Plant Engg - Aug

SPECIAL SECTION: 16-page Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit preview

the #1 value in automationOrder Today, Ships Today!

* See our Web site for details and restrictions. © Copyright 2014 AutomationDirect, Cumming, GA USA. All rights reserved. 1-800-633-0405

with our AC and DC drivesGet more control with less energy

DC drives for effi cientcontrolIronhorse DC drives are suitable for many control applications, all at prices that won’t break your budget.

High-quality AC drives pay for themselves in a hurryVariable speed drives can improve your bottom line by reducing your motors’ energy consumption. An investment of as little as $99 can start paying o� immediately.

• GS1 AC drives (1/4 to 2 hp) o� er simple Volts/Hertz control forgeneral purpose applications. Built-in I/O, Modbus communications capability and programmable preset speeds increase it � exibility.

• GS2 AC drives (0.5 to 10 hp) feature built-in PID control, dynamic brakingand Modbus communications.

• DuraPULSE AC drives (1 to 100 hp) add sensorless vector control, aremovable keypad that stores up to four di� erent application programs and built-in discrete and analog I/O. Communicate via built-in Modbus oran optional Ethernet connection.

• Excellent low speed control and stability

• Con� gured with potentiometers – no parameters or programming needed

• DC motors coupled with DC drives provide exceptional low speedtorque and power

Research, price, buy at:www.automationdirect.com/drives

LR SeriesLine Reactors

High-SpeedClass J Fuses

AC MotorSoft Starters

Optional DriveRelated Items

Also AvailableReplacement

Fans

STARTING AT:

$156 u.s.GS2-10P2

STARTING AT:

$99 u.s.GS1-10P2

STARTING AT:

$242 u.s.GS3-21P0

STARTING AT:

$59 u.s.GSD3-240-2CL

input #1 at www.plantengineering.com/information

COMPRESSORS

Kaeser Compressors, Inc. • 866-516-6888 • kaeser.com/PEBuilt for a lifetime is a trademark of Kaeser Compressors, Inc. ©2014 Kaeser Compressors, Inc. [email protected]

ae

ser.

co

m

“Facts are stubborn things.”

— John Adams

As our second president, John Adams focused on the facts when facing our young nation’s challenges. At Kaeser, that’s our approach, too.

It’s a fact: Compressed air is inherently inefficient. It takes 8 kW of electricity to deliver 1 kW of power in compressed air – and almost all of the remaining 7 kW is lost as heat. At Kaeser, we design efficient compressors with smarter controls and more effective heat recovery, so you can have more efficient plant air.

Here’s another fact: If you operate a compressor, you can’t afford to do business without it. Downtime is expensive and disruptive. That’s why we build our products for maximum reliability and easy serviceability. So when service is needed, it takes less time.

Learn the facts. They point to Kaeser.

Our 25-125 hp compressors feature true direct drive design, a thermal management system plus built-in heat recovery options for the ultimate in operational efficiency.

Visit us atIMTS in Booth #N-6693


If you’re thinking productivity, upgrade to a smarter grease.

© 2014 Exxon Mobil Corporation.All trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Exxon Mobil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries.

Our greases are engineered smart, right from the start. With an advanced formulation designed to provide all-around, balanced performance for the severe conditions experienced by today’s equipment.

What’s more, our high-technology greases offer a controlled release of oil and additives. They know just the right amount to release, lubricating for optimum protection. Providing greases that stay exactly where they’re needed — making them easy to use, which can help control maintenance andreplacement costs. Adding up to outstanding productivity. Learn more about our advanced engineered greases for advanced productivity at mobilindustrial.com.


www.plantengineering.com PLANT ENGINEERING July/August 2014 • 3

July/August 2014Volume 68, No. 6

PLANT ENGINEERING (ISSN 0032-082X, Vol. 68, No. 6, GST #123397457) is published 10x per year, monthly except in January and July, by CFE Media, LLC, 1111 W. 22nd Street, Suite #250, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Jim Langhenry, Group Publisher /Co-Founder; Steve Rourke CEO/COO/Co-Founder. PLANT ENGINEERING copyright 2014 by CFE Media, LLC. All rights reserved. PLANT ENGINEERING is a registered trademark of CFE Media, LLC used under license. Periodicals postage paid at Oak Brook, IL 60523 and additional mailing offices. Circulation records are maintained at CFE Media, LLC, 1111 W. 22nd Street, Suite #250, Oak Brook, IL 60523. E-mail: [email protected]. Postmaster: send address changes to PLANT ENGINEERING, 1111 W. 22nd Street, Suite #250, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40685520. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: 1111 W. 22nd Street, Suite #250, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Email: [email protected]. Rates for nonqualified subscriptions, including all issues: USA, $ 145/yr; Canada, $ 180/yr (includes 7% GST, GST#123397457); Mexico, $ 172/yr; International air delivery $318/yr. Except for special issues where price changes are indicated, single copies are available for $20.00 US and $25.00 foreign. Please address all subscription mail to PLANT ENGINEERING, 1111 W. 22nd Street, Suite #250, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Printed in the USA. CFE Media, LLC does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material contained herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever.

34 In her own words: Mary Barra and the GM crisisSince taking over as CEO at General Motors at the beginning of the year, Mary Barra’s focus has been on dealing with the ignition switch problems and the lawsuits and Congressional hearings that have followed. In her own words, Barra talks about GM’s failures and its hopes for the future.

It has been a year of turmoil at General Motors, but one Michigan plant, given a second chance after the company’s bankruptcy shuttered it for a time, is making the most of this new opportunity.It has been a year of turmoil at General Motors, but one Michigan plant, given a second chance after

29 From bankruptcy to rebirth

SPECIAL SECTION: Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit previewIA1-IA16 From insights on employee engagement to an overview of the global manufacturing landscape to an in-depth look at the new digital manufacturing hub in Chicago, CFE Media’s 2014 Summit, part of the Industrial Automation North America pavilion at the 2014 IMTS Show in Chicago Sept. 8-12 will deliver high-powered knowledge for plant managers.

After page 68:

Electrical Solutions 37 Remote energy

monitoring improves plant performanceOffering a cost-effective solution, modern electric power management software can prove a critical tool in any enterprise’s daily operation.

40 Assessing the performance of harmonic mitigation alternativesLooking at the theory of operation for various harmonic mitigation techniques and their typical real-life performance takes the guesswork out of harmonic reduction.

Mechanical Solutions 46 Rotating seals or lip seals?

While in no way claiming all lip seal applications are past their prime, there are now viable alternatives for an increasingly reliability-focused and energy-conscious user community.

Maintenance Solutions 49 Safety data collection process

as important as what’s collectedYour organization needs to be confident in the data that it is monitoring and using for the basis of its actions and rewards. Not address-ing these common issues will result in an ineffective program, giving the organization a false sense of safety or, conversely, an unnec-essary sense of paranoia.

Automation Solutions 53 The changing plant floor:

From advanced M2M to Internet of ThingsMany IoT implementations can be accomplished with the smart devices and advanced HMI already operating in many plants.

58 Delivering data from the plant floorIn our very connected world we have been moving away from a layered architecture to a near-real-time fluid environment to dramatically improve the quality of strategic decisions. This allows plant managers to make better, faster business.

www.plantengineering.com PLANT ENGINEERING July/August 2014 • 5www.plantengineering.com

PlantEngineering.com1111 W. 22nd St. Suite 250, Oak Brook, IL 60523Ph 630-571-4070, Fax 630-214-4504

CONTENT SPECIALISTS/EDITORIAL BOB VAVRA, Content Manager 630-571-4070 x2212, [email protected]

AMANDA MCLEMAN, Director of Research 630-571-4070 x2209, [email protected]

ALLEN MOWERS, Production Coordinator [email protected]

PUBLICATION SERVICES JIM LANGHENRY, Co-Founder & Publisher 630-571-4070 x2203, [email protected]

STEVE ROURKE, Co-Founder 630-571-4070 x2204, [email protected]

TRUDY KELLY, Executive Assistant 630-571-4070 x2205, [email protected]

ELENA MOELLER-YOUNGER, Marketing Manager 773-815-3795, [email protected]

KRISTEN NIMMO, Marketing Coordinator 630-571-4070 x2215, [email protected]

MICHAEL SMITH, Creative Director 630-779-8910, [email protected]

KATIE SPAIN, Associate Art Director 630-571-4070 x2218, [email protected]

PAUL BROUCH, Director of Operations 630-571-4070 x2208, [email protected]

MICHAEL ROTZ, Print Production Manager 717-766-0211, Fax: 717-506-7238 [email protected]

MARIA BARTELL, Account Director, Infogroup Targeting Solutions 847-378-2275, [email protected]

RICK ELLIS, Audience Management Director 303-246-1250, [email protected]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Please e-mail your opinions to [email protected].

INFORMATION For a 2014 Media Kit or Editorial Calendar, e-mail Trudy Kelly at [email protected].

REPRINTS For custom reprints or electronic usage, contact: Nick Iademarco, Wright’s Media 877-652-5295 x102, [email protected]

PUBLICATION SALES Tom Corcoran, West, TX, OK [email protected] 1111 W. 22nd St., Suite 250, Tel. 215-275-6420 Oak Brook, IL 60523 Fax 484-631-0598

Karen Cira, Southeast [email protected] 879 Autumn Rain Ln. Tel. 704-523-5466 Charlotte, NC 28209 Fax 630-214-4504

Patrick Lynch, AL, FL [email protected] 1111 W. 22nd St., Suite 250, Tel. 630-571-4070 x2210 Oak Brook, IL 60523 Fax 630-214-4504

Jennifer Wafalosky, N. Central [email protected] 246 South Franklin St. Tel. 216-409-8314 Chagrin Falls, OH 44022 Fax 440-348-1980

Richard A. Groth Jr., NJ/ E. PA [email protected] 12 Pine St. Tel. 774-277-7266 Franklin, MA 02038 Fax 508-590-0432

Jerry Preston, West Coast [email protected] 6746 E. Tyndall Circle Tel. 602-369-3037 Mesa, AZ 85215

Stuart Smith, International [email protected] SSM Global Media Ltd. Tel. +44 208 464 5577 Fax +44 208 464 5588

6 • July/August 2014 PLANT ENGINEERING www.plantengineering.com

VIDEO: Mobility apps should provide self-direction, freedomMobile app design tips: Don’t replicate industrial human-machine interface (HMI) screens in mobile apps, advised Rockwell Automation. Enable, simplify, and do things you couldn’t do before when creating mobile app screens, according to presenters at RSTechED USA. See three pillars of user enablement for mobile apps and related video.

To watch, scan the QR code or go to www.plantengineering.com/videos.

ONLINE: Top 5 Plant Engineering stories onlineHere are the Top 5 stories on www.plantengineering.com for July:

• Reducing arc � ash hazard on switchgear• Optimizing employee engagement across the globe• Compressed air demand: Find and � x leaks• Safety: Is it the sixth ‘S’ in a 5S system?• Correcting induction motor power factor

Go to www.plantengineering.com for the latest industry news, best practices, product innovations and manufacturing trends.

Trending New Products Maintenance Electrical Mechanical Energy Management Plant Automation Safety People and Training

July/August

www.plantengineering.com

Editorial research

People and training

Services availablen Site search engine: Search current and past articles at www.plantengineering.com by topic, keyword, author or company name to � nd solutions to your plant issues.

n Channels, new productsVisit our specialized microsites providing feature news, products, applications, tutorials and research for engineering professionals.

n e-NewslettersKeep current with the latest informationand news with our weekly PlantMail and topic-speci� c electronic newsletters.

n System Integrator GuideConsult our listing of more than 2,300 automation system integrators. You can � nd a speci� c company or run a seven-way multi-parameter search.

n Digital editionPlant Engineering is delivered every month in a digital format, with enhanced features to bring the print product alive on your screen.

n On-demand videosn Upcoming and on-demand Webcastsn Online training centern Case studies—130+ all in one place on dozens of topicsn eGuidesn White papers

Product of the YearFinalists announced Nov. 15

The � nalists for the 2013 Plant Engineering Product of the Year awards will be announced in the November issue and online on Nov. 15.

It’s the plant manager’s source for the best new products of the year, and their chance to vote on

the best of the best in manufacturing.www.plantengineering.com/poy

n Workforce developmentn Energy management

On a quarterly basis, Plant Engineering conducts research studies on various industry topics.

Access the following full reports atwww.plantengineering.com/research:

Editorial research

People and training

Services availablen Site search engine: Search current and past articles at www.plantengineering.com by topic, www.plantengineering.com by topic, www.plantengineering.comkeyword, author or company name to � nd solutions to your plant issues.




n Digital editionPlant Engineering is delivered every month in a Plant Engineering is delivered every month in a Plant Engineeringdigital format, with enhanced features to bring the print product alive on your screen.


Product of the YearFinalists announced Nov. 15

The � nalists for the 2013 Plant EngineeringProduct of the Year awards will be announced in the November issue and online on Nov. 15.

It’s the plant manager’s source for the best new products of the year, and their chance to vote on

the best of the best in manufacturing.www.plantengineering.com/poy

n Workforce developmentn Energy management

On a quarterly basis, Plant Engineering conducts Plant Engineering conducts Plant Engineeringresearch studies on various industry topics.

Access the following full reports atwww.plantengineering.com/research:

Editorial research

People and training

Services availablen Site search engine: Search current and past articles at www.plantengineering.com by topic, keyword, author or company name to � nd solutions to your plant issues.




n Digital editionPlant Engineering is delivered every month in a digital format, with enhanced features to bring the print product alive on your screen.


Sept. 12 is the deadline to submit nominations for the 2014 Top Plant award and the 2014 Product

of the Year award. Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2014, the Top Plant award will honor the

outstanding manufacturing facilities in the U.S. The Product of the Year awards will recognize the best

new products introduced in manufacturing in 2014.

www.plantengineering.com/events-and-awards

n Safetyn Workforce developmentn Energy management

On a quarterly basis, Plant Engineering conducts research studies on various industry topics.

Access the following full reports atwww.plantengineering.com/research

In your opinionIf you had the ability to make a change, what specific area of your operations could be improved by achieving temperatures and humidity levels lower than your current systems will allow?

71% Production levels

11% Equipment performance

10% Personal comfort and safety

6% Product quality

A new poll question is posted every two weeks at www.plantengineering.com.

Plant, product deadlines

A bad choice could cost you thousands!Look Familiar?When hot weather causes the electronics inside a control cabinet to fail, there is a panic to get the machinery up and running again. � e operator might choose to simply open the panel door and aim a fan at the circuit boards. In reality, the fan ends up blowing a lot of hot, humid, dirty air at the electronics and the cooling eff ect is minimal. If the machinery starts functioning again, the likelihood of repeated failure is great since the environment is still hot (and threatens permanent damage to the circuit boards). Worse yet, that open panel door is an OSHA violation that presents a shock hazard to personnel.

The Real Solution!Stop electronic downtime with an EXAIR Cabinet Cooler® System! � e complete line of low cost Cabinet Cooler Systems are in stock and can ship now. � ey mount in minutes through an ordinary electrical knockout and have no moving parts to wear out. � ermostat control to minimize compressed air use is available for all models. All Cabinet Coolers are UL Listed to US and Canadian safety standards.

The Secret To Keeping Electronics Cool!

If you would like to discussan application, contact:

11510 Goldcoast DriveCincinnati, Ohio 45249-1621(800) 903-9247/fax: (513) 671-3363www.exair.com/79/440.htm

Je� Hauck, Lasercraft Inc. Cincinnati OH

“It took us three days to get a replacement computer cabinet and we didn’t want to risk another heat failure. Fans weren’t an option since they would just blow around a lot of hot air. Freon-type air conditioners like those on some of our other machines were a constant maintenance project of their own. We purchased EXAIR’s Model 4330 NEMA 12 Cabinet Cooler

System since it was easy to install and requires no maintenance.” @exair

The only compressed air powered cooler that is CE compliant!

The only compressed air powered cooler that is CE compliant!

www.exair.com/79/44079.htm

Watch The Video

NEMA 4 and 4XCabinet Coolers

NEMA 4 and 4X Cabinet Coolers for large heat loads up to 5,600 Btu/hr. � ey are ideal for PLCs and modular controls.• Enclosure remains dust-tight,

oil-tight and splash resistant

• Suitable for wet locations where coolant spray or hose down can occur

Type 316 Stainless Steel Cabinet Coolers

Type 316 Stainless Steel Cabinet Coolers for NEMA 4X applications are available for heat loads up to 5,600 Btu/hr. • Resists harsh environments

not suitable for Type 303/304

• Ideal for food and chemical processing, pharmaceutical, foundries, heat treating and other corrosive environments

Mini NEMA 12, 4, and 4X Cabinet Coolers

� e mini NEMA 12, 4 and 4X Cabinet Coolers for small heat loads up to 550 Btu/hr. are ideal for control panels, relay boxes, laser housings, electronic scales. • Measures 5" (127mm) high

• Mounts top, side or bottom

• Enclosure remains dust-tight and oil-tight

High TemperatureCabinet Coolers

High Temperature CabinetCoolers for NEMA 12, 4 and 4X applications are available for heat loads in many capacities up to 5,600 Btu/hr. • Suitable for ambients up to

200°F (93°C)

• Ideal for mounting near ovens, furnaces, and other hot locations

Non-Hazardous PurgeCabinet Coolers

NHP Cabinet Coolers keep a slight positive pressure on the enclosure to keep dirt from entering through small holes or conduits. For use in non-hazardous locations.• Uses only 1 SCFM in

purge mode

• For heat loads up to 5,600 Btu/hr.

• NEMA 12, 4 and 4X

NEMA 12Cabinet Coolers

� e NEMA 12 Cabinet Coolers for large heat loads up to 5,600 Btu/hr. are ideal for PLCs, line control cabinets, CCTV cameras, modular control centers, etc. • Measures 8" (203mm) high

• Mounts top, side or bottom

• Enclosure remains dust-tightand oil-tight


FLEXICON® Flexible ScrewConveyors transport free- and non-free-flowing bulk solid materialsfrom large pellets to sub-micronpowders, including products thatpack, cake or smear, with noseparation of blends, dust-free at low cost. No bearings contactmaterial. Easy to clean quickly, thoroughly.

SWING-DOWN®, REAR-POSTand TWIN-CENTERPOST™Bulk Bag Fillers can fill one bulk bag per week or 20 per hour at the lowest cost per bag. Numerousperformance options. Available to industrial or sanitary standards.

BLOCK-BUSTER® Bulk Bag Conditionersloosen bulk materials that have solidifiedduring storage and shipment. Variable heightturntable positions bag for hydraulic rams with contoured conditioning plates to press bag on all sides at all heights.

TIP-TITE® Container Dumpersdump bulk material from drums(shown), boxes or other containersinto vessels up to 10 ft (3m) high.Dust-tight (shown) or open chutemodels improve efficiency and safety of an age-old task.

The FLEXICON® Lifetime PerformanceGuarantee* assures you of a successfulresult, whether you purchase one piece ofequipment or an engineered, automatedplant-wide system. From initial testing inlarge-scale laboratories, to single-sourceproject management, to after-sale support by a worldwide network of factory experts, you can trust your process—and your reputation—to Flexicon.

PNEUMATI-CON®

Pneumatic ConveyingSystems move a broadrange of bulk materialsover short or longdistances, between singleor multiple inlet anddischarge points in lowto high capacities.Available as dilute-phasevacuum or positivepressure systems, fullyintegrated with yourprocess.

CC

-0633

FLEXICON® ManualDumping Stations allowdust-free dumping of bulkmaterial from bags and othercontainers. Automatic reverse-pulse filter cleaning allowscontinuous, efficientoperation. Available with integral bag compactors for total dust containment.

BULK-OUT® BulkBag Dischargersunload free- andnon-free-flowingsolids from bulkbags automatically.Allows untying,discharging, retyingand collapsing ofbulk bags—alldust-free. Availablewith weighbatching controls.

FLEXI-DISC™ Tubular CableConveyors gently slide fragilefoods and non-foods throughsmooth stainless steel tubingrouted horizontally, vertically or at any angle, over short or long distances, dust-free. Single or multiple inlets and outlets.

CONVEY DUMP UNLOAD

CONDITION FILL CONVEY

CONVEY SUCCEEDDUMP

©2014 Flexicon Corporation. Flexicon Corporation has registrations and pending applications for the trademark FLEXICON throughout the world.*See full Lifetime Performance Guarantee for details.

[email protected] 888 FLEXICON

CHILEUK

AUSTRALIASINGAPORE

SOUTH AFRICA

+56 2 2415 1286+44 (0)1227 374710+61 (0)7 3879 4180+65 6778 9225+27 (0)41 453 1871



Expediting costs include premium transportation charges and incremen-tal unit prices incurred as a result of expediting delivery of material from the supplier. Of course, there are other indirect (and sometimes much great-er) costs associated with expediting, such as lost production waiting for

parts. For purposes of this discussion, however, we will focus only on the direct costs.

Expedites are generally accepted as a cost of doing business. However, they are not always a necessary cost of doing business. Too often com-panies hide behind that mantra as a way of accepting the additional cost of expediting without any justifica-tion of the need, or just avoiding the

effort of tracking them at all. If you don’t know why you are expediting material and how much you are spend-ing on it, how could you possibly know whether it’s too much?

If you search long enough, you may find one or more sources sug-gesting that 2% is the benchmark for expediting. The problem with this is they don’t specify 2% of what.

Expediting costs: How much is too much?

INFOCUS

Doug Wallace, CPM

Life Cycle Engineering

PRODUCT EXCLUSIVE:

Eaton adjustable frequency drives add reliabilityPower management company Eaton

announces the launch of the PowerXL Series DG1 adjustable frequency drive. Designed for global commercial, indus-trial, and original equipment manufactur-er (OEM) customers, the Eaton engineered drive is designed to help dramati-cally reduce energy con-sumption compared to tra-ditional control methods, improve safety, and sup-port reliable operations.

“Global megatrends indicate there will be a substantial increase in the demand for improved efficiency, and adjust-able speed motor control provides reductions in energy consumption,” said Rob Fenton, product line manager, Eaton. “Eaton is delivering new energy efficient technolo-gies like the PowerXL Series DG1 drive to not only reduce energy usage, but also achieve better motor performance and system reliability—helping customers power their businesses more efficiently, effectively, and safely,” Fenton said.

The PowerXL DG1 is a general-pur-pose drive that incorporates an energy control algorithm, extensive onboard industrial communication protocols, and built-in harmonic reduction to

help customers reduce the cost of using a vari-able frequency drive.

Third in the seriesThe DG1 is the third model available in the PowerXL series of adjustable fre-quency drives. Earlier this year, Eaton released the compact PowerXL Series DC1 drive, which sim-plifies programming for machinery OEM custom-ers. The PowerXL Series DA1 drives, also released in 2014, provide advanced control functions for the

most demanding drive applications.Applications that already incorpo-

rate adjustable frequency drives may realize additional energy and emissions savings of up to 10% by switching to the PowerXL DG1 drive. With Eaton’s Active Energy Control algorithm, the

new drives are programmed to dynami-cally adjust energy consumption and minimize motor energy loss. The modu-lar design is designed to provide greater reliability and reduce maintenance time and costs.

Enhanced graphical displays and com-munication capabilities are embedded in the PowerXL DG1 drive, providing customers with detailed system data to simplify installation, commissioning, and maintenance.

The PowerXL DG1 drives are engi-neered for safety, including standard Safe Torque Off (STO) functionality. The drives are also Restriction of Haz-ardous Substances (RoHS) compliant and meet standards from Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Canadian Under-writers Laboratories (cUL), Confor-mité Européenne (CE), and Australia and New Zealand’s C-Tick.

Eaton. www.eaton.com/PowerXLDG1

Go Online www.plantengineering.com/products has additional Plant Engineering products.

Continued on page 10

10 • July/August 2014 plant engineering

Is it purchase orders? Line items? Dol-lar value? Is it 2% of all purchases or just MRO?

There are also those who say that 0% or $0 is the benchmark. Some would argue that absolute zero is an unrealistic objective for any metric,

particularly this one. However, having a goal of even one expedited shipment each week or each month is accept-ing a gap in your processes. If I had to choose between the two extremes, I’d try for zero.

In reality, though, it’s not the bench-mark that really matters. What matters

is the frequency of your expedites, the total amount of money you are spending on them, and whether they can be avoided. So where do we get this information?

Many companies struggle to extract expediting costs from their purchas-ing or accounts payable systems, and frequently give up trying because they just can’t get accurate data. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t readily available. Since these are (hopefully) rare and usually widely publicized events, it shouldn’t be difficult to know when they occur.

All expedite requests should be reviewed by the line organization and the functional buyer to validate the reason—typically an emergency, stockout, or unplanned requirement—and determine the estimated cost of expediting the material. The buyer should not authorize the supplier to expedite the shipment unless and until the requester has been informed of the additional cost and has pro-vided approval to proceed.

All that’s required is for the buyer to ask the supplier how much it will actually cost to expedite the material (which they should be doing anyway) and write it down somewhere when expedites are authorized. Not only can this data be easily tallied and reported at the end of each week or each month, but it will also provide a baseline to ensure that the actual charges are in line with what was quoted.

Many expedites can be prevented through better equipment reliability, preventive and predictive mainte-nance programs, and effective plan-ning and scheduling of maintenance work. The real test of whether your expediting costs are too high lies in whether they are truly unavoidable. Analysis of the data provided by the buyer should allow management to easily make those determinations. PE

Doug Wallace is a senior consul-tant and materials management subject matter expert for Life Cycle Engineer-ing (LCE). Doug can be reached at [email protected]..

INfOCUSContinued from page 9

EnclosureHubENCLOSURES ON DEMAND

www.enclosurehub.comOrder Online 24/7. Same Day

Shipping on In-Stock Items

Over 7,000 Products Online!enclosures

enclosuresINDUSTRIAL ELECTRICAL

ENCLOSURES & ACCESSORIES

NEMA Enclosures

enclosuresenclosures

FIBERGLASS - STAINLESS STEEL - POLYCARBONATE - ALUMINUM - PAINTED STEEL

ORDER BY PHONE, FAX, OR ONLINE TODAY!Cleveland, Ohio T: 1.800.325.4935 F: 216.267.5392 www.enclosurehub.com

THE LOWEST PRICES ONLINE!

SAVE 10% on a purchase of $500 or moreONLINE CODE: PE0610

TYPE 4X

POLYCARBONATE ENCLOSURESBetter Material. Better Boxes.



INfOCUS

All mobile computing applications, although varying to different degrees, share similar requirements, includ-ing support needs, data security, user acceptance, software configuration, customization, or development, as examples. However, experience has shown that the nature of mobile computing in plant environments pushes four considerations to the top:

1. Safety2. Ergonomics3. Functionality4. Wireless Security

SafetyThere’s no question that the safety of users and other personnel in the plant is of utmost concern . Safe ty in regard to handhelds usually involves two aspects: environmental certifications and oper-ating safety.

First, the plant envi-ronment will dictate if any certifications are required, such as Non-Incendive ratings (NI) or Intrinsically Safe (IS) ratings. These ratings are arranged accord-ing to class and divi-sion, depending upon the environment. For example, environments that have gas or dust that is or may be of a potentially hazardous composition determine what these ratings are.

Second, operating safety must be considered. If a device is too distracting or obscures the user’s view during opera-tions, the potential for accidents increases.

Carefully looking at usage, environment, and any mounting requirements will determine the size, place-ment, and use of the mobile computing device, maximiz-ing both user and other plant personnel safety.

ErgonomicsThe environment where the mobile computing device will be used has a great impact on the desired ergonom-ics of the device. If the device is comfortable to carry

Mobile devices: 4 things to considerBrian Adamson, Peak-Ryzex, Inc.

It is critical that proper research is done and certification requirements determined before considering a mobile device for the environment. Courtesy: Peak-Ryzex


© 2014 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric and Magelis are trademarks owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. • www.schneider-electric.com • 998-1239326_US_MagelisSCU

Introducing MagelisTM SCU, the first HMI controller you mount in a standard pushbutton cutout.

Ease through innovation

The Magelis SCU is a space- and cost-saving combination HMI/controller that includes all the key functionalities for small automation systems. But the real advantage comes during installation thanks to its innovative quick-mounting system, a patented solution that requires only a single 22mm diameter cut-out. If you need to install the CPU separately from the controller, a quick connector cable makes that fast and easy, too.

