Making the Industrial Internet real for customers!

GE Intelligent Platforms has upgraded the company’s core Automation Software products, Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX and Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY, as well as new capabilities that deliver on the promise of the Industrial Internet. Upgrades to the company’s breakthrough Proficy Mobile software solution provide faster response with the right information in context to equipment, location and role.

Proficy Mobile is a proven mobile app with patented secure-by-design technology that requires no development and can be layered on top of existing systems. Upgrades to the solution allow managers to view and execute workflows, and facilitates a tight integration with SCADA systems for faster response on alarms. It also enables easy configuration for geo-intelligence capabilities which can be used now with Google Maps.

With Proficy Mobile Tasks, operators and technicians can develop a dynamic task list with interactive, step-by-step instructions. This capability drives plant teams to the right actions so companies can enforce compliance and quality as well as reduce time and waste. Wherever they are, operators can receive information about upcoming issues and see critical steps that they might need to initiate to prevent that issue from occurring, mitigating the threat of unplanned downtime.

With the solution’s Mobile Notes, managers can easily increase collaboration across teams and augment documentation with the latest changes to system parameters. Operators can enter comments, take and attach pictures, and include KPI details, and then, using filters, retrieve any of that information immediately.

“By using advanced mobile apps such as [Proficy Mobile] on the latest generation of mobile iOS and Android devices, companies can drive efficiencies and reduce downtime with real-time access to operational information,” said Janice Abel, Principal Consultant for ARC Advisory Group in a recent ARC report. “The app is just the beginning of the new industrial revolution with functionality that leverages and builds upon other mobile capabilities.”

Based on decades of GE innovation, award winning Proficy* HMI/SCADA – CIMPLICITY precisely monitors and controls every aspect of a company’s SCADA environment, equipment and resources.

Proficy HMI/SCADA Cimplicity 9.0
Version 9.0 brings a set of new capabilities that enable companies to develop better applications, improve operators’ experience, extend the reach of existing systems, and take advantage of the latest OS and interoperability technologies. Proficy HMI/SCADA - CIMPLICITY 9.0 reduces time to value through richer context allowing users to improve structured databases quickly and easily, enabling Real-time Operation Intelligence (RtOI) providing the right information, anytime, anywhere.

New features of CIMPLICITY 9.0 include improved configuration capabilities, better interaction with new, richer protocols, and an improved operator experience with reduced alarm noise. There is also a new object library and long point names allow 256 characters for building a structured database quickly. GE Intelligent Platforms is also including Proficy Historian for SCADA in the new release.

Proficy HMI/SCADA iFIX 5.8
Building on a track record of success and continual enhancements, the latest release of Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX enables companies to drive better analytics and leverage more reliability, flexibility and scalability across the enterprise. This proven real-time information management and SCADA solution includes latest-generation visualization tools and a reliable control engine.

In its newest version, iFIX now supports dynamic resolution for graphics including more efficient rendering and reduced CPU footprint. This capability allows support for deploying iFIX graphics on widescreen monitors, LCD TVs and the ability to move graphics from one resolution to another.

“The Industrial Internet is all about access to information,” said Matthew Wells, GE Intelligent Platforms’ General Manager for Automation Software. “Access to accurate, timely production and process data is critical and that is what these solutions deliver. We leverage the latest technologies and listen to the needs of our customers to make the Industrial Internet real for them and their businesses.”

Predictive-diagnostic software and services improves uptime, reliability & equipment insight!

Statoil has chosen GE’s Proficy® SmartSignal predictive-diagnostic software and services from GE’s Industrial Performance & Reliability Center (Industrial-PRC) to improve the uptime and increase the reliability of heavy rotating equipment such as gas turbines, generators and compressors. Statoil, headquartered in Stavanger, Norway, is the largest Oil & Gas operator on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and operates more than 30 offshore platforms, in addition to onshore facilities such as gas treatment, crude oil reception, refinement and methanol production. In considering Proficy SmartSignal, Statoil was looking for a solution with a proven track record that demonstrated timely payback while ensuring consistent implementation quality. As a result of a competitive proposal process Statoil chose GE Intelligent Platforms’ Proficy SmartSignal solution, with a strong focus on the technical solution as well as the commercial aspects. GE completed the rollout and “go live” of the 50 equipment items (assets) in the initial phase in a little more than eight weeks. The company intends to implement GE’s software as part of its ‘Condition Monitoring Predictive Analytics’ (CMPA) solution, initially for its offshore fleet. They are currently considering expansion of the solution to onshore and across its other regional business units. “With Statoil’s fleet of gas turbines and its large Bently Nevada installation, adding Proficy SmartSignal provides the greatest value solution for providing the foresight to help Statoil move towards becoming a fully proactive organization,” said Brian Courtney, General Manager for GE Intelligent Platforms’ Industrial Data Intelligence business. “The Industrial-PRC is staffed with oil & gas experts, which provides low risk and high value to Statoil by ensuring the proper adoption of the SmartSignal solution.” Proficy SmartSignal matched well with existing work processes and software tools used by Statoil’s Condition Monitoring Centre. Proficy SmartSignal predictive-diagnostic software identifies equipment problems and helps avoid unexpected shutdowns. The software identifies developing faults utilizing exception-based, prioritized, ‘apparent cause’ diagnostics. This monitoring and diagnostic capability runs, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. GE’s Industrial-PRC monitors more than 50 sites and 4,000 high-valued assets worldwide processing terabytes of data to predict equipment failures.

