February 10, 2009 - Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release of Real-time Production Organizer (RPO) on February 2. RPO is a suite of manufacturing execution system (MES) platform packages that integrate the vertical production execution workflow across departments and empower decision makers to organize their work quickly and efficiently.
Development Background
Today’s plant operations need to be flexible enough to deal with the challenges of changing feed materials and market demands; however, there are many barriers in business processes that impede the flow of information between sections, posing serious challenges to agile plant operations. These barriers arise for the following reasons:
- Poor information integrity due to insufficient MES connectivity
- Information resolution gaps that cause misalignment between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and MES
- Lack of proper tools for closing loops in business focused manufacturing To address these needs and achieve its vision for Production Excellence based on VigilantPlant *1 and the CENTUM VP*2 platform, Yokogawa has developed RPO.
Overview of the New RPO Packages
Based on the ISA-95*3 manufacturing execution model, RPO performs the definition, dispatch, execution, analysis, and tracking functions, thereby speeding up the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle*4. The RPO packages bring customers the following benefits:
- Business oriented operations through shared information between planning and management
- Quick operation changes through cooperative operations
- Safe and stable operations through plant-wide monitoring
- Improved operator productivity
RPO consists of five platform packages. Each package supports a Web service, making RPO ready for a service oriented architecture (SOA). Users can introduce these packages in stages.
The packages are:
1) Workflow Composer VP Standardizes business work processes and organizes their execution, supporting Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
2) Production Coordinator VP Coordinates information for accurate scheduling, providing an end user computing (EUC) environment
3) Production Instructor VP Issues specific work orders for correct and prompt operation, supporting execution monitoring and analysis for identifying best practices
4) Production Supervisor VP Supervises real-time performance for quick action by key performance indicator (KPI) monitoring. Web components on a role-based dashboard support drill down analysis.
5) Production Tracker VP Tracks high-resolution production information for accurate planning and generates production accounting reports (Delivery of Production Instructor VP and Production Supervisor VP will commence in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009.)
Major Target Markets and Applications
Plant production and operation management in industries such as refining, petrochemicals, and chemicals VigilantPlant is Yokogawa's automation concept for safe, reliable, and profitable plant operations. It aims to enable an ongoing state of Operational Excellence where plant personnel are watchful and attentive, well-informed, and ready to take actions that optimize plant and business performance. This initiative eliminates unplanned downtime, improves asset utilization, and allows businesses to adapt to shifting market conditions quickly and efficiently. Based on this concept, Yokogawa launched Safety Excellence solutions in 2005, Asset Excellence solutions in 2006, and Production Excellence solutions in 2007.
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