Choose Magelis SCU. It’s time for easy.

Start building easier today!Watch the product demo and enter to win a Magelis SCU starter pack, valued at $672.Visit www.SEreply.com Key Code j957u

USB, serial, Ethernet, and CANopen ports

Crystal-clear TFT LCD display

Digital I/O (HSC, PTO/PWM), and analog I/O (temperature inputs)

DIN-mounted via remote cable

Tool-free, removable spring clamp terminal blocks

Patented Ø22mm mounting system

Maximum functionality Minimum installation time

Discover our complete HMI solutions!Get a clear view into your operations with the widest range of HMIs with plug and play USB accessories that add functionality and reduce installation cost.



(if carried), easy to operate, and easy to read and/or understand, users will make fewer mistakes and have a better operating experience—and the better the operating experience, the better the user acceptance.

User demographics are also an important consideration when it comes

to the size and weight of devices. For example, if the majority of the users are strong individuals, weight—although always a consideration—becomes a more flexible characteristic of the device. The better the user acceptance, the more productive and satisfied the users.

FunctionalityHow the mobile computing devices need to be used to perform business operations will determine the needed functionality. Better performance is gained if the configuration of the device provides the most efficient functionality. For example, equipping a device with a short-range imager may enhance the performance of a close-range picking operation; however, if hanging location labels must be scanned, this will most likely be ineffective.

Some operations can be very repeti-tive. If a mobile computing device can be configured to perform these repetitive, and often multi-key stroke, operations with the press of an easily accessible (especially if wearing gloves) single configured key, this will increase the operator’s efficiency and reduce mis-takes and corrections. Functionality that helps the user perform his or her tasks, stay in communication, and log various information, including notes and images (e.g., damaged products), is often very important in a plant environment.

Wireless securityHackers are in the news constantly, and wireless systems are becoming their favorite targets. All wireless devices need to be capable of the latest IEEE 802.11i and 802.1x security standards. IEEE 802.11i encrypts and protects data moving over the wireless system, while the 802.1x standards protect the network from unauthorized access.

While these standards protect data and networks, it is just as important to be aware when a hacker is taking interest in your wireless system. Wireless intru-sion prevention systems are essential for enabling preventive actions rather than just reacting “after the fact.” The key to protection is to make your system so tough that the hackers move to easier targets. PE

Brian Adamson is senior solutions consultant of mobility and managed services for Peak-Ryzex, Inc., and has provided consulting, engineering, implementation, support, and project management services to the warehous-ing, distribution, logistics, 3PL, retail, pharmaceutical, health care, and field services verticals.

INfOCUS

Improve pump reliability, MTBF*, reduce downtime and energyconsumption with Summit Centri‐Pump PPO and SPO Seriessynthetic lubricants. Synthetics lubricants are resistant to oxidation,enhance wear protection, and reduce friction. They keep yourequipment running cooler, smoother, longer and more efficiently.

Summit’s selection of Barrier Fluids provides a wide range ofviscosities for mechanical seals. All Summit Barrier Fluids areNSF H1, Kosher, CFIA and Halal approved products.

RELIABLESynthetic Lubricant

Protect your Pumps, Mechanical Seals and Bearings

*mean timebetweenfailure

800.749.5823www.klsummit.com

SummitIndustrial Products

Free Technical Support &

Used Oil AnalysisCall Today!

Pump ad_Layout 1 7/23/2014 4:22 PM Page 1


When safety really matters

Increase worker safety and ensure your critical bolted joints stay tight. The Nord-Lock Group offers a unique combination of bolting expertise and a wide product range, including wedge-locking solutions and Superbolt tensioners.

“TOP 10 BOLTING TIPS”:

www.bolted.com/subscribe

Recieve a complimentary subscription to Bolted magazine - bolting tips & case studies from the bolting experts. The latest issue features “Top 10 Bolting Tips.”

www.nord-lock.com


The 2014 Workforce Development study asked key questions on the causes and effects of the lack of a skilled workforce in the U.S., what manufacturing plants are doing to combat this issue, and how facilities are establishing a positive relationship with their communities.

According to the data in this report, nearly two-thirds of respondents indicated a workforce shortage in their plants, and within those facilities, 7% of jobs are currently unfi lled, on average.

Download the Plant Engineering Workforce Development Research today!

www.plantengineering.com/2014WorkforceDevelopment

Turning research into insights makes for better business decisions

2014Workforce Development Research

pe201408_research_WorkDvlpmt.indd 1 7/30/2014 1:36:59 PM

Just as parents have a tougher time managing quintuplets in comparison to only one child, so too do maintenance professionals face greater challenges when they are responsible for more than one location. And that means they need a computerized maintenance manage-ment system (CMMS) with enough muscle to handle multiple sites and far-flung equipment.

Although a best-of-breed CMMS should retain its value no matter the size of an enterprise, it’s also true that maintaining equipment and facilities across multiple sites demands capabili-ties that are somewhat different from those needed in programs used for a single location.

While the term “scalability” can be over used in the software world, it is nevertheless critical to evaluate an enter-prise CMMS in terms of its ability to scale and grow with the needs of the company. But what does “scalability” really mean in practical terms? And what other factors determine success when using a CMMS across multiple sites?

Here are four observations and answers to those questions:

1. Keep on tracking: The ability to track the history of preventive mainte-nance (PM) and other repairs on equip-ment is a key advantage of a CMMS because it enables maintenance teams to identify trouble spots, root out the cause of problems, replace frequent fli-ers, and stock essential parts. Therefore, this tracking capability must be easily transferable to multiple sites when using a CMMS throughout a business organiza-tion or enterprise.

2. Drag and drop it: Inputting speci-fications and detailed information on equipment and facilities is an important step in the process of implementing a CMMS solution. An enterprise CMMS should enable users to “clone” informa-tion from assets and “drag and drop” it from one site to another while transfer-ring maintenance history and without having to go through the process of re-entering data for each new location.

3. Plan ahead: Taking time to sit down and look ahead to implementing a CMMS in several sites can be invaluable. Effec-tive maintenance managers think through tasks—such as creating names for assets and labels for other data—so informa-tion remains uniform throughout all sites, making it much easier to access.

4. Stay simple: If an enterprise CMMS requires too many steps to input a work order or call up repair infor-mation, it may not be the best choice. Having a system that is easy to set up and use becomes even more important when a variety of staffers will need to access the CMMS in more than one location. Remember no system will help the maintenance team perform better or produce a return on investment if it’s too difficult for the end user.

While a CMMS may have all the features needed by maintenance pro-fessionals, managers can still face roadblocks when it comes to integrat-ing their system with the requirements of programs used by the organization at large. The best way to overcome that barrier is to establish basic criteria for implementing a CMMS. Define what the maintenance team needs to meet their challenges. Then use that information to identify and invest in the CMMS that will best fit the company’s needs, regardless of how large or small it may be. PE

Paul Lachance is president and chief technology officer for Smartware Group, which produces Bigfoot CMMS.

INfOCUSScalability: 4 tips for a successful multi-site enterprise CMMSPaul Lachance, Smartware Group

Qua

lity

M

anagement System

ISO9001:2008

Registered:



Although manufacturing goods in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe offers electronics companies and their manufacturing and solutions

partners significant economic advan-tages, this strategy is not a panacea. When employees feel a company is not meeting their needs, the results can be expensive—from high turnover and the cost of hiring and training replace-

ments to low productivity and a suf-fering reputation.

Ensuring employees are happy and fulfilled is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business. And companies aiming for just that must often rethink their approach to employee engage-ment, not just individual initiatives but, more critically, the overall culture. By carefully evaluating employees’ situa-tions and needs and implementing cor-porate best practices adapted to these different scenarios, manufacturers can improve performance.

Whether it involves better onboard-ing to make new workers feel at home, training for career advancement or guid-ance in people management for front-line supervisors, a strategy for improv-ing the employee experience can pay big dividends for everyone.

What is employee engagement?The concept of engagement refers to the emotional commitment of employ-ees to their work and the company. Engaged workers care about contrib-uting to organizational goals and are more willing to lend their time and tal-ent. They’re more willing to go above and beyond their job descriptions.

Employee engagement is complex, ranging from the basics of a safe and com-fortable workplace and a decent place to live to career opportunities, education, and satisfying work relationships. It also means engendering loyalty, pride, and a sense of identity and community.

Importantly, engagement is a two-way process. Companies must engage employ-ees in their principles, programs, and policies, and encourage them to respond through participation. When the process is optimized, the effects can be dramat-ic: engaged employees provide a higher level of service, quality, and productivity, leading to more satisfied customers and higher revenues. Turnover drops and the company’s reputation is enhanced.

Following are some metrics on engagement:

Global engagement challengesRegional differences, including cul-ture and laws, play a significant role

INfOCUSOptimizing employee engagement across the globePhil Hubbell, Jr., Jabil

Get a grip on surface fi nishing costs.

Whether it’s tool and die cast parts or structural steel and stampings, today’s metalworking industry is highly

competitive. You need better results for less. Rosler offers the industry’s widest range of shot blasting and mass � nishing equipment. Our integrated system solutions

provide precise, repeatable processes for the lowest cost-per-piece. It’s time to get a grip. Call Rosler today.

Rosler Metal Finishing USA, LLC is the leader in mass � nishing, shot blasting, automated processes and media - made in the USA.

Visit www.rosler.us or call 269-441-3000.


©20

14, R

IDGI

D, In

c. Th

e Em

erso

n log

o and

RID

GID

logo a

re re

gist

ered

trad

emar

ks of

Em

erso

n El

ectri

c Co.

or R

IDGI

D, In

c. in

the U

.S. a

nd ot

her c

ount

ries.

All o

ther

trad

emar

ks b

elong

to th

eir re

spec

tive h

older

s.

REQUEST A FREE ONSITE DEMO AT 800.769.7743 | RIDGID.COM/COMpACT2

proven FUnCTIonALITY

And versATILITY. neW TeCHnoLoGY.

Introducing our CS6Pak digital recording monitor and Compact2 camera reel.

Redesigned to provide easier transport and smoother docking of the monitor to

the reel, this system is simple to use. Best of all, the added self-leveling camera head and digital recording capabilities allow you

to easily view and share your inspection footage with anyone, anywhere.

NEWrIdGId® CompACT2

InspeCTIon sYsTem



in engaging employees. In China high-er wage rates and increasing labor shortages have defined the market in recent years. Employees, many of whom have moved hundreds of miles for work, have their choice of jobs in China’s manufacturing-inten-sive regions and may be easily per-

suaded to change jobs for a small increase in compensation.

Ensuring employees have profes-sional and social connections, fair pay, and a safe and respectful work-ing environment are key. They must feel comfortable with the company culture and that they are contributing

to the company’s success in order for them to stay.

In Mexico, where employees typi-cally have extended families nearby, ensuring they have access to medical care, transportation, and schedules that allow them to care for their chil-dren is important. It is powerful for companies to invest in community support services such as schools and health centers.

Engagement from the ground upMany electronics original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers tackle the basics of engage-ment by providing on-campus dor-mitories and meals for employees in certain countries, transportation from offsite locations, and health and safety programs. Additionally, a strong cor-porate commitment to investing in development programs is needed to drive success.

Following are examples from Jabil, Inc. of current and planned initiatives that target the full spectrum of engage-ment needs.

• Welcoming new employees. Jabil conducts extensive onboarding of new employees to make them feel at home in the organization. A new global program that rolled out in February 2014 focuses on three groups: production employees, office employees, and managers. Every employee is given a “buddy,” and coworkers from the same home-town are encouraged to reach out to the new hire. The company also pro-vides a special kit with a discount card for local stores and information about the next job level to which the worker can aspire. To help employ-ees prepare for advancement, edu-cational funding is offered.

• Empowering individual advance-ment. The company’s Employee Development International Insti-tute in China is a six-month train-ing program in functional skills, English language, and leadership. Applicants are taken from the pro-duction workforce and immersed in the program, with the goal of

INfOCUS

Why go to Extremes for the Ultimate Protection?

N Y L O N • S T E E L • H Y B R I D • T U B E • 3 D • S I L E N T

© 2014 U.S. Tsubaki Power Transmission, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

I N N O V A T I V E S O L U T I O N S F O R A N Y O P E R A T I O N

*TKA Series with IP54 Protection Rating

(No gaps for debris to enter)

Looking for optimal protection for your application? Look no further, Tsubaki KabelSchlepp has the best option for any application with debris. TKA Series Cable Carriers are completely sealed regardless of the carrier’s position, to ensure the utmost protection of your Tsubaki KabelSchlepp cables as well as your entire operation. No need to take extreme measures to protect your application from flying debris, metal chips, wash down contaminants or any other particulates that may get in your way. Call it a wrap on your old carriers because TKA has got you covered. www.ustsubaki.com or 800-443-4216

Be sure to stop by our booth at the 2014 IMTS show Sept. 8-13, Chicago, IL

Booth #E-5823


Rexnord’s newest gear drive, the Falk V-Class™, is engineered to deliver power, durability and reliability under the toughest conditions. Its unprecedented design and test procedures mean longer seal life, improved thermal performance and increased operating life. The Falk V-Class gear drive provides shorter lead times, convenient serviceability and faster, easy access support.

And, you can find the Rexnord Falk V-Class at your local Motion Industries location. Our local sales and service specialists are experts in application and technical support, providing the parts and the know-how you need to stay up and running.

Scan this code with your smartphone for more information.

http://esp.to/wA3DgN

The brands you count on from the people you trust...that’s Rexnord and Motion Industries.

Call. 800-526-9328

Call. 800-526-9328Click. www.motionindustries.comVisit. Over 550 Locations



developing competitive, knowledgeable, and skilled employees committed to continuous improvement, learning, and critical thinking. In Mexico, another program enrolls high-performing production workers for a year of development in functional skills, English, leadership, and external university training. In fiscal year 2013, Jabil delivered more than 500,000 hours of training and education to employees through online and classroom instruction.

• Guiding frontline managers. The company created a manager engagement toolkit to help managers motivate their employees. Further, Jabil designed a structured manager training program promoting the corporate cul-ture and values, which is part of manager development.

• Tapping the power of the smartphone. Smartphones are extremely popular in China in spite of their expense—about 80% of workers have them. Several Jabil initiatives take advantage of this high usage to reach more employ-ees. A “storytelling” contest encourages employees to take “selfies” with their smartphones and post them along with a story about innovation, customer service, collaboration, continuous improvement, or other areas. The best stories are selected and publicized internally. Another innovative program is a special app designed by MicroBenefits, a provider of employee loyalty solu-tions, which provides outreach, company news, pulse surveys, and training in Jabil’s culture and corporate values to smartphone users.

As referenced earlier, employee engagement is infec-tious. Just as negative behaviors can cause a downward spiral for a company, employee engagement drives a virtuous upward spiral. Engaged employees affect other employees, and strong overall employee engagement drives customer loyalty. Quality, on-time delivery (OTD), and cost all improve as employees expend their discretion-ary effort on behalf of their company, and ultimately on behalf of their customers. At Jabil, we have customers who share our excitement related to providing a dignified work experience for our people; in many cases, we are their manufacturing arm and are considered a key part of their supply chain. They celebrate our efforts to serve our employees just as we do.

Although employment challenges and employer practices vary across the world, it is clear that an engaged workforce can make a tremendous difference to any organization. Thoughtful policies and programs tailored to the needs of the locality, supported by genuine concern for and inter-est in each individual, can drive strong loyalty, pride, and commitment that are essential to a high-quality end product and financial returns. PE

Phil Hubbell, Jr. is vice president, employee engagement and regional human resources at Jabil, a global company that provides supply chain and manufacturing services.

INfOCUSLooking to extend service life?

CHAINGEMaybe it’s time for a

nothing outlasts a diamondTM

www.diamondchain.com | 1-800-872-4246©2014 The Diamond Chain Company. DCPEM-0814Diamond, the Diamond Chain logo, and “Nothing Outlasts a Diamond” are trademarks of Diamond Chain Company, Inc.


industrial air controlOur heavy-duty industrial dampers are available in a wide range of blade styles and pressure classes to control airflow and promote safety in critical-demand environments.

Learn more from your Greenheck representative or at greenheck.com

715.359.6171

Control Dampers | Isolation Dampers | Bubble Tight Dampers | Backdraft Dampers Smoke Dampers | Pressure Relief Dampers | Tornado Dampers

Blast Dampers & Tunnel Ventilation Dampers



APPS FOR ENGINEERS

Team communication apps for iOS and AndroidCFE Media’s Apps for Engineers is an interactive directory of more than 240 engineering-related applications for Android and iOS operating systems from various companies. We’ve organized apps by category, company, and type. This month, gain access to our team communication category.www.plantengineering.com/appsforengineers

Fluke ConnectAndroid, iOS 7.0+Cost: FreeCompany: Fluke Corp.Website: www.� uke.com

Fluke Connect allows the user to stay in contact with his or her team without leaving the � eld. With more than 20 connectable tools, con� dently diagnosing and solving problems has never been easier. Users can trend data over time, identifying and stopping problems before they happen. In addition, a cloud storage feature offers users privacy and security.

LogMeInAndroid 2.3+, iOS 5.1+Cost: Free/$64.99Company: LogMeIn Inc.Website: www.secure.logmein.com

Remotely access your PC and Mac devices using Wi-Fi/3G with LogMeIn. The � le manager allows users to save � les directly on their mobile devices so they can work on them of� ine. Users can move and copy � les between personal and work computers/devices. The cloud bank integration links up with popular cloud services. In addition, the photo app management tool makes it easy to access and transfer photos between the photo app on one’s iPad/iPhone and the LogMeIn app.

Cisco WebEx MeetingsAndroid 2.1+, iOS 6.0+Cost: FreeCompany: CiscoWebsite: www.webex.com

Users can join or schedule any web conference from their mobile devices. This app offers mobile video con-ferencing with high-quality, multipoint video, voice-activated video switching, and the option to view content and video simultaneously (on iPad only). In addition to video conferencing, the app offers � le-sharing and host account capabilities. Also available on Blackberry.

Wi-Fi FinderAndroid, iOS 5.0+Cost: FreeCompany: JiWireWebsite: www.jiwire.com

Quickly and easily � nd free or paid Wi-Fi to stay connected to your team while you travel. Users are able to download all of the locations of� ine so they know how to stay connected when on the road. Using the GPS function on one’s mobile device, the Wi-Fi � nder will tell users exactly where the closest Wi-Fi hotspot is and how to get there. If users prefer certain providers, they’ll be able to see what hotspots are served by those speci� c providers.

26 • July/August 2014 plant engineering www.plantengineering.com

SpecialRepoRt

The three laws of asset management

Note: The adoption of ISO 55000 in 2014 provided a framework for the principles and benefits of establishing an asset management system. It has been hailed as one of the most important new standards in years. Terrence O’Hanlon, an asset management expert and a member of the technical committee that drafted the ISO 55000 standard, offers his views on the standard and how manufacturers should implement ISO 55000 going forward.

Law #1:Asset management is not about managing assets; it is about delivering business valueAn asset is something that has actual or potential value to an organization. Asset management is a coordinated set of activi-ties designed to deliver that value in line with an organization’s objectives and appe-tite for risk.

Business value is interesting at every level in most organizations, and that has created a great deal of buzz about the new ISO 55000 series of asset management stan-dards published in January and available at www.iso.org.

Specifically, the standards are a set of three documents including:

• ISO 55000:2014: Asset management—Overview, principles and terminology

• ISO 55001:2014: Asset management—Management systems—Requirements

• ISO 55002:2014: Asset management—Management systems—Guidelines for the application of ISO 55001

To be precise, these standards are not technically asset management standards. In other words, they do not provide technical

guidance on “how to” conduct asset man-agement; rather, they express a managing system for asset management—or to use a clumsy phrase, an asset management system.

Like ISO 9001 is a managing system for quality management and ISO 14001 is a managing system for environmental man-agement, ISO 55001 is a managing system framework for asset management.

To achieve asset management objectives, the organization is required to ensure that its asset management related risks are consid-ered in the organization’s risk management approach including contingency planning.

Risk management is the lesser-known cousin of asset management, and guidance is provided by ISO 31000: Risk manage-ment and ISO/IEC 31010:2009: Risk man-agement/Risk assessment technique.

Law #2:Decisions drive value from assetsAccording to ISO 55000, asset manage-ment does not focus on the asset itself, but on the value that the asset can provide to the organization. The value (which can be tangible or intangible, financial or nonfi-nancial) will be determined by the organi-zation and its stakeholders, in accordance with the organizational objectives.

In many asset intensive organizations, only 25% of the decision to drive value from assets is driven by actions performed directly on an asset. Mature organizations drive value from decisions around an asset. Asset management expert John Woodhouse explains asset decision making based on the recent SALVO research project in the New Asset Management Handbook. Of the list of all possible decisions related to managing

Manufacturers can benefit from the adoption of ISO 55000.

Terrence O’Hanlon, CMRP

More on ISO 55000

In addition to the informa-tion resources provided by Plant Engineering, guidance for asset management, risk management, and reliabil-ity leadership is available through:

International Organization for Standardizationwww.iso.org

Institute of asset Managementwww.theiam.org

association for Maintenance Professionalswww.maintenance.org

www.plantengineering.com plant engineering July/August 2014 • 27

value and risk of an asset provided, only one-third are things you do directly to an asset and two-thirds are decisions you make around/about an asset.

Law #3:Culture eats strategy for lunchAccording to ISO 55001, an asset manage-ment system is used to direct, coordinate, and control asset management activities. It provides improved risk control and assures the achievement of asset manage-ment objectives on a consistent basis. However, not all asset management activities can be formalized through an asset management system; for example, aspects such as leadership, culture, motivation, etc., are not man-aged through the asset management system, but they can have a signifi-cant influence on the achievement of asset management objectives.

Regardless of how good your asset management strategy is, it is your organizational culture that will deter-mine its performance. Culture is built from within and is “cultivated” by leaders who aim at engaging employ-ees in delivering the performance of the organization. ISO 55001:2014 section 5.0 specifically outlines the importance of leadership in deliver-ing objectives.

Uptime Elements provides a map of theory by which to understand a holis-tic system of reliability for asset performance management. The first step is transforma-tion of the individual. The transformation comes from understanding of the system of leadership.

The Uptime Elements Reliability Lead-ership framework “enables asset manage-ment” by assuring capacity and function of the assets where value is demanded. To create sustainable performance, there is a need to align all activities toward delivery of the organization’s aim or purpose. Top management establishes high-level direction and defines value.

The concept of vertical alignment or “line of sight” establishes the required connection between top management and the assets of the organization to assure value delivery. Operational excellence, asset management, reliability leadership, and effective mainte-nance deliver the results.

Reliability leadership also provides an opportunity to encourage horizontal a lignment in support of value delivery from assets across a typical organization’s func-tional silos.

The tendency in Western business is to further define subdivisions or departments that tend to suboptimize the contributions to the entire system.

Operations may focus on capacity and have a desire to run even when maintenance

tasks would extend the life of the equip-ment and the return on the asset investment. Maintenance focuses on availability through performing maintenance even when it may reduce capacity output. Without alignment to the organizational AIM (objectives) and a clear definition and understanding of the organization as a system, the decisions of each “department” will suboptimize the system.

World-class organizations have created a recipe for value by creating a framework of asset management (ISO 55000), risk manage-ment (ISO 31000), and reliability leadership (Association for Maintenance Professionals – Certified Reliability Leader). PE

Besides his work on the ISO 55000 stan-dard, Terrance O’Hanlon also is the CEO of ReliabilityWeb.com and publisher for Uptime magazine.

Courtesy: ReliabilityWeb.com


COVERSTORY

The pe rs i s t en t hum runn ing through the General Motors (GM) assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan, sounds neither like crisis nor change, even in a facility and a company

that has seen plenty of both.Before 2009—before the GM bankruptcy

closed this plant, ended the production of the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6, and idled thousands of workers—this was a big place making big cars under the big rules of the way Detroit used to make cars. Today, Orion is a new plant in an old shell, making the smaller Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano. It’s a smaller footprint with a Lean assembly process. There are new work rules, new technology, new invest-ment, and a new sense of what is possible when you start all over with your manu-facturing plan.

But to start over, you have to stop.

Old plant, new rulesAt Orion (pronounced OR-e-on), the bank-ruptcy wasn’t about stock prices or even the overall U.S. economy. The matter hit close to home. This was personal.

“After the plant was idled, it was a very difficult time for the entire team,” said Steve Brock, plant manager of the Orion Assembly facility and the nearby Pontiac Metal Cen-ter. “The overall economy was suffering, our future was uncertain, and people were cutting back on eating out, making special purchases, which impacted local merchants. Addition-ally, the employees of local suppliers were directly affected because the plant no longer needed consumables, parts, or services.”

For two years, Orion’s plant lay idle as GM wrestled with a way not only out of bankruptcy, but also out from the underlying competitive issues that had plagued Detroit automakers for decades. It was clear that if Orion were to reopen under a “new GM,”

In a summer of turmoil at GM, one Michigan plant keeps building on its second chance.

Bob Vavra

Plant Engineering

Figure 1: GM plant manager Steve Brock has overseen the return of production to the once-shuttered Orion, Michigan facility and has helped lead the transition to new work rules and new investment in the plant. Courtesy: General Motors

From bankruptcy to rebirth


there would need to be new rules in place. That meant a commitment from the United Auto Workers (UAW) for a change in work rules and wage structures, and a commitment from GM for a stable, sustainable future for the facility. It also required a commitment of tax incentives from the state of Michigan.

The first step in that process was to make the Chevy Sonic the centerpiece of that facility. The Aveo had been manufactured in South Korea prior to the bankruptcy, and the Sonic, as its replacement in the subcompact category, seemed like another candidate for an American auto nameplate with a foreign birthplace. Instead, the Sonic came to Orion.

To make it a cost-effective move, the UAW and GM agreed to new work rules, and to the institution of the Global Manu-facturing System (GMS), the company’s Lean manufacturing system. Brock said it is “designed to engage and align the team to achieve positive business results and embrace continuous improvement.”

Before they could engage and align, Orion had to get the plant up and running again, with many of the same people in place, but with a whole new set of rules. “I don’t think that we lost their trust and confidence,” Brock said. “I think we had to help them understand the bigger picture of our challenge of com-petitively building the first small car in the U.S. We had to help them understand how we were going to do that together and why change was important.”

That change required a consistent joint message from the Orion management and from the UAW. “As every team member reen-tered the plant, we invested the time to share

that message as a joint leadership, UAW and GM, and teach the principles of GMS and the importance of change or continuous improve-ment,” Brock said. “To maintain trust and confidence, you need to walk the talk and live our values.”

Those efforts continue today. “The rela-tionship with the local is collaborative,” said Orion assistant plant manager Doug Hanly. “There may be tension on how get there, but there is no disagreement on what the end game is. They want to get there. They under-stand why we do what we’re going to do and what their role is.”

Communicating the futureCommunication is one of the most crucial elements of the Orion process. “We’ve got to continue to share the story with our workers. The confrontations of the past are not there,” Hanly said. “We now have meetings between the shop chairman once a week on formal basis. The more we can show a united front on floor, the more the team on the floor recognizes that.”

“Communication was, and still is, a criti-cal aspect of helping our team understand what we need to do, how we need to do it, and most importantly, why,” said Brock. “Our focus has been on how we engage every member of our team to understand how their work contributes to the success of their team, the plant, the company, and most importantly, the customer.

“We are proving that engaged people executing processes do achieve positive results,” Brock added.

That engagement is showing up in new ways that were less likely before Orion’s rebirth. “One avenue is the innovation and creativity of our workers,” Hanly said. “They’re the best ones to come up with solutions to our problems. We’re started engaging the team. We’ve challenged them on how the product design needs to come together. We’ve challenged them to think about how we do our business, and how we do it more effectively. You’ve got to be a Lean thinker.”

At the top, a year of turmoilThe process of manufacturing a car—the movement of parts from suppliers to line workers, the whirr of pneumatic wrenches and the purr of lift trucks, the marriage of chassis and power train—is not fundamen-tally different from the vision Henry Ford

CoverStory

Figure 2: One of the major investments at Orion was a new paint shop that turns a three-step paint process to one step and accomplishes this on a smaller footprint than in the past. Courtesy: CFE Media


created a century ago. The ballet that takes a car from unassembled parts to a finished machine is still a sight to behold.

