Field data improves AOC business performance

The challenge for AOC was to use their data more effectively to free up personnel and ensure consistency in production planning, scheduling, inventory management, to improve their overall performance

AOC is a leading global supplier of resins, gel coats, colourants and additives for composites and cast polymers, based in Collierville, Tennessee.

Their challenge was to use data more effectively in order to free up personnel and ensure consistency in production planning, scheduling, inventory management, and improving their overall business performance.

Already known for producing resins of exacting consistency with their proprietary manufacturing programme, AOC sought to achieve even higher levels of consistency, efficiency, and production control in their process throughout all of their five locations (United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia).

Before optimising their production process, AOC had production recipes existing in multiple locations which caused consistency issues with recipes in different systems having different values.

Operational data was entered separately into AOC business systems.

Danny Cox, AOC Corporate Process Control Supervisor indicated, "We needed a solution to link our Provox and DeltaV systems to our Oracle based business system.

We needed a simple, consistent method of accessing field data from plant floor devices that was able to communicate with multiple systems".

Overcoming these deficits would help AOC meet their primary production needs and optimise their manufacturing programme.

OPC: Flexible standards-based foundation for optimisation.

AOC had two options.

One option was to keep their existing infrastructure and develop the custom applications they needed.

The other was to find a flexible, more cost efficient solution.

AOC decided to build their architecture based on OPC standards-based industrial connectivity technology.

After doing product evaluations, they decided on the MatrikonOPC solution, because MatrikonOPC was able to change and develop the product as needed to link their systems to Oracle.

They found custom programming via .NET was not as flexible as OPC and much more expensive.

AOC used the MatrikonOPC Server for General Database Access (GDA) and MatrikonOPC Data Manager to read and write data, to and from their Emerson DeltaV system.

MatrikonOPC Data Manager (ODM) is a software application that transfers data from one OPC server to another.

With this standard, off-the-shelf software and MatrikonOPC Server for GDA, connectivity was easily accomplished.

800 points were connected and updated every second.

AOC could now read and store production data and convert Oracle procedure variables to OPC tags.

"MatrikonOPC supplied a manageable method to integrate our Oracle business system with our process control systems.

It was the most cost effective approach to a complex issue" said Cox: "Our manufacturing process now gets recipe data directly from Oracle and that has given us the ability to use a single entry point for recipes".

This significantly raises the level of production consistency while eliminating the potential of data errors.

"The Oracle system also uses the data to build reports on our manufacturing process".

Trending and analysis reporting facilitates timely and accurate decision making improving the AOC overall business performance.

"An added benefit is that we have also been able to integrate with small PLC systems that would have required a complex serial solution.

Currently we have integrated with DeltaV/Provox/RSlinks and Oracle".

Future Plans! The MatrikonOPC solution met the AOC criteria for being modular and transportable to all five of their locations.

AOC has two of five plants running and work on the third plant has begun.

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