Why is Monitoring important?
Monitoring is about ensuring that you are always in control of your whole automation system by having the tools to detect and catch potential problems early to allow timely planning and execution to mitigate damages that it could potentially cause. Problems and issues that are detected beforehand and mitigated could save you a lot financially and operationally.
Areas where Monitoring is critical?
Our team can help you integrate monitoring to critical areas of your systems like Data Historians, Alarms and Events Management, Process Servers and Databases. Monitor operation-critical data like server status, processor loading status, disk space and memory usage. Get trigger alerts through emails, sms, event logs or text files to make sure that you don't miss out on critical notifications.
Below are some of our projects where we've implemented control and automation monitoring to satisfy our clients' needs:
"Container Tracking System"
Situation:
A client uses containers as part of their production process for the transportation and storage of Work-In-Progress materials. Each container has a specific usage life span. The expiry date of the particular life span of these containers is currently tracked manually and the process is prone to human errors.
Container tracking is vital to our client for compliance reasons. As part of US FDA safety regulations, expired containers are prohibited for use as part of the production process.
Solution:
We provided our client with a "Container Tracking" System which is integrated to their existing Process Control System via their batch data historian.
On top of keeping records of the individual container usage life span, our solution extracts individual production campaign end-date information via the PCS. Combining both sets of data, our system is able to provide automatic notifications to plant personnel on the production campaigns affected as well as specific containers which are due for expiration.
Results:
This solution allowed our client greater flexibility and efficiency in the use of containers throughout their plant whilst ensuring compliance is kept to the strictest level. Human errors are also significantly reduced and productivity improved via the automated process.
"Data Historian Server Monitoring Application"
Situation:
A client needs to ensure that there is no breakage in submission of vital data from their production process to their various historian servers. Any breakage must be notified to the respective parties so that remediate actions can be taken immediately.
In their line of business, this level of monitoring is critical as the vital data captured must be retained for a period of time as specified under the US FDA regulations.
Solution:
We provided our client with a Data Historian Server Monitoring Application which taps on Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Microsoft Windows Performance monitoring. This application monitors the incoming process data and triggers an automatic notification to the respective process operators in the event the historian servers are not receiving any data.
Results:
This solution greatly enhanced our client's monitoring capabilities in ensuring that data submission issues to the historian servers are addressed on a timely basis. This has helped significantly in ensuring completeness of vital data captured which is critical in compliance with US FDA regulations.
"Alarm Management System"
Situation:
A client has an existing Plant Process Control System ("PCS") which uses "alarms" as indicator of abnormalities in their daily operations. These alarms are classified based on the level of severity.
Our client requires a system that can allow various parties to conduct a periodic review of the alarms triggered in their plant on an almost "real-time" basis and must be easily accessible as the information is important to various stakeholders in improving their current operations.
Solution:
We provided our client with an Alarm Management System which is integrated with their PCS system. This system allows users to retrieve useful information on the "alarms" and also includes summation and period breakdown functions for alarm data pertaining to each Equipment, Unit, Batch or Alarm Priority. This is a web-based system readily accessed by users via the internet browser.
Results:
This solution provided our client with an easy to access and comprehensive tool to perform a more effective and timely review of the alarms triggered. Armed with the information, our client is more confident in allocating resources to address key alarm issues to improve processes and productivity.
"SQL Database Monitoring Mechanism"
Situation:
A client is faced with a loss of data issue mainly attributed to a failure in the database backup procedures. Backup plans are in place but as the existing system does not provide any form of failure notifications, remediate actions cannot be executed on a timely basis which might lead to a permanent loss in data.
Solution:
We assisted our client by integrating a monitoring mechanism into their backup system which will trigger automatic notifications in the event of database backup failures to the respective personnel.
Results:
This solution has allowed our client to take timely actions to resolve any backup failures so as to eradicate any possibilities of permanent loss in data. This has translated to completeness of data as well as greater cost savings in terms of reduced trouble shooting and monitoring efforts.