The challenge today is to make that same car more efficiently and with fewer defects. It is here where GM—though not specifi-cally Orion—faces its greatest challenge.

The revelation came in February 2014 that 13 deaths are blamed on a manufacturing defect in the ignition switches in Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Saturn models manufactured from 2003 through 2010. The resulting firestorm has resulted in a change in man-agement at GM, with longtime company engineer Mary Barra taking the CEO role.

The company hired former federal pros-ecutor Anton Valukas to conduct an investi-gation into GM’s handling of concerns over the ignition switch defect reports, and the general culture around safety and account-ability at GM.

In prepared remarks before Congress on June 18, Barra was unsparing in her criticism of the problems GM now faces. “Two weeks ago, I purposefully addressed the entire global workforce about the report. I told our team as bluntly as I knew how, that the series of questionable actions and inactions uncovered in the investigation were inex-cusable,” Barra said. “I also told them that while I want to solve the problems as quickly as possible, I never want anyone associated with GM to forget what happened. I want this terrible experience permanently etched into our collective memories. This isn’t just another business challenge. This is a tragic problem that should never have happened. And it must never happen again.”

But Congress has been just as unsparing in its criticism. Barra twice has been called before Congressional committees both to testify and to answer pointed questions about the failure of the GM culture before and after bankruptcy to address and cor-rect such defects. Perhaps just as bad, the problem has turned GM into a punchline for late-night comedians.

It has been made worse by the continu-ing litany of recalls GM has issued since the February ignition switch scandal first broke. In the first seven months of 2014, there have been 60 individual recalls of GM products manufactured in the last decade. Some were minor fixes in small quantities that normally wouldn’t have caused much of an uproar. Many have occurred as GM itself has uncovered other problems in its internal

Figure 3: The mar-riage of chassis and body along the Orion assembly line, which makes the Chevrolet Sonic and the Buick Verano on a single assembly line. Courtesy: CFE Media

Figure 4: Another effective use of AGVs is to move the engine assem-bly along a line and marry it with the body. Scan-ners read the RFID tags to make sure the right body goes with the right engine. Courtesy: CFE Media


investigation and is being proactive—some-thing that wasn’t done as a result of past GM defects, according to the Valukas report.

Taken in aggregate, those recalls have painted a dim picture of GM. Yet even as Barra announces sweeping changes within the company in between congressional tes-timony and the recalls notices drone on, the business of making cars and the business of the business continues as usual.

The world’s second largest manufacturer of automobiles makes 10 million cars a year. Sales remain strong, and the stock price has been relatively unaffected. In October 2007, GM stock closed at $42.64 a share. By June of 2009, the company was in bankruptcy and shares were frozen at $0.75 a share. The company emerged from bankruptcy in November of 2009 and the stock price rose to more than $34 a share. It nearly touched the $41 mark before Christ-mas of 2013, just before the ignition switch crisis began, On August 1, the stock closed at $33.44 a share.

Reinvestment in OrionOnly about 40 miles separate GM’s corpo-rate headquarters (ironically located at Renaissance Drive) from the Orion Town-ship plant. The distance from the current GM troubles seems farther away. Of the 44 GM recall notices in the United States

since the beginning of 2014, just two have involved cars manufactured at Orion. On June 5, 31,000 vehicles, including not just the Sonic and Verano but also the Chev-rolet Camaro and Chevrolet Cruze, were recalled for repair of a driver’s side air bag bar. On June 11, 21,000 Sonics from 2012 were recalled to repair a possible fracture of the transmission turbine shaft. That’s less than 50,000 cars compared with the almost 18 million GM models recalled this year.

The success the team at Orion has enjoyed has earned it a reinvestment from the company in new technology and new processes to further streamline costs and improve productivity. A new automated guided vehicle (AGV) system allows pro-duction materials to be kitted and deliv-ered to line workers without the use of lift trucks. The AGV processes also delivers the chassis and drivetrain on time and in sequence, and raises the chassis to the proper height for the worker, improving ergonomics and safety.

A new paint shop was installed inside the walls of the Orion plant. “The new paint shop turned a three-coat process into one step and reduced the footprint of the paint shop by 250,000 sq ft.” Hanly said. “It’s now being used as a model for other facilities.”

The changes are not limited to the assem-bly line. At the rear of the facility, you get a full view of the landscape around Orion. You can see the coal bins and coal field that used to provide power for the plant. The old days of coal, like the old days of the old work rules, are gone. “We’re completely done with coal,” Hanly said.

The plant sits between two landfills, and later this year the landfill gas will begin fueling eight new generators that are expected to generate about half of the power necessary to run the plant. A solar array delivers another 350 kW of power for the plant, part of an overall effort at GM to expand the use of solar power at plant sites.

All of this reinvestment in Orion, just five years removed from bankruptcy, has turned the facility into a proving ground for new GM initiatives. Brock thinks it’s a proving ground for his team as well. He said his team has earned the investments “by providing the results or payback on the investment with the right methods and behaviors. An engaged team of people that embraces innovation and finds ways to do

CoverStory

Figure 5: The systems of automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and hydraulics allows cars to be lifted into place to improve ergonomics for the workers. Courtesy: CFE Media


things differently or better results in con-tinuous improvements that help execute our processes, ultimately resulting in positive business results.”

Fueling the futureIt has been a year of unbelievable turmoil within GM, and the impact of that turmoil is not lost on the team at Orion. But they also remain focused on making the Sonic and Verano, and to continue to earn the benefits of this new opportunity. The plant leadership at Orion sees it as a very per-sonal process.

“I think about the bankruptcy, and then to come back to where we are today,” Hanly said. “Relationships matter; it’s how we got here today.”

“I am proud of the team and their com-mitment to the customer and working hard every day to be better than the day before,” Brock said. “Our mission state-ment is, ‘Build it like we own it,’ and we all take that to heart as we perform our work every day.”

By reducing the manufacturing foot-print by 36%, the Orion team has opened up the room for manufacturing expansion. That was an impossible dream in 2009; the workforce and the community would have settled for just getting the plant reopened. Now there is room for growth and room for optimism.

“A lot of factors go into defining the future for a manufacturing operation. For

the near term, we can help the future of Orion by staying focused on the things that we have the ability to directly control and influence,” said Brock. “In the longer term, we will continue to create a culture that is supportive of being a very Lean, efficient, and flexible factory with a team that is creative, innovative, and embraces change in all we do.” PE

Figure 6 & 7: Two major energy projects at Orion are the use of a 350 kW solar array and a new series of generators that will take gas from the two neighbor-ing landfills and convert to to electricity for the plant. Both replace the coal field that now stands idle at the rear of the facility. Courtesy: CFE Media


COVERSTORY

It was supposed to be the beginning of a new era at General Motors (GM) on Jan. 15, 2014, was supposed to be the beginning of a new era at GM. The iconic global automaker named 31-year com-pany veteran Mary Barra as its new CEO,

making her the first woman to lead the global auto manufacturer. On that auspicious day, Barra said, “With an amazing portfolio of cars and trucks and the strongest financial performance in our recent history, this is an exciting time at today’s GM. I’m honored to lead the best team in the business and to keep our momentum at full speed.”

Instead, Barra’s first eight months on the job have been bogged down with a continuing crisis over mechanical and engineering break-downs of GM cars manufactured in the last 17 years. Since Aug. 1, 2013, GM has issued more than two dozen separate recall notices, covering more than 27 million GM vehicles manufactured between 1997 and 2014.

The most serious recall issue is a prob-lem with ignition switches on some GM models manufactured between 2005 and 2011. The problem with the switches has been blamed for 13 deaths over the past decade, and sparked a flurry of lawsuits, investigations, congressional inquiries, and additional recalls.

Barra has twice testified before Congress and faced sharp questioning while attempt-ing to assure legislators, stockholders, and customers that GM has learned from the mistakes of the past and will change as it develops its future engineering, safety, and manufacturing processes.

The company hired former federal pros-ecutor Anton Valukas to investigate the cause of GM’s troubles and to report on solutions. Valukas’ report, issued June 5, was a scathing indictment of past GM prac-tices, and Barra fired 15 GM employees as a result.

Courtesy: General Motors

“ For those of us who have dedicated

our lives to this company, it is enormously

painful to have our shortcomings laid out

so vividly.” Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors

In her own words:

Mary Barra and the GM recall crisis

Bob Vavra

Plant Engineering

Barra has been the visible public face of the GM crisis, and she hasn’t shied away from the controversy, even as the recall notices contin-ued throughout the spring and sum-mer. In her own words, here are her public comments as the GM recall crisis unfolded:

March 31 Submitted testimony to the U.S. house committee on Energy and commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Inves-tigations: “I recently held a town hall meet-ing to formally introduce our new VP of global vehicle safety to the company. We met at our Technical Center, one of the places where the men and women who engineer our vehicles work. They are the brains behind our cars, but they are also the heart of GM.

“It was a tough meeting. Like me, they are disappointed and upset. I could see it in their faces, and could hear it in their voices. They had many of the same questions that I suspect are on your minds. They want to make things better for our customers, and in the process, make GM better.

“That’s what I’m committed to doing.”

JUnE 10Written comments to GM stockholders:

“The Valukas report was drawn from more than 350 interviews with over 230 individuals and more than 41 mil-lion documents. The report highlights a company that operated in silos, with a number of individuals seem-ingly looking for reasons not to act, instead of finding ways to protect our customers.

“Repeatedly, individuals failed to disclose critical pieces of infor-mat ion that could have funda-menta l ly changed the l ives of those impacted by a faulty igni-t ion switch. If this information had been disclosed, I truly believe the company would have dealt with this matter appropriately.

“Even though investigators found no evidence that any employee made a trade-off between safety and cost in the investigation of the Cobalt, it’s clear that no one did enough to protect the basic needs of these customers.”

JUnE 18Submitted testimony to U.S. house committee on Energy & commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:

“It’s time—in fact, it’s past time—to insist on total accountability and make sure that vital information is shared across all functions in our company…so we can unleash the full power of our 200,000 employees, our 21,000 dealers and our 23,000 suppliers.

“The Valukas report, as you now know, is extremely thorough, bru-tally tough and deeply troubling. It paints a picture of an organization that failed to handle a complex safety issue in a responsible way. I was deep-ly saddened and disturbed as I read the report. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to this company, it is enormously painful to have our shortcomings laid out so vividly. There is no way to minimize the seriousness of what Mr. Valukas and his investiga-tors uncovered.”

JUnE 30Press release announcing a recall of an additional 7.4 million vehicles manufactured from 1997 to 2014:

“We undertook what I believe is the most comprehensive safety review in the history of our company because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers. Our custom-ers deserve more than we delivered in these vehicles. That has hardened my resolve to set a new industry standard for vehicle safety, quality and excellence.

“We have worked aggressively to identify and address the major out-standing issues that could impact the safety of our customers. I f any other issues come to our atten-tion, we will act appropriately and without hesitation.” PE


Plant Engineering’s electronic newsletters

deliver news and information on the

latest trends in manufacturing in

every corner of the plant � oor.

View our e-newsletters:

• HotWire

• Maintenance Connection

• PLANTMAIL!

• Energy Management

• Safety and Security

• Product and Media Showcase

• Whitepaper Connection

Subscribe today: www.plantengineering

.com/newsletters

Ineffi cient drive systems create heat. A bunch of

drives generating heat raises your cooling costs.

So, if you aren’t using the ultra-effi cient (IE4)

MOVIGEAR® Mechatronic Drive System from

SEW-EURODRIVE, then you are paying for energy

twice! MOVIGEAR combines the motor, gearing

and electronics into one highly reliable, effi cient

and hygienic unit. Independent research has

proven that it reduces startup and operating costs

by 20-30%. It’s time to stop running the heat and

air conditioning at the same time!

movigear.com / 864-439-7537

Things heating up at work?



ELECTRICALSOLUTIONS

In the past decade, significant changes have occurred in industrial environ-ments. With the growing cost of down-time and rise of complex, high-density

electrical equipment, power distribution systems are increasingly relied on to provide a clean, steady supply of power. Today’s electrical equipment is also far more intelligent, relying on sensitive electronic controls and microprocessors to maintain optimal plant performance around the clock.

These developments have increased the importance not only of power quality and reliability, but also of preventative mainte-nance. With larger equipment investments, it becomes vital to address possible issues before they result in unplanned downtime or costly equipment damage.

Further, power systems evolve over time while plant managers constantly strive to incorporate best-in-class equipment to enhance the reliability, efficiency, and safety of operations—which often leads to an infrastructure built with products that vary in age and manufacturer.

To keep a close eye on equipment and power status, equipment vendors and origi-nal equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have moved away from proprietary technology and toward industry standard communica-tions. Many pieces of modern equipment are embedded with Internet Protocol (IP) address-es, which allow plant management to actively and remotely monitor equipment by visiting a dedicated Web address for each device.

However, there could be thousands of individual devices across an enterprise.

Remote energy monitoring improves plant performance, reduces downtime

Marty Aaron

Eaton

Electrical power management systems can unify data from multiple devices within a facility or enterprise electrical system. These platforms provide a resource for remotely monitoring all power system data within a single dashboard. Courtesy: Eaton

A single dashboard can display power quality information to head off problems.

KEYPOINTS• With a high dependence on electrical systems and the need for power quality, manufacturers are looking at a single dashboard to monitor power quality issues.

• Power management platforms can collect data from a wide vari-ety of devices and display them in a unified way.

• By collecting operational data from the site and evaluating it on a daily basis, users can reduce the potential for damage to plant equipment.


eLeCTRICALSOLUTIONSThus, it can become very difficult and time consuming to achieve the full potential of remote management by taking a “one-off” approach. Providing a solution, electrical power management systems can unify data from multiple devices within a facil-ity or enterprise electrical system. These platforms provide a resource for remotely monitoring all power system data within a single dashboard, and can advance power management programs by tracking histori-cal and real-time power system data.

Electrical power management systems Offering a cost-effective solution, modern electric power management software can prove a critical tool in any enterprise’s daily operation. It not only unifies data from electrical equipment across a single facility or enterprise, but today’s platforms provide actionable input for proactive man-agement and decisions on budget planning, capital equipment replacement or expan-sion, production and operations schedul-ing, and energy usage and management.

From a remote management standpoint, modern electrical power management sys-tems can:

• Keep you informed at a glance with a dashboard telling you exactly what you need to know

• Notify you when something happens and lets you address the issue wher-ever you are

• Help you spot energy usage anoma-lies so you can identify and adjust the equipment causing the problems

• Provide you the detailed forensic data to determine the root cause of power problems

• Give you the long-term power and energy usage information needed to make smart capital investment decisions.

To manage a plant effectively, you need insight into your power and energy systems where you need it, when you need it, every time. Electrical power management systems move beyond simple alarm notification to gain true insight into your power and energy systems to help you proactively and

predictively address issues.

These platforms play a significant role in identifying equipment or system issues before major problems occur, and can aid in trouble-

shooting or diagnosing equipment failures. They also help anticipate risks and can result in huge financial benefits to plant opera-tions, with a majority of features available through remote access.

But, how can plant managers best utilize the information that electrical power man-agement programs provide?

Intelligent data acquisitionWith an electrical power management plat-form, multiple data acquisition tools obtain daily operational data from equipment. From the basement to the rooftop, for one facility or multiple, power management platforms can collect data from the following device types commonly found across industrial plants:

• Meters and submeters• Circuit breakers• Motor control overload relays• Motor protective relays • Feeder protective relays • Uninterruptible power systems (UPS)• Power distribution units • Automatic transfer switches • I/O modules

Though these platforms are designed to provide a complete overview of power and energy systems, they deliver specif-ic information and benefits for a variety of applications.

For example, a typical monitoring sys-tem could have 100 or more data collec-tion points, several months of historical data storage, and even longer-term storage of minimum, maximum, and average data. These monitoring systems utilize embedded intelligence to help identify key trends from all incoming data, creating trend plots. The user can then set multiple parameters to be viewed on a single screen and, if needed, saved for future analysis. But how does this impact remote management?

The alarm process Advanced monitoring software integrated into electrical power management systems

Maintaining equipment

health, plant availability, and

energy efficiency is critical.


can help plant management identify issues before they can reach impactful levels.

Using pattern recognition to interpret data, power management platforms can create trend graphs of equipment opera-tions under typical conditions. By creating these standard benchmarks for operating conditions, it is possible for the system to quickly identify a fault or potential harmful power condition.

Once incoming data is flagged as a poten-tial problem, it is processed through a series of advanced data analysis tools, and the results can be sent as an alarm to plant man-agers. Upon receiving the alarm, plant staff can react quickly to analyze the details of the issue, before brainstorming possible causes and suggested actions.

For facility issues, man-agement can see all the equipment on the factory floor or across an enter-prise, with key indicators on energy consumption, power quality, and active alarms prominent on the screen so that they can take quick action.

F o r i n f o r m a t i o n t echnology i s sues , managers can quick-ly assess the entire power system, including the t radi-tional power distribution equipment, such as UPSs, power distribution units, and generators for optimal operation. Pro-viding access to the information needed to maintain desired levels of efficiency, power consumption, and power quality to keep plants running smoothly and minimizing downtime.

These platforms also provide the ability to view a concise summary of device alarms and manage alarms at a remote location. Specific alarms can be coded for ease-of-use, with sorting and filtering for specific management teams built in. Additionally, alarms can be acknowledged individually or by groups; sorted by date, priority, or device; and exported for further analysis. You can also dive deeper for additional analysis including viewing historical data around the time of the alarm occurrence.

The importance of remote monitoringThere are numerous potential benefits of these remote monitoring capabilities.

By collecting operational data from the site and evaluating it on a daily basis, users can reduce the potential for damage to plant equipment.

The diagnostic tools embedded in elec-trical power management systems are designed to detect slight indications or changes in monitored parameters. These changes can be thoroughly analyzed to pro-vide early fault detection to limit equip-ment damage and reduce maintenance costs by having the opportunity to proactively address issues, such as providing the fore-sight to accommodate for planned down-time when repairs are needed.

Investments in new technology, and the desire to enhance electrical efficiency and reliability have caused the potential

benef i t s for remote monitoring to rapidly increase across indus-t r i a l a p p l i c a t i o n s . Electrical power man-agement systems are contributing by mak-ing information easier to analyze and dis-sect. These platforms unify data acquisition, analysis, storage, and reporting, while pro-viding early detection

of abnormal conditions of plant equipment. This information makes it easier to make informed business decisions to address diagnostics issues.

Maintaining equipment health, plant availabil i ty, and energy efficiency is critical. The remote monitoring and man-agement capabilities of modern electrical management platforms are helping cus-tomers achieve these objectives without enormous investment or training. Addition-ally, these systems are dynamic and con-stantly updated to enhance ease-of-use and interoperability with the latest equipment.

Most important, these solutions enable users to easily access the data needed to make direct improvements in the over-all power reliability, energy efficiency, and safety in the environments they man-age—whether they are on-site or not. PE

Marty Aaron is Eaton’s product line man-ager for software and connectivity products and has more than 25 years of experience in the electrical industry.

Advanced monitoring software

integrated into electrical power

management systems can help

plant management identify

issues before they can reach

impactful levels.


ELECTRICALSOLUTIONS

Variable frequency drive (VFD) users often have strict demands placed on them to mitigate harmonic distortion caused by nonlinear loads. Many

methods are available including line reactors, harmonic traps, 12- or 18-pulse rectifiers, and low pass filters. Some of these solutions offer guaranteed results and have no adverse effect on the power system, while the per-formance of others is largely dependent on system conditions.

Certain techniques require extensive system analysis to prevent resonance problems and capacitor failures, while others can be applied with virtually no analysis whatsoever. In some cases harmonic mitigation technique decisions were based on a technical misunderstanding, lack of information, theoretical data, or on invalid assumptions.

Looking at the theory of operation for various harmonic mitigation tech-niques and their typical real-life performance takes the guesswork out of harmonic reduction by demonstrating the typical performance of various harmonic mitigation techniques and offering a quantita-tive analysis of various methods in real-life VFD operating conditions.

Source reactanceThe magnitude of harmonic currents in a nonlinear load depends greatly on the total effective input reactance, which is composed of the source reactance plus added line reac-tance. Given a 6-pulse rectifier with dc bus capacitor, one can predict the resultant input current harmonic spectrum based on this input reactance. The lower the source reac-tance (the more stiff the power source), the higher the harmonic content will be.

Since power distribution transformers fre-quently have impedance ratings between 1.5% and 5.75%, one would expect that source imped-ance is often relatively high and that harmonics should therefore be quite low. However, trans-former impedance ratings are based on trans-former rated KVA, so when the transformer is partially loaded, the effective impedance of the

transformer, relative to the actual load, is pro-portionately lower (i.e., 1.5% impedance at 30% load = 0.5% effective impedance).

Line reactorsUse of ac line reactors is a common and economical means of increasing the source impedance relative to an individual load. Line reactors are connected in series with the 6-pulse rectifier diodes at the input to the VFD.

Typical harmonic performance of reactorsThe typical total harmonic current distortion (THID) spectrum data for a 6-pulse VFD load fed by a power supply with an effective source reactance of 3%, 5%, and 8% appears as follows:

This data represents the harmonics mea-sured at the input to the 6-pulse rectifier and will reduce to lower percentages when mea-sured further upstream, provided there are other linear loads operating on the system. If 20% of the system load is composed of VFDs with 5% input impedance, and 80% linear loads, the harmonic current distortion at the VFD input will be 35% THID, but only 7% at the supply transformer secondary.

Typically costing less than 3% of the motor drive system, line reactors are the most eco-nomical means of reducing harmonics. Prac-tical ratings can achieve 29% to 44% THID at the input to the 6-pulse rectifier (usually lower THID at the transformer secondary), at full load operation. Their typical watts losses are less than 1% of the load. A reac-tor is particularly effective where no dc link choke is present.

Reactor performance at light loadThe harmonic mitigation performance of reactors varies with load because their effec-tive impedance reduces proportionately as the current through them is decreased. At

Assessing the performance of harmonic mitigation alternativesJohn Streicher

MTE Corporation

3% reactance 5% reactance 8% impedance(3% dc choke and 5% ac reactor)

THID 44% 35% 29%

KEYPOINTS• Looking at the theory of opera-tion for various harmonic mitiga-tion techniques and their typical real-life performance takes the guesswork out of harmonic reduction

• One can predict the resultant input current harmonic spectrum based on this input reactance. The lower the source reactance (the more stiff the power source), the higher the harmonic content will be

• One should consider the merits of each technique regarding cost, power loss, and harmonic distor-tion effectiveness, and carefully weigh the pros and cons of each before making a choice


full load, a 5% effective impedance reactor achieves harmonic distortion of 35% THID; however, at 60% load its effective imped-ance is only 3% {0.6 x 5% = 3%}, and har-monics will be 44% THID.

Although THID increased as a percentage, the total rms magnitude of harmonic current actually decreased by nearly 25% {1 – ((.6 x 44%) / 35%) = 24.5%}.

Since voltage distortion at the transformer secondary is dependent upon the magnitude and frequency of current harmonics that cause harmonic voltage drops across the transform-er‘s internal reactance, the voltage distortion (THVD), at the transformer secondary, actu-ally decreases as this load is reduced.

Tuned harmonic trap filtersHarmonic trap performanceTuned harmonic filters (traps) involve the series connection of an inductance and capacitance to form a low impedance path for a specific (tuned) harmonic frequency. The filter is connected in parallel (shunt) with the power system to divert the tuned frequency currents away from the power source. Unlike line reactors, harmonic traps do not attenuate all harmonic frequencies. Most often they are tuned for 5th harmonic or 300 Hz.

If applied to a low impedance power source, the harmonic mitigation performance of this filter is quite limited and the ben-efit of this filter may be unrecognizable. To improve the performance of a trap filter, a 5% impedance line reactor may be connected in series with the input to the filter. If the VFD has internal line reactance, harmonic trap performance may improve slightly. The typical residual THID for a 6-pulse rectifier with a tuned 5th harmonic trap is between 20% to 30% at full load, provided there is significant source impedance.

The watts loss of this type of filter can be 2% to 3% of the load, and it can cost ten times the price of a line reactor. Tuned harmonic traps can alter the natural resonant frequency of the power system and may cause system resonance. They may attract harmonics from other nonlinear loads sharing the same power source and must be increased in capacity to accommodate the addition of new loads. For best results, a power system study should be performed to determine the magnitude of harmonics to be filtered (from all loads), the power system resonant frequency, and the impact of future addition of loads.

Harmonic traps at light load conditionsHarmonic trap filters traditionally achieve their best attenuation of harmonics at full load conditions. However, advancements in filter technology allow some filter designs to adapt to varying load by changing impedance with the load. This allows the adaptive filters to perform well even at lightly loaded conditions.

12-pulse rectifiersTheory of performanceThe 12-pulse rectifier configurations have been used for lowering harmonic levels. The theoretical benefits of 12-pulse rectification include cancellation of 5th and 7th harmonic elements. However, real-life harmonic miti-gation resulting from the use of 12-pulse rectifiers can be quite different than the theo-retical expectations.

The most common method of 12-pulse rec-tification involves the parallel connection of two bridge rectifiers, each fed by a 30-degree phase shifted transformer winding. Often the transformer has a single primary winding and dual secondary windings. One secondary wind-ing is a delta and the other is connected in wye configuration to achieve 30 degrees of phase shift between secondary voltages.

One of the major design goals in multi-pulse operation is to get the converter semiconduc-tor devices to share current equally. If this is achieved, then maximum power and minimum harmonic currents can be obtained. To achieve cancellation of harmonics, the two individual bridge rectifiers must share current equally. This can only be achieved if the output volt-ages of both transformer secondary windings are exactly equal.

For 18-pulse configura-tions, they use a specialized transformer with three sets of 3-phase outputs that are phase shifted by 20 degrees each to supply three sets of full wave bridge rectifiers. Theoretically, this configu-ration cancels the 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th harmonics. Courtesy: MTE Corporation


ELECTRICALSOLUTIONS12-pulse rectifier drawbacksBecause of differences in the transformer sec-ondary impedances and open circuit output voltages, this can be practically accomplished for a given load (typically rated load) but not over a range in loads. The performance of 12-pulse systems does not hold up well under a line imbalance. Typical losses of a 12-pulse transformer are 3% to 5% of the transformer KVA rating. Note that the extra diodes and transformer windings will add significant cost to the system.

18-pulse rectifiersTheory of operationThe 18-pulse configurations use a very specialized transformer with three sets of 3-phase outputs that are phase shifted by

20 degrees each to supply three sets of full wave bridge rectifiers. Theoretically, this configuration cancels the 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th harmonics. It may be quite optimistic to expect the nine sup-ply voltages, feeding three bridge rectifiers, to be balanced under all operating conditions.

Maintaining equal dc current through three bridges is more difficult than with 12-pulse sys-tems simply because the number of variables increases by 50%. As

with 12-pulse systems, the 18-pulse rectifier’s ability to reduce harmonic currents is best when operating at full load conditions and when all of the nine voltages are equal.

Performance at full load with balanced line voltagesIn a laboratory exercise it is possible to control the three line voltages that supply the 18-pulse transformer primary winding; however, in real-life applications this may be quite difficult to achieve. Even when the primary voltages are balanced, maximum attenuation of harmonics with 18-pulse rectifiers requires that all nine secondary voltages be balanced.

This allows dc current to be shared equally by each of the three bridge rectifiers, provided the semiconductor and circuit resistances are identical for all phases. Due to the large number of variables, the likelihood of achieving theo-retical harmonic performance is rather poor; nonetheless, an acceptable level of harmonic reduction is quite possible.

The 18-pulse rectifiers also experience diminishing performance when line voltages

are not balanced, and when operating at less than full load. An 18-pulse drive may offer guaranteed harmonic distortion levels, but typi-cally only at full load and full speed conditions, with voltages that are balanced within 1%. The effect of unbalanced voltages is that as the load is decreased, the magnitude harmonic distortion increases significantly. While THID at full load may be fairly low, at 40% load, harmonic cur-rent distortion can be over 20% THID, when the line voltages were only 1% unbalanced. With 3% imbalance the harmonic current distortion increases to over 40% THID. To enhance the performance of 18-pulse drives, line reactors can be added in series with the individual bridge rectifiers.