Remote Monitoring & Analysis solution for oil & gas company

TOTAL S.A., the leading global oil and gas company with operations activities in more than 50 countries, has chosen Proficy® SmartSignal for its predictive analytics and Remote Monitoring & Analysis solution. “TOTAL has a very large fleet of rotating turbo machinery,” said Bernard Quoix, Head of Rotating Machinery for TOTAL Group. “The objective of this solution is to constantly monitor these equipment from headquarters, or a remote base anywhere in the world, and produce appropriate alerts and alarms when abnormal running conditions are present. This will allow our maintenance and engineering teams to analyze and launch appropriate maintenance actions.” Proficy SmartSignal predictive analytics software can identify impending equipment problems early and helps avoid unexpected shutdowns and catastrophic failures. It can identify what is going to fail, what is the apparent cause of the failure, and what is the priority of the impending failure. And it can do this automatically and continuously. The reliability of rotating machines in operation at TOTAL sites will be further improved with a direct positive impact on production. “Advances in the Industrial Internet like sensors, hardware, software and analytics have enabled companies to prolong the lifespan of their assets, while optimizing their efficiency,” said Brian Courtney, General Manager, Industrial Data Management Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. “The Industrial Internet, via predictive analytics, helps customers moving from reactive to proactive, allowing them to fix minor issues before they become major ones. This greatly reduces costs while improving overall return on investment.” Leveraging existing instrumentation, tools and IT infrastructure, Proficy SmartSignal works on any equipment from any OEM and can detect the broadest range of equipment problems across the widest variety of assets, load ranges and failure modes. GE will provide TOTAL with system set-up and installation of Proficy SmartSignal, project implementation and monitoring services and support. The project began in mid-2013 and will be deployed over a multi-year fleet plan that includes all of TOTAL’s exploration and production sites around the world.

Discrete manufacturing execution

GE Intelligent Platforms breakthrough manufacturing execution management software solution, Proficy for Manufacturing Discrete (PfMD) is now available. This powerful solution designed specifically for complex discrete manufacturing environments takes manufacturing execution to a new level through complete digitization of paper-based processes. Manufacturers of complex products in industries such as Aerospace, Energy Equipment and Heavy Machinery, face particular challenges in reducing production cycle times, while maintaining quality and meeting regulatory requirements due to long production cycles. Proficy for Manufacturing Discrete provides digitized standard operating procedures, advanced dispatch capabilities and structured capture of quality data to support real-time decision making and continuous process improvement, especially in complex, engineer-to-order and build-to-order environments. “PfMD incorporates the best practices of GE’s own world-class manufacturing businesses,” said Don Busiek, General Manager, Manufacturing Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. “It incorporates our learnings in real-world discrete manufacturing environments, as well as our 25 years of MES expertise. In addition, we are seeing amazing results from implementation at GE sites.” 70% reduced warranty investigation time 10% reduced WIP Inventory 20% reduced product cycle times 25% reduced rework and scrap 20% reduced manufacturing costs PfMD is adaptable to multiple manufacturing environments ranging from the production of long-cycle, complex products engineered to order, to discrete products being configured to order. By digitizing work processes, PfMD enables the entire manufacturing workforce, including operators, production supervisors, manufacturing engineers and quality engineers to produce products faster, more efficiently, and consistently. PfMD has been designed to handle environments where more than 100,000 routes, hundreds of thousands of documents, and tens of thousands of quality forms required to support the products being produced. Integrated with GE’s Proficy Manufacturing suite for consistency across products, PfMD provides standard connectivity to ERP and PLM systems for rapid deployments. It is modularized to deploy in phases for near-term and long-term benefits and features advanced architecture to integrate with existing plant floor controls and operations. A key feature of PfMD is its Dispatch capability which enables operations to be dispatched to lines and/or work cells based on the route definitions in the form of jobs to be executed. The queue of jobs associated with a line and/or a work cell is made up of comparable operations from multiple orders. Also, the product’s documentation management capabilities allows production supervisors to manage the documents utilized within the system, including the creation, modification, and revision control of documents, which can be routed through an approval process prior to production. In addition, PfMD provides detailed order scheduling, product management, order execution, route management, labor tracking, WIP management, manufacturing instructions for operations. Genealogy and Traceability features of PfMD capture a permanent record of as-built product data, including the material/BOMs, along with all quality data and routes/operations. The solution also captures quality data associated with the product and/or process through quality forms and configures the qualifications and/or certification levels of equipment and personnel to ensure the right people and/or equipment are allowed to perform the operations (i.e., execute the jobs). Digitized information enables true real-time digitized WIP Visibility and Management to reduce cost and improve product manufacturing cycles. PfMD also Streamlines Supply Chain Management by capturing supplier and outsourced operation data. “Digitizing MES processes is a critical enabler for achieving effective operations and supply chain optimization,” concluded Busiek. “PfMD delivers optimized performance today and a forward-looking foundational path for success tomorrow.”

