman nor the operator

can understand the operation though ladder

logic. If the truth is known, rarely can the

controls engineer or electrician reconstruct a

high level view of the actual machine operation

through ladder logic.

Flow charts cross the traditional functional

boundaries of a manufacturing organization

because they have the ability to be easilyunderstood by all. With the tools to easily access

data locally and remotely over the network

through the Microsoft DNA architecture, access

to production data can now be easily handled by

an organizations IT group.

A number of OEMs mechanical and process

engineers are using flow chart programming

tools to specify the system design and sequence

of operations. Once the sequence of operations

is defined, the flow chart outline of the process

is turned over to the controls engineer to fill out

the control logic details.


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Flow chart programming also provides the

capability for the mechanical and process

engineers and skilled tradesmen to understand

exactly how the machine or process is being

controlled. A self-documenting set of flow

charts can be as intuitive to read as a graphical

trouble-shooting guide. Mechanical and

electrical technicians are able to easily maintain

and troubleshoot a failed machine by monitoring

flow charts which are highlighted step-by-step

as the machine executes.

Flow chart programming users also achieve an

unexpected benefit: the tools to continuously

improve their process. Flow charts graphically

document the automation process and make it

easy to understand. This allows manufacturing

and controls engineers to shift their focus from

integrating multiple legacy controllers, multiple

databases and complex programming tools, to

focus on improving the manufacturing process,

cutting cycle times, and improving equipment

throughput.

Its All About Productivity.

Cutting design times, launch time and time to

market, and reducing equipment downtime - all

lead to higher profitability and a competitive

advantage in the market place.

PC-based control has quickly been adopted by

mainstream manufacturers and OEM machine

builders across the board. Consider the results

seen by the following users:

ABB Industrial Systems retrofitted a legacy

control system for cigarette assembly machines

with PC-based control and flow chart

programming. The end result: they cut their

system design time from 72 man-months of

engineering time to 14 man-months and 80%

savings in engineering design costs, cut their

time to market from 2 years to 7 months - a 66%

reduction, and increased uptime by an additional

33%.

DaimlerChryslercut the launch time on a new

transmission assembly line from 360 days for

their best ever PLC installation to 30 days for

their first major installation of PC-based control

using flow chart programming. The equipment

itself was delivered to DaimlerChrysler 13

weeks ahead of an equivalent PLC-based line

(see Figure 8.)

Figure 8. DaimlerChrysler 70-Node PC-based ControlTransmission Assembly Line

Honda of America cut the average machine

recovery time from 20 minutes using traditional

PLC systems to less than 2 minutes by

leveraging the strength of diagnostics with flow

chart programming.


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Alvey Inc. reduced system design time by 50%

on their PC-based gantry robot palletizer

equipment, compared to a previous PLC design.

At the same time, they were able to incorporate

user-level diagnostics that were not possible in a

PLC system.

General Motors, working together withEDS,

leveraged the enterprise-wide data connectivity

to drive set up time from an average of 45

minutes down to 10 minutes with a one-button

changeover, where recipe information is directly

downloaded from the MIS system (see Figure

9.)

Figure 9. Information directly downloaded from theMIS System at a GM Installation

Ingersoll-Rands Johnstone Pump Division

abandoned four months of effort attempting to

design a system with traditional IEC-1131 based

PLC tools, and redesigned the entire control

system in 4 weeks using flow chart

programming tools. At the same time, Johnstone

Pump was able to develop a key differentiating

feature with built-in diagnostics on all of their

standard equipment.

Automation can once again be a key competitive

weapon in the rapidly changing manufacturing

environment. Manufacturers, OEMs, and

system integrators are all leveraging next

generation PC-based control tools with flow

chart programming to get a higher level of

productivity from their automation systems. By

cutting their design costs time to market, and

equipment downtime, and gaining access to real-

time production data, they have been able to

develop higher levels of efficiencies in

manufacturing that could not be achieved with

their legacy control systems.


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