Automated Reporting

LessThanThree

Member
Join Date
Jul 2014
Location
Wisconsin
Posts
32
New management team at my company is making a big push for automated reporting and OEE. They are also don't want to make any major capital purchases.

For our newer systems I have no problem interfacing with the plcs and pulling the data I need out of them.

However, I'm trying to figure out what to do with those few remaining older systems. The ones that don't have network capabilities or only have relay logic. We also have completely manual operations where display cases are built by hand.

I'm considering the idea of building a standalone cabinet with just a few sensors to count the number of products/rejects and when they were produced. I would read the data out of these system every few minutes to feed our reporting system which I also built and have complete control over.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

This arduino based plc looked promising. I'm just not sure if/how I could pull data out of it.
https://www.automationdirect.com/ad...s/open_source_controllers_(arduino-compatible)
 
"I'm considering the idea of building a standalone cabinet with just a few sensors to count the number of products/rejects and when they were produced. I would read the data out of these system every few minutes to feed our reporting system which I also built and have complete control over.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?"

Adding another PLC / controller would be the best thing to do. I had to do the same thing for some older lines.
A small PLC like the Productivity 1000 or Click PLC would give you the ability to collect data using Modbus TCP / RTU or Ethernet IO.

The communication that you would like to use would determine the PLC selection.

I hope this helps you out.
Regards,
 
What ever you do, DO NOT let corporate have access to the plant production systems data bases, sql tables! give them the ability to see production via web pages. the information on those pages comes from your data bases, scada, or plc's.

if management ever gets their hands on the plant machinery and data tables, they will change timers, counters, setpoints, and critical data setpoints and create a big mess. the interface lets them see production and not the ability to change anything.

james
 
There are many ways to get information from machinery that do not have ethernet or are relay based or the supplier will not release plc code & have locked the code.
First of all, have a few small plc's as sort of data concentrators. i.e. they either communicate via local coms, have I/O for sensors on the machines etc and have ethernet link up to a Scada or data collection system. Often Ethernet to 232/422 converters can be used to extract information from plc's or instruments that do not support ethernet using ethernet encapsulation.
 
I don't know what production environment in but most pack based production lines have sensors on each machine indeed and out feed, if you put an interface relay on the sensor output wire then use the contacts to input to another production data collecting plc. Depends how fast your packs are coming past the sensors, you may need a photo electric relay rather than mechanical relay, saves you putting in extra sensors etc
 
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