Equipment effectiveness software designed to speed continuous Improvement initiatives for manufacturers!

Out-of-the-box solution speeds deployment and lowers total cost of ownership

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced the immediate availability of Proficy® OEE, a software solution that provides a critical link between measurement and improvement of manufacturing processes. This scalable solution is designed to continuously monitor and improve equipment performance, providing manufacturers an analysis tool which can increase efficiency and productivity on the shop floor. And, because Proficy OEE is completely turnkey, companies can implement it quickly so as to maximize its return on investment and minimize total cost of ownership (TCO).

“Manufacturers are being asked to do more with fewer resources,” said Don Busiek, General Manager Manufacturing Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. “Overall equipment effectiveness, OEE, provides a way for these manufacturers to make the most of what they already have by ensuring their equipment is running at top levels of performance.”

OEE quantifies how well a manufacturing unit performs relative to its designed capacity, during the periods when it is scheduled to run. A well-understood tool to support continuous improvement and a commonly used key performance indicator (KPI) in conjunction with lean manufacturing efforts, OEE breaks performance into three separate but measurable components: Availability, Performance and Quality. Each component points to an aspect of the process that can be targeted for improvement. OEE may be applied to any individual Work Center or rolled up to the department or plant levels. This tool allows for drilling down for very specific analysis such as particular part number, shirt or any of several other parameters.

Proficy OEE is an “out-of-the-box” software package powered by GE’s award-winning Proficy Software, for a competitive, yet scalable solution to address efficiency needs. Proficy OEE leverages a number of Proficy Software applications designed to provide a manufacturing intelligence layer for every day operations by transforming plant data into meaningful information. OEE information is delivered through a powerful operational dashboard that provides a role-based environment simplifying real-time decision making.

“Measuring makes it easier to improve, and improving productivity by eliminating waste is a core objective of lean manufacturing,” continued Busiek. “This is a common practice at GE, and this package has proven itself effective in the company’s world-class manufacturing operations, as well as those of other global manufacturers who have reported upwards of 10% increases in efficiency by utilizing OEE solutions."

More than business intelligence

Putting the right Information in the right hands at the right time

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced new software solutions that address the challenge of making sense of the myriad of data available in business today. These powerful solutions accessed by simple apps deliver Real-Time Operational Intelligence (RtOI) to exploit existing data sets and transform them into actionable knowledge with easy-to-use mobile interfaces coupled with powerful and scalable server-based components.

The first component to help companies achieve true RtOI is Proficy® Mobile. This product, designed specifically for industry, will spark customers to drive efficiency with real-time access to operational information, using the latest generation of mobile iOS and Android devices. It features an easy-to-use standard interface with GE’s patented GEO-intelligence technology that provides situational awareness typically found only in consumer apps like Facebook®, coupled with a powerful back-end server that transforms existing raw data into intelligent, actionable information. And, it provides companies with the option of allowing employees to use their own devices quickly, easily and securely

“Industrial operations need to break free of operating business from within a central control room,” said Mark Bernardo, General Manager, Automation Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. “Business and operational personnel can now leverage smart mobile devices that have actionable information in context to physical equipment. By harnessing RtOI, productivity is increased by arming each employee with the right information at the right time in the right place, to make the right decision, faster.”

