olfgang Driftmeier wants to make sure that his customers can tell whether they’re getting the correct amount of propane gas into their manufacturing systems. “They don’t care how they get the information. They don’t care about my equipment,” says Driftmeier, president of Alternative Energy Systems Inc., in Eagle River, Wis. “They just want to see if the system is delivering gas.” Alternative Energy Systems manufactures propane fixtures for use in manufacturing plants “from paper mills to bakeries,” according to Driftmeier.
The system Driftmeier installs sends the information on gas levels from Rockwell Automation controls to a Web server that allows Driftmeier’s customers to view status flags on a Web browser. “Our customers can look at a Web page through the local intranet and get a number of system status flags, or they can get it in plain English,” says Driftmeier. Because the information goes to users over the Web, the plant personnel don’t have to be near the plant to access the information. “You can check the information from anywhere, and you can actually write information to the system.”
Web Widget Watching
Web technologies are proliferating through plant automation systems, letting managers review production and control data from anywhere they can access the Internet. So far, the bulk of Web-based plant monitoring is used to obtain production data. How much is each plant producing? What widgets are getting produced? What are the supply levels? What orders have been filled? The control data that Driftmeier’s system monitors is less likely to go over the Web. And the ability to write information to controls on the plant is even more rarely used. Companies don’t want to make it too easy for terrorists or disgruntled employees to pull the plant’s levers.
One of the big benefits of remote monitoring of plant equipment is the ability for the automation vendor to dial in and see plant performance without leaving the office. “Say a customer calls in with a problem. Do I send someone out or bring up my browser?” says Driftmeier. “I can do the diagnostics on my screen.” According to Driftmeier, the ability to diagnose a problem over the Internet has become a competitive factor. “If a customer has this control system, we can look at the problem within minutes,” says Driftmeier. “We’ll have a technician looking at the system while our competition is still making the airline reservations.”
Web technologies let plant personnel monitor plant production—and sometimes control data—from anywhere in the world. “Web technology is being used to send manufacturing intelligence to a central group, or anyone, to see how manufacturing plants are performing,” says Bill Swanton, vice president of Boston-based AMR Research Inc. “You used to have to collect a bunch of data from the programmable logic controller and roll it up to the database, and by then it’s stale.”
Swanton notes that Web-based technologies also allow vendors to monitor their own systems and to do diagnostics when problems occur. “A lot of companies, such as Honeywell and Rockwell Automation, provide 24-hour, three-shift coverage for diagnostics,” says Swanton. The difficulty, however, is that Web-based technologies are best placed into the system when it is installed. “The problem is that Internet readiness and its intrinsic instrumentation has to be built in when the asset is built, since often it’s not economically feasible to retrofit the equipment.”
You can do this
Unlike instrumentation, monitoring technology is easy to deploy and adopt, because the network is already in place as the Internet or the company intranet. Plant managers and technicians already know how to use a browser, so there’s no change management necessary to deploy a monitoring system. “The infrastructure uses (the) Internet Explorer (browser) and displays in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language),” says Chris Stearns, product manager for the Experion PKS Infrastructure and HMI products at Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions, in Minneapolis. “The display infrastructure is understandable for the young engineers coming out of college. This technology is nothing new to them.”
Just as Web technology is easy for deployment and training, it’s always simple to customize. “Manufacturers have the ability to write their own custom Web pages and build in the tags,” says Joe Lee, Ethernet/IP product manager at Rockwell Automation Inc., in Milwaukee. “Then you can call up Web pages that will be specific to your application. You can write a logic program that alerts you when a condition occurs, or you can set it up to fire off a report.”
Likewise, the technology is generic enough—given strides in Web technology standardization—that the data can be processed and distributed through numerous applications. “We are utilizing some of the standard Web technology,” says Lee. “You can get the generic HTML file with any external system. It’s just a tag.”
Remote monitoring is used primarily to watch production information. Few manufacturers trust their networks well enough to send control information out over the transom. “I don’t see any situation where Web technologies are in the control loop. Manufacturers don’t want that to happen,” says Robert Mick, vice president of emerging technology at ARC Advisory Group Inc., in Dedham, Mass. “Security is the main fear.” He notes, however, that sometimes it’s important for a vendor to check in on how manufacturing is working. “Vendors like to dial in and check a large machine or robot. They can open up access temporarily for that.”
Though companies are careful about how control information is distributed, some do find it beneficial to distribute control information in a read-only format. “The company headquarters is at one location and they want to centralize their monitoring,” says Renee Robinson, product marketing manager for Wonderware, an Invensys company based in Lake Forest, Calif.
Viewing control information allows for both troubleshooting on plant operations as well as monitoring quality. “A lot of people are using it for troubleshooting, to monitor temperature or vibration,” says Robinson. “Also, the quality control personnel can see what’s going on. If you’re in the quality department and you see a problem, you can communicate back to the plant. You don’t have to drive out to the field.”
Manufacturers are much more comfortable sharing production information. “Sharing information on production is much more common,” says Mick. “In most companies, the information is being pulled together centrally for business purposes, but performance is done per facility.” With Web technologies, that local performance can be viewed by anyone who is given access.
Terrorist concerns
Real-time production information coming over the Web can help companies balance their production to meet market opportunities. That ability didn’t exist prior to the incorporation of Web technologies in plant management. “If you’re getting information from multiple sources, you can put it all together. In the past, users didn’t have access to all the production information,” says AMR’s Swanton. “If you’re producing fuel, you want to see the market conditions and compare it with the market price of your suppliers.”
Security is a big issue, both for the type of information that is sent over the Web and how it’s distributed. If you can control the plant remotely, it becomes vulnerable to mischief. And in an era in which terrorists are becoming more technologically adept, remote control of plants provides a dangerous opportunity. Deep security concerns are a good part of the reason companies feel comfortable sharing production information, but feel very queasy about sharing control data.
“Security concerns here overwhelming. If you can have access to your system, then some malicious person can get it,” says ARC’s Mick. “Terrorists are targeting some manufacturers for attacks. Causing something to happen at a refinery could release dangerous gasses.”
Security concerns over a company’s control data was heightened after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. “The trend is to keep control disconnected from the outside world,” says Honeywell’s Stearns. “There is wariness due to 9/11. The ultimate goal for terrorists is to get behind the firewall. With this technology, that capability exists.”
Even though there are significant benefits that come from sharing control information with vendors and remote technicians, the potential for mischief dampens enthusiasm for Web-based control of plant activity. “These technologies are extremely effective because the technician can see exactly what the company sees,” says Stearns. “There’s a clear advantage in that, but the high majority of our customers don’t provide that level of access because of security concerns.”
See sidebar to this article: Watching production and delivery across 100 miles