Electrical system reliability and normal life expectancy of electrical equipment rely heavily upon a clean and reliable power supply. Those wishing to maximize productivity through utili-zation of clean power technologies have several harmonic mitigation techniques available.

Reactors are low cost and provide a sig-nificant reduction in harmonics for drives with no link choke or other harmonic mitiga-tion employed. Reactors provide the biggest reduction in harmonics for the lowest cost and can reduce the harmonic current content from 100% to about 30% THID but will not go much farther.

Traditionally thought of as the bulletproof solution, multi-pulse converters provide good harmonic performance of about 4% to 6% THID under a controlled range of conditions for imbalance and loading. However, multi-pulse solutions are often very costly and take up significant real estate. They are also gen-erally the least efficient, adding as much as 1.5% to 2% losses to the system.

Passive filters are readily available and can be fitted to standard 6-pulse drives yielding harmonic mitigation levels of less than 5% THID. Some newer passive filter designs now employ technology that allows the filters to perform well under imbalanced conditions and at much lighter loads than multi-pulse solutions. The passive filter will have lower power losses and typically be much smaller and lower cost than the multi-pulse.

One should consider the merits of each technique regarding cost, power loss, and harmonic distortion effectiveness, and care-fully weigh the pros and cons of each before making a choice. PE

John Streicher is an application engineering manager for MTE Corporation.

As seen above, multi-pulse converters provide good harmonic performance of about 4% to 6% THID under a controlled range of con-ditions for imbalance and loading. Courtesy: MTE Cor-poration

YOUR 24/7 BACKUP TEAM Compressors are the heartbeat of your facility, pumping clean, quality air that is vital to your production processes, and regular maintenance significantly increases your system’s life expectancy.

Therefore, the health of your compressor system is our #1 priority, and our support continues throughout its lifetime. Whether it’s providing genuine parts or a comprehensive service plan, we offer several service options to meet your needs – and give you peace of mind.

www.atlascopco.us – 866-688-9611


CFE Media's NEW Global System Integrator Database is an interactive community

of global end-users and system integrators hosted by Control Engineering,

Plant Engineering, and our global partners in Asia and Europe. Through this database

you will be able to connect with System Integrators by searching their

corporate profiles which highlight: industries served, engineering specialties,

product experience, geography, and other pertinent data.

Find and connect with the most suitable service provider for your unique application.

Start searching the Global System Integrator Database now!

www.controleng.com/global-si-database

© Allied Electronics, Inc 2014. ‘Allied Electronics’ and the Allied Electronics logo are trademarks of Allied Electronics, Inc. An Electrocomponents Company.

1.800.433.5700

Use Our Interactive Product Finder to Discover Your Ultimate Solution for Storage Tanks! alliedelec.com/industrialautomation

Your Tanks Won’t Manage Themselves

Everything You Need for Storage Tanks

100

psi500

600

200 300

400

00 3 0300300



MECHANICALSOLUTIONS

Reliability-focused engineers and tech-nicians often read, with great interest, articles on equipment upgrade oppor-tunities. If nothing else, even an older

article can prove informative because it allows readers to determine if progress has been made in the intervening years.

In this instance an editorial write-up on “Reducing Moisture Contamination in Bear-ing Lubrication” caught my eye. It dealt with the effects of moisture contamination and the need for bearing protection—subjects of obvi-ous importance.

The article noted that “lip seals seem to be permanently denigrated when they are not used in an optimum configuration. The auto-motive industry uses cartridge arrangements (‘cassettes’), to what appears to be good effect. They are widely used on trucks and buses, which now often have a half million-mile warranty. This must be in excess of 10,000 operating hours, so would be potentially quite adequate for many intermediate duty pumps.”

Environmental and energy savingsOf course, the rolling element bearings of many hundreds of millions of electric motors, various process pumps, industrial machines, and hundreds of millions of motor vehicles are successfully protected against lubricant loss and contamination by lip seals. I certainly concur that lip seals have served industry for more than a century in applications where the “lip” (a flexible elastomeric component, top half of Figure 1) received ample lubrication and where the shaft surface velocities were moderate.

A 20 mm (0.78 in.) automobile drive shaft operating at a maximum speed of 2,000 rpm (2,093 mm/s, or 82.4 ips) would represent a rather strenuous application for an automobile. Nevertheless, this velocity is much lower than the 12,250 mm/s, or 482 ips rubbing velocity of a 65 mm (~2.56 in.), 3600 rpm shaft in a centrifugal pump.

A rather universally accepted rule-of-thumb assumes that rubbing wear increases as the cube of the velocity ratio. Therefore, if a well-

designed lip seal in an automobile had a life of 1,000,000 miles at 50 mph, this would equate to 20,000 operating hours on a set of lip seals.

In the industrial equipment example and at a surface velocity almost six times greater, the wear life would be diminished by a factor of 200 and lip seals would last 100 hours—a very unattractive choice by any measure.

Lifecycle cost consequencesIt is reasonable and defensible, based on industrial experience, to relate two different scenarios for the two completely different bearing housing seals illustrated in Figure 1. A lip seal is depicted on the upper portion of the shaft. Purely for the sake of using a simpli-fied example, we will assume this particular lip seal costs $5; the lower portion shows a modern rotating labyrinth seal and we choose to price it at $100.

SCENARIO 1: Machinery bearinghousing application

To avoid shaft fretting, moisture intru-sion, and premature bearing failure (assuming labor and materials to remedy a bearing failure cost $6,000), we replace a $5 lip seal twice a year. If labor (including overhead) is billed at $500 per event, labor and materials would require a combined outlay of $1,010 per year.

Alternatively, and purely for the sake of illustration, we make the decision to replace a $100 modern dynamic O-ring rotating laby-rinth seal after just two years of operation. In that case, labor is $250/year and materials cost $50/year. Our total outlay would then be $300 per year. (In actuality, advanced rotating labyrinth seals have an estimated operating life of 10 years.) The payback exceeds 3:1.

SCENARIO 2: Machinery bearing housing application

This time, assume we use a lip seal and run it to failure. Allowing the lip seal to degrade might cause a bearing failure after perhaps two years of operation. We have “saved” $1,010 and, assuming we do not

Rotating seals or lip seals?Analyze lifecycle costs and use them to pick the right application.

Heinz Bloch, PE

Process Machinery Consulting

Rotary sealposition

Groove inshaft from

lip seals


incur production outage time, the repair still costs the plant $6,000 per event, or $3,000 per year. We seem to lose by pursuing this scenario.

In both scenarios, upgrading to advanced rotating labyrinth seals would be more cost-effective than staying with lip seals. The fact that rotating labyrinth seals, at least in this example, cost 20 times more than rotating labyrinth seals is of no con-sequence in lifecycle cost analyses. Generally speaking, it’s easy to cost-justify superior rotating labyrinth seals for protecting the bearing housings of millions of process pumps, gear boxes, motors, and similar equipment.

Energy savings are possibleAs long as a lip seal is operational-ly effective (i.e., there is little or no elastomer lip wear) and tightness and/or lack of lubrication has not caused degradation of the shaft due to wear (top of Figure 1), it is reasonable to assume that 160 W of frictional energy are consumed by an average lip seal. At $0.10/kWh, this would equate to $140 per year. The frictional energy to be overcome in an equivalently sized and well-designed rotating labyrinth seal (lower half of Figure 1) is probably only a fraction of 160 W.

If, in the aforementioned Scenario 1, precautionary lube oil replacements (oil changes) were performed and a lube oil charge and its environmentally accept-able disposal were factored in, the pic-ture would shift even more in favor of modern dynamic O-ring rotating laby-rinth seals.

While reasonable people will certainly agree that lip seals have their place in disposable appliances and in machines which, for unspecified reasons, must fre-quently be dismantled, engineers should always look at the full picture.

While in no way claiming all lip seal applications are past their prime, there are now viable alternatives for an increasingly reliability-focused and energy-conscious user community. Lip seals rarely measure up to the expecta-tion of the majority of intermediate duty pump users.

As maintenance persons will know, tight-fitting lip seals can wear a groove into the shaft (Figure 1, top half). However, the modern rotating laby-rinth seal upgrade (lower half) will not contact pre-existing wear grooves in the shaft. All things considered, plant engineers may look at the rotating labyrinth option. PE

Heinz Bloch, P.E. is a consultant and author with Process Machinery Consulting. He can be reached at [email protected].

Figure 1: Comparison of elastomeric lip seal (top part of illustration) and an advanced rotating labyrinth seal (lower part). Courtesy: Heinz Bloch

If you’re still using conventional petroleum-based greases, you’re missing out on the many benefits of Lubriplate SynXtreme Synthetic Greases. They provide a level of performance and versatility we could only dream about just a few years ago. Engineered to provide superior performance throughout a wide range of applications and conditions, these super multi-purpose greases can help you significantly reduce, consolidate and simplify your grease inventory. In fact, they may be the only greases you’ll ever need.

100% Synthetic, Ultra High-Performance,Calcium Sulfonate Complex Formula.

-45˚F to 450˚F Effective LubricationTemperature Ranges.

3X Better Shear Stability and Oxidation,Resistance for Long Lubricant Life.

Backed By: Plant Surveys Tech Support Lubrication SoftwareMachinery Tags Training Lubricant Analysis

ESPLubriplate ®

Extra Services Package

Lubriplate® LubricantsNewark, NJ 07105 / Toledo, OH 436051-800-733-4755 / E-Mail: [email protected] To visit us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, go to www.lubriplate.com and click on the desired icon.

Lubriplate® SynXtreme HD Series

The Next Generation ofAdvanced, Ultra High-Performance

Synthetic Greases.



MAINTENANCESOLUTIONS

We cannot improve what we do not measure. That does not, however, mean that we can improve just because we measure. To be use-

ful, what we choose to measure needs to point us to where improvements need to be made and what actions need to be taken. These measurements should help assure us of the safe operations of our units when they are safe, and alert us to take action when it is necessary to do so. Not having the right measures in place may give an organiza-tion a false sense of safety and, even worse, drive complacency.

Many organizations use common mea-sures such as total recordable injuries, injury frequency rates, etc., to satisfy themselves that they are managing safety satisfactorily. Unfortunately, for operations with equip-ment-based and process-based hazards, these measures are definitely insufficient. In fact, several catastrophic incidents have resulted from reliance on metrics that are unsuitable as process safety performance indicators. In response to this, there has been a rise in the number of references and discussions on the topic of appropriate met-rics for Performance Indicator.

Despite all these available resources, however, some organizations still feel inad-equate with their process safety performance monitoring. Could it be that this feeling of inadequacy has more to do with how metrics are collected and used? Is the data collec-tion process as important as metric selection in ensuring the effectiveness of perfor-mance management?

Common challengesAn organization looking to implement a performance management program is often faced with several common challenges. Many of these challenges stem from the failure in executing the necessary elements of a performance management program (see Figure 1), such as the improper selection

of metrics, having a nonrobust data collec-tion process, having an ineffective or non-existent data monitoring and review process, and, most importantly, the failure to initiate actions based on the data review process and to manage them to timely completion.

Specific to data collection, there are other functional and cultural issues that make it especially difficult to implement. Table 1 summarizes the commonly observed challeng-es in establishing a data collection process.

Ultimately, the organization needs to be confident in the data that it is monitoring and using for the basis of its actions and rewards. Not addressing these common issues will result in an ineffective program, giving the organization a false sense of safety or, con-versely, an unnecessary sense of paranoia. The personnel tasked to collect the data may also feel frustrated and confused, and may begin questioning the value of the process.

Data management systemsMany organizations are now turning to IT tools to help them with data collection, consolidation, and presentation for their performance management program. This is primarily driven by resource constraints. Some organizations build their own data collection templates and dashboards using Microsoft Excel or a similar program, and some use commercial software.

Research by the Aberdeen Group high-lighted that best-in-class companies tend to invest in an integrated safety system that connects with plant automation data directly. Such a system allows for real-time perfor-mance monitoring and provides visibility to plant operation for diagnostic purposes. Having the right non-paper-based IT data management system in place can certainly help with the robustness of a performance management program.

For example, a data management system that works by managing process safety work-flows can make performance management

Safety data collection processas important as what’s collectedTake the system beyond paper to process hazard analysis.

Alfonsius Ariawan

DuPont Sustainable Solutions

KEYPOINTS• Despite advancements in data collection and analysis, some organizations still feel inadequate with their process safety perfor-mance monitoring.

• Many organizations are now turning to IT tools to help them with data collection, consolida-tion, and presentation for their performance management pro-gram.

• Producing an analyzing data effectively can minimize func-tional and cultural issues.

• The choice of metrics is impor-tant, but equally important are the implementation of an effec-tive data collection and rigorous review process.


more effective and robust. The system works by collecting information as events occur, such as when the need to initiate a change arises, an emergency drill or process hazards analysis (PHA) is conducted, or when a per-sonnel transfer occurs. A user will input the appropriate record into the system indicating that an event has occurred, or is about to occur.

The system will then guide the organization through the workflow as defined and config-ured into the system. It will trigger appropriate notifications, requests for necessary approvals,

or requests for other additional information as necessary, until all requirements to close the record are completed. It essentially func-tions to electronically guide the organization through its process safety standard.

The idea of collecting data as it is available or required in the workflow is a change from how a performance management program is traditionally done. With this, data collection is now part of the management of the specific performance safety management (PSM) ele-ment. No longer do personnel feel that they

are collecting data for the sake of reporting. The use of the software will provide them with clarity and understanding of the relevance of the data being collected in the overall workflow.

Users will have an apprecia-tion that the data being collected is consistent with the require-ments of the organization’s PSM standard. As a bonus, the system will also force certain opera-tional discipline. Overdue items are highlighted immediately and reminders automatically trig-

mAINTENANCESOLUTIONS

Table 1: Common challenges typically encountered during the implementation of a performance management program

Common Challenges situations

Functional

UnClear definitions of metriCs

• Definitions are typically available, but they do not adequately address the practical nuances that may be encountered during the data collection process

PraCtiCal diffiCUlty in CaPtUring data

• Metrics are selected without review by the organizational units or sites that are ultimately responsible for data collection

• Some data is just not practical to capture and track

inConsistent rePorting/forMatting, untiMely/ inComPlete rePorting

• typically encountered in organizations with multiple units/sites• Standard template may help with format consistency, but only to certain extent• issue is usually most common during the initial phases of data collection

intensive resoUrCe reqUirement

• Coordination of data collection and the consolidation, formatting and rolling up of informa-tion take considerable effort

• Personnel are usually assigned to these tasks in addition to their daily jobs• Workload usually spikes near the end of the month/quarter

Cultural

relUCtanCe to share and be ComPared

• typically encountered in organizations with multiple units/sites – especially those with a less mature safety culture

• While competition is healthy, leadership fails to foster the environment of sharing for the collective benefit of the organization

fear of rePerCUssion

• organization does not understand the intent of the program• unclear expectations by leadership• unclear/ambiguous metrics definition used as reason for not submitting data, or for submit-

ting a more favorable interpretation of the metrics

qUestioning of valUe

• Personnel feeling frustrated with the extra workload associated with data collection, par-ticularly nearing the reporting period, and start to question the value of the process

• With no visibility of the review process and the subsequent actions taken, personnel may feel that they are collecting data for the sake of reporting

Figure 1: Elements of a performance management system. Metrics need to be appropriate for the organiza-tion’s maturity level and rich in signal, collected through a robust data collection process, and monitored and reviewed regularly. Appro-priate actions need to result from the review process, be it recognition for positive results or corrective actions. Either way, these actions need to be tracked to com-pletion.

All graphics courtesy: DuPont Sustainable Solutions


gered. Shortcuts or incomplete information on certain forms can be configured so that they are not possible when using the software.

Collecting data as part of workflow man-agement using an IT system will also allow the organization easier access to more infor-mation. Information that is not typically reported for performance management pur-poses is now available electronically. For example, the leadership team can now easily find out if the number of near misses is dis-proportionally higher with overtime workers, in which case a review of the organization’s fatigue management may be warranted. This allows for a more effective diagnosis of trends, facilitated by data queries or built-in search capabilities.

Having data available on demand for man-agement review and diagnosis is powerful. Data no longer needs to be collected specifi-cally for the purpose of performance man-agement review at some regular frequency. Instead, data can now be produced anytime. The system will reflect all changes in real time in the prebuilt dashboards. The idea of being able to produce and report data as needed versus having to collect data reflects a shift from how performance management is traditionally implemented. With this, func-tional and cultural issues highlighted above can be alleviated, if not eliminated altogether.

Effective modelsSo, what kind of data management system is most effective? DuPont represents the 14 PSM elements in the spokes-and-wheel model, as shown in Figure 2. An ideal data management system should be able to man-age all 14 PSM elements in an integrated manner to get the full benefit of the system. For example, an incident that triggers a record into the incident management module should be able to be linked to the resulting management of change (MOC) record, if one of the recommendations from the inves-tigation is to execute a process change.

Subsequently, the MOC record should be able to be linked to a PHA record, which may be triggered by the request for the change, and so on. All action items should also be managed centrally, enabling users to have a complete view of all their obli-gations. This is certainly more preferable than having multiple systems managing the various PSM elements, which will require resources to download and consolidate data from the multiple source points.

In fact, having multiple systems will defeat the benefit of having an IT-based data man-agement system. Also, because workflows may change over time, the chosen system needs to be configurable to give the organi-zation sufficient flexibility to accommodate future changes.

But the system is just a tool to facilitate the overall objective. Supporting business processes, operational discipline, leadership support, and the right organizational culture are still important and needed for an effective performance management program. Also, the system will work only as well as the workflow that is configured into it. An effective system will have a practical, yet rigorous element management workflow configured into it.

Having a robust performance management system is critical for the safe operation of an organization. The choice of metrics is impor-tant, but equally important are the implemen-tation of an effective data collection and rigor-ous review process, and the subsequent means to initiate and track actions. Many organiza-tions struggle with these elements. They are usually faced with some common functional and cultural issues when implementing such a system.

Having a non-paper-based data manage-ment system can help. It allows for data to be collected as part of workflow management and be produced on demand. The concept of producing versus collecting data for perfor-mance management is a paradigm shift that may help organizations with their journey of continuous improvement. PE

Alfonsius Ariawan is global solutions archi-tect with DuPont Sustainable Solutions (DSS).

Figure 2: An example of the DuPont PSM model

When you need a motor with a reputation for quality and reliability, U.S. MOTORS® brand washdown duty motors perform. Now with expanded horsepower and speed ranges, these motors withstand high-pressure cleaning with water or chemicals and are durable in humid environments.

And, you can find U.S. Motors brand washdown duty motors at your local Motion Industries location. Our local sales and service specialists are experts in application and technical support, providing the parts and the know-how you need to stay up and running.

Scan this code with your smartphone for more information.

http://esp.to/win0Z8

The brands you count on from the people you trust...that’s U.S. Motors and Motion Industries.

Call. 800-526-9328

Call. 800-526-9328Click. www.motionindustries.comVisit. Over 550 Locations



AUTOMATIONSOLUTIONS

There is much speculation about how the Internet of Things (IoT) will usher in the next phase of automa-tion. Proponents say it promises

greatly increased productivity while low-ering costs, but some plant managers and IT professionals are skeptical of the costs required to build smart systems and meet security requirements.

The good news is that many IoT implemen-tations can be accomplished with the smart devices and advanced HMI already operat-ing in many plants. Furthermore, the price of smart sensors and the networks that con-nect them to plant automation systems and the larger enterprise are rapidly decreasing, easing the way for new projects and modi-fications to existing systems.

While advanced machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and IoT may seem far off, these concepts are poised to change the face of manufacturing as much, if not more, than the introduction of networking and the Internet.

Automation systems are exceptionally good at gathering huge amounts of data, but this data isn’t usually extrapolated as con-text-based information and used to maximize productivity.

Today, affordable technologies exist to transform raw data into actionable infor-mation for a person in an office making a production decision, an operator reviewing trends, or an executive who needs market-ing information. In advanced M2M and IoT implementations, machines and com-ponents can even automatically respond to data exchanged among them, resulting in increased uptime and productivity without unduly burdening plant operations personnel.

What is the Internet of Things?The ARC Advisory Group defines the indus-trial IoT as “connecting intelligent physical entities, such as sensors, devices, machines, assets, and products, to each other, to Inter-

net services, and to applications.” It’s a con-cept that focuses on collaboration between machines, processes, and humans.

All plants generate huge amounts of data, but storing and analyzing it to make informed decisions has been a challenge. Fortunately, there are visualization and ana-lytic tools available, and many manufactur-ers already have these functionalities in their advanced HMI but aren’t using them to the optimum extent. These tools are the foun-dation of proactive maintenance, logistics. and forecasting.

IoT-connected systems are expected to fur-ther optimize processes, increase efficiencies, and reduce expenditures. At a recent keynote address, Cisco CEO John Chambers predicted IoT can help manufacturers generate $3.88 trillion of value through higher revenues and lower costs over the next several years.

Of course, Cisco and other vendors aren’t disinterested observers, as any concept that involves networking is one that should be promoted in their eyes. Things look different from the manufacturer’s point of view, where investments can’t be made unless improve-ments will result.

Tangible benefitsOne of the biggest advantages to an IoT system is the ability to see data in easy-to-understand views. Operators can view trend data on a particular machine to improve its performance. The same machine can also send data to the enterprise network. This data can be filtered and displayed on an OEE dashboard, helping plant managers get a clear picture of overall operations, and executives to interpret data sent from multiple plants for production forecasting. Presenting data in this and other related ways ensures that everyone sees the appro-priate information without meaningless data overload.

In addition to helping people better use data, advanced M2M and IoT enable devices

The changing plant floor

Marcia Gadbois

Invensys

From advanced M2M to the Internet of Things, connectivity improvements are poised to transform manufacturing.

KEYPOINTS• Technologies exist to trans-form raw data into actionable information for anyone within an enterprise.

• The technology, generally referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) is concept that focuses on collaboration between machines, processes, and humans.

• One of the biggest advantages to an IoT system is the ability to see data in easy-to-understand views.

• Today’s smart automation environments allow companies to more easily capture, analyze, and create value from data.


to interact with information from another device without the need for human inter-action. This type of self-organized opera-tion minimizes the lost time and materials that can result from unexpected changes in production (Figure 1).

For example, a bottleneck occurs at one part in the production line. The PLC sends data to conveyors farther down the line belt that a problem has occurred. The conveyors slow down but don’t stop, and automatically return to normal speed once the upstream problem is resolved.

This type of M2M interaction may even-tually lead to proactive maintenance that will extend the life of equipment, cut maintenance costs, and reduce downtime.

If a sensor detects a slight change in vibration on a machine, a deviance not large enough to trigger an alarm. An asset management and condition monitoring system connected to the sensor through an IoT network detects the change and sends an alert to maintenance so that the problem can be addressed before it causes equipment damage and downtime.

Condition-based monitoring has been appealing to plant managers and deci-sion makers for some time; it just hasn’t been implemented by most manufactur-ers. Some are concerned about the cost of creating the associated IoT network. For-tunately, a good portion of industrial IoT

architecture builds upon current installed technologies such as intelligent devices and digital networks, and other parts of the architecture can often be added at reasonable costs.

Difference between M2M and IoTIn some ways IoT resembles the more familiar M2M technology in which devic-es exchange information with each other. IoT is often associated with M2M com-munication in manufacturing, utilities, and logistics—but there are key differ-ences between the two (Table 1).

Most machines and processes have sen-sors, but they’re often only used to feed information to the PLC or controller, and are therefore functioning as silos and not connected to the larger operational and enterprise systems. M2M also typically involves a closed, hardwired network environment, which makes transmitting data to a larger enterprise network very difficult and expensive.

Unlike traditional M2M that relies on point-to-point communication, IoT sys-tems provide data communication at the machine level as well as communications with business systems. IoT does this by using Ethernet and its standardized, open Internet Protocol network structure instead of the proprietary architectures found in many M2M communications.

aUTOMaTIONSOLUTIONSFigure 1: The Internet of Things architecture can supply information about machines on a granular level that filters up to show how a plant is operating as a whole and within the corporation. All graphics courtesy: Invensys

1. Machine level: Want all pertinent infor-mation about how the machine is operating and how machines are connected to the con-troller and to each other (horizontal and vertical arrows).

2. Monitoring level: HMI monitors how all the machines on the line are performing (horizontal and vertical arrows).

3. Plant level: Monitoring the entire plant’s performance as well as storage and dis-tribution (horizontal and vertical arrows).

4. CEO level: Receiving information from several plants and supply chain.

Ethernet is a game changer for IoT because it allows multiple protocols to work simultaneously on the same network. So, a sensor with an Ethernet port can send data to a local controller, and also to higher level software plat-forms such as an HMI and an asset management system.

The use of standard-ized protocols at both the machine and enterprise level also enables easier remote access from a wide variety of devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This facilitates communication by stream-lining it among machines that may come from different vendors.

The integration of device and sensor data with larger networks is the core of IoT as it provides the ability to view granular data at the machine level, as well as big data with analytics tools at the system or enterprise level.

Another impor tant d i fference between M2M and IoT involves scal-ability. Traditional M2M systems have been hardware focused with propri-etary architectures. IoT, on the other hand, is software centered, which eliminates the need for incremental, hardwired installations. Once the Eth-ernet network is in place, new devices

can be easily integrated, and data can be transmitted and stored to large data-bases or even the cloud.

The emphasis on software in IoT brings fiscal advantages to companies. Software is much easier to install and access as compared to making changes at the hardware level, and it typically carries a much lower purchase price

Table 1: The primary difference between traditional M2M communications and the Internet of Things (IoT) is that M2M is primarily hardware driven, while IoT is more software focused.

M2M and IoT Differences

Traditional M2M Internet of Things (IoT)

Stand-alone, machine-focused system Interconnected, networked system

Proprietary architecture Open, standardized protocols

Point-to-point communication Multi-layered communication

Hardware focus Software focus

Difficult network integration Easily scalable

305.591.8935 | www.KeepItRunning.com

Misalignment leads to increased vibration, premature seal or bearing failures, and increased power consumption. There’s no excuse to let misalignment cost you money. Protect your machines and minimize costly downtime through precision laser shaft alignment. Our equipment and support are the industry benchmark.Keep it Running™.

ROTALIGN® Ultra ISA PRÜFTECHNIK product Laser Alignment, Flatness, Straightness and more!



than hardware. Moreover, HMI software at the embedded level has become almost as sophisticated as PC-based SCADA soft-ware, and often uses the same protocols to enable easy networking.

How to implement IoTToday’s smart automation environments use a standardized IP-centric network, enabling all devices to communicate at both the operational and enterprise level by leverag-ing open protocols. This allows companies to more easily capture, analyze, and create

value from data.Moving to an IoT

structure does require some investment for most businesses, but the advanced capabil-i t ies of IoT promise to t ransform manu-facturing. Therefore, early adopters stand to gain a competitive advantage over their

laggard competitors.A huge installed base of legacy equipment

and standards poses a challenge for many companies to develop an IoT network. For-tunately, high-volume semiconductor manu-facturing resulting from consumer electronics demand has lowered the cost of IP-enabled sensors and controllers. This has also cre-ated a dramatic increase in processing power and storage further up the networking and computing chain, which is necessary for IoT.

Other prevalent factors in the adop-tion of IoT include the use of Ethernet and wireless networks. Ethernet and IP are poised to become dominant across manufacturing. Many of today’s sen-sors, cameras, and RFID readers use the open-standard Internet Protocol. Network protocols also have been developed to support the demands of industrial envi-ronments.

For example , the Open DeviceNet Vendors Association is an international association that manages the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) designed for use in process control and industrial automa-tion applications.

CIP is an open communications pro-tocol, media independent and supported by hundreds of vendors worldwide. It’s designed to support the interoperability of machines and devices common to a manu-facturing plant while providing connec-tivity across the enterprise. Along with those technical capabilities, EtherNet/IP, which is part of CIP, provides hardened hardware, ruggedized cabling, and other industrial-strength equipment.

A single network architecture IoT is most effectively applied within the confines of a single industrial Ethernet network, with lower level device-type net-works either subsumed into Ethernet or connecting to it through protocol convert-ers. A standard Ethernet network based on IP also streamlines collaboration with

aUTOMaTIONSOLUTIONSFigure 2: Modern embedded HMI software platforms offer many of the capabilities of high-end PC-based SCADA systems.