Proficy Mobile accesses structured information through equipment models that can be configured specifically to a company’s operations, allowing users to find the information they need quickly and easily. Once data is mapped into the model, users can add intelligence through easy-to-use tools that can outline relationships and connections to multiple disperse systems transforming it to information. And, with GE’s patented GEO-intelligence technology, the system automatically navigates and provides information based on user location, role, and asset condition and context.


With a standard downloadable GE app, “point-and-click” server configuration and an extensible analytics engine – systems can be deployed on top of existing systems such as SCADA, HMI, MES, BMS, ERP and Historians. This capability is essential for industry as new visualization, mobility, analytics and collaboration tools enable action in real time, in the required locations and with the contextual information operators, engineers, managers and executives need to make quicker decisions.

The structured navigation features of Proficy Mobile provide the ability to map data from existing GE or third-party applications, allowing companies to add the necessary context to existing data no matter the source. The built-in intelligence foundation allows companies to define applicable key process indicators (KPIs) and equipment relationships forming standard plant/site-wide and asset-level detailed displays accessible from within the app.

Assets and processes are tracked using KPIs to notify users of alert conditions, as well as trends that may be occurring in the plant. This lays the groundwork for future integration to advanced alarming and predictive analytics, both of which are upcoming components GE is planning for 2013 release. In addition, Proficy Mobile provides aggregated asset health displays intelligently to alert the user to a current condition drawing attention to the most critical information. Health indices alert to pending conditions and alarms with state and severity as an indicator of a process or equipment in trouble.

Proficy Mobile uses technology innovations typically not seen in industry including HTML5, native app code, SSL and RESTful architectures that provide options such as deploying within a traditional non-connected industrial environment or harness private/public cloud Internet-based solutions.

“True industrial mobilization should really focus on pushing information to users in context to where they physically are,” concluded Bernardo. “Mobilizing existing user interfaces and their associated systems designed for 24x7 monitoring in central control rooms have great value. However, the ‘gold mine’ is achieved by adding intelligence on top of existing data elements from multiple systems, to not only transform into real information, but also to control what is accessible by location and role. This provides the true transformation from data everywhere to actionable knowledge anywhere, anytime.”

Advanced manufacturing software!

Advanced manufacturing software solutions drive lower costs, faster production and tighter control on quality

GE Intelligent Platforms is building on the expertise of GE as a world-class manufacturer to introduce advanced manufacturing software solutions that drive lower costs, faster production and tighter control on quality. Deployed at GE manufacturing plants around the world, these solutions are continuously honed to keep GE and other manufacturers competitive in their markets.

The software solutions, called Proficy for Manufacturing, address key challenges faced by companies across a diverse range of manufacturing businesses. The first in the family is aimed at long cycle, engineer- or build-to-order (ETO or BTO) complex manufacturing operations. For companies in aerospace, defense, heavy equipment, energy or other complex discrete manufacturing industries, paper-based processes to manage plant floor production are still the norm. The need for comprehensive visibility into production performance has become increasingly important to stay competitive. Elimination of the paper-based processes through digitization provides fast, reliable and accurate information manufacturing businesses need to effectively manage their operations and work toward optimizing their supply chains.

“Manufacturers and their suppliers face multiple industry challenges today,” said Jim Walsh, Software General Manager for GE Intelligent Platforms. “These include agile product development, price pressures, customization to meet consumer demand, quality, and, of course, cost.”

GE companies deploying pieces of the solutions have already realized significant benefits such as: 70% faster order-to-delivery, 15% reduced WIP, 12% less rework and 24% reduced warranty costs.

A key aspect of Proficy for Manufacturing includes the ability to reduce costs through MES digitization of existing paper processes. Manufacturers can then leverage the benefits of digitized processes such as reducing waste, increasing flexibility and decreasing lead times. Digitization makes it possible to capitalize on the value of fast, reliable and accurate information to maximize production performance, save time and money while still providing a consistent high quality product.

Main points
The main points of digitising for many complex manufacturers are:
• Produce products faster to enable single piece flow manufacturing, improve throughput, reduce lead times and balance workloads;
• Reduce Work In Process to enable “Just In Time” material delivery, free up floor space, and reduce the cost of inventory;
• Gain tighter control on quality that will serve to standardise proven processes, eliminate process waste, reduce rework and meet regulations in a more efficient way.

