Establishing Feedback loops, Leveraging Middleware, and Scaling with Cloud Platforms - Part 4

Establishing Feedback loops, Leveraging Middleware, and Scaling with Cloud Platforms

By Harneet Gill, MESA Marketing Committee Chair, Rockwell Automation

Creating a Feedback Loop: Integrating ERP and MES Data into SCADA for Continuous Shop Floor Improvement

In the dynamic environment of modern manufacturing, the seamless flow of information is not just a one-way street from the shop floor to the top floor. The feedback loop, where data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) is integrated back into supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, is pivotal. This integration facilitates dynamic adjustments and continuous improvement processes on the shop floor, leading to a more responsive and agile manufacturing environment.

Understanding the Core Systems

• SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition): A real-time system that monitors, controls, and collects data from industrial processes – these systems work in conjunction with Human / Machine Interface (HMI) systems and with various automation and control systems such as PLCs, DCSes, machine controllers, etc.
• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): Provides a bird’s eye view of the entire enterprise operations, managing resources, procurement, production planning, finance, and more.
• MES (Manufacturing Execution System): Bridges the gap between planning (often residing in ERP) and execution (often monitored by SCADA). It tracks real-time production data, manages work orders, and maintains product quality.

Feedback Loop – From ERP and MES to SCADA

1. Production Scheduling: An ERP system often plans production based on orders, inventory levels, and lead times. Adjustments in the schedule, when communicated to MES and then to SCADA, can lead to real-time changes in machine operations, shifts, and material allocations.
2. Quality Metrics: MES systems monitor quality metrics in real time. If there's a deviation from the acceptable quality levels, MES can provide feedback to SCADA systems to adjust machine parameters and ensure product quality.
3. Predictive Maintenance: Both ERP (from a historical data perspective) and MES (from a real-time data perspective) can predict when a machine is likely to fail. This information can be relayed to SCADA to make necessary adjustments, such as reducing machine speed or scheduling downtime.
4. Inventory Levels: ERP systems continuously monitor inventory levels. If there's a shortage of raw materials, this information can be relayed via MES to SCADA to adjust production rates or switch to alternative production lines.
5. Performance Metrics: MES tracks performance metrics such as Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE). Insights derived from these metrics can be communicated back to SCADA systems to tweak machine operations and enhance efficiency.
6. Demand Fluctuations: Any changes in demand captured in the ERP, whether a spike or a drop, can be quickly communicated to the SCADA system via MES. This ensures that production rates are adjusted in near-real time to match the demand.
7. Feedback on Machine Behavior: MES, while analyzing data, might discover certain patterns or behaviors in machines that can be optimized. This insight can be fed back to SCADA for real-time tuning of machine operations.
8. Process Optimization: Based on historical and real-time data analysis in ERP and MES, specific process bottlenecks or inefficiencies might be identified. Adjustments to mitigate these can be executed through SCADA.

Enabling Seamless Communication

For a continuous feedback loop to be effective:

• Middleware Solutions: Use middleware solutions to facilitate data communication and translation between ERP, MES, and SCADA.
• Standardized Data Formats: Adopt standard data formats and protocols to ensure seamless data interchange.
• Real-time Data Transfer Protocols: Implement fast and efficient data transfer protocols, such as MQTT or OPC UA, to ensure timely feedback.
• Cybersecurity: As systems become more interconnected, it’s essential to bolster cybersecurity measures to protect data integrity and system operations.

Leveraging Middleware for Integration

What is Middleware?

Middleware can be envisioned as a software layer that sits between different software applications. It provides a set of services that allow those applications to communicate, interact, and share data, even if they were not originally designed to do so.

The Need for Middleware in Manufacturing

Diverse Systems, Different Languages: SCADA, MES, and ERP systems come from different technological backgrounds, often developed by different vendors, each with its unique data structures, protocols, and communication standards.

Real-time Integration Needs: Modern manufacturing demands real-time or near-real-time data transfer to make on-the-fly decisions. Direct integrations can be cumbersome and inefficient.

Flexibility and Scalability: As manufacturing processes evolve, new systems might be introduced, and old ones might be phased out. Middleware ensures that such transitions are smooth without overhauling the entire integration infrastructure.

Role of Middleware in Bridging SCADA, ERP, and MES

Data Translation: Middleware transforms data from one format to another. For example, a SCADA system might generate machine status data in a specific format that the MES or ERP system doesn't natively understand. Middleware can convert this data into a compatible format.

Protocol Translation: Different systems might communicate over different protocols. Middleware can translate messages between protocols, such as from MQTT (common in IIOT devices) to HTTP or SOAP (common in enterprise systems).

