Data Structuring/ Normalization and Validation the Hidden Key to Unified Information Solution!!!

For the last 2 weeks I have been on the road, sorry just did not get to updating blog, but a constant discussion topic that keeps coming up. “How to truly build a Unified Information system that allows a view across their industrial/ production assets, and the ability to compare, and understand current state, capacity and performance quickly and easily.”

People have tried the intelligence, information semantic products which layer on top and bring valuable representation of information, but while the semantic information is a critical role, and aligns data silos, it is only as good as the data.

When discussing strategies with companies in Upstream oil and gas, Mining, Metals, Refining, Power, Water Utilities, and a common theme is the need to get data structuring/ normalization and key is validation of data.

One person commented last week “we cannot just take all the data from our existing SCADA systems/ historians and bring it to central historian due to no alignment, lack of consistent context, and data validation!”

The problem is not just about aligning data for access, the goal today is to make decisions not just about one process or plant but timely decisions across multiple sites. To achieve this it is not just about gathering existing data, as one set of engineers put it, we need to normalized data this means units and measures been aligned for one. They are putting unifying storage systems but they spend a lot of time going to the source of actual data, and then structuring and normalizing measures. Today this is being done in the control layer and supervisory layer. It is also key that the existing running systems on a plant are not disrupted, so the risk to changing these running systems in these systems is way too high. 

In one case a customer talked about 16 versions of one measure across 14 plants. This same story comes all the time, so the questions is how to achieve a result that does not threaten the existing sites, especially when the challenge today is not in a plant but across sites. These sites have been put in at different times with different systems, and often different objectives.

The key is to look at a layer that allows:

·         cross site administration/ configuration e.g. a distributed system

·         ability establish standards for asset structures / kpis / measures/ units, with the ability to centrally administer these standards and enforce governance

·         ability data collect from both real time and historical data stores

·         ability to set up in these structures validation rules that will validate the captured data to trusted before storage

·         distributed data capture and ability to store locally and aggregate providing data integrity.

The key is a 3 layer solution:

• A data collection platform that can be phyically be distributed but centrally managed with standards governance, providing data structure, intellignece, and validation as close to the source as possible. So that different process/ plant data both realtime and historiacl can be aligned across this common namespace.
• A storage layer that the platform now propagates this now normalized information into one or multiple distributed storage historians, providing a consistent information storage across these different control/ automation systems.
• A unifying information layer with a semantic capability to allow this unified storage + the operational storages from different systems to be aligned. 

These three layers enable success as a team, not any one of them, if you are looking for unified information system that can be trusted, so decisions in the now can be made.

Warehouse Execution System Opportunity for Different Approach Using a Platform

 

Last week I worked for a day with exciting team of System Integrators who are in the MES space, one is old friend from South Africa who has moved to Australia. The attitude is great, “we will have a go”, so we discussed and visited a customer site around the possible opportunity for Warehouse Execution System, running in conjunction with Warehouse Management System (usually in the ERP system).

People look at me sideways when I talk Warehouse, but in the manufacturing environment distribution and therefore warehousing is key, and actually moving away from storage to real time re-alignment of distribution.  You may ask what does that mean? The more and more we align value assets (manufacturing/ production sites) from single  running identities (islands, Profit and loss centers) to aligned Value Assets, you will see inventory drop, cash increase, and this can only become a reality be changing the warehouse to production like facility vs just a storage system.

This requires an Execution System to work in conjunction with the Warehouse Management System to really enable real-time execution, optimization, and streamlining within the facility, and more and more across multiple facilities. I was encouraged to have a good discussion around this last week, and saw the opportunity to leverage the new technologies available to enable this WES to become a reality that is manageable.

 The traditional execution systems that come with Warehouse Systems are just not flexible and certainly have no concept of multiple warehouse alignment. In the past I have implemented MES but the challenge is integration with the automation world especially relative to locations, and then the different operational procedures different sites have and shifts have.

But today we seeing:

·         Need to real-time alignment with execution on the warehouse, including location health awareness.

·         Traceability within the warehouse

·         Optimization in storing and picking so that minimal times are required and maximum flexibility.

·         The desire for enforcement of operational practices across shifts and sites, needing standards management over sites.

·         The alignment of multiple warehouses and manufacturing / production facilities

So when applying today’s technologies and approaches:

·         The System Platform for real-time interaction, the ability to develop intelligent objects that represent equipment and locations so these can become exception based on health, as well providing a consistent set of transactional triggers for MES. Whilst also providing a distributed platform over multiple sites with these standards being managed over the sites.

·         MES providing the routing and inventory management and tracking and product definition rules

·         Workflow combined with the forms User interface to provide a Model Driven Operational Composite Framework. So task/ activity related User Interfaces with built in operational procedures can be developed and managed  across sites. This provides a sustainable / configurable environment for developing these unique operational procedures. A key capability is to monitor and analyze these procedures to continue to see where bottle necks are, and tune the procedures to increase human operational inter-action efficiency.

The key is the introduction of the platform as a sustainable real-time interaction and trigger system, and the Workflow composite framework to again provide a sustainable environment for procedure User Interface development.

Food for thought!!!!!

Last week I worked for a couple of days with an exciting team of System Integrators who are in the MES space, one is old friend from South Africa who has moved to Australia. The attitude is great, “we will have a go”, so we discussed and visited a customer site around the possible opportunity for Warehouse Execution System, running in conjunction with Warehouse Management System (usually in the ERP system).

People look at me sideways when I talk Warehouse, but in the manufacturing environment distribution and therefore warehousing is key, and actually moving away from storage to real time re-alignment of distribution.  You may ask what does that mean? The more and more we align value assets (manufacturing/ production sites) from single  running identities (islands, Profit and loss centers) to aligned Value Assets, you will see inventory drop, cash increase, and this can only become a reality be changing the warehouse to production like facility vs just a storage system.

This requires an Execution System to work in conjunction with the Warehouse Management System to really enable real-time execution, optimization, and streamlining within the facility, more and more across multiple facilities. I was encouraged to have a good discussion around this last week, with the opportunity to leverage the new technologies available to enable this WES to become a reality that is manageable.

The traditional execution systems that come with Warehouse Systems are just not flexible and certainly have no concept of multiple warehouse alignment.
In the past I have implemented MES but the challenge is integration with the automation world especially relative to locations, and then the different operational procedures different sites have and shifts have.