There are many benefits of automation and SCADA systems when controlling manufacturing processes. At Corso Systems, we’re usually focused on companies who already have some form of automation and want to improve it with further integrations, or who need to upgrade a system installed 5-10 years ago with modern technology.

While that information will be useful for people who already know about automation and manufacturing, we wanted to share a handful of reasons to consider automation if you are new to the concepts. Even if you are familiar with the industry in general, there’s still plenty to think about.

If you are brand new to the idea of SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition), please check out our comprehensive SCADA Guide for a foundation of the concept and how it can be used in manufacturing.

1. Security

As SCADA systems have evolved from niche products designed by PLC vendors into fully fledged enterprise business software suites, they have gained the ability to integrate with modern security architectures. This includes features like Single Sign On (SSO) for simplifying user management and access, SSL certificates, and other features geared towards reducing cybersecurity risk. If you want to know more about security in manufacturing, please read our recent cybersecurity post.

Advancements in SCADA system and process control security is important now more than ever as people are more connected than they ever before. Using an outdated SCADA solution in our always-connected ecosystem is asking for trouble. Leveraging the security built into nearly every SCADA platform on the market is easier than ever—and will give you peace of mind that your people, processes, and profits are safe from bad actors.

2. Data Acquisition

One of the easiest ways to gain value from automation is using Process Historians to collect and store data from your process. Process Historians let you look back in time and see how any of your machines were running at any given moment.

Some SCADA systems have built-in historians, or you can choose dedicated Process Historian software. Regardless, the data is stored for as long as you want it to be, and you can retrieve it at any time with a variety of analysis tools. You can even start to extrapolate information like ideal setpoints for recipes, or track “golden batches” to understand when and why your process is running at its best.

Process Historians are also great training tools, since you can easily integrate your SCADA screens with historical playback data to watch past events happen in real-time—including any process upsets or alarms that may have occurred.

3. Analytics, Alarms, and Monitoring

Most modern SCADA platforms have robust analytics tools and database integrations you can use to understand the health of your process at any given moment. Beyond the platform, you can integrate with a number of robust tools to access Machine Learning and AI analysis. There are also many tools you can use for more advanced analysis if you have process engineers or other folks who want more insight into all aspects of your operation.

SCADA systems make this type of analysis simple with process historians and databases to store any and all data you might be interested in analyzing.

All SCADA platforms also offer you the ability to implement alarms. Alarms are useful for operators to understand when a process is starting to go outside normal operating bounds—and get alerted before anything catastrophic happens. Along with historical process data, historical alarm data is a very useful tool to analyze and troubleshoot processes when something does go wrong.

4. Quality Control Improvement

Integrated process controls and SCADA systems give you an easy hook into tracking and managing your company’s quality control. Bu applying the concepts outlined above for data acquisition, analytics, and monitoring, you may be able to leverage instruments and at line scanners to automatically collect quality control metric data from your process.

You can also leverage the capabilities of your automation and SCADA systems to automatically trigger sample requests when operators need to manually collect data. These requests can be tied into your work order and scheduling system to pre-populate data like batch information and allowable thresholds, based on what you are running at any given time. Integrating this data with a LIMS system can reduce the amount of time operators spend collecting quality data, and improve the reliability of the data you are collecting.

5. OEE & Downtime

As people adopt automation and SCADA systems, one of the most common next steps is to look at Overall Equipment Effectiveness, or OEE. Getting acquainted with OEE is pretty easy, we have a number of posts covering OEE concepts and how to leverage them for any process.

OEE gives you a single number indicating the health of your facility, production lines, and individual pieces of equipment—in real time. It tracks how often your machines go down, how long they are down and why. It tells you if machines are running at capacity or not, and how your quality is doing overall. Using the OEE numbers along with tools like tracking your Top 5 Downtime Reasons gives you almost a to do list to immediately impact and improve your bottom line. With most modern SCADA and automation platforms you can get OEE data without much more effort than it took to hook everything up in the first place.

Wrapping Up

SCADA and automation solutions can be powerful tools for any manufacturing company to implement. Combined with your people and a good training regimen, these tools can give just what you need to get to the next level. If you already have an automation system in place, you can take advantage of the technology advancements from the last few years to gain many benefits without a huge cost burden.

If you are already considering SCADA for your facility, we have a post on the five questions you need to ask yourself and your vendors when selecting a platform. If you are curious what comes next after SCADA systems, read our post about data beyond SCADA and MES. If you have questions about anything in this post or that we can help you with, please reach out and let us know!

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