Plant Asset Management for Food Processors

The food processing market has long accepted the crucial importance of collecting reliable and accurate process data on the one hand (SCADA), and maintaining effective Process Control Systems (PLC/DCS) on the other. Until now asset management systems relating to instrumentation have not been particularly effective and have thus not been regarded as a priority. However, with the launch of the next generation of asset management systems, food process managers are recognising the value of optimising the availability of measuring devices in order to complement and enhance both data collection and data control.

Every 'present generation' measurement or control solution used in the food processing industry is supported by a device-specific software tool that offers optimal support for that particular product, but is usually associated with a relatively costly hardware tool (handheld configurator). In most cases these software tools are vendor-specific and not interchangeable. Given the proliferation of such proprietary tools in food processing environments, the inevitable result has been a huge maintenance burden for end users that far outweighs their benefits.

Since the late 1980s, Process Control System tools have been developed to address this problem by delivering standardised, system-wide device support. Once again, however, the drawbacks have exceeded the benefits. Such tools usually require a special driver for each measuring device; do not support all device functions; have no documentation on device parameters; require complicated device integration; and severely limit the customer's options in terms of communication equipment, infrastructure components and maintenance strategies.

Endress+Hauser's new FieldCare solution cuts through all these historical problems and fully meets the requirements and preferences of end users in food processing plants. FieldCare provides problem-free support not just to the entire Endress+Hauser range of measurement equipment, but also to equipment supplied by other vendors, particularly during integration into third party systems.

Having recognised the benefits of this new solution, one of Australia's leading food and petfood processing companies has already successfully implemented Fieldcare in two of its largest sites, and two more are to follow.

FieldCare is based on the recently developed FDT/DTM standard and the freedom that this technology provides to integrate field and communication components supplied by third parties. 'FDT/DTM's outstanding characteristics have enabled us to combine the advantages of earlier asset management approaches, while offsetting their disadvantages,' comments Jonathon Soanes, FieldCare Product Manager.

The FDT/DTM standard offers full device functionality (with no device or manufacturer dependencies); unrestricted choice of communication and topology components (with no protocol dependencies); full support for the user's existing devices; and is an international standard that is truly available. As an FDT/DTM-based system, FieldCare is thus characterised by exceptional flexibility, openness and adaptability. It can be readily retrofitted to any existing plant because it simply embraces and updates all existing devices and their software.

Soanes stresses that Endress+Hauser does not class FieldCare as a Process Control System (PCS), but as a plant asset management (PAM) system. Both the PCS and the PAM are linked into a typical food processing plant's process control technologies - sensors, actuators, remote I/Os, drives, apparatus, vessels, piping, pumps, etc. But while the PCS provides the real-time control needed to produce a certain volume of products at a certain level of quality, the PAM system handles information that is used to maintain or increase the production system's efficiency.

'This distinction is valuable because it means that the crucial real-time features of the PCS need not be overloaded with asset management functions,' explains Soanes. As a result, PCS updates and PAM updates can be run independently; maintenance activity on one system has no impact on the performance of the other; the performance and availability of the PCS are unaffected by the PAM system; and for each system the best-of-breed solution can be independently selected and installed.

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Published: March 2005

Ref:  E+H0055a