The good news is that many IoT implementations can be accomplished with the

smart devices and advanced HMI already operating in

many plants.

suppliers and customers, improving logistics. Using Ethernet as the dom-inant networking technology fits the IoT model, and also simplifies operations.

Mult iple networks con-sume more physical space, and managing these networks requires more workers who need to be trained on each system. Moreover, many of the proprie tary protocols used don’t provide the scal-ability and flexibility neces-sary for growth.

On the other hand, there are risks involved with an integrated single Ethernet network, from both cyber and physi-cal attack. However, these risks can be diminished by employing a multi-layered defense strategy that encom-passes everything from physical secu-rity to internal firewalls to ensure only authorized users access certain data. Furthermore, having a standard

network across the entire enterprise can decrease inconsistencies.

Moreover, Ethernet-based security measures are already implemented by

IT departments in many companies, affording manufacturing and logistics automation and networking profes-sionals an opportunity to borrow and learn from existing security practices.

IoT promises many advantages to manufacturers. The ability to view and analyze big data will help manu-

facturers optimize efficiency and cut costs. At lower levels, operators can improve plant performance, and main-tenance teams can work proactively

and more effectively.Deploying a single, all-

e n c o m p a s s i n g E t h e r n e t network will improve data flow and lower maintenance expenses. Using an open pro-tocol, such as IP, will help manufacturers offer more visibility to their suppliers and customers.

While IoT brings challeng-es and often involves replac-ing outdated equipment in some cases, the benefits of

greater efficiency, reduced downtime, and improved operations are compel-ling and will present a positive return on investment in many applications. PE

Marcia Gadbois is vice president of the InduSoft business unit for Invensys.

In advanced M2M and IoT implementations, machines and components can even auto-

matically respond to data exchanged among them, resulting in increased uptime and

productivity without unduly burdening plant operations personnel.

305.591.8935 | www.KeepItRunning.com

Unbalance is amongst the most common of reliability problems in rotating machinery. Structural problems, reduced machine and bearing life, and increased vibration all result from unbalance. There’s no excuse for unbalance in your plant—stop the costly consequences with the right condition monitoring systems. Our equipment and support are the industry benchmark.Keep it Running™.

VibXpert® II BalancerA PRÜFTECHNIK product 1 & 2-plane Field Balancing, Vibration Analysis and more!



AUTOMATIONSOLUTIONS

With the ubiquity of cloud tech-nology, improved analytics, and increased mobility driving productivity throughout manu-

facturing industries, the digital revolution has enhanced older processes and provided a new perspective for industrial operations. The digital revolution offers groundbreak-ing ways to take operational data and prop-erly communicate the information across an enterprise from the plant floor to the corporate office.

In our very connected world we have been moving away from a layered architecture to a near-real-time fluid environment to dra-matically improve the quality of strategic decisions. The transition to fluid asset per-formance management (APM) and data col-lection allows plant managers and C-Suite executives to make better, faster business decisions and identify emerging opportuni-ties for competitive growth, as well as more

efficiently manage risk and maintain asset reliability across the enterprise.

Industry goes digitalFor decades, manufacturers employed labo-rious, inefficient methods for shop floor data collection that were primarily hand-written logs, analog instrumentation print-outs or crude charts representing physical properties like temperature, pressure and flow rate.

With the introduction of digital technol-ogy, these manual methods were at first dis-placed by simple, automated data transfer. While computer-generated methods rep-resented an improvement, the analytical methods were still lacking. Only if there was a failure would operators conduct time-consuming and costly in-depth analysis.

Automated data collection made more information available for investigations into plant operations and with the advent

Digital technology brings asset performance information throughout the enterprise.

Roy Whitt

Meridium

Digital technology brings asset performance

Delivering datafrom the plant floor

The temporary utility solution your business can always rely on.

Peak performance. It’s the one thing you can’t afford to lose even when faced with seasonal temperature limitations, changes in demand or emergency situations. With our full line of rental power, heating and cooling solutions, Aggreko’s seasoned technical team will help provide optimal production for your operation, when you need it the most.

Find your solution today by calling 844 773 6357.

Oil-Free Compressed Air (240 to 1500 cfm)

Chillers & HVAC (3 to 1000 tons)

Cooling Towers (500 to 1MM gpm)

Diesel & Natural Gas Generators (30 kW to 2 MW)

Aggreko, Power, Temperature and Oil-Free Air Specialists in Manufacturing.

Aggreko operates from over 190 locations throughout the world.

For all global locations, please go to: www.aggreko.com/contactinput #31 at www.plantengineering.com/information


of data historians in the 1980s, data could be continuously gath-ered over long periods of time. Additionally, with data historian technology, periodic s a m p l i n g e m e rg e d for data col lect ion over a set period of time within the limits of affordable digital media storage and with techniques analogous to time-lapse photog-raphy. Plant operators could now create a better picture of what was happening with-out requiring a large volume of expensive media storage.

At this point, when more granular infor-mation was needed to solve a problem, it could be found in the d is t r ibuted cont ro l

system (DCS) if the issue was investigated promptly. The historian would have months, even years, of data captured, and the DCS provided millisecond response data points but only for a short period, measured in days or weeks. All investigations and related analyses took place manually so they were still only initiated by some extraordinary event, including an accident, injury or regu-latory violation.

While advanced technology and mobility has changed the internal analysis process, even today manufacturing and other indus-tries do little more than make use of a mini-mal set of vendor-supplied analytics related to machine-specific solutions – automated instrument calibration, instant vibration analysis of pumps and compressors, or other equipment related algorithms. Only highly mature and successful companies lever-age their data (historical and real-time) to quantify risk and cost for the development of optimal equipment strategies. The ana-lytical capabilities of affordable processing and storage capacity are just beginning to be tapped.

While manufacturers may have individual pockets of risk assessment best practices in place, executives admit, and statistics

substantiate, to having an overall poor understanding of the varied risks running throughout their organizations and the best ways of managing them. There are huge competitive advantages for organizations that understand what their risks are and know how to assess and control them.

The future of digitalNow, more than ever, it is critical that the boardroom and the plant floor estab-lish a line of clear, timely, and consis-tent methods for communicating company performance and identifying and manag-ing risk throughout the entire enterprise. Effectively managing risk requires data and adequate systems and processes for translating volumes and different types of organizational data into information that can be understood for making risk-related decisions.

With technological innovations and the rise of connected machines, APM solutions provide enhanced risk management, asset reliability and comparative analysis for operational goals. In manufacturing, oil and gas, power and other industries, we collect billions of data at the plant floor every day that gets analyzed, consolidated, and periodically sent to remote operating centers or central IT departments. At this level the information is collected across multiple plants, packaged, and reported to the C-Suite executives. Digital innovations including the three advancements below are beginning to dramatically improve the APM process:

• Cloud. The cloud has emerged as a new approach to collect and deliver informa-tion. With data historians in the cloud, we can collect near-real-time information from multiple plants in different locations and distribute information and data. We can dis-tribute data to various applications because cloud technology has reduced delivery and operation time and improved the level of standardization in the field.

• Analytics. Analytics transforms data into actionable insight and drives asset reliability by predicting and preventing failures. We can use analytics to translate the real-time data about an asset or production and when it might fail. We can also filter this data to remove what is not relevant. Removing the thousands of false alarms we receive daily improves the predictability of the machine and device behavior.

aUTOMaTIONSOLUTIONS

There is an increased need for integration and standard-ization across the enterprise to maximize the impact of data being processed and interpreted immediately with advanced digital technol-ogy. All images courtesy: Meridium

CLARCORindustrialair.com | +1-800-821-2222

With over 40 years of experience,

The same BHA people, products and services that you’ve relied on are still here and stronger than ever. And, we’re just as committed to meeting your fi ltration needs, helping you optimize the performance of your dust collection systems. From cement kilns to pharmaceutical plants, count on CLARCOR Industrial Air to provide you the very best.

Visit BHA.com to learn more about our products and place your order for our exclusive baghouse troubleshooting guide.

©2014 BHA Altair, LLC. All rights reserved. BHA is a registered trademark of BHA Altair, LLC.



• Mobility. Mobility delivers the right information to the right people across the organization. Mobility has improved col-laboration between remote communication centers and the field by sharing information as it is available.

In most industrial organizations, deci-sions are made in silos for different ends: commercial, trading, logistic, and produc-tion. Making decisions to optimize the departmental performance does not trans-late into also optimizing the value chain of the enterprise.

There is an increased need for integration and standardization across the enterprise to maximize the impact of data being pro-cessed and interpreted immediately with advanced digital technology. Companies that standardize processes and leverage data to move the decision making about asset maintenance and reliability to higher organizational levels, thus placing a high-er importance on APM, outperform other organizations.

APM improves risk management by pro-viding critical insights into the reliability of plant assets. Operationally, reliability may be defined as an asset maintaining the desired performance without degradation. The asset should meet the operational needs of the process. If the asset does not meet desired performance then it is considered

unreliable, even if the operational per-formance demand is outside the bounds of its design speci-fications. Leadership must acknowledge that asset reliability affects operat ions directly and should be considered a key component to oper-ational excellence, not just maintenance excellence.

Another important use of data through-out part of APM pro-cesses is compara-tive analysis. Using comparative analysis tools, plant manag-ers and executives can set operational goa l s to improve

production by identifying what they want to achieve from their equipment and what targets should be set. Organizations can perform both external comparative analy-sis to measure performance against the performance of industry competitors and internal comparative analysis to measure the performance of individual company sites and units against each other. Linking organizational leadership to performance data will enable more informed and timely decisions, ensuring that the power of each asset is being utilized properly.

More industrial vendors are emerging with solutions capable of collecting, ana-lyzing and converting data into informa-tion and actionable knowledge. These solutions and even services use machine inputs, advanced rules development and management techniques to automatically analyze the data, create maintenance strate-gies and then develop recommendations. With enhanced asset performance manage-ment and data analysis, plant operators and executives can optimize production, better understand the asset life cycle, improve safety and manage operational risk for real advantages in the industry market. PE

Roy Whitt is senior vice president at Merid-ium and general manager of Meridium’s Asset Answers platform.

aUTOMaTIONSOLUTIONS

Effectively managing risk requires the right data deliv-ered to the right people so that decision can be made quickly at all levels of the organization.

hyster.com © 2014 Copyright Hyster Company. Hyster and are registered trademarks of Hyster Company.

Hyster offers the broadest capacity range in the industry with more than 130 models available—each one designed to get the job done for less thanks to 80 years of engineering excellence that never settles for “good enough.” So whether your job calls for a container handler, a narrow aisle reach truck or something in-between, Hyster has the hardworking, innovative lift trucks for you.

HYSTER CAN HANDLE your toughest jobs.

for a container handler, a narrow aisle reach truck or something in-between, Hyster has the hardworking, innovative lift trucks for you.input #33 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Our 180 feature each month will give you a synopsis of key tips, information, and insights in 180 words or fewer. Looking for more? Plug in the unique keyword at the end of each article at www.plantengineering.com, and you’ll go right to the in-depth article.


180 Turn around your thinking

Engineering trends in industrial buildings

Rona ld R. Regan, PE, a p r inc ipa l a t Tr iad Consulting Engineers, Morris Plains, N.J., discussed the recent trends in engineering industrial buildings at a recent CFE Media roundtable discussion. He said, “Projects have become more technically intense. Corporations want greener facilities and are willing to spend and take a chance on bleeding-edge technology to advance this effort. That means, as engineers, we need to quickly review and qualify such technology as reliable, responsible, and safe. Owners and developers are looking for the next new thing, whether it is a resort, high-rise office building, power plant, or manufacturing facility. More time is spent by staff on webinars, lunch-and-learns, and factory visits than 5 years ago just to stay ahead of the technology curve. I believe this constant need to investigate, endorse, or debunk new technologies will continue for the foreseeable future.”

KEYWORD: ENGINEERING TRENDS

Courtesy: GE Industrial Solutions

Machine Safety: Get out of the fog, into the ‘cloud’

Microsoft, Apple, Cisco Systems, IBM, Google, Facebook, HP, Sony, and other “big guys” have been talking about cloud computing for several years. Some suppliers have already developed hardware products that only store data in “the cloud.” And, machine safety experts have begun assessing how, or even if, the cloud can play any role in providing machine safety. So, what is this noise about “the Fog”?

C lo ud co m p u t i ng a nd da ta s t o rag e ha ve distinctively significant advantages as the world grows more data centric. One major advantage of the cloud is to push one company’s data and software into some other company’s data center. This advantage certainly addresses a data center’s efficiencies and capacity issues cost effectively. However, a company’s costs could skyrocket if a cloud based data center is disrupted.

KEYWORD: CLOUD COMPUTING FOG

Reduce arc flash hazard on switchgearAn increasing number of industrial facilities now have their arc flash analysis

completed and are in compliance with NFPA 70E requirements for labeling of equipment with regard to the having a current study performed and the equipment labeled.

This has raised the awareness of high arc flash energy areas on facility’s main switchgear where incident energy values may exceed Category 4 (40 cal/cm2). The question being asked now is “How do I reduce the arc flash hazard category of my main switchgear?”

The typical arc flash mitigation technique of adjusting the circuit breaker settings to reduce the incident energy becomes a problem when transformers are involved. The switchgear on the secondary side of the transformer is protected by the overcurrent protective device on the primary side of the transformer.

Primary overcurrent protective devices have to be set high enough to accommodate transformer inrush. The overcurrent protective device on the line side of the transformer must be able to ride through this inrush current. This hampers the ability of the protection system to reduce the arc flash energy.

KEYWORD: ARC FLASH SWITCHGEAR


5 ways to get started with Lean

A successful, enterprise-wide Lean transformation will help your company compete with facilities around the world.

Understand that Lean is a holistic approach. It’s about involving people throughout your organization in day-by-day, continuing improvements. What it’s not: a simplistic strategy focused solely on cost reduction. As a leader, you must create and support cultural change by engaging the hearts, minds and talents of diverse, and sometimes reluctant, individ-uals and teams within your organization.

KEYWORD: STARTING LEAN

5 questions on surface conditioningSurface conditioning jobs in maintenance, repair and

operations (MRO) applications are extremely varied, from work in a factory tool room to general factory maintenance to simple welding projects.

There are so many MRO applications that require surface conditioning — and so many different products that can be used for those applications — that a person without significant experience in this area faces a difficult task of selecting the right media for a specific application. How is an operator to know he or she has chosen the most appropriate one for the job?

One way to approach the selection is to consider a number of basic questions in the style of a “decision tree,” with the answer to each question leading into the next.

KEYWORD: SURFACE CONDITIONING

Digital convergence is acceleratingThe convergence of products and systems with software tools on a digital platform will help deliver on the

promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) in manufacturing. That was the main message from Anton Huber, CEO of Siemens Industry Automation Division, at the opening of the Siemens 2014 Automation Summit in Orlando on June 25.

“The Internet is accelerating all of our businesses,” Huber told the more than 500 attendees at the opening of the three-day summit. “The Internet of Things has trickled down into the automation area.”

With this acceleration, Huber said, has come increasing complexity in all aspects of the manufacturing pro-cess. That has driven data throughout the enterprise, and increasingly to the plant floor.

“We believe at the end of the day, all processes will be digital,” said Huber. “If you do all the work digitally because you’re using simulation software, then you’ll have to have integration with all of your partners.”

KEYWORD: DIGITAL CONVERGENCE

Courtesy: Weiler Corp.

Operating conditions dictatedamper torque settings

Unlike commercial HVAC dampers, operating torque for heavy duty industr ial dampers is not determined on a square foot face area basis. High pressures and velocit ies, as well as bearing friction and axle seals, can create elevated torque requirements that have to be considered in each application. However, torque requirements can also be over-estimated if calculated at the maximum pressure and velocity rating of the damper. This sizing method results in oversized actuators which add unnecessary cost to the damper.

To avoid this, it is recommended to calculate torque requirements based on actual operating conditions.

KEYWORD: DAMPER TORQUE

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION NORTH AMERICA AT IMTS 2014

International Trade Show for Process, Production and Industrial Building Automation

September 8-13, 2014McCormick PlaceChicago, Illinois

For More Information, go towww.ia-na.com or call+1 (773) 796- 4250

2014 Global Automation & Manufacturing SummitSEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Control Engineering and Plant Engineering, in

partnership with Hannover Fairs USA, will present

the 2014 Global Automation & Manufacturing

Summit on Wednesday, September 10, 2014, at

the Industrial Automation North America Show,

part of IMTS 2014 in Chicago.

2014 Global Automation & Manufacturing Summit Agenda: 8:15 a.m. Breakfast Keynote: Karen Kurek, McGladrey LLC: Manufacturing Monitor Report

9:15 a.m. Tim Jager, DMC: How to get the most out of your system Integrator

10:30 a.m. Eric Scott, Molex: Plant fl oor connectivity

12 p.m. Luncheon Keynote: Mick Wilz, Sur-Seal: Building employee engagement, one Lego at a time

2:00 p.m. Matt Puskawa, DMC: Mobility and network security

3:15 p.m. Dr. Bill King, DMDII: Advanced Manufacturing in Chicago

Presented inPartnershipwith:

Sponsored by:

www.iQagent.com

iQagent | The Mobile App For Industry

Maintenance staff could call up the right schematics and Manuals just by viewing the equipment on their mobile device.

Engineers could View Live Process Data on their Tablet or Phone based on the equipment they are working on.

Production could Resolve Downtime Events much more quickly without having to wait for technical resources to arrive onsite.

DOWNLOADIQagent for iPhone or iPad

LAUNCHIQagent on your device

SCANThe QR code above

See iQagent Work In 90 Seconds.

WHAT IF YOUR MOBILE DEVICE COULD RECOGNIZE EQUIPMENT ON YOUR PLANT FLOOR?

Visit www.iqagent.com to learn how iQagent can make your plant floor more efficient.

www.iqagent.com


Greenheck industrial dampers are heavy-duty, flanged-style frame dampers with various blade styles and pressure classes designed to control airflow and provide shut-off in HVAC and industrial process control systems. Built under an ISO9001-2008 Quality Assurance Program, Greenheck industrial dampers also include options for balancing and isolating higher pressures and temperatures. Ideal for manufacturing, nuclear, tunnel, bio lab, and power generation applications, Greenheck’s complete line of industrial dampers includes control, backdraft and pressure relief, UL rated smoke, tunnel transit, blast, tornado, and bubble tight dampers.

Bubble Tight DampersGreenheck Model HBTR-151 (10 in. wg) and HBTR-451 (30 in. wg) bubble tight dampers are designed for isolation protection for zero leakage. Each damper is manufactured to stringent guidelines and is tested in accordance with AMCA 500D and ASME N509 prior

to being shipped. Various actuator options are available as well as construction options of high grade painted finishes or type 304 or 316 stainless steel.

Innovative Product Development Greenheck, the worldwide leader in manufacturing and distributing air movement and control equipment, maintains on-site laboratories to test products against the latest industry performance requirements issued by AMCA, ANSI, ASHRAE, UL and others. On-site testing also allows the company to continuously develop reliable new products and to enhance performance of existing products by adding important new features. As a result, Greenheck has established itself as an innovative industry leader manufacturing more than 980 reliable, energy efficient air movement and control products, including the most UL certified dampers and the largest selection of AMCA licensed dampers in the industry.

Greenheck Offers Complete Line of Industrial Dampers

Greenheck industrial dampers are heavy-duty, flanged-style frame dampers with various blade styles and pressure classes designed to control airflow and provide shut-off in HVAC and industrial process control systems. Built under an ISO9001-2008 Quality Assurance Program, Greenheck industrial dampers also include options for balancing and isolating higher pressures and

tunnel, bio lab, and power generation applications,

GREENHECKP.O. Box 410 | Schofield, WI 54476-0410715-359-6171 | Fax: 715-355-2399 www.greenheck.com [email protected]

ADVERTISEMENT

Specifications Made Easy To make specifying Greenheck products easy, Greenheck’s Com-puter Aided Product Selection (CAPS) software provides all of the relevant and accurate information needed by specifiers including product selections, sizing, fan curves, configuration details and payback analysis plus AutoCAD® and configurable 3-D Revit® drawings for Building Information Modeling (BIM). Available for download from www.greenheck.com, CAPS is third-party certified and includes performance certifications like AMCA, UL, AHRI, NFPA, OSHPD, Miami-Dade County Approved and more.

Greenheck ventilation products build value in air with reliable performance, safety, quick cost-saving installation, energy efficiency and quiet operation.

Presented by:

One block at a time,a manufacturer � nds new success

One block at a timeRebuilding engagement

Organized by: Partner:

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION andMOTION, DRIVE & AUTOMATIONNORTH AMERICA at IMTS 2014

at

www.ia-na.com • +1 (773) 796-4250 • [email protected]

September 8 - 13, 2014Lakeside Center (East Building) • McCormick Place • Chicago, Illinois


www.ia-na.com Industrial Automation North America • IA3

IMTS spotlightIMTS at a GlanceDates: September 8-13, 2014Location: McCormick Place, ChicagoWebsite: www.imts.com

The 30th edition of the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) will feature more than 1,900 exhibitors and more than 1.24 million sq ft of exhibit space, making it the largest manufacturing show in North America.

Even more important, IMTS is having a growth spurt.In 2012, IMTS saw its attendance grow 25% to more

than 100,000 people from 112 countries. The improving economy gets some of the credit, but IMTS expanded in 2012 to include the first Industrial Automation North America (IANA) pavilion, which also is credited with broadening the appeal of the event.

In 2014, Hannover Fairs USA, which produced the IANA event in 2012, also will present the first Motion, Drive & Automation North America (MDANA) event as part of IMTS 2014.

The machine tool industry long has been the backbone of IMTS, and 2014 will be no exception. There will be product pavilions in such areas as metal cutting, tooling and workholding systems, metal forming and fabricating, controls and CAD/CAM, and others.

IANA, MDANA at a GlanceDates: September 8-13, 2014Location: McCormick Place, Lakeside Hall, ChicagoWebsite: www.hfusa.com/iana

Following its very successful 2012 launch, Industrial Automation North America (IANA) at IMTS is well on its way to becoming North America’s leading trade show for process, factory, and building automation.

In 2014, Motion, Drive & Automation North America (MDANA) will be launched at IMTS. This event further expands the range of technologies and solutions present-ed at IMTS by bringing the power transmission, motion control, and fluid technology sectors together. The event is expected to attract buyers from such industrial groups as machinery and equipment, aerospace, automotive, transportation, construction and mining. Other pavilions include:

• Motion, Drive & Automation ConferenceThe Motion, Drive & Automation Conference will once

again bring industry experts to discuss best practices in motion control, power transmission, and fluid power. Helping manufacturing professionals to increase efficiency and productivity, this year’s program will cover industrial communications, robotic control, guidance and inspec-tion, linear actuators, 3D printing, and 3D machining.

• ISA Inside: Training Sessions at Industrial Automation North America

The International Society of Automation (ISA) course provides a detailed look at how the ANSI/ISA99 stan-dards can be used to protect your critical control sys-tems. It also explores the procedural and technical differ-ences between security for tradi-tional IT environ-ments and those solutions appro-priate for SCADA or plant floor environments.

Summit at a GlanceDate: September 10, 2014Location: McCormick Place, Room W190Website: www.plantengineering.com

Go to the Events and Awards tab

The 2014 Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit on Wednesday, Sept. 10, will feature a series of presenta-tions on how plant managers are using automated sys-tems to deliver improved safety, reliability, and productiv-ity to their operations.

The one-day event is presented by CFE Media, which publishes Control Engineering and Plant Engineering mag-azines and their respective websites, in conjunction with Hannover Fairs USA, which presents the 2014 Industrial Automation North America (IANA) event at IMTS 2014.

Both the Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit and IANA build off a successful inaugural event in 2012. The 2014 Summit will feature a day of thought leadership from plant managers and industry leaders from around the country.

The Summit kicks off with a breakfast keynote from Karen Kurek, McGladrey’s global manufacturing lead, who will discuss results from the newly released McGladrey Manufacturing Monitor. At the luncheon keynote, Mick Wilz of Sur-Seal in Cincinnati will discuss how Legos helped his company deliver greater employee engagement during its facility expansion.

Other presentations during the day will focus on:• Delivering maintenance excellence• Plant floor connectivity• Mobility and productivity• Logistics and MES.

Three major events under one roof bring the world to Chicago

Courtesy: IMTS

IA4 • Industrial Automation North America

A technology boom for manufacturing

W e are in the midst of an industrial technology and energy systems convergence that is driving a change in manufacturing the world over. In

the past six years, the pace of innovation and develop-ment in the industrial automation sector has moved into overdrive. In North America, manufacturers are adopting digitized systems and secure connectivity across the fac-tory floor and are taking advantage of reliable and cost-effective technologies for energy savings. As a result, U.S.-based companies are starting to re-shore manu-facturing operations to U.S. soil from other parts of the globe. Outside of North America, global manufacturers are investing or looking to invest in U.S. operations to take advantage of the high productivity of our manufacturing workforce and our competitive energy environment.

Industrial automation and motion control innovations, such as digitized automation controls, robotics, hydraulics and pneumatics, new software applications for data col-lection and analytics, as well as mobile devices and appli-cations for tracking and monitoring production systems are transforming how manufacturers operate. In the U.S., the challenges and opportunities we face for improving manufacturing are twofold. One is the need to continue to expand our skilled factory floor workforce. The other is to maintain a robust, next-generation technology pipeline for the factories of the future.

According to AMT president and CEO Doug Woods, a shortage of skilled workers is currently one of the great-est hindrances to U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. He said, “this issue is so critical to the future of our industry that we have made ‘smartforce development’ one of our top priorities. As our workforce continues to retire, AMT is active at the federal, state, and local community levels to assure the availability of good STEM education and train-ing programs for the next generation of engineers, design-ers, technicians, machinists, etc.”

To show its dedication to this initiative, AMT is mak-ing its largest investment ever in the Smartforce Student Summit at IMTS 2014. Once again, thousands of stu-dents, educators, and parents will get a first-hand, interactive experience with the latest innovations in manufacturing technology. AMT wants all of them to see that today’s manufacturing industry is advanced and high-Courtesy: IMTS

Larry TurnerPresident and CEO

Hannover Fairs USA Inc.

Input #000 at www.plantengineering.com/quickResponse

tech and that there is a tremendous demand and opportunity for workers with the right talent and skills.

As for increasing our manufactur-ing technology pipeline, the U.S. government is addressing the innova-tion channel by creating technology-specific manufacturing hubs such as the recently announced digital manu-facturing and design hub in Chicago. Taking a cue from Germany’s Fraunhofer institute, a network of 67 applied research institutes that have helped Germany maintain its manu-facturing stronghold, the U.S. recog-nizes that for re-shoring to succeed, we need to grow the next generation of industrial automation technologies and boost our production right here in North America.

Demonstrating such technological innovation is exactly what Deutsche Messe’s global portfolio of indus-trial automation and motion control shows and conferences are all about.

Events such as Hannover Messe, the world’s largest business-to-business manufacturing show held annually in April in Hannover, Germany; the Industrial Automation North America exhibition launched at IMTS 2012; and this year’s inaugural Motion, Drive & Automation North America trade show demonstrate the most comprehensive computing and digital technologies for the manufacturers of the future.

I want to take this opportunity to invite you to join us for Industrial Automation North America 2014 and Motion, Drive & Automation North America 2014 from Sept. 8-13 in Chicago. These two events will fea-ture more than 170 industrial tech-nology exhibitors from 16 countries, including the United States, China, Germany, Italy, and Taiwan. I prom-ise you an exciting exploration and better understanding of the future of manufacturing. Courtesy: Hannover Fairs USA Inc.

CODE: RBC-14-25CE PUB/POST: Control Engineering (Due Date: PRODUCTION: A. Hadjioannou LIVE: None

DESCRIPTION: SAP-Run Like Never Before-General WORKORDER #: 006777 TRIM: 7” x 4.625”

Delivery Support: 212.237.7000 FILE: 02A-006777-02A-RBC-14-25CE-SWOP.indd SAP #: SAP.SAPPAN.14045.B.011 BLEED: None

RUN BETTER.