Buffering and Message Queuing: Middleware can temporarily store messages to ensure that no data is lost if the receiving system is temporarily unavailable. This is crucial in manufacturing, where downtime can be costly.

Event Management and Notifications: Based on the data flowing through, middleware can trigger events or notifications. For instance, if SCADA detects a machine failure, middleware can alert the MES to reschedule tasks and notify ERP for potential delivery impacts.

Security and Compliance: Middleware can enforce security protocols, ensuring data confidentiality and integrity. It can also ensure data compliance, especially when integrating with external systems.

Monitoring and Logging: Middleware can monitor data flow, log activities, and raise alerts for anomalies, helping in diagnostics and ensuring smooth operations.

Middleware in Action: A Practical Example

Imagine a manufacturing plant where the SCADA system detects a machine overheating. This data is sent to the middleware, which translates the message and forwards it:

• To the MES, prompting an immediate pause in production and rerouting tasks to other machines.
• To the ERP, updating the expected production output and potentially adjusting inventory or delivery schedules.
• To the QMS, registering a potential quality concern if any products were manufactured during the overheating event.

Scaling with Cloud Platforms 

The manufacturing sector is witnessing a paradigm shift with the advent of Industry 4.0 – a world where systems like SCADA, ERP, MES, and IIoT devices generate petabytes of valuable data. This data, when harnessed correctly, provides insights that can lead to unprecedented efficiencies, improved quality, and reduced downtime. However, managing and integrating this voluminous data from multiple sources remains a Herculean task. Cloud platforms emerge as a linchpin in this scenario, offering a scalable, flexible, and efficient solution for data integration challenges.

Why Cloud Platforms?

Cloud platforms can accommodate the ebb and flow of manufacturing data demands. They offer several intrinsic benefits that are well-suited for the needs of a smart factory.

Elasticity: Cloud resources can be dynamically scaled up or down based on the data volume and computational needs, providing a cost-effective solution that on-premises infrastructures can seldom match.

High Availability: They offer robust disaster recovery solutions and maintain high availability, which is critical for manufacturing operations that run round-the-clock.

Global Accessibility: Data and insights can be accessed from anywhere, facilitating remote monitoring and management, which is essential for global manufacturing operations.

Advanced Analytics and AI: Cloud providers offer advanced analytics services and AI capabilities that can be leveraged to gain deeper insights into operations, predictive maintenance, and process optimizations.

Scaling Data Integration Efforts with Cloud Platforms

Centralized Data Lakes: Cloud-based data lakes can ingest data in its native format from various sources like SCADA systems, IIoT devices, and ERP/MES applications. This consolidates data silos and forms a central repository that can scale to store massive volumes of data.

Managed Integration Services: Cloud platforms provide managed services that can help automate the data ingestion process. They support multiple data integration patterns such as batch, real-time, and stream processing, enabling manufacturers to have up-to-date information at all times.

Interoperability and APIs: Cloud platforms offer a plethora of APIs that allow for seamless integration with existing systems. This fosters interoperability and ensures that legacy systems can communicate with newer cloud-based applications.

Microservices Architecture: Adopting a microservices architecture in the cloud allows different parts of the manufacturing process to be decoupled and scaled independently. This means specific data-intensive operations can be scaled without affecting other services.

Data Transformation Services: Once data is in the cloud, services like Azure Data Factory or AWS Glue can transform the data to fit the necessary schemas and formats required by ERP, MES, or QMS systems, making integration more straightforward.

Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics: Cloud platforms can process and analyze large datasets to predict trends, forecast demands, and proactively suggest operational adjustments. This is invaluable for quality control and predictive maintenance.

Security and Compliance: Cloud providers invest heavily in security, offering built-in features that adhere to industry standards and regulations. They also manage the security of the cloud infrastructure, allowing manufacturers to focus on protecting their applications and data.

Conclusion 

Manufacturing operations are a highly dynamic environment. The seamless flow of information must not be just a one-way street from the shop floor to the top floor. The feedback loop, where data from ERP and MES is integrated back into the shop floor systems, is a must. This feedback look facilitates dynamic adjustments and continuous improvement processes on the shop floor, leading to a more responsive and agile manufacturing environment.

Middleware sits between different software applications and provides a set of services that allow applications to communicate, interact, and share data. Middleware is essential to making communications between the shop floor and MES and MES and ERP a reality.

Managing and integrating the volumes of data from multiple sources on the shop floor remain a challenge. Cloud platforms have emerged as a linchpin, offering a scalable, flexible, and efficient solution for these data integration challenges.

In our next blog post we’ll look at how to develop a phased integration approach to make all this really work.

If you’d like more information on anything, please contact me through MESA International (www.MESA.org).