Have you ever wondered if someone was just writing gibberish to you in an email? Have you ever felt like you needed Google Translate to make it through a presentation? Acronyms can be hard. If you’ve missed the first post in the series, check out PLC and HMI. And let us know what you want to read more about next.

On this edition of Acronyms Are Hard, we’re examining SCADA, which stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. Our good friends at Inductive Automation are high in the search rankings with their “What is SCADA?” post, so we know this is a big topic for discussion.

What Does SCADA Mean?

While we know that SCADA is short for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, let’s get down to the details. You may have PLCs and HMIs on a machine, and they are working pretty well for the operator. In fact, if the operator hasn’t decided to change anything on the fly, everything will work just as predicted. But now, you want to implement similar controls on the entire production line to provide information for the Production Supervisor, Plant Engineering, Facilities Maintenance, and the Plant Manager. Similarly, Ownership and Upper Management want to see the information so that they can compare plants. SCADA makes this happen.

Why Do You Need a SCADA System?

We know that sending everyone forty different HMI (human-machine interface) screens won’t do the job because supervisors, engineering, maintenance, and management will all get bogged down with excess information. In fact, just sending those forty screens will upset everyone in those departments and create even more work! All they need—and want—to know is how their niche is doing.

Luckily, that’s where a SCADA (and Corso Systems) shines...

Corso Systems can significantly simplify the process of implementing a SCADA system at your facility. With all the information from the PLCs and HMIs, we will help you determine what each level and department at your plant require. The operators already have their areas on the HMI, but each line will need the information about all of the machines (and more). The key is to correctly distill the information.

Distilling the Information

In any facility, each production area needs different information to properly do their jobs.

The Production Supervisor needs to know what’s in inventory, which POs are up next, and potentially the top ten or twenty products that need to be finished during the shift.

Plant Maintenance needs to know the health of every machine—and if something is going wrong, how to get a machine back up and running as quickly as possible.

Project Managers need to know if the settings on machines suddenly change and/or if production slows. The further up the food chain we go, the information needs less detail, and the distillation of it becomes even more important. For example, the Plant Manager may just want a green dot on each line to indicate that everything is going well.

Information distillation is as much an art as it is a science. Once supervisors, maintenance, and management see how a SCADA sytem benefits them, everyone will want to be a part of it. At the end of the day, this is as much about making people's jobs easier as it is anything else.

What Else Can You Do With SCADA?

Now that we can measure each production attribute, we can start talking about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and how to improve production. Peter Drucker is often quoted as saying, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Now that you can measure the performance of your production lines, you can start taking a look at your KPIs to figure out how you can be more efficient.

For example, if every operator can see a display of the throughput of the lines and machines, it could result in a net increase of 30% or more. You could also observe individual operators and machines, measure basic downtime, and get a general sense of overall efficiency.

Generally speaking, a good SCADA system will allow you to start making well informed business decisions and become a better, more efficient company. A great SCADA system is truly the first step in getting a full picture of what and how your facility is doing.

If you want to explore additional ways to become more efficient, check out our Manufacturing Execution System (MES) guide and stay tuned for more Acronyms Are Hard series posts.

Updated - 12/2/2022