©©©©©© 201201010 4 SA4 SA4 SAAA4 SA4 SASASAA4 SAAAA4 SA4 SAASA44 S P AGP AP AGAGP AGP AGP AP AP AGP APP . Al. Al. AlAlAlAlAlAAA l rill rl ril ril ril rl ril ril riir ghtsghtsghtshtghtsghtshhtsghtsghtsghtsghtsghtstsghhghtshtht resresresresresesesreessrereeserveerveeeerverveerveerveerveerveerveerveeerverveervrvrver dd. Sd. Sd. Sd. Sd. Sd. Sd.ddd Sddd. Sd. SSd. SSAPAP AP aAAPAPAP aAAAP and ond ond ond od ondnd dndd oothertherthertherrthertherthereherthethetherherherehereeerherheehe SAPSAPSAPSAPSAPSASAPSAPSAPAAPSS propropprrproductductductductducuctd s ans ananans ans ananns ans annannd sed sed sed sed sesedd sedd sed sed sed rrvicr iirvicrvicrvicrvrv es mes mee mmmme entientntentententientiiintentiiene onedonedonedonedeonedonedonedonedononedooneddddooned hherherherheheherherherhhhehehehehererein einein inein ein ein ein ieine nni as was was was was wasas was welllellellelellell as tas tas tass theirheireiheirheirheeieirheireireeireireiei resresresrespeccttctpectpectte ive ive ive iveveveiveivive logologologologologologologogo s ars arss ss arsss a e ttrrrademademaddedemdemadema mde arksarksarksarksarksrrkrk o or o regregregigistersterte ed ted traderadeadeadeeradeademarkmarmarkarkarkkkmarkmarmamarkmarmarkmar s ofs ofs ofs ofs ofs ofs ofs SAPSAPSAPSAPSAPPSAPSA AG AG AG AG AG GGGGG in Gin Gin Gin Gin Gin Gin Gin Gin GGn Gn ermaermaermaermaermaeermermaerermmae ny any any any any ay aaaany aan nd ond ond ond ond oond ond onnd ond ond ondndnd nd thertherththertherherererererhthttherthethe ccoucoucocoucocouccocooucccco ntririiriries.es.es.eees

Imagine running at speeds you never thought possible. With SAP HANA, massive amounts of data from across your organization and beyond

can be processed in seconds. Which gives you the vision to not only make smarter decisions, but anticipate what’s to come.

This isn’t just about staying ahead of the competition. It’s about reimagining how you run.

Run like never before at sap.com/saphana

RUN ahead of time with SAP HANA®.


GLOBAL AUTOMATION & MANUFACTURING SUMMIT KEYNOTE: Breakfast Keynote Wednesday, Sept. 10: 8:15 a.m.

Karen Kurek, partner, McGladrey LLPThe 2014 McGladrey Monitor

Karen Kurek is a partner with McGladrey LLP and head of the Firm’s National Industrial Products Practice. She is considered the “Voice of Manufacturing” for McGladrey and its manufacturing pro-fessionals across the nation. Karen delivers financial assurance services to her clients along with consultation in the areas of tax planning and strategy formation (acquisitions, divestures, and inter-national/cross border matters). Throughout her career, she has consulted with, and/or delivered, financial assurance services to scores of manufacturing and distribution companies, as well as other enterprises across a broad spectrum of industries.

Karen joined McGladrey in 2003, after 20 years with Arthur Andersen LLP where she was a lead partner in its Enterprise Group, a practice focused on privately held companies. At Andersen, she also held managing partner responsibility for the firm’s Employee Benefit Assurance practice and its national Growth and Retention of Women (GROW) initiative.

Tim Jager, DMCHow to get the most out of your System Integrator

With plant staffs stretched thin at a time of continuing manufacturing growth, system integrators have come into increasing prominence. Get an insider’s view on the do’s and don’ts of working with solution partners to maximize your return on investment. Learn when to use a system integrator and how to choose the right integrator.

Tim Jager is a project director and member of the senior management team at DMC, a project-based engineering and software development firm headquartered in Chicago. He heads the embed-ded project development team, as well as a number of Siemens projects. Since starting his career in engineering, his primary focus has been on automation and control systems. Tim holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a P.E. in Control Systems.

Eric Scott, Advanced Technology Specialist, MolexThe Role of Indutrial Networks in Energy Usage

In today’s world energy cost big dollars for manufactures and the fact is most plants don’t know where there energy is being used. To help with this problem the industrial network communities are providing common interfaces to gather and control energy in the industrial space. This presentation will focus on aspects of energy where it relates to industrial automation and some of the challenges we face. We will also cover upcoming initiative for interfacing to the smart grid for demand response request.

Eric Scott is an Advanced Technology Specialist for Molex. Molex has been involved in Industrial communications for more than 25 years. He has more than 18 years of experience in product design and development of industrial network systems with key focus on CIP Networks. As part of this work he has been participating in ODVA Special Interest Groups for more than 7 years and has been part of the ODVA’s Technical Review Board for two terms. He also leads Molex Canada’s Profinet Interface Competence Center.

IA6 • Industrial Automation North America www.ia-na.com

PRESENTATIONS: Wednesday, Sept. 10: 9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.


GLOBAL AUTOMATION & MANUFACTURING SUMMIT KEYNOTE: Luncheon Keynote Wednesday, Sept. 10: 12:00 p.m.

Mick Wilz, Director of Enterprise Excellence, Sur-Seal CorporationThe Building Blocks of Manufacturing Excellence

Mick Wilz is a 22-year veteran of all aspects of manufacturing—production management, lean process development, enterprise excellence and everything in between. Mick, co-owner of Sur-Seal Corporation, began his own journey to personal and business excellence about five years ago by actively seeking a variety of tools to meet his needs and the needs of the business. Mick has devel-oped a unique Twenty Step Program, as pictured above. “My interest is to take tribal knowledge and make it visual and accessible to everyone,” he says. He is widely known for his use of Legos to cre-ate a hands-on visual model of Sur-Seal to aid in the transition of the production floor.

Mick is also extremely involved in his community, serving on boards and advisory committees for Main Street Brookville, the Whitewater Canal Trail and Safe Passage. In this regard, Mick embodies the quote, “Volunteering is an act of heroism on a grand scale. It does more than help people beat the odds; it changes the odds.”

In 2013 Mick will begin two new roles; president of the Great Lakes Region for AME and the role of Senior Advisor/Board of Advisors for Sur-Seal, which received the 2012 AME Excellence Award.

Matt Puskawa, DMCIndustrial Automation and Modern Connectivity

Immediate data, notifications, alerts, and the convenience of remote connectivity are becoming increasingly common on modern factory floors. We will consider the features and benefits (cost, security, convenience) of different connectivity methods available today:

• Centralized ‘pull’ systems like OPC servers and historians• Cellular modems and private networks• VPN, intranet, and internet• Data ‘push’ via TCP-enabled PLCs• Hardware with integrated Web servers.

Matt Puskala is a project director and member of the senior management team at DMC, a project-based engineering and software development firm headquartered in Chicago. Matt has focused on industrial integration with PLC systems including Siemens and Rockwell Automation. He has lead development efforts for web applications and web-enabled systems on multiple platforms. Matt holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University.

Dr. Bill King, DMDIIAdvanced Manufacturing in Chicago

Announced earlier this year, the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) is a Chicago-based manufacturing hub that will bring together public, educational and private interests to accelerate innovation and reduce development time and costs. Learn how all manufacturing will benefit from the research and development based at this digital lab.

William P. King, Ph.D. is the Chief Technology Officer at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Chicago. Dr. King is also the College of Engineering Bliss Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. King received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School. At the University of Illinois, Dr. King leads a research group whose work crosses boundaries between science, tech-nology, and business. He was named by Technology Review Magazine as a person whose innova-tions will change the world. He has published more than 180 journal articles, and is a Fellow of ASME and AAAS.

PRESENTATIONS: Wednesday, Sept. 10: 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.


The heart of engagement

T he irony, of course, is that Sur-Seal makes gaskets, which are designed to provide a seal between two objects to make everything flow

smoothly. They are designed to deliver an airtight envi-ronment so that the machine can do its job. They are designed to create a bond

The irony is that no more than a dozen years ago on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Sur-Seal made gaskets. There was no bonding in that manufacturing process. There was a decided top-down management structure that left employees out of the loop and disheartened. Sur-Seal made gaskets. That’s it.

Steve Rothweiler remembers how it was. “Management wasn’t actually involved. It was not an open plant,” the 22-year Sur-Seal veteran said. “We didn’t get enough support to empower the people. It was tough.”

Ivan Rodriguez remembers how it was. He has been at the company for 13 years. “You could really feel that no one was leading,” he said.

Alexis Curtis remembers how it was. A 22-year employee at Sur-Seal, she loves her job. “I always liked it from the beginning. I always thought I was doing something important,” she said, but also said more was possible. “Management was in the way for us to do the good things we wanted to do.”

More than anyone at the company, Mick Wilz remembers how it was. He’s the director of enter-prise excellence at Sur-Seal, but that wasn’t his title a dozen years ago when he and his brothers, the sec-ond-generation owners of the business, took over the business their father began in the 1960s. He was just the guy in charge of the company. His assessment of the family business was specific, blunt, and unsparing.

“In 2002, I looked over my shoulder and there was nobody following me,” Wilz said. “At home, I was liv-ing a created life, and here I was living an inherited life. Our values were not in line.”

It was at this time Wilz decided things needed to change. It was not just something you could find in a book, even though Wilz found a book called “Engagement Is Not Enough” by Keith Ayers. It was not just about helping employees to feel part of some-thing larger than just their job, though the company

now provides life coaches as well as human resources. It was not about making more gaskets or better gas-kets or expanding the business, although all of those things have happened in the dozen years since things changed.

“Working on employee engagement is what took us over the edge,” Wilz said. “When you say ‘you have an engaged team,’ how do you measure it? I don’t believe you can measure it. Engagement has to come from the heart.”

Fundamental changeMick Wilz had tried to make changes before, back in

the 1990s, but the change didn’t come from the heart. “When I was leading back in the 1990s, what I found out is that people aren’t afraid of change; they are afraid of uncertainty,” he said. “They weren’t afraid of change; they were afraid of where I was leading them.”

“In the beginning, he tried and it didn’t work, because he didn’t delegate a group of people to sus-tain it,” Rothweiler said. “All it was to increase produc-tion and increase throughput. He forgot the people. There was a dollar value attached. He didn’t bring the people with it.”

Things started to change with a book club. Wilz and members of his team began by reading the book, chapter by chapter, and discussing the changes involved. But Rodriguez and others saw the change in leadership as well. “He started changing. He was dif-ferent,” Rodriguez said.

“My brothers and I made ourselves accountable to our employees,” Wilz said. “We removed their uncer-tainty by making them insiders. We told them the good news and the bad news. Now everybody sees all the good stuff and all the bad stuff.”

As the culture change took hold, so did growth for the business. So in 2006, Wilz began planning for reor-ganizing the plant floor. He used a tool well- known for engagement, cooperation, and building. Literally building.

Legos.It’s still in their plant, that Legos display that solidi-

fied Sur-Seal’s reputation as a change agent. It’d been widely written about in local and national press; how Wilz began mapping out the rearranged plant floor to improve product flow and drive the Lean manufactur-ing changes he wanted to institute. There’s a Lego man standing by the stamping press for the gaskets.

Sur-Seal rebuilt its culture, one Lego block at a time

Bob VavraCFE Media


There’s a Lego woman standing by another worksta-tion. Green Legos mark the path for what the company calls Main Street, which is where product is fed along the Lean production process.

Initially, employees questioned the sanity of bringing children’s building blocks into a manufacturing plant to demonstrate how the new plant might look. Then people started playing with the blocks, moving them around to offer their own views on how the plant’s manufacturing process might be optimized. And thus there was engagement.

Building a chainMick Wilz holds a chain in the palm of his hand.

It’s one of his favorite props. He notes the scrambled links, how all the links are jumbled together. He takes the hoop at the end of the rings and the chain unrav-els as he raises it, the links rising to form a straight line, with a small weight at the end.

“My brothers and I straightened out one link of the chain at a time,” he said. “It was built on a foundation of trust, and at top are values of the organization and the family.

“After we got it all in line, our people now run the business. Our job as owners is to keep the chain straight,” he said. “If the chain gets a little out of whack, our job is just to go back in and straightened out. But if you push it, the chain gets jumbled up again. Leadership just keeps the chain straight.”

And the employees now keep things straight. “When we have an engaged team, what we have is a facility where we have all tools in place to handle differences in employees,” Wilz added. “Everybody’s different, so we have coaching programs in place to solve issues quickly.”

They also have 4% of their workforce devoted to change management, which are the roles Rothweiler, Rodriguez, and Curtis hold within Sur-Seal. “They are

Figure 1: Sur-Seal is a family-owned business, but it became an employee-engaged business a decade ago when Mick Wilz opened up the organiza-tion and empowered the employees to help him forge a new culture for the Cincinnati-based manufacturer. All images courtesy: CFE Media

Figure 2: Main St. is the primary Lean manufacturing aisle at Sur-Seal; Quality Rd. is its intersection.

Figure 3: Sustainability extends beyond the four walls of the plant. Employees have a tomato garden behind the building.


dedicated to continuous improvement,” Wilz said. “These are the people making the changes. I’m not going out and driving the change.”

How things have changedThere are many stories that could illustrate how

Sur-Seal has changed, both in form and in function. You could point to the company’s performance suc-cess, both financial and productive, and that has been impressive. You could note its expanded product lines, including a clean room to take on a new move into the medical supply business. That three-year process required moving around a lot of Legos, but the result was a 20,000-sq-ft clean room that will help Sur-Seal open a new line of business.

There are a series of bins to hold materials and supplies for the employees. They come and take what they need when they need it. There is an inventory man-agement process, but employees get supplies as they need them. Sur-Seal operates on the honor system.

There are the lockers near the employee worksta-tions, so workers can keep their personal belongings

close at hand, and the different color schemes for each work cell, including one area done in pink with lacy curtains. Even in a structured business, there is room for the individual, and room to express yourself.

But there is one story that best sums up how far Sur-Seal has come since 2002, since Mick Wilz changed the way management and employees relate to one another. It was the middle of the 2008 reces-sion, and things were getting tight everywhere.

As auto sales slipped and part of Sur-Seal’s core business fell away, the company was faced with a tough choice—layoffs or pay cuts.

Company employees took a 4% pay cut and reduced their schedules to 36 hours a week. The busi-ness fought its way through the tough days in 2008 and 2009 and emerged better than ever.

Would that have been possible in 2002, before the Legos and the books and the change in the ways employees were engaged at Sur-Seal? Rothweiler smiles, a little ruefully. “No way,” he said simply.

The change in employee engagement was about untangling the chain, but it meant so much more to the people Mick Wilz now entrusts with his fam-ily business. “It was like a spiritual awakening,” Rothweiler said. “You could see there was a sincere thought behind everything he brought up. This time, he let go of control.”

And Wilz and his team gained so much in that process. “We’ve been living the life of continuous improvement,” he said. “This is now a place where you can grow, where you can learn things. You have to find a seat on the bus for everyone. By leading them and coaching them, you spread the reward out.”

Figure 4: An important part of Sur-Seal’s improvement program, and a part of its turnaround as an organization, is the sharing of all company metrics with employees.

Figure 5: Using Lego blocks to demonstrate how a revised plant floor might look got employees directly engaged with the final plant design.


CFE MEDIA: We’ve had five solid years of growth in manufacturing, and there are some people who feel we’re still on shaky ground. What’s your perspective on the health of manufac-turing in 2014?

KUREK: Generally speaking, the industry is healthy and we see good prospects for the near future. Demand is up overall, and this is sparking increases in employee levels and prof-its. According to this year’s Manufacturing & Distribution Monitor report, the majority of small and mid-size manu-facturing and distribution companies expect solid growth over the next 12 months—and two-thirds plan to add jobs during that period. In fact, we expect these growing com-panies to increase their workforce by 6%, up from 4% in 2013.

In the report, 36% of the 1,147 companies participating in our survey described themselves as “thriving.” This is quite a change from only a few years ago—in 2009, for example, only 9% said they were thriving. These companies excel in so many ways—their profits before interest and tax are higher, more of them expect demand and profits to rise, they are hiring more personnel on average—that we took a close look at these com-panies to see what they are doing to stay healthy and flourish.

The success of these companies suggests that there are a number of things that individual compa-nies, the industry as a whole, and our government can do to help the industry prosper in the future.

CFE MEDIA: Where do manufac-turing leaders see us headed in the next five years? Are we seeing more slow but steady growth, or is some-thing more dramatic in either direc-tion possible?

KUREK: Since 2009, we have seen steady growth in the industry. There have been setbacks along the way—the proportion of thriv-ing companies hit its high point of 45% in 2011—but overall things are quite positive. Without trying to predict the future, it looks like this growth will continue.

That said, there are still a num-ber of unknowns that could have an impact on the pace of growth. In the Monitor report, for example, we note that government regula-tions are still a big source of con-cern. They are, in fact, seen as the number one external issue limiting growth in the next 12 months—even

more than competition. When we drill down into the details, we find that regu-

lations can mean anything from implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to regulations on the state level and those from the EPA.

CFE MEDIA: What are some of the key areas of focus for manufacturers?

KUREK: Among businesses in general, and thriving com-panies in particular, there continue to be a number of areas where significant strategic investments are resulting in great company performance.

Overall, operations improvements and process innova-tions achieved through Lean manufacturing processes and the use of technology are allowing companies to maintain

As growth accelerates, manufacturing is poised to thriveThe 2014 McGladrey

Manufacturing Monitor provides further evidence of how manufac-turing has helped lead the U.S. economy out of deep recession into solid growth over the past five years. How to maintain and accelerate that growth will be discussed by Karen Kurek, the head of McGladrey’s National Manufacturing and Distribution Practice, at the breakfast key-note address at the 2014 Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit. In advance of the Summit, Kurek discussed with CFE Media the results of this year’s report and what the immediate future holds for the industry:

“Companies are integrating and aligning IT investments throughout the business, in areas such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and business analytic solutions. Notably, most of the activ-ity in these areas revolves around upgrad-ing or reconfiguring the solution rather than purchasing new, which can be expensive. Companies are also investing in mobility solu-tions and Web applications.”


or even improve productivity. Companies are also seeing improvements through investments in marketing, work-force training, and leadership development.

Companies are integrating and aligning IT investments throughout their businesses, in areas such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and business analytic solutions. There is a high level of interest in mobility solutions and Web applications; in fact, we found that thriving companies are more likely than other companies to invest in mobility solutions.

Looking ahead, companies are preparing for the growing challenges of succession planning and attracting skilled personnel. Some companies are collaborating with local colleges, trade schools, and high schools on training pro-grams. Others are enhancing or expanding roles beyond their traditional responsibilities in order to make the roles more meaningful and attractive to a younger generation.

Speaking of workforce issues, we found that about three-quarters of the companies participating in our survey are offering full compliance coverage to full-time employ-ees under the ACA mandate. About half of those compa-nies are implementing wellness programs and other incen-tives to help keep costs down and their workforce healthy. Only about 5% are reducing wages or changing the status of some workers to offset ACA-related cost increases.

CFE MEdia: One topic gaining a lot of interest is the need for greater speed in the supply chain. If our retail model is going to change in the next few years, it will require not just greater flexibility for final delivery, but greater speed in all parts of the supply chain, starting with manufacturing. What is your perspective on this?

KurEK: As Stephen Covey might put it, supply chain management should “begin with the end in mind.” Thriving companies know they need to maintain good relationships with their customers and are making sure that every decision made along the supply chain continu-um—including those regarding the products and services that companies provide—is based on supporting the val-ues of the end user.

They are leveraging customer relationship management systems to understand what they need and working with suppliers to improve processes and lower costs.

Many companies are taking a close look at their supplier relationships from a “total delivered cost” per-spective, taking into account unit price but also inventory carrying costs, transportation charges, cost of potential delays, and staff/management labor and training. This analysis can lead some companies to bring operations onshore, that is, back to the United States, in order to address these various costs or to gain greater control over product quality, turnaround time, or product innovation.

But each company’s supply chain is unique and it requires this type of in-depth analysis to determine what is best for a particular company.

CFE MEdia: How is automation and information changing manufacturing? What do you see as the next big thing in this area?

KurEK: After so many years of delaying or cancel-ing information technology projects, companies have been recognizing the opportunities that IT can provide to streamline operations, access data, and improve cus-tomer support.

Companies are integrating and aligning IT investments throughout the business, in areas such as customer rela-tionship management, enterprise resource planning, and business analytic solutions. Notably, most of the activity in these areas revolves around upgrading or reconfigur-ing the solution rather than purchasing new, which can be expensive. Companies are also investing in mobility solu-tions and Web applications.

Supply chain performance, for example, can leverage technology to ease access to information that can help improve processes, reduce cycle times, enhance inven-tory forecasting, and generally encourage greater collabo-ration with supply chain vendors.

Notably, despite several high-profile data breaches that have occurred over the past year, manufacturing and distribution executives continue to report low levels of concern about the security of their data. Despite count-less reports warning businesses to be more proactive with their data security initiatives so they can mitigate any potential breaches, these executives don’t believe their data is at risk.

CFE MEdia: Is there one area in this year’s McGladrey Monitor that you think is going to come as a surprise to your clients and to manufacturing leaders as a whole?

KurEK: We conducted a number of focus groups around the country this year, composed of manufactur-ers making everything from cleaning products to bakery equipment, and distributors working with products from home construction material to tropical fruit. One of the more pleasantly surprising discoveries was the strength of the “Made in the U.S.A.” label. It’s not just about selling domestically; it has meaning in markets around the world. The Made in the U.S.A. label stands for quality from the Middle East to Australia. It’s a big competitive advantage on the global stage.

It’s also interesting to see that onshoring is gaining parity with offshoring as domestic business conditions become more attractive. While 12% of companies reported hav-ing moved operations offshore over the past two years, more than 8% reported having moved operations back home. While some companies may decide to move or keep operations here because of the brand advantage, there are a number of circumstances that can trigger when to bring operations back home, such as regulatory environments, carrying costs, cycle times, and quality issues.


Flexible, adaptable automation on display at IMTS

I t seems like just about everywhere you look, some-one is talking about automation in manufacturing. Industry publications are writing about it, and a num-

ber of manufacturing-related events are focusing on it. So why has this suddenly become a big topic of such importance? Put simply, it’s more reliable and affordable than ever before, and it’s allowing manufacturers to make their operations more flex-ible and adaptive.

Automation has seen tre-mendous growth throughout manufacturing over the last several years. According to the International Federation of Robotics, worldwide sales of one type of automation, indus-trial robots, reached an all-time high in 2013, a double-digit increase over 2012; and in the U.S., robot installations continue to rise amid renewed efforts to keep manufacturing at home and to remain competitive abroad.

And while automation in the automotive industry continues to be strong, industries such as metal and machinery, food, medical device, pharmaceutical, and IT are also increasing their investments in automation.

Today’s reality is that manu-facturers of all sizes and indus-tries are becoming increasingly more productive and innovative by employing automation tech-nology in their facilities. It’s easier than ever before to explore what automation can do to improve the produc-tion process, because shop floor automation is more accessible than ever before. It is less expensive and

more capable of completing a wider array of tasks with greater flexibility and maximum efficiency.

The next generation of robots are working with peo-ple rather than replacing them. With added sensing and learning capabilities, robots are becoming adaptive to their environments and even collaborative with human workers. While robots handle the more mundane and

repetitive tasks, human workers are free to take on more critical setup, programming, data analy-sis, and quality improvement tasks.

That last sentence is especial-ly important. In an era where our industry faces a severe shortfall of skilled workers, automation is enabling many manufacturers to maintain productivity and keep their manufacturing operations at home. Today, advances in automation are creating skilled jobs faster than they can be filled. Some companies, like Steel Collar Associates, are even acting as “temp agencies” for industrial robots—compa-nies can “hire” them just for the times and projects when they need them.

But automation is more than robotics. It is also the key to unlocking the possibilities that Big Data collection and analyt-ics represent to manufacturers. Sensors and microproces-sors are cheap, abundant, and easier than ever to implement, and automation technology is a natural fit for embedding all those sensors. This allows for data collection in every phase of production—measuring speed,

temperature, material properties, machine vibration, and tooling performance, just to name a few. At the same time, software companies are adding data ana-lytics and visualization tools to their products, and

Doug WoodsPresident and CEO

Association for Manufacturing Technology

Courtesy: AMT


cloud data storage and analysis have become more affordable. As the worlds of manufacturing hardware and software collide, the information generated can be used for product innovation, process improvement, capital utilization, predictive service, sales strategy, and so on.

Where does all of this lead? It’s not just about mak-ing things fast. Speed is just one component, but it’s also accompanied by an increased push toward mass customization. This is manufacturing’s Holy Grail: mak-ing what you want, when you want it, where you want it. Flexible and adaptive automation systems are making this a reality.

Of course, if you want to see some of the world’s best automation technology in action, you’ll need to visit Industrial Automation North America (IANA) and Motion, Drive & Automation North America (MDANA), two trade shows co-located with IMTS 2014, taking place September 8-13 at McCormick Place in Chicago. IANA, first co-located with IMTS 2012, was Deutsche Messe’s first-ever industrial technology event in the U.S. It fea-tures a complete range of automation products and solu-tions as well as conferences and educational training. This year’s edition will be almost double in size.

Just as IANA distinguished itself as an industry-leading event at IMTS 2012, MDANA is poised to become the networking hub of North America’s power transmission, motion control, and fluid technology sectors. In addition to the exhibits, MDANA will offer a variety of conferences, workshops, and training ses-sions covering topics such as industrial communica-tions, robotic control, and 3D printing with the aim of helping manufacturers increase efficiency and produc-tivity. It’s a great way to see the automation technol-ogy that complements the other technologies featured throughout IMTS. It allows you to see everything under one roof.

Manufacturers can’t ignore that advances in auto-mation are changing the way they make products and run businesses. The firms that leverage it to their best advantage will be the champions of change and inno-vation. You can be the next one to find out how.

IMTS 2014, Industrial Automation NA, and Motion, Drive & Automation NA take place September 8-13, 2014, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Learn more by visiting IMTS.com.

Courtesy: IMTS

TOGETHER WE CAN GROW YOUR BUSINESSWhen you’re looking to move your business to the next level, you have a partner in Molex. We provide the most dependable solutions for the most demanding applications. A complete suite of Brad automation products for connectivity,

Brad® BundledAutomationSolutions

communications, control and power. All bundled together to meet your specific needs, even in the harshest environments. With our worldwide reputa-tion for innovation, we will keep your automated lines running smoothly. Let’s grow together.

www.molex.com/product/bradproducts.html

IANA BOOTH#E4915



Cable and hose carriersTKA Series cable and hose carriers are especially tight to reliably protect cables against dirt, chips and circulating spray water while also prevent-

ing the ingress of coolants and lubricants. With the enclosed stroke system and pin-hole joint, even large amounts of atomized oil and flying particles can be disposed of during cleaning, and the product is IP54-rated. The optimized geometric shape of the chain links and a triple encapsulated stroke system allows for extensive unsup-ported lengths while also being highly torsion-resistant.

U.S. Tsubaki www.ustsubaki.comInput #202 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Push-to-connect fittings A new line of composite push-to-connect fittings combine plastic with existing metal barbed fittings. They includes specialty items such as union branches and tube-to-stem elbow reducers. These are available in sizes ranging from thread sizes #10-32 to 1/2 npt, and tubing diameters from 1/8 to ½ in.

Bimba www.bimba.comInput #201 at www.plantengineering.com/information

WorkstationsThe Arlink 8000 Modular Workstations have an ergonomic design, unlimited flexibility, and are available with a sup-plied conveyor system, or can be easily integrated with an existing conveyor. The Arlink 7000 All-Purpose Workbench-es have a durable design, the flexibility for reconfiguration in bench length, worksurface depth, and benchtop height. They are adjustable to be ergo-nomically friendly for each technician.

