Tracking Production Efficiency with Custom Application?

[SNK]

I have been requested to look at developing an application that would display that "current" status of a job, primarily to Sups and Management. Management has determined that this "may" be able to be developed -in-house.

Our production facility users basically follow SOP's (or Standard Operating Procedures) in order to complete tasks. In most cases, the tasks must be completed in the EXACT same order, and during a certain timeframe. Our Management wants to be able to determine if the task is taking too long, or what the current task is.

I am not a software developer.

I can however write PLC code and deveop HMI applications.

My first thought was, to use a simple PLC, and an HMI to display States, each entered into by either timers elapsing or a manual button being depressed, leaving one state and entering another.

This display must be forwarded to a LARGE display board of some sort.

My question is simply....

Is there software out there already that would do this kind of thing, or am I looking at building something in-house?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[surferb]

I've never heard of such an application - probably more of an "in house" special. In any event, you will probably need to do some database work in the back end and probably some scripting. Avoid the temptation to write code from scratch and leverage tools that you're already familiar with as applicable.

FactoryPMI would be an ideal candidate for such work for a few reasons: managers/supes need to pull it up easily (web launched), it can display nicely to large LCD TVs via a high quality DVI/HDMI connection, and you can take that next step to "higher level" reports/trends/etc that are driven by your database.

A few questions/points:
1. How do you determine how long a task should take?
2. Don't try to maintain state with timers and such. You'll do much better storing date/time fields in a database.

 

[Stephen Luft]

Are we talking about generating information at the machine level and going back to the managment database (SQL, Oracle)?

Basically, the PLC would generate the information and then you would need to get the information from point A to point B.

Point A = Machine
Point B = Management Software

If you already have a wired (Ethernet) structure, then you should be able to send information from the machine to the server.

However, if you don't have connectivity already, then you will have to create it. Going wired will be costly, both from a manhour point and wire point.

We work with a company that does event capture with our embedded controllers interfacing through a wireless device that utilizes the 802.11 standard. Here is a link to the device I spoke of...

http://www.entertron.com/serial_to_wireless.htm

It will also be possible to have an HMI at the machine with the information as well as the wireless to the company server. We just quote a job that will do both.

If this is what you are looking to accomplish, we can put together a solution for your company. You would probably be able to do most of it inhouse if that is your desire.

You can contact me through the links below. If you email, reference this thread.

Hope this helps.

God Bless,

 

[SNK]

Thanks for your responses.

We currently have no-machine system that I would be connecting to.

This is a purely-seperate system, USER EVENT based, not machine event based.

It will NEVER be tied into the manufacturing system. It is to be for information purposes only, and in our business, it is very difficult to make change, due to FDA regulations.

We do have a large Ethernet system currently, but it was made very clear that all systems are "stand-alone".

It is more of a "Task" tracking system. Sups want to monitor if the employees are "on-track" with respect to time allocated per task.

 

[parky]

Do a search for bespoke displays, I have used a number of large displays made specificaly for the job, I believe the company was BSB Electronics, dependant on the plc used & if it is capable of sending ascii strings out of a comms module or port you could drive it from the plc.
Example is a mitsi or AB with 232 comms card, create a program that copies the protocol into registers & fire these across to the display.
The last one I used had 5 displays incorporated in it, time, machine speed, stopped time, run time parts made.
Each of the displays were configured with an address of 1 to 5 so the string sent was STX,1(display 1)1039(time 10:39)Checksum,cr then STX,2,10,checksum,cr for stopped time & so on
& it polled the address & data every second so total update was 5 seconds however this could be shrtened if a quicker updae time would be required.

 

[baref00t25]

Not sure if this system would fit your needs or not.
http://www.operonsystems.com/RedHawk/
I've worked at a couple of places that have put this in and they swear by it.

 

[STL???]

Have a look at Redlion - Particularly the G3 HMI or Datastation which can be connected to a BFD over RS485:
http://www.redlion.net/Products/Groups/LargeDisplays/G3BFDM/Docs/08012.pdf