Continuous control
Control must be achieved on both a micro
and a macro scale to fully see the benefits
of continuous production. On the more
micro production focused level there are, for
example, soft starters, motor controls and
power quality applications. These will make
sure that the critical systems run smoothly
and are protected from power surges or sags.
To this extent, ABB provides a full suite of
automation for implementing continu-ous
production.
Continuous systems benefit larger automated
facilities with many pieces of automation.
These are, however, also challenging to
control on a macro scale because with many
different pieces of automation working
simultaneously keeping track of all these
parts can be a daunting task. They also
generate vast quantities of data, that when
analyzed can give detailed insight into
production that can help improve the system.
For this reason, it is important to have
a strong manufacturing operation
management (MOM) software in place.
MOM software is crucial for proper control
over large systems, the software will be
able to collate the data from all pieces
of automation and analyze it. This data
processing allows operation managers gain
insight into the overall working and health of
their plant.
This insight will not only help the to
continuously improve production methods by
showing how processes can be streamlined
but also create an easy method to begin
implementing predictive maintenance. Once
set up, it can allow operation managers
to understand how to optimize the micro
automation to benefit the macro scale of the
operation.
Continuous production methods have come
a long way since the start of mechanization.
The level of control that can now be
achieved allows for extremely complex
tasks to be carried out without the need
of stop-start batch processes. This reduces
overhead and makes production more
cost-effective. However, at the same time the
complexity of modern food and beverage
production requires installing quality pieces
of automation is paramount to making
continuous production the right choice.
www.abb.com
Issue 41 PECM
59