Listawww.listaintl.comInput #203 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Send new product releases to: [email protected]

Voltage detectorA new 10 to 1,000 V dual-

range voltage detector meets the demands of a growing building automation market for units such as LED lighting, occupancy sen-sors, HVAC controls and security systems. By simply turning on the tool, the new unit will light up the work area, as well as detect and differentiate voltage systems under 50 V that may have previ-ously gone unnoticed.Milwaukee Tool www.milwaukeetool.comInput #204 at www.plantengineering.com/information

CNC machinesThe Series 0i-F CNC has common operability, maintainability and networking options along with having a highly compatible PMC ladder. This translates to easier operation and maintenance across the plant floor. Additional new features on the Series 0i-F include: 15 in. display, I/O Link i, FSSB high speed rigid tapping, function for loader control, tolerance control, axis name expansion, program folder management, quick program restart, flexible path axis assignment, multi-path PMC function, ladder dividing man-agement, EtherNet/IP and PROFINET.

FANUC America www.fanucamerica.comInput #200 at www.plantengineering.com/information

INNOVATIONSDrive system

The IndraDrive CL/ML helps machine operators reduce power consumption up to the multi-megawatt range while also increasing productivity. It is avail-able in power ranges of 110 to 500 kW on a single unit. Using a parallel connection of up to eight individual 500 kW drives running a single motor, a drive power of up to 4 MW can be achieved. In addition, users can choose either air- or liquid-cooled drive systems depending on their control cabi-net configuration, noise require-ments, and ability to handle waste heat.

Bosch Rexroth www.boschrexroth-us.comInput #206 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Ultrasonic sensors

The Series IO Ultrasonic Sensors offer pushbutton programming that provides fast and easy on-site sen-sor parameterization with-out requiring any software.

IO-Link compatibility unlocks a series of control functions that customize the sensor for installa-tion in the most challenging environments. These parameters can be viewed and modified on-the-fly via an IO Link controller, or via a PC. The Series IO ultrasonic sensors have UL, CSA, and CCC approv-al, and feature a completely sealed, IP67-rated housing, making them suitable for use in outdoor application environments.

Pepperl+Fuchswww.pepperl-fuchs.us Input #205 at www.plantengineering.com/information

www.gardnerdenver.com©2014 Gardner Denver. All rights reserved.

The Apex SeriesThe air you need without the hassleWith the Apex 15+ to 25 models, we provide all the features you demand, using a simple package design that takes up a minimum amount of space. Using a fully integrated airend, the Apex contains fewer connections than competitive machines at this size, increasing the machine’s reliability. In addition, routine maintenance can be performed in seconds.


PLANT ENGINEERING July/August 2014 • 87

Angle wrenchThe QX Series Angle Wrench is a cordless right-angle fastening tool created specifically for operators in the industrial and assembly markets, from motor vehicle and white goods to aero-space and heavy equipment. The multi-function display is the interface for programming multi-ple torque, speed and angle configurations—saving time and eliminating the need for additional tools. The QX Series Angle Wrench is ergonomically balanced and lightweight, reducing fatigue by making it easier for the operator to maneuver.

Ingersoll Rand www.ingersollrand.com Input #208 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Send new product releases to: [email protected]

Boring mill The WFT 13R CNC machine features stress relieved castings for all major components, and all functional sur-faces are hardened as one piece to 56 HRC. It is equipped with directly coupled motors to the German planetary gearboxes for axis motion. Oil-cooled pillow block bearing housings are provided for accurate and stable positioning. It also is equipped with a rotary table on a cross roller taper bearing.

Fermat Group www.fermatmachinery.comInput #209 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Controllers with integrated I/O The X20 controller system has been upgraded to include a new series of com-pact controllers with integrated I/O. Additional I/O modules can be connected either locally or remotely using cables. These new compact controllers are being offered in a wide range of variants with different levels of performance and fea-tures. Each of these systems comes equipped with 32 built-in digital and analog I/O channels and an x86 processor as standard features. Integrated POWERLINK, standard Ethernet, CAN, RS232 and USB interfaces are also available.

B&R Automationhttp://www.br-automation.com Input #207 at www.plantengineering.com/information

Motor TestersThe ideal instruments for electric motortroubleshooting, quality control and trending

www.alltestpro.com

DistributorsWanted

Electrical or mechanical? Rotor?Turn-to-turn fault? Phase unbalance?Dirty windings? Short to ground?

Quickly identify motor faults –comprehensive motor testingwith one hand-held instrument!

ATP-201408-PlantEng_1-3pg_cmyk_Layout 1 7/18/14 2:49 PM Page 1


88 • July/August 2014 PLANT ENGINEERING88

MEDIA SHOWCASE FOR ENGINEERS

Input #100 at plantengineering.hotims.com Input #101 at plantengineering.hotims.com Input #102 at plantengineering.hotims.com


Your place for new products, literature, Apps, Videos, Case Studies and White Papers.

www.surplussolution.comTel: (403) 348-0765 Email: [email protected]

DEADLINE FOR OFFERS:

Site Location: Canada

3 Teco Westinghouse Motors 3100HP, 3 ABB Motors and

5 Hyundai Motors

“SUNCOR SURPLUS” NEW ELECTRIC MOTORS

11 Items Available: (3) Teco Westinghouse Motors 3100HP, 444RPM, 6900V - In Crates - Ready to be Shipped. Original purchase price in excess of $400,000 per motor. ABB Motor Type HXR450LM4, 965HP, 1498.1RPM, ABB Motor Type HXR400LF6, 325HP, 1040-1500RPM, ABB Motor Type HXR400LC6, 249HP, 1040.5-1500.5RPM, (5) Hyundai AC Motors, All 1260 RPM and 4000V, from 800HP - 3500HP. Please visit the website for more information and photos.

TARMINC.an apex group company

Private Treaty Sale

VIEWING BY APPOINTMENT ONLYTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

POWER + CONTROL

In Connection1

Provide electrical powerand control motor drives,

communicate alarms or monitor process

parameters withonly connection.

Ratings up to250A, 600V, Type 4X

1

AuxiliaryContact

PowerContact

meltric.com 800.433.7642

Up to 5 contactsfor POWER

+ 6 contacts for

CONTROL






CLARCORindustrialair.com | +1-800-821-2222

©2014 BHA Altair, LLC. All rights reserved. BHA is a registered trademark of BHA Altair, LLC.

Written by the BHA experts you’ve trusted for over 40 years. Our exclusive baghouse troubleshooting guide can help you optimize the performance of your dust fi ltration system. Place your order now at BHA.com. system. Place your order now

79139 CLARCOR BHA 1/6 page ad Pub: Plant Engineering July/Aug Trim: 2.125” x 4.125”

to troubleshooting dust.

79139_CLAR_BHA_Print_PE_onesixthpg_R4.indd 17/15/14 2:51 PM

Protects from live partsKeeps NFPA 70E HRC=0

meltric.com 800.433.7642

SAFETY SHUTTER(on receptacle)

SAFETY PLUGS

PROTECT FROM ARC FLASH

OFF BUTTONSafely breaks load

UL Switch-Rated

Rated up to 200A600V

» visit www.kaeser.com/whitepapers

Kaeser Compressors has published the whitepaper, “Turning Air Compressors into an Energy Source”. Authored by compressed air industry experts Werner Rauer and Michael Camber, the paper explains how rotary screw compressors can recover up to 96% of the heat generated during compression to significantly lower a facility’s energy costs.

Turning Air Compressors into an Energy SourceTopog-E® Gasket Company, formulates and mixes its

own rubber manufactures superior moldedrubber hand-hole and manhole gaskets for steam, hot water boilers, water heaters, softeners, deaerators, make-up tanks, and other selected pressure vessels.

Topog-E® Gaskets have become an industry standard since 1956. Topog-E® Gaskets seal quickly, completely, preventing seepage, corrosion and pitting. They peel off easily leaving clean surfaces for inspection.

Topog-E® Gasket Company offers a FREE Technical Specification and Usage Guide containing useful informa-tion about boiler maintenance safety.

Also, FREE a pocket slide rule that charts steam temperature versus pressure.

For more information contact:

Topog-E Gasket Company1224 North Utica Fax: 918-587-6961Tulsa, OK 74110 www.topog-e.comTel: 800-587-7123 [email protected]

BOILER TECHSUPPORT

Need Boiler Operator Training?

Don’t miss our Steam Boiler Operator seminar in December.

You will learn virtually all facets of steam boiler operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting.

Register now! Seating is limited.803-714-2021 • spiraxsarco.com/us

stayinformed

Stay current with technology

and trends in electrical, mechanical,

maintenance and automation.

To subscribe, visit www.plantengineering.com/subscribe

ple_stayInformed_6th.indd 1 2/24/2014 10:19:58 AM

90 • July/August 2014 PLANT ENGINEERING90



Input #115 at plantengineering.hotims.com


How to Document Your Plant in Days Instead of Weeks With 3D Laser Scanning

Bruce Bowditch | Leica Geosystems

Plant environments are alive with change as companies upgrade existing installations, maintain equipment, and add new machinery to leverage the latest technology. To respond quickly and successfully to shifting needs, you must know exactly what your plant looks like today. Read this e-book to discover:

[email protected] www.leica-geosystems.us

Download the e-book: plant.leica-geosystems. us/3d-laser-scanning

• How up-to-date plant documentation helps you maintain your plant, minimize shutdowns, integrate new equipment, and more• Why measuring-tape plant-documentation methods no longer measure up and can lead to unexpected interferences and field rework when completing plant maintenance, upgrades, and new installations• How to document your plant the safest, easiest way; collect more complete, accurate as-built information; and reduce risks and costs• The proven time savings of laser scanning for plant documentation• How to sort through the long list of laser-scanner specifications and find exactly what matters most when making this critical investment

pe201405_whitePprR2_LEICAHlf.indd 1 4/17/2014 2:43:48 PM

The following is an alphabetical listing of the participating advertisers in Plant Engineering’s annual Internet Profile program in print and online:

• Allied Electronics• Automation Direct• Camfil• CLARCOR Industrial Air• Flexicon• Hochiki America Corp.• Hyster• iQuest• Kaeser Compressors• Lubriplate Lubricants Co.• Ludeca Incorporated• MovinCool• Prosoft Technology Inc.• PROTO• Rosler Metal Finishing USA• SEW Eurodrive• SixAxis Technologies ErectaStep

Please visit the participating advertiser Websites where you will

find the latest multi-media programs, interactive features,

and useful product information for engineers.

Allied Goes Interactive It’s an interactive world, and in the spirit of innovation, Allied has introduced new interactive customer tools. Designed to make the customer experience easier, more immersive, and more enjoyable, Allied recently debuted several new product information features that take full advantage of the Internet’s interactive capabilities.

Allied’s innovative Product Finders make locating the parts needed for a particular project simple. Take the Control Cabinet Product Finder, for instance. Scroll over any component in the 3D-rendered control cabinet drawing for a list of all the manufacturers of that product and a link that instantly takes you to the catalog page for the part you’re interested in.

Need a transformer for a control cabinet? Just click on the accurately-rendered drawing to find transformer products from Acme Electric, Hammond Power Solutions, Sola/HD, and more. Click on the “View All” button to see a sortable list of all the transformers available in the Allied catalog (more than 950!).

The Power House Product Finder features AC/DC and DC/DC power supplies from a host of leading suppliers, including Cosel USA, Phoenix Contact, Power-One, SL Power, SolaHD, and TDK-Lambda. Power Over Ethernet, Modular power supplies, LED drivers, PCB mounts, and more are just a click away with this easy-to-use search tool.

Perhaps even more impressive is the Interactive PCB Product Finder. This fully rendered circuit board presents a variety of common components, all of which can be highlighted and viewed. Select one of the six capacitors, for instance, and all are highlighted. A simple click reveals a choice of capacitor types, such as Aluminum Electrolytic, Ceramic, Film, Metalized, and Tantalum, from such noted manufacturers as Cornell-Dubilier, Kemet, Vishay, Panasonic, and Nichicon.

Finding the parts you need has never been easier. Gone are the days of laboriously searching through printed catalogs or out-of-date webpages, trying to find what you need. Now, with Allied’s innovative Product Finders, your solutions are as close as a mouse click.

Allied Electronics | 800.433.5700 | ThinkAllied.com

www.alliedelec.com/controlcabinet

www.alliedelec.com/powerhouse

www.alliedelec.com/pcb

AutomationDirect is a distributor of thousands of industrial automation products including Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs), AC drives/motors, operator interface panels/HMI, power supplies, DC motors, sensors, push buttons, NEMA enclosures, pneumatic supplies, and much more. In business since 1994, the company headquarters is located just north of Atlanta, Georgia.

Our prices are low. Our prices are well below the list price of more traditional automation companies because with our business model and focus on efficiency, AutomationDirect has the lowest overhead in the industry.

We make ordering easy and our service is exceptional. Shop online with our exhaustive product listings or browse our online catalog; fax or phone us – you’ll get friendly, efficient service from the most helpful sales team in the business. Independent surveys completed by readers of Control Design magazine placed us at the top of the list for service 12 years in a row in their Readers’ Choice awards. Other surveys by magazines such as Control Engineering and Control have echoed the results.

We ship super fast (and FREE 2-day transit on orders over $49). The majority of our products are stocked for same-day shipping. Orders placed by 6 p.m. EST will ship the same day with approved company credit or credit card. LTL items require 5 p.m. order cutoff and some limitations apply as 2-day transit time does not apply for LTL shipping of heavy itmes. See Terms and Conditions online for full details.

We guarantee it. We want you to be pleased with every order. That’s why we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on almost every stock product we sell, including our software (see Terms and Conditions for certain exclusions).

For more information, contact us at 800-633-0405 or visit www.automationdirect.com.

Find permanent solutions for dust and fume pollution.Safe air for a safe work environment is the business of Camfil APC. We make the most technologically advanced industrial dust, fume and mist collectors on the market – fabricated to customer needs and backed by dependable service support and decades of proven experience.

In addition to product and technical information, our website is designed to educate plant engineers on cost-effective and sustainable ways to solve the most difficult dust and fume

challenges. The “Dust Collection 101” (http://www.camfilapc.com/articles/) area of the site provides educational articles on important topics such as air quality compliance, preventing combustible dust explosions, dust testing, and selecting the right dust collection equipment for a given application.

Another frequently visited area of the site is the Case Studies (http://www.camfilapc.com/case-studies/) section, which contains dozens of real-life testimonials from companies that have benefited from using Camfil APC dust collection technology. These “challenge-solution” stories are organized by type of application, so you can look up a particular process (blasting, sanding, welding, etc.) or industry (chemical, food processing, metalworking, paper, etc.) and quickly find relevant case study examples.

We also have a comprehensive Video Center (www.camfilapc.com/videos/) with dozens of videos organized by category – including capabilities, plant tours, product demos, installation instructions, customer case studies, expert interviews, documentaries, fun videos and dust collection “epics.”

We are part of Camfil, the largest air filter manufacturer in the world. All our dust collection systems, including filter cartridges, are manufactured in ISO 9001 certified facilities. Our flagship Farr Gold Series® cartridge collector combines rugged heavy-gauge construction with a compact modular design that allows easy access and fast, trouble-free service. It is equipped with the award-winning “HemiPleat®” filter, which delivers lower pressure drop than standard cartridge filters for guaranteed longer service life and energy savings.

Camfil Air Pollution Control | 3505 S. Airport Road | Jonesboro, AR 72401 | Phone: 800-479-6801 or 870-933-8048 Email: [email protected] | Find us on Twitter and Facebook from any page on our website: www.camfilapc.com

CLARCOR Industrial AirOptimize the performance and profitability of your plant, manufacturing operation, or product through the expertise of CLARCOR Industrial Air. We design, test and manufacture industrial air filters engineered for use in heavy industry applications such as rock dust, power generation, manufacturing and metal production for in-process dust collection and air pollution control. We will enable you to better: • Achieve environmental targets• Find cost-effective alternatives to new equipment or systems • Improve operating costs through higher filtration performance for longer periods of time • Increase performance while reducing emissions

With more than 40 years of baghouse filtration engineering and manufacturing expertise, we offer a wide range of the best-quality products and services. Our experts have in-depth customer knowledge and service capabilities that help you improve your operation. You need to achieve

your operating goals and we are here to provide you with answers, training, and a quick response beyond delivery. To find out more about our BHA products and services, visit BHA.com.

As a whole, CLARCOR Industrial Air, formerly GE Power & Water’s Air Filtration business, helps customers achieve air quality and plant performance goals with products and solutions for gas turbine inlet filtration, industrial filtration and membrane technologies. With over 700 employees around the world and nearly 50 years of air quality management expertise to serve our customers, CLARCOR Industrial Air is committed to improving plant performance and enabling our customers to realize their operating goals by delivering superior filtration products and systems.

Industries • Liquefied Natural Gas, Marine, Offshore and Midstream Oil & Gas, Energy & Electric Utilities • Rock Dust, Utility, Process, Metals, Carbon Black, OEMs, Hot Gas • Automotive, Filtration, Packaging, Medical • Outdoor, Backpacking, Hiking, Snowsports, Cycling, Running, Lifestyle, Fashion, Workwear, and Military apparel

Specialties • Gas Turbine Inlet Systems and Filters — Offshore Oil & Gas — Marine — Energy & Electric Utilities • Specialty Membrane• Microfiltration and Media• Industrial Filtration Baghouses• Aftermarket Parts

11501 Outlook Street, Suite 100 | Overland Park, KS 66211 [email protected] | www.CLARCORindustrialAir.com+1-800-821-2222 | +44 (0) 1420 541188

Flexicon CorporationFlexicon Corporation engineers and manufactures a broad range of individual bulk handling equipment, as well as automated bulk-handling/weigh-batching/blending systems that are fully integrated with new or existing process equipment and storage vessels located throughout the plant.

Equipment manufactured by Flexicon handles virtually any bulk material, from large pellets to sub-micron powders, friable, free-flowing and non-free-flowing products, including materials that pack, cake, plug, smear, fluidize or separate.

The line includes: Flexible Screw Conveyors, Tubular Cable Conveyors, Pneumatic Conveying Systems, Bulk Bag Unloaders, Bulk

Bag Conditioners, Bulk Bag Fillers, Bag Dump Stations, Drum/Box/Container Dumpers, Weigh Batching and Blending Systems, and Automated Plant-Wide Bulk Handling Systems. Most equipment is available in carbon steel with durable industrial finish, stainless steel in industrial or sanitary finish, or designed and constructed for 3-A certification and USDA acceptance.

Engineered automated systems incorporate equipment manufactured by Flexicon as well as packaging machines, blenders, weigh feeders, screeners, crushers, grinders, dryers, coolers, dust collectors, and any other process and storage equipment required -- all integrated with your process, guaranteed to perform, and backed by Flexicon.

Two types of programmable weigh batching/blending systems are offered: Bulk Bag “Loss-of-Weight” Systems source the material from individual or multiple Bulk Bag Weigh Batch Dischargers, each with load cells, measuring the amount of weight lost as material is discharged directly into a common hopper, blender, conveyor, shipping container or process vessel. “Gain-in-Weight” Batching Systems transport ingredients from silos, manual dumping stations, bulk bag dischargers, process equipment or any other source, measuring the amount of weight gained by one central weigh batching hopper, blender, or other downstream equipment that is mounted on load cells.

The company’s 90,000 sq. ft. (8350 sq. m) manufacturing facility and world headquarters is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Approximately 5000 sq. ft. (465 sq. m) of high-ceiling area is dedicated to a state-of-the-art test laboratory where full size equipment and systems are configured to replicate customer installations, enabling the company to run customer-supplied materials and certify equipment performance.

Flexicon Corporation | Tel: 888-353-9426 | [email protected] | www.flexicon.com

Hochiki america website is easy to navigate and full of useful informationFor high-quality, cost-effective, innovative fire alarm systems and equipment, Hochiki America is your complete solution. Hochiki is a world-leader in the fire alarm industry, with unparalleled quality, service, and support.

Finding the Right Product for the Project - All fire systems are clearly marked on the site and are easy to find. A simple listing format for Analog, Conventional and Test Equipment is direct and specific. Product information is also readily available through the PRODUCTS tab.

www.hochikiamerica.com/products.php

Large, Medium and Small Projects, New Products - The website will send the viewer to controls, as well as to accessories and the new product entries known as FireNET Xtinguish™ and FireNET Vapor®, for environmentally friendly extinguishment, and for very early warning, described below. A UL-compatibility list of devices is provided.

Conventional fire alarm solutions also available - Look for the HCA-series conventional system, available in 2, 4, and 8 zone versions. A complete line of conventional detectors is available, along with notification appliances and other accessories.

Heard about FireNET Xtinguish™? - This UL Listed, environmentally-friendly aerosol extinguishes fire by breaking the chemical chain reaction of the fire. Quick design, easy installation, and minimal maintenance are ideal for total-flooding extinguishing applications. Call Hochiki sales for more information.

http://www.hochikiamerica.com/product.php?view_prod=154&prod_section=4&prod_cat=3

Very Early Warning Device - FireNet Vapor® provides highly reliable, very early warning smoke detection at the earliest presence of fire, while reducing the recurrence of nuisance alarms. http://www.hochikiamerica.com/view_products.php?prod_section=4&prod_cat=3&prod_subcat=22 FireNet Vapor® actively samples the air for the smallest particles of smoke to detect fire at the earliest stage. FireNet Vapor® can also provide reliable detection in a wide range of environments – coal mines, clean rooms, data centers, airports, prisons, etc. Hochiki provides a design service for this product.

http://www.hochikiamerica.com/product.php?view_prod=175&prod_section=4&prod_cat=3)

Authentic Hochiki Quality Is Only Available Through Authorized Dealers and from Hochiki America.

See our handy News section and also FAQ’s for more information.

7051 Village Drive, Suite 100, Buena Park, CA 90621 | (714) 522-2246 | [email protected] | www.hochiki.com

Hyster Company: Strong Partners, Tough Trucks Hyster was born tough: our first product was built for lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest. More than 80 years later, we still build some of the toughest—and most trusted—lift trucks around. All 130+ Hyster® lift truck models are custom-built with innovative technology, industrial-strength components and user-friendly design for easy operation and maximum production in the most demanding applications. Bring on nearly any application, any environment, and Hyster can conquer it. From walkies to container handlers, Hyster lift trucks are available in the broadest capacity range in the industry: from 2,000 to 105,000 pounds.

Earlier this year, Hyster Company’s B60-80ZHD end rider lift truck series was named the 2013 Silver Product of the Year for material handling systems by Plant Engineering magazine.

The B60-80ZHD end rider series addresses a multitude of tough operating conditions and tackles some of the industry’s most demanding applications. Engineered for heavy duty applications in a range of operating conditions, the B60-80ZHD series 6,000- and 8,000-lb electric end rider pallet trucks provide the confidence to get the job done. They feature an enhanced fork frame and heavy duty linkage for greater strength and steadier load handling. To maximize durability, the forks are reinforced with 25 percent more steel, while fork tips are specifically designed for smooth pallet entry.

To further simplify operation, the end rider series is equipped with Hyster i3 Technology™, which provides commonality among Hyster warehouse products and simplifies the way that both operators and technicians handle and service the lift trucks. The Integrated Intelligent Interface ties together functionality, software, diagnostic codes, similar interfaces and is Hyster Tracker compatible. This technology allows operator input to optimize performance to suit operator skill level. It also provides setup and diagnostic menus for service technicians

About Hyster Company Based in Greenville, N.C., Hyster Company (www.hyster.com) is a leading worldwide lift truck designer and manufacturer. Hyster Company offers 130 models configured for gasoline, LPG, diesel and electric power, with the widest capacity range in the industry — from 2,000 to 105,000 lbs.

1400 Sullivan Drive | Greenville, NC 27834-9007 | Tel: 1-800-497-8371

The first practical augmented reality app for industrial and process environmentsiQagent is the first practical augmented reality app for industrial and process environments. It recognizes equipment on your plant floor, and instantly displays relevant live process data, schematics and other resources. You can download iQagent on the Apple App Store.

iQagent addresses two issues faced by virtually every automated plant: 1. Time is wasted when technicians stop work to search for schematics, manuals and other procedures required to complete the task.

2. Communication with remote support personnel about downtime issues is inefficient using traditional channels, such as phone or email; problems often remain unresolved until resources arrive onsite to analyze and correct the problem.

iQagent uses the Point Of Interest, or POI, concept to recognize equipment and process Areas. Users define POIs for their plant floor, and associate relevant data and resources with them using the iQagent Configuration Tool.

Live data points from your PLC, SCADA or HMI are linked to the POI via OPC, or from your SQL Server, Oracle or other ODBC Database system. File based resources such as schematics, manuals or procedures can be linked directly to your File Server or Electronic Document System. You can also link to email addresses, movies and videos, or create your own custom forms and checklists.

For each POI created, a QR-based POI Code is generated and mounted near the equipment or process it represents. When the iQagent App is used to scan the POI, the configured data and resources are instantly displayed on the tablet screen. This eliminates time spent searching for resources to complete a task.

iQagent has a patented holistic recording feature that allows users to ‘show’ problems to offsite technical resources rather than merely describe them over the phone or email. iQagent records live video and audio of the issue, overlaid with live production data, schematics, and on-screen annotations drawn by the user. The resulting mp4 video can be emailed directly to offsite personnel for quicker analysis and resolution of the problem.

[email protected] | Tel: 770.754.0427 | www.iQagent.com

Kaeser Solution Brings Plant Serious GreenKaeser is no stranger to providing energy saving solutions that put money back on our customers’ bottom lines. Here is just one example of how we helped a customer reduce their annual energy costs by nearly 75%.

PROBLEM: For many years, the compressed air system at a metal products plant grew without taking the time to weigh the energy consumption and age of their current compressed air equipment. When production changes caused pressures to drop below acceptable levels, the plant simply added a new compressor to their existing system, without removing older compressors (averaging 15 years but ranging up to 36 years old).

SOLUTION: A comprehensive Kaeser Air Demand Analysis (ADA) was performed on the plant’s air compressor system to help them understand the compressed air issues

they currently had and make sound recommendations on system improvements. Kaeser also completed a leak detection audit, not only documenting the size and location of each leak, but also quantifying the overall leakage cost to the facility. RESULT: Kaeser identified approximately 75% potential compressed air system energy consumption savings. Taking Kaeser’s recommendations, the leaks were fixed, the black iron piping was updated with Kaeser SmartPipe™ and a new compressed air plant design was installed, including Kaeser Sigma Frequency Control (SFC) and the Sigma Air Manager (SAM) Master Controller. In the end, Kaeser’s compressed air solution yielded the following results:

• Operating Energy Cost for Previous System: $90,000 per year • Estimated Savings for Fixing Leaks: $51,000 per year • Estimated Savings from New Compressors and System Controls: $17,000 per year • Total Annual Energy Savings: $68,000 • Utility Incentive: $25,000

Contact us to see how we can help optimize your system and add some green to your bottom line.

Ph: (866) 516-6888 | Fax: (540) 898-5520 | [email protected] | www.us.kaeser.com

Lubriplate® High Performance Synthetic Lubricants

129 Lockwood Street | Newark, NJ 07105 Tel: 800-733-4755 | E-mail: [email protected] To visit Lubriplate’s webpage go to: www.lubriplate.com

The Lubriplate webpage at www.lubriplate.com provides product information and technical data for all Lubriplate and Fiske brand lubricants. In addition you can review the distributor program to determine the Lubriplate distributor nearest you.

Lubriplate And Fiske Brands Lubricant Inventory Includes... High Performance Synthetic Lubricants, Gear, Bearing and Recirculating Oils, Air Compressor and Vacuum Pump Oils, Hydraulic Fluids, Multi-Purpose Greases, NSF H-1 Registered Food Machinery Lubricants, Environmentally Responsible Lubricants, Specialty Lubricants, Automotive Lubricants, Motor Oils and Metal Working Fluids.

Complimentary ESP Extra Services Package Available to all Lubriplate Customers, these services include: Complete Plant Surveys, Lubrication Maintenance Software, Color Coded Lubricant Machinery Tags, Follow-Up Lubricant Analysis, A Toll-Free Technical Support Hotline and e-mail and a variety of end user and distributor Lubrication Training programs.

Packaging Containers Lubriplate Lubricants come in a variety of packages from small tubes to grease cartridges to bottles, pails, quarter drums, 55 gallon drums and bulk bins.

Online Webstore You can shop online at Lubriplate’s webstore for a variety of lubricants. They include: Lubricants in Tubes, Spray Lubricants, Grease Cartridges, Automotive Lubricants, Motor Oils, Household Lubricants and more.

