Clearly accountable: FMA clarify the benefits of embracing MES technology.

From their offices in Lichfield, FMA Process Engineering have become industry experts in the provision of real time data collection for the UK and overseas brewery, soft drinks, dairy and food production industries. This has been achieved via the delivery of control system packages designed to provide vital process data at shop floor level, right through to vertically structured systems encompassing SCADA, Management Execution Systems (MES) and interfacing with complex Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) across multiple production sites.

Tools for manufacturing management, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) consist of relational computer software applications that provide a real-time view of manufacturing operations while providing seamless integration of real-time data with information systems such as Production Planning, Inventory and Shop Floor Control Systems. Their real value results in data that is automatically converted into "actionable information" that can then be used for improved decision making at all levels of the manufacturing enterprise.

Embracing MES software technology brings high levels of reporting and accuracy to process operations. Delivering real-time data, MES can be used to increase operator responsibility, simplify reporting by automatic shop floor data capture, enable operators to monitor numerous machines, and permit real-time quality performance checking. Product changeovers can be better implemented and planned. Downtime events can be precisely recorded. Product traceability becomes a simple batch-tracking function and production certificates can be substantiated by batch records.

A suite of intelligent applications for management execution, analysis and plant and process optimisation, a properly integrated MES reporting system will deliver all the necessary production data, thus enabling the individual management team to act on it accordingly.

Prior to employing MES, it is important to decide the degree of information that the system is to deliver. Processes and required raw data must be considered, along with when best to collect it and what conclusions need to be achieved. Whether data will be collected--at operator (PLC) or SCADA--must also be decided. And it is important to allow for the inevitable disruptions to the production line during the installation, testing and simulation phases.

With the ability to acquire then act upon accurate and timely process data being increasingly seen as a key requirement in virtually any production environment, the deployment of MES technology can certainly reap dividends.

Manufacturers can capture vital plant information by both time and manufacturing occurrences in order to analyse precisely a chain of events that led to a particular process, operation or production failure. Process operators and shop floor managers gain the ability to review in real time the actual status of any particular stage of a process, while senior managers are empowered with a whole range of plant-wide Key Performance Indicators. By analysing a whole range of relevant, ongoing plant data, such as energy consumption, volumes of process steam of water consumed, process line status, along with production line and laboratory information, overall plant efficiency can be reviewed and decisions effecting productivity, reduced downtime, wastage and product quality made immediately.

Contact FMA Process Engineering Ltd on tel: [phone] or visit: www.fma.uk.com