“The key thing we’re striving to do is drive for standard, repeatable tasks throughout the process,” said Jeannine Abele, CIO – Supply Chain Division of GE Aviation. “We want to make it easy for our employees to execute the work that they need to complete. In addition, we need to put auditability and traceability in place so we have a verifiable record of what’s been done to every part, to every engine, throughout the whole lifecycle of the manufacturing process.”

GE Aviation is one of the first companies to pilot Proficy for Manufacturing at its plant in Middle River, Maryland. Other companies working with Intelligent Platforms include GE Power & Water in Belfort, France; GE Energy Storage in Schenectady, New York; GE Transportation in Las Vegas, Nevada and Kansas City, Missouri; GE Lighting in Hendersonville, North Carolina; GE Power Conversion in Campinas, Brazil; and GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky.

Co-operation means modern software suite more accessible to Irish market

GE Intelligent Platforms has teamed up with Gilroys to help promote and service GE’s Proficy Software Suite in the Irish Market. The Proficy software suite is developed by GE’s Intelligent Products division and channelled through Kerrco Automation in Ireland and the Britain.

Gayle Walker presenting Premier Solution Certification to Michael Fitzgibbon of Gilroys. Also included are Terry Siggins of GE-IP and Martin Hurley of Gilroys.

“Gilroys’ reputation, highly skilled engineering team and their focus of our software suite was a deciding factor in choosing them as our Premier Solution Provider for the Irish market” said Terry Siggins, Sales Director with GE-IP, at an award ceremony at Gilroys Cork office in Ringaskiddy.

The appointment coincides with the release of Proficy Historian 5.0. Proficy Historian is a powerful, enterprise-wide data historian that collects, archives and distributes tremendous volumes of real-time production information at extremely high speeds. Proficy Historian improves visibility, provides context to raw data, and aggregates islands of information–resulting in better and faster decisions, increased productivity and reduced costs across the enterprise.

A further recent enhancement to the Proficy Suite is availability of Proficy for Sustainability Metrics providing companies with Real-Time Insight into machine and facility energy consumption -- driving an overall reduction of energy. Proficy for Sustainability Metrics collects and displays information from a wide variety of data sources and contextualizes it quickly into cost and greenhouse gas produced. Proficy for Sustainability Metrics can monitor data from potable water, chilled water, electricity, steam systems as well as other independent data sources with easy setup and minimal engineering time.

Gilroys have already delivered Proficy based solutions to MSD, Pfizer, Servier, Wellman International, Tara Mines and a host of Irish manufacturers.

“Backed by GE-IP we see long term sustainable growth for our Irish partner” said Terry Siggins.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) facilities provide optimal connectivity and easy integration

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced the availability of its latest manufacturing software solution, Proficy® Plant Applications 6.1. The product includes the best practices the company has implemented at many of the world’s leading companies to provide a manufacturing solution that is best-in-class. In addition, the solution’s Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) facilities provide optimal connectivity and easy integration for standards-based third-party applications. It enables users to be equipment, product, and people-centric – all on one platform.

Proficy Plant Applications is a proven, comprehensive Operations Management software solution built on GE’s Open & Layered architecture providing modular and scalable capabilities for all types of production environments in a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) package. It is built on a foundation of 15+ years of continuous experience in solving the world’s toughest manufacturing challenges. GE’s expertise in Six Sigma and LEAN, combined with the best practices of its own manufacturing operations facilitates uncompromising quality.

“Faced with increasing global competition, evolving consumer and regulatory demands, increased raw material and energy costs shrinking profit margins, companies are being forced to deliver a growing mix of different products more quickly and at lower cost into the marketplace,” said Don Busiek, General Manager, GE Intelligent Platforms’ Manufacturing Software. “There is intense pressure to optimize production efficiency with greater agility and control than ever before, and without large capital expenditures.”

Proficy Plant Applications now features a Unified Manufacturing Operations Database which allows existing operations to run as they do today while new features are “trialed” safely. Traditional users will appreciate the familiarity of Plant Applications and power users can architect the future. Other features of Proficy Plant Applications 6.1 include:
• Software wizards automate business rules to speed system deployment;
• User interfaces consolidate information according to the users situation to reduce information overload and aid mobile workforces;
• Existing Plant Applications users will be able to upgrade to the newest version while retaining their existing standard Plant Applications functionality.