LUDECA, Inc. | (305) 591-8935 | www.ludeca.com

Keep it running with LUDECALUDECA is a leading provider of Preventive, Predictive and Corrective Maintenance Solutions including machinery laser alignment, vibration analysis and balancing equipment such as the award-winning ROTALIGN ULTRA and VIBXPERT instruments by PRUFTECHNIK. In addition, they offer alignment, vibration and balancing training on site and at their state-of-the-art Miami Training Center as well as repair services, equipment rental and high-end engineering consultation services.

www.ludeca.com LUDECA’s website www.ludeca.com features information on their alignment and condition monitoring product offering along with demo videos, brochures, tech notes and a Learning Center with video tutorials and white papers. Another great resource for their maintenance tips, case studies and articles is the LUDECA Blog.

Service and Support As a long time provider of maintenance technology, LUDECA prides itself on the service they provide their customers. Support personnel and application engineers are always available to provide product support and training and ensure the success of your reliability program.

Should service of your instrument ever become necessary, they offer you a quick turnaround time, and if necessary a loaner system or component will be available to you. LUDECA’s service facilities include a NUPIC approved calibration laboratory with NIST certified calibration equipment.

LUDECA Solutions Providers offer additional support across the entire USA—including Alaska and Hawaii—as well as in the Caribbean and Venezuela.

Visit www.ludeca.com and learn how LUDECA can help you achieve your maintenance and reliability goals. Keep it running.

MovinCool® Launched New QR Code® Service Link FeatureMovinCool®, a brand of DENSO Corporation, announced that it has launched a new QR Code® Service Link feature that gives owners of MovinCool air conditioners fast, smartphone access to online warranty and service support information.

By scanning the QR Code on a MovinCool unit with a smartphone, users are immediately connected to the MovinCool website, where they can register their unit for coverage under MovinCool’s industry-exclusive, full three-year manufacturer’s warranty (two years for

ceiling-mount units). Once registered, users can verify the unit’s current warranty coverage period, view dealer contact information, find out where to call for service support and get answers to frequently asked questions, as well as download operation manuals, service manuals and spare parts catalogs.

“We’re proud that MovinCool offers not only the industry’s strongest warranty, but also complete service support,” said David Keller, manager, Heat Management Department. “And now our new Service Link feature lets customers get warranty and service support information even faster and more easily than ever before.”

For more information, visit www.movincool.com/customer-support/my-unit-info.

MovinCool, which has pioneered the concept of workspace spot cooling since the 1980s, is a brand of DENSO Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of spot air conditioners. MovinCool offers portable and ceiling mount air conditioning systems for many different applications, including emergency, backup and supplemental cooling, as well as moisture removal.

DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. Its customers include all the world’s major carmakers. Worldwide, the company has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs nearly 140,000 people.

Currently, in North America, DENSO employs more than 17,000 people at 32 consolidated companies and affiliates. Of these, 28 are manufacturing facilities located in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In the U.S. alone, DENSO employs more than 14,000 people in California, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Arkansas. DENSO’s North American consolidated sales totaled US$7.9 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014.

MovinCool® is a registered trademark of DENSO Corporation. QR Code® is a registered trademark of DENSO Wave, Incorporated.

(800) 264-9573 | [email protected] | www.movincool.com

ProSoft Technology® offers informative training videosNeed a lesson on Modbus®? Maybe you need a step-by-step video tutorial on how to configure one of our products? ProSoft Technology® has many tutorial videos available on our website to help you get up and running on our products. Below are just a few videos for some of our most popular products. Should you need another training video, visit www.psft.com/trainingpe.

Understanding Modbus® for Rockwell Automation® Users Are you a Rockwell Automation® user who needs to learn about Modbus®? This tutorial teaches you about Modbus® Serial and TCP/IP communications, as well as Modbus® addressing, data structures, function codes and physical network considerations. RS232, RS485, RS422 and Ethernet topologies are discussed. Visit www.psft.com/modbuspe for more information.

Setup Tutorial for Cellular Radios This video teaches you how to configure our cellular gateway using an open VPN server. Learn how you can use our Add-On Instruction in RS Logix™ 5000 or Studio 5000™, giving a Rockwell Automation® controller the ability to read data including GPS position, data usage and more. Visit www.psft.com/icx30pe for more information.

Modbus® Setup Tutorial for ControlLogix® This video teaches you how to configure our Enhanced Modbus® Module for ControlLogix®, which allows Rockwell Automation® ControlLogix® processors to interface with Modbus®-compatible devices. This video will show how to import the Add-On Instruction in RS Logix™ 5000 and how to configure the module as a master or slave. Visit www.psft.com/mcmpe for more information.

Setup Tutorial for 802.11 Industrial Hotspot Radios This video teaches you how to configure our 802.11 high-speed Industrial Hotspot Radios with Fast Roaming. Learn how to configure a wireless system consisting of one Master radio and a remote radio that will wirelessly connect to that access point. Visit www.psft.com/rlx2pe for more information.

Setup Tutorial for Remote I/O™ to EtherNet/IP™ Migration Gateways This video teaches you how to configure our Remote I/O™ to EtherNet/IP™ migration gateways. Learn how our migration gateways allow you to migrate legacy drives and PanelViews™ to EtherNet/IP™ PowerFlex™ drives and PanelView™ Plus terminals without modifying PLC code. Visit www.psft.com/anx2pe and click on the videos tab for more information.

[email protected] | 661-716-5100

PROTO is Bringing “Beyond Strong” to Air ToolsGet industry-leading breakaway torque with PROTO’s first set of Air Impact Wrenches.

The toughest jobs call for the toughest tools, and for over 100 years PROTO has been delivering the tools that help keep industry on the move. Today, PROTO introduces its first line of air tools with the all-new pistol-grip Air Impact Wrenches. Ergonomically engineered for heavy industrial use with safety in mind, the pistol-grip Air Impact Wrenches feature the highest breakaway torque in the industry. This “First in Class” strength means you can get your toughest jobs done without having to change wrenches mid-job.

Features • Titanium housing, which reduces weight and ensures maximum durability. • Ambidextrous forward/reverse lever can be actuated with a single hand, even with gloves on. • Side-fed, 6-vane air motor delivers maximum power and efficiency. • Integrated Tethering Capability in all Proto® Air Tools. • Machined motor housing reduces number of parts, creating precision alignment, reducing wear, increasing efficiency and simplifying maintenance.

Specs The PROTO Air Impact Wrenches are available in 3⁄8” Drive Impact, ½” Drive Compact Impact, ½” Drive Impact and ¾” Drive Impact. The 3⁄8” Drive Impact features 525 ft.lbs. of breakaway torque, and has an overall weight of 2.9 lbs. The ½” Drive Compact Impact features 590 ft.lbs. of

breakaway torque, and has an overall weight of 3.0 lbs. The ½” Drive Impact features 1260 ft.lbs. of breakaway torque, and has an overall weight of 4.6 lbs. And the ¾” Drive Impact checks in with a whopping 1560 ft.lbs. of breakaway torque, and has an overall weight of 8.4 lbs.

Warranty & Service Information Each PROTO Air Tools comes with a standard two year limited warranty. Professional technical assistance is available, and you can purchase parts on ServiceNet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

For more information and to see the latest PROTO Air Impact Wrench video, visit protoindustrial.com/power. Phone: 1-800-800-TOOL | Email: [email protected]

Rosler is finding a better wayRosler is the only mass finishing company offering both vibratory finishing and shot blasting equipment, as well as consumables and media. From our extensive 300,000 sq ft facility in Battle Creek, Michigan¸ we manufacture right here in the United States for the North American market, and are backed by a global network of locations providing worldwide support.

Our company slogan “finding a better way…” is exactly what we do. It begins in Rosler’s 15,000 sq ft Test and Demonstration Lab. After first evaluating what the end result should be, our highly-trained process engineers analyze your sample parts and processing requirements, and perform detailed test trials to determine the optimum equipment, settings, media compounds, separation and drying methods, so that your finished parts will meet your specifications time after time. We choose the right process for you – not just the process we sell.

Send us your challenge. Check out our recently redesigned website www.rosler.us for more information on how Rosler can optimize and automate your surface finishing processes.

Phone: 269-441-3000 | Fax: 269-441-3001 | www.rosler.us | [email protected]

Visit us at www.seweurodrive.com

Are you frequently wasted at work?Well, forget HR. Go straight to PT Pilot® and stop wasting your valuable time fumbling through catalogs, price books, and emails to specify a gearmotor or gear unit. PT Pilot is SEW-EURODRIVE’s premier online selection program. It provides a complete quotation with prices, parts lists, 3D CAD drawings, and all options for your custom gearmotor. PT Pilot is compatible with smart-phones and tablets too. So, you can literally obtain a quote at your fingertips anytime, anywhere. Find PT Pilot at www.ptpilot.com

Engineering excellence and customer responsiveness distinguish SEW-EURODRIVE, a leading manufacturer of integrated power transmission and motion control systems. SEW-EURODRIVE solutions set the global standard for high performance and rugged reliability in the toughest operating conditions.

With its global headquarters in Germany, the privately held company currently employs over 15,000 employees with a presence in 45 countries worldwide. U.S. operations include a state- of-the-art manufacturing center, six regional assembly plants, more than 63 technical sales offices and hundreds of distributors and support specialists. This enables SEW-EURODRIVE to provide local manufacturing, service and support, coast-to-coast and around the world.

SEW-EURODRIVE . . . Driving the world.

Introducing… PerfectaStep™ Perfection in Fall ProtectionThe perfect solution for customized fall protection, built with the speed and quality of standard ErectaStep®.

PerfectaStep provides an extra measure of fall protection when standard industrial stairs and work platforms can’t offer the level of fall protection workers need.

PerfectaStep is from the makers of ErectaStep. So you get the same great ErectaStep quality and fast service without the expense and delay of hiring a fabricator.

PerfectaStep provides fall protection and safe access in industries and applications including:

• Over pipes, dike walls and production lines and equipment • In chemical plants and tank farms, food and beverage distributors, water treatment plants and refineries

Now you have 2 fast, easy ways to protect workers from falls and provide safe access to work areas:

1. ErectaStep Modular Industrial Stairs and Work Platforms 5 easy-to-assemble components deliver unlimited fall protection options for a wide variety of applications. Plus they’re easily disassembled and reusable to suit your changing footprint.

2. PerfectaStep Customized Modular Industrial Stairs and Work Platforms When our standard ErectaStep doesn’t quite fit, PerfectaStep lets you customize a fall protection solution with the speed and quality you’ve come to know from ErectaStep.

Wherever workers need safe, productive access, look for the yellow rails, and you’ll find ErectaStep and PerfectaStep. Both systems meet OSHA regulations for fall protection.

Call +1 888 878-1839 for a free quote today! Or get your free “Safety Made Simple” catalog.

ErectaStep | 219 Safety Ave. | Andrews, SC 29510 | (888) 878-1839 | Email: [email protected]

PRODUCTMART


Input #103 at plantengineering.hotims.com

Input #102 at plantengineering.hotims.comInput #100 at plantengineering.hotims.com

Input #101 at plantengineering.hotims.com Input #104 at plantengineering.hotims.com

2672 S . La C ienega B l vd . Lo s Ange le s , C A 90034 USA(800) 336 -1942 (310) 839 -2828 Fax : (310) 839 -6878

www. t ek leen . com i n f o@tek leen . com

Scale formation reduces the heat transfer rate and increases the water pressure drop through the heat exchanger and pipes. In fact, one study has shown that .002" fouling will increase pumping needs by 20%.

The Best Engineered Water Filtering Solution Always Costs Less

Why Should You Filter Your Water?

3.5" wide x 4.5" high

Pantone 382cOIL MIST & SMOKE

IN YOUR SHOP?

www.mistcollectors.com

Tel: 1-800-645-4174

SALES REPRESENTATIVE

Hering AG is the European leader forcustomized solutions in heat exchangers –

preferred heat exchangers for industrial applications such as exhaust-gas heat-

exchangers, steam generators and gland-steam-condensers. We are looking for sales representatives in the US and Canada with the capability to expand our business.

In case of interest please contact [email protected]

www.hering-ag.de

CFE Media’s Apps for Engineers is a free interactive directory of more than 170 engineering- related applications for Android and iOS operating systems. This “app of apps” contains links to more than 170 different mobile applications.

For more information visit our Interactive Media Kit:

mediakit.cfemedia.com

201311cfe_app4Eng_hlfHZ.indd 1 11/19/2013 5:32:58 PM


adalet.comManufacturing explosion proof enclosures, ATEX enclo-sures and electrical enclosures for over 80 years.

Adalet

aggreko.comAggreko is a global leader in generator rental, providing efficient and cost effective industrial generators and power distribution.

Aggreko plc

alliedelec.comAllied Electronics is a small order, high service level dis-tributor of electronic components and electromechanical products with over 50 sales offices across the United States and Canada.

Allied Electronics

alliedreliability.comAllied Reliability Group designs and customizes integrated approaches for identifying defects in assets using predic-tive technologies and condition monitoring services.

Allied Reliability Group

alltestpro.comALL-TEST Pro produces electric motor and winding test-ing equipment that can provide proactive offline and online motor tests.

ALL-TEST Pro LLC

atlascopco.usAtlas Copco produces and markets compressed air equip-ment and generators, construction and mining equipment, industrial tools, assembly systems, services and rentals.

Atlas Copco

automationdirect.comAutomationDirect offers 6,500+ industrial automation products through their free catalog and online store, including PLCs, operator interfaces, sensors, and more.

AutomationDirect

baldor.comBaldor Electric designs, manufacturers, and markets a broad line of industrial energy-efficient electric motors, mechanical power transmission products, and more.

Baldor Electric Co.

camfilfarr.comCLARCOR Industrial Air helps customers achieve air qual-ity and plant performance goals with products and solu-tions for gas turbine inlet filtration, industrial filtration, and membrane technologies.

Camfil Farr

clarcorindustrialair.comCompressed air purifications solutions, compressed air filters, dryers and process water chillers.

CLARCOR Industrial Air

diamondchain.comDiamond Chain provides expertise in drive systems and design, wear and fatigue performance, and superior ROI with the consistent performance of its products.

Diamond Chain Co.

donaldson.comCompressed air purifications solutions, compressed air filters, dryers and process water chillers.

Donaldson Company Inc.

exair.comExair’s product line includes Vortex Tubes and products utilizing Vortex Tubes, Air Amplifiers, Air Knives, air-oper-ated vacuums and ionizing products for static elimination.

Exair Corp.

flexicon.comFlexicon designs and manufactures bulk handling equip-ment and custom-engineered and integrated plant-wide systems.

Flexicon Corp.

greenheck.comGreenheck is a leading supplier of air movement and control equipment, including fans, dampers, louvers, kitchen ventila-tion hoods, and energy recovery and make-up air units.

Greenheck Fan Corp.

hochikiamerica.comHochiki America Corp. manufactures life safety, fire detec-tion and emergency devices.

Hochiki America Corp.

hyster.comHyster offers a comprehensive range of warehousing equipment, industrial lift trucks, container handlers and reach stackers as well as quality material handling parts.

Hyster Co.

us.kaeser.comManufacturer of air system products, including rotary screw compressors, portable compressors, rotary lobe blowers, vacuum packages, refrigerated and desiccant dryers, filters, and condensate management systems.

Kaeser Compressors Inc.

lubriplate.comLubriplate manufactures more than 200 high quality lubri-cants, including high performance synthetic lubricants and NSF-H1 lubricants for food processing and beverage.

Lubriplate Lubricants Co.

ludeca.comLudeca is the exclusive distributor and factory authorized service and training center for PRÜFTECHNIK Alignment Systems GmbH and PRÜFTECHNIK Condition Monitoring GmbH products in the U.S., Caribbean, and Venezuela.

Ludeca

mobilindustrial.comMobil Industrial Lubricants offers premium quality synMo-bil Industrial Lubricants offers premium quality synthetic and mineral grade oils and greases to the industrial mar-ket.

Mobil Industrial Lubricants

motionindustries.comMotion Industries is a leading distributor of industrial MRO supplies.

Motion Industries Inc.

movincool.comThe MovinCool division of DENSO has been responsible for pioneering the use of portable air conditioning solutions for a wide variety of U.S. markets since 1982.

MovinCool

nord-lock.comThe Nord-Lock Group manufacturers patented Superbolt multi-jacket tensioners designed to eliminate unsafe and time-consuming bolting methods.

Nord-Lock

ridgid.comEvery tool that bears the RIDGID brand is engineered to the same high standards of quality, strength, and endur-ance as was the first heavy-duty pipe wrench.

RIDGID

rosler.usThe Rosler group is the leading supplier of surface finish-ing equipment and consumables. Products include mass finishing and show blast equipment, wastewater treatment systems, and compounds for mass finishing.

Rosler Metal Finishing USA.

schneider-electric.comSchneider Electric delivers solutions for electrical distribu-tion, machine and process control and automation, power and lighting management, and engineering services.

Schneider Electric

seweurodrive.comOne of the largest global suppliers of drive technology, SEW-EURODRIVE specializes in gear reducers, motors and electronic motor controls.

SEW-EURODRIVE USA

saferack.comSafeRack.com offers truck loading racks, railcar loading platforms, gangways, loading arms, swivel joints, and fall protection equipment.

Six Axis LLC

stanleyproto.comStanley Proto offers high-quality hand tools developed according to strict ergonomic standards, with features that lets users work faster and easier, including enhanced shock absorption and reduced slip.

Stanley Proto

sullair.comSullair is a designer and manufacturer of stationary and portable rotary screw air compressors, air treatment equipment, and pneumatic tools.

Sullair

klsummit.comIndustry leader in synthetic lubricant technology with a line of over 200 products that can service almost any industrial application.

Summit Industrial Products

ustsubaki.comU.S. Tsubaki is a leading manufacturer and supplier of power transmission and motion control products and is the world’s market share leader in roller chains.

U.S. Tsubaki Inc.

yaskawa.comYaskawa is the world’s largest manufacturer of ac inverter drives, servo and motion control, and robotics automation systems.

Yaskawa America Inc.

For more information on how to advertise in Plant EnginEEring’s Internet Connection, call Jim Langhenry at 630-571-4070 x2203

July/August 2014

Pla

ce n

ext

to y

our

com

pute

r or

go

onlin

e to

ww

w.p

lant

engi

neer

ing.

com

for

hot

links

to

thes

e co

mpa

nies

. R

emov

e at

Line


Aggreko LLC 59 31 �866-215-7966 www.aggreko.com

Allied Electronics 45 26 �800-433-570 www.alliedelec.com/industrialautomation

Allied Reliability Group 12 9 �843-414-5760 www.alliedreliability.com/training

ALL-TEST Pro, LLC 87 40 � 860-399-4222 www.alltestpro.com

Atlas Copco Compressors 43 25 � 866-688-9611 www.atlascopco.us

AutomationDirect C-2 1 � 800-633-0405 www.automationdirect.com

Baldor Electric Company C-4 42 � 800-828-4920 www.baldor.com

Camfil Air Pollution Control 4 4 � 800-479-6801 www.camfilapc.com

CFE Media’s New Global System Integrator Database 44 � 630-571-4070 www.controleng.com/global-si-database

CLARCOR Industrial Air 61 32 � 800-821-2222 www.CLARCORindustrialair.com

DIAMOND CHAIN COMPANY 22 19 � 800-872-4246 www.diamondchain.com

Donaldson Co., Inc 16 13 � 800-365-1331 www.DonaldsonProcessFilters.com

EnclosureHub 10 7 � 800-3254935 www.enclosurehub.com

ErectAStep C-1, 11 8 � 888-878-1839 www.ErectAStep.com

Exair Corp 7 5 �800-903-9247 www.exair.com/79/440.htm

Flexicon Corp 8 6 � 888-353-9426 www.flexicon.com

Gardner Denver 86 39 � www.gardnerdenver.com

Greenheck Fan Corp 22, 68 20 � 715-359-6171 www.greenheck.com

Hochiki America Corp 17 14 � 714-522-2246 www.hochiki.com

Hyster 63 33 � 800-HYSTER1 www.hyster.com

IANA at IMTS 2014 66, IA2, IA11 35, 37 � 773-796-4250 www.ia-na.com

iQagent 67 34 �813-909-1108 www.iqagent.com

Kaeser Compressors, Inc 1 2 �866-516-6888 www.kaeser.com/PE

Lubriplate Lubricants Co 48 27 �800-733-4755 www.lubriplate.com

LUDECA, Inc 55, 57 29, 30 �305-591-8935 www.ludeca.com

Motion Industries, Inc 21, 52 18, 28 �800-523-9328 www.MotionIndustries.com

Mobil Industrial Lubricants 2 3 �703-846-3000 www.mobilindustrial.com

Molex IA16 38 �800-78MOLEX www.molex.com

MOVINCOOL 25 22 �800-264-9573 www.movincool.com

Nord-Lock, Inc 15 12 �877-799-1097 www.nord-lock.com

Plant Engineering 15 �Workforce Development Research 630-571-4070 www.plantengineering.com/2014WorkforceDevelopment

Plant Engineering’s Electronic Newsletters 35 �630-571-4070 www.plantengineering.com/newsletters

PROTO INDUSTRIAL TOOLS 23 21 �800-800-8665 www.PROTOINDUSTRIAL.COM/POWER

RIDGID 19 16 �800-769-7743 www.RIDGID.COM /COMPACT2

Rosler Metal Finishing USA 18 15 �269-441-3000 www.rosler.us

SAP IA5 36 �800-872-1727 www.sap.com/saphana

Schneider Electric 13 10 �847-397-2600 www.schneider-electric.com

SEW-EURODRIVE, Inc. 36 24 �864-439-7537 www.seweurodrive.com

Sullair Industrial Products 28 23 �219-879-5451 www.sullair.com

Summit Industrial Products 14 11 �800-749-5823 www.klsummit.com

U.S. Tsubaki 20 17 �800-323-7790 www.ustsubaki.com

Yaskawa America, Inc C-3 41 �800-927-5292 www.yaskawa.com

PLANT ENGINEERING does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the Advertiser contacts regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident, or any other cause whatsoever.

Need More Info? FAX this page to: 630-214-4504or mail to PLANT ENGINEERING magazine, 1111 West 22nd Street, Suite 250, Oakbrook, IL 60523

Name TitleCompany AddressCity State ZipTelephone Fax e-mail

Page RSC Send Advertiser Number Number Info

Page RSC Send Advertiser Number Number Info

CONTACTSAdvertiser Contacts for plant engineers

Request more information about products and advertisers in this issue by using the http://plantengineering.hotims.com link and reader service number located near each. If you’re reading the digital edition, the link will be live. When you contact a company directly, please let them know you read about them in Plant Engineering.


The next manufacturing goal is within our reach

It is called football in a myriad of local languages by the rest of the world, while Americans call it soccer. This is typical of Americans; the rest of the world had football before we had our game called

football, which is not much like the game the rest of the world calls football. For one thing, our football very rarely uses the foot.

We call it soccer, but by any name, when the 2014 World Cup kicked off in Brazil, we Americans were there by the millions in front of our TV sets, gathered in our local water-ing holes, in public viewing places, and in airport lounges. There it was on the front page of our newspapers and the lead story on our news websites, and there it was crashing the streaming Website ESPN had set up for mobile viewing. Even though 19 World Cups have preceded it, the U.S. sports fan, and even the casual fan of sports, embraced the 2014 World Cup.

Maybe this time its popularity was because the event was roughly in the same time zone as we are and we didn’t have to wake up at 8 a.m. or stay up until 2 a.m. to watch the games. Maybe it was because the U.S. team was given a reasonable chance to advance in the tourna-ment, and Americans don’t follow sports we don’t have a reasonable chance to perform well in (i.e., the biathlon, cross-country ski-ing, and most marathons in the last 30 years).

Whatever the reason, we caught World Cup fever, and this time, it may not just be a pass-ing infatuation. Even though the U.S. bowed out in the round of 16 to Belgium on July 1, the fervor over who would win the final continued past that date. More people in the U.S. watched that U.S.-Belgium match than watched any game in the 2014 NBA Finals between Miami and San Antonio or any 2013 World Series game between Boston and St. Louis.

One illusion at the World Cup is that this is what soccer looks like around the world. Not every soccer field is the finely manicured pitch that greeted the players in Brazil. In many places the field has no grass at all; it’s just a barren patch of dirt. Many times it isn’t grass or dirt, but the gravel or pavement of an inner city street. The shoes, if the players have shoes, don’t have swooshes or stripes. And if they don’t have shoes, they play without them. But the goal is the same.

One world; one goal. It’s easy for us to lose sight of this simple idea in a world where few things seem that simple. But in soccer and in manufacturing, it is that simple. We have one world in manufacturing; one shrinking, interconnected, and increasingly complicated world. We have one goal: great manufacturing output, produced with high efficiency and high quality. No matter the size of your operation or its location, the goal is the same.

In the iconic American sports movie “Hoo-siers,” the small-town Indiana basketball coach played by Gene Hackman takes his team into Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University in Indianapolis for the state finals. As the players look in awe at an arena that seats more people than live in their town, Hackman’s character pulls out a tape measure and reminds his team that the baskets are still 10 ft off the ground, that the free-throw line is still 15 ft away. He reminds them that no matter where they are, the game is the same.

As the World Cup showed us, the margin between success and failure often is tiny, almost imperceptible. In four World Cup games, the U.S. scored five goals and still were just one goal away from a berth in the quarterfinals. Costa Rica scored five goals in five games, and just two in its final four games, and still almost made the semifinals.

Success is measured in different ways. For the U.S. team, it was that they were competi-tive on the global World Cup stage, that they had gained respect as a potential global soc-cer power. It is worth noting that their coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, is a German native whose country has won three World Cup titles. Klins-mann was brought in to help the U.S. national team raise its game to the level of the rest of the world. We can learn from the success of others.

There are many ways to get to the next goal in manufacturing. There is not a single path to manufacturing excellence. But there are best practices, things all good manufacturers measure and manage. It is the fundamentals, practiced and refined and perfected every day, that lead a team, any team, toward the oppor-tunity to be successful.

As it will be for the U.S. national team in soccer, the next goal for manufacturers is to improve on this year’s success. The next goal is within our reach. PE

Bob VavraContent Manager

There is not a single path to manufacturing excellence. But there are best practices, things all good manufacturers measure and manage.

INCONCLUSION

For most of us, weekends are a time to kick back and relax. A chance to spend time with family and friends. But you can bet there’s a team from Yaskawa working that same weekend to make sure your Monday is a little easier.

For example, we recently got a weekend call from Aida USA explaining that one of their presses was down. We immediately sent our crew to the plant to address the problem, a failed legacy inverter. Within fi ve hours, we got them a new replacement drive. They were up and running again in no time.

That’s Yaskawa putting customers fi rst. Making it personal. 365 days. 24 hours. Every day.

Variable Frequency Drives • Servo Systems • Machine Controllers • Custom Engineering & Design Electrical Enclosures • Retrofi ts • Training • Service

WEEKENDWARRIORS

YA S K AWA A M E R I C A , I N C .D R I V E S & M O T I O N D I V I S I O N 1 - 8 0 0 -YA S K AWA | YA S K AWA . C O M

Scan for more info on Yaskawa Engineering

Services Group:http://Ez.com/yai645©2014 Yaskawa America Inc.

Get personal with Yaskawa.Call Dave Cecil today.614-733-3200


©2014 Baldor Electric Company

• Fastest Delivery in the Industry

• Unmatched Quality

• Superior Reliability

• Designed for Safe Operation

• American Made Since 1920

Whether you pump it, compress it, blow it or convey it, the new line of Baldor GPM motors are the perfect choice for safe area, general purpose applications. With ratings of 250 – 1500 Hp, Baldor GPM motors are easy to order and are suitable for use with adjustable speed drives. Plus, many of the motors you need are available from stock or with the shortest lead time in the industry.

Since 1920, our goal has been to design and build the highest quality, most reliable industrial motors in the world. And, 94 years later our commitment remains the same so that you can rest assured Baldor GPM motors not only fit your needs but are fit to wear our name.

baldor.com 479-646-4711

A New Line of Motors

Fit to Wear Our Name


Plant Engg - Aug

Documents

Transcript of Plant Engg - Aug