When any device can be a portal into the vast inner workings of your plant floor, magical things start to happen. Knowledge is power, and when it comes to SCADA, this is the power to fundamentally improve every aspect of your production.
Having a web-based SCADA system that can be viewed on any device is crucial if you’re a manufacturer, so you can tailor control systems to your unique processes. A SCADA system should adapt to your processes, after all, not the other way around. This advantage might sound simple, but sometimes the simplest things can be the most powerful.
The Ignition platform was designed to support this essential capability for users, which is why it has powerful data visualization modules that enable you to view clients on any device — from industrial displays to desktops, laptops, smart phones, servers, tablets, remote field devices, and even Raspberry Pis.
This blog post will explore seven top benefits of having the freedom to view your SCADA system on any device. It will also highlight several controls projects where organizations leveraged this simple functionality in brilliant ways to improve their processes.
1. Supercharged Decision-Making
Having access to your SCADA system from mobile devices empowers you with the most up-to-date information every step of the way. With a remote SCADA monitoring system, your decisions aren’t based on stale knowledge, and are significantly more effective.
Dolese Bros., a provider of aggregate material and cement, saw just how important this was in its SCADA rollout, which it had enlisted the help of Industrial Networking Solutions to accomplish. Dolese Bros.’ SCADA project started off by taking advantage of Ignition Perspective’s mobile-responsive capabilities, so that its operators could view quarry operations on the go. Of course, once it saw how impactful this accessibility was, it wanted everyone in the organization to have it too. The newfound ability for people across the organization to view downtime events, OEE, and more, fueled Dolese Bros. with the real-time information it needed to make better decisions which led to better results.
2. Cut Operational Costs
Another important benefit relates to the bottom line — keeping your costs down. When you have easy access to your SCADA system from any device you can catch production issues early on. This leads to solving problems quicker and minimizing waste, so that you’re not throwing your profits into the trash. Every minute counts in a production environment, because when something goes wrong you’re not only wasting the product, but losing all the time in labor that went into making that product as well.
Additionally, device-agnostic SCADA visualization minimizes the need to physically go to sites, which contributes to keeping costs low. Alexandrina Council’s water/wastewater SCADA project is a prime example of how impactful these cost reductions can be. When SAGE Group implemented a SCADA system for the council that enabled access to its data anywhere, on any device, it was able to lower maintenance costs. These cost savings were the result of reducing the amount of time workers had to spend traveling to its 300+ remote sites.
3. Significant Efficiency Boosts
A major rise in efficiency can result from giving the right people the right data via the right device. For instance, in United Airlines' controls project, Brock Solutions helped the organization improve its efficiency of resolving alarms for its baggage handling system by giving field operators the ability to view and interact with alarms from their tablets. These Wi-Fi-enabled tablet HMIs (with full HMI capability) provided operators with freedom from the control room, made maintenance work easier, and ultimately reduced incident response time.
4. Optimized Processes
Having carte blanche on which devices you can use to view your SCADA system offers the opportunity to optimize your processes. Each process is unique, and the devices you choose must reflect your exact needs.
Take biopharmaceutical company Autolus Therapeutics' SCADA project, for example, which was implemented by Barry-Wehmiller Design Group. Autolus used “clean rooms” for developing T-cell therapies. Since traditional HMIs are hard to clean, they were not well-suited for Autolus’ process. But by being able to run its Ignition SCADA system on tablets, laptops, and wall-mounted monitors instead, it was able to use devices that made its whole process run smoothly and adhere to safety requirements.
5. Geolocation Product Tracking
The ability to view your system on mobile devices lets you elevate your method of tracking products throughout your facility, because it opens up the door to leveraging GPS and QR code scanning.
Saint-Gobain PAM's SCADA project is a great example of how to take advantage of this capability. Saint-Gobain PAM, a leader in water supply lines, worked with integrator 2Gi Technologie to build mobile applications for smartphones in order to track the geographic location of scanned products. This resulted in forklift operators being able to easily locate products in the warehouse, which saves them valuable time and effort and thus streamlines their workflow.
6. Enable Rugged SCADA
If your production environment is inherently wet, dusty, has extreme temperatures, or subjects equipment to a lot of vibration, using standard HMIs may not be a realistic option. Standard HMIs can’t withstand such conditions and the expense to constantly replace them would be prohibitive. But when you have the flexibility to use whichever device you want, you can implement rugged SCADA systems by opting for less traditional devices that can be cheaply replaced.
Take the iron foundry Ferroloy, for instance, which struggled with siloed data and a plant floor environment that was very harsh on its equipment. In Ferroloy’s controls project, Artek Integrated Solutions worked with the company to overcome its unique challenges by using smart televisions to bring data directly onto the plant floor. These devices can be easily and affordably replaced, turning Ferroloy’s dream of a rugged SCADA system into reality.
7. Safeguard Against Supply-Chain Issues
The last benefit we’ll explore was made extremely apparent during the global supply-chain disruptions that were triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, Ignition’s device-agnostic SCADA visualization proved to be absolutely vital for many in the manufacturing industry. Organizations found much-needed relief from the backed-up supply chain by using Ignition Edge Panel to turn available devices into an HMI, and crises were averted.
Having the flexibility to swap out a device that has a six-month lead time for one that is instantly obtainable can save the day by preventing significant bottlenecks in your production. This protection from both current and future issues in the supply chain is crucial to help your organization avoid major financial loss and keep production humming along.
The Tip Of The Iceberg
The freedom to view Ignition on any device is really just scratching the surface of its many exceptional capabilities, from rapid development, to web-based deployment and more. Check out Ignition to dig deeper into how it can transform your process into a modern manufacturing marvel.
