Rethinking the cloud to enable enterprise operations and engineering

Mariana Dionisio, DeltaV product marketing director, explains how advanced cloud-hosted software solutions enable organizations to create efficiencies in project engineering and operations, resulting in optimized processes and lower costs. 

Over the past decade, the cloud has become synonymous with large-scale data storage, software distribution and more recently, attempts at ‘big data analytics’. Now, thanks to greater network communications responsiveness, software innovation and redesigned organizational workflows, as well as increased trust from years of reliable usage in IT, the cloud is becoming an integral, real-time part of manufacturers’ workflow strategies, from capital project management to daily manufacturing operations. 

Data silos limit operational improvements 
Organizations are keen to derive additional value from operational systems beyond merely controlling production. Investments in systems, sensors and control elements have helped to streamline tasks and fine-tune plant performance. However, greater gains can be achieved through multi-dimensional optimization. For instance, equipment reliability data can be combined with production process data to understand their mutual impact. Yet in-plant technology systems and their data are frequently siloed by role, making it hard to leverage process data for reliability improvements and vice versa. Likewise, detailed performance data at a unit or asset level from one plant has had limited visibility by central engineering resources or other facilities. This restricts the opportunity to model best-in-class behaviors from one facility and extend them to others. 

Making enterprise operations a reality 
To maximize performance across many facilities, establishing best practices by comparing critical operational and activity data on an enterprise scale is essential. Control and asset strategies delivering best-of-enterprise performance could be modeled for other facilities if there were an integrated view with tools to contrast different operations and understand behaviors that make a difference.   

Cloud solutions, which manage and analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, are ideally suited for identifying equipment reliability trends, for example. This enables the identification and resolution of machinery faults before they impact plant availability. Emerson estimates that in some industries, every 1% increase in availability can translate to approximately $8.4 million in additional profit margin per year. 

The integration of powerful cloud-based computing is transforming the way organizations operate. Having data and systems securely available in the cloud easily enables authorised experts from anywhere to engage in performance improvement. Optimizing workflows is key to achieving increased efficiencies, improved product quality, enhanced safety and sustainability, and reduced costs. Examples of specific enterprise operations solutions include: 

• DeltaV™ Workflow Management software from Emerson simplifies recipe authoring and management for life sciences production, especially in more complex advanced therapy medicinal products and emerging cell-based methods. This eliminates paper dependency and accelerates drug and vaccine pipelines. 
• Cloud-based lifecycle management platforms, such as Emerson’s Guardian™ digital experience, provide centralized management of all control, automation and asset management systems, driving system health and performance optimization. 
• Cloud-based condition monitoring software, such as AMS Machine Works, provides central reliability specialists with visibility into the health of critical assets such as pumps, motors, turbines, generators and compressors. This enables the quick identification of faults, helping to minimize unscheduled downtime and increase availability. 
• Central field instrumentation specialists can monitor a distributed fleet of measurement applications remotely, across multiple locations and sites, without requiring DCS access. This provides valuable insight into asset performance and increases operator efficiency. 

For cloud-based systems, the well proven software as a service (SaaS) utilization model enables end users to adopt new solutions without having to maintain IT infrastructure, such as servers, software, system security and updates. Teams can focus on their core manufacturing competencies rather than the maintenance and upkeep of complex IT systems. 

Conquering project complexity 
The scale and complexity of modern manufacturing automation projects makes data utilization a challenge. Often built in a modular fashion, new facilities are rarely ’stick built’ on-site. Rather, dozens of suppliers work independently on a portion of the process technology, bringing everything together for assembly later in the project. Keeping this matrix of technology package suppliers, engineering firms and project service teams synchronized to a common and often changing design and engineering plan is an extraordinary challenge that historically results in errors and delays due to version management issues or inadequate testing of components from remote project sites. Maintaining a single source of truth on design and engineering documentation has been a challenge for project teams for decades. 

To meet these challenges, cloud-based engineering and project management platforms facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among global teams, suppliers and customers, fostering a more connected and agile engineering environment. The cloud provides a conjugate between people and distributed assets, with sophisticated software solutions enhancing engineering efficiency. Here are some examples: 

• Emerson is leveraging the cloud to improve project engineering, accommodate late changes, enable data sharing across disciplines, and ensure security by design. This enables multi-disciplinary engineering teams to collaborate more effectively throughout a project’s lifecycle, providing a single source of truth for I/O design and configuration, all project schedules and design documentation, reliable version management, integrated FAT and test management and simulated sequence configuration and management. 
• As project teams evolve to verifying system and process configuration – even remotely – there is an opportunity for operators and engineers to connect to simulated replicas of their control systems, managed and maintained by a third party, from anywhere via a secure web interface, thereby reducing the costs associated with physical on-premises equipment. Software such as Emerson’s DeltaV Simulation Cloud creates a comprehensive digital twin that supports control strategy development and testing, operator training and competency assessment. 
• For distributed project teams, including inherently disconnected suppliers working on portions of an asset package, Emerson’s Remote Virtual Office empowers all stakeholders to access files, participate in discussions and share their knowledge throughout the project lifecycle. This compresses project schedules and reduces overall costs. 
• In migration projects, all the history, configurations and operational control strategy from an existing and likely outdated system must be transferred to a new platform. This can prove even more challenging than building a new system. Emerson’s cloud-based DeltaV Revamp software addresses this challenge by employing AI. It utilizes a comprehensive database from previous Emerson control system projects to automatically match and convert up to 70% of legacy configurations. By eliminating manual workflows, the solution saves significant time, reduces risks and errors, and cuts costs by as much as 15%. 

Summary 
Throughout the lifecycle of a facility, from project through operations, the cloud transforms the way teams collaborate, how workflows are executed and how performance is optimized. It enables remote, disconnected project teams to operate as one integrated team, and allows distributed facilities to share and replicate best behaviors to improve the performance of all assets. 

Learn all about Boundless Automation^SM in “Innovations in Automation”.