“Now well into its second decade, the Proficy software suite has an enduring and enviable installed base of blue-chip companies,” said Greg Gorbach, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group. “For both new and seasoned users looking to control total cost of ownership, GE's Proficy Plant Applications V6.1 adds new capabilities to support Collaborative Production Management at scale.”

Plant Applications’ SOA provides better connectivity and easier integration for standards-based third-party applications; integration and maintenance costs are more visible and manageable with the SOA architecture. It also enables organizations to stay current with architecture changes brought on by the massive demands for more data. SOA brings a new integration platform into Plant Applications and reduces risk for CIOs as the progressive global adoption of SOA results in the extensive service enabling of IT systems.

For multi-site, multi-region enterprise-wide deployments, Plant Applications 6.1 features dynamic context based user displays enabling fewer “displays” to serve more people further reducing the total cost of ownership of Proficy software.

“The next decade will see the impact of social applications, the hyper-connected workforce and the ‘Internet of Things,’" continued Busiek. “Changing demographics, social infrastructures, collaboration and mobility is changing the way we work. Plant Applications 6.1 supports the underlying structure for these rapidly evolving technologies and adds further agility to our customers’ manufacturing strategies.”

W&WW standard procedures & emergency events complience eased

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced Proficy® Water Operations, a Work Process Management (WPM) application specific to Water/Wastewater utilities that builds on the industry-leading capabilities of the company’s Proficy Workflow solution. By guiding operators through procedures, WPM reduces risk and costs, improves quality and eases compliance by minimizing operator errors and tracking responses. Furthermore, to minimise the effect of a “brain drain” that many infrastructure industries will face when their expert operators soon retire, the solution captures and digitizes expert knowledge—ensuring that best practices become standard operating procedures.

“Operations Management solutions are growing in demand as municipalities seek to streamline plant operations,” said Alan Hinchman, Infrastructure Market Director for GE Intelligent Platforms. “Proficy Workflow brings together the principle of continuous improvement and the critical next step of electronically documenting standard operating procedures. Together, customers are enabled to prepare for the future, understand the best practices of yesterday, while optimizing operations today.”

With Proficy Water Operations, utilities can easily document processes, transfer institutional knowledge and drive critical consistency and predictability into the plant. The solution allows digitization of manual and automated processes with one tool across the entire facility – from plant operators and maintenance teams to field crews and leadership. Operators want the right information to do their jobs. With documented processes and electronic Standard Operating Procedures (eSOPs), every operator is an expert with step-by- step instructions guiding the right actions.

“Optimising operations requires a work process management system to define, model and coordinate each utility’s workflows and resources,” said Matt Wells, General Manager, Work Process Management Solutions. “A WPM system digitizes procedures to guide operators, track actions for reporting, and align plant processes for rapid response to normal and unusual events. Proficy Workflow applications drive proper notification and action by triggering corrective workflows and tasks through integrated real-time transactions.”

With GE’s Water Operations solution, utility operators can also bridge the gap between Operations and Maintenance – finally achieving real-time, condition-based asset management. When an out-of-spec event takes place in the SCADA, Water Operations can trigger a work process to interface with the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), secure a work order number, send specific instructions including GIS location information to an operator, and facilitate the corrective action to remediate a problem. Water Operations can then close out the work order with the CMMS, whether plant or GIS centric, and record the actions taken for historical records. This reduces the need for operators making scheduled rounds and device readings – and automates the process of moving from condition detected to creating work requests and the right corrective action. The result: Less downtime, maintenance, and risk – and lower costs.

Furthermore, utilities around the world can benefit from GE’s growing library of Water/Wastewater eSOPs – which speeds digitization and implementation. The library includes digitized eSOPs such as turbidity, filter operation, security, caustic chemical feed, and more.

“Proficy Workflow allows us to make every operator an expert with interactive, step-by-step instructions,” said Frank Fisher, DPW Information Systems Administrator for Waterford Township, Michigan (US). “In turn, we can decrease downtime, maintenance and costs across operations, reduce troubleshooting time and risk, and capture knowledge of our best operators before they retire. We can also record and track work processes for compliance.
"If you have an operational process, it can most certainly benefit from a Workflow designed to monitor abstract and varied functionality to ensure proper operation and efficiency. No doubt it takes work at the beginning to develop them, but when they are in place, hundreds of DPW staff hours are saved and effective and consistent operations are ensured,” said Fisher.

Scheduler improves efficiency!

Reduces lead time by 30%, planning time by 50%; improves efficiency by 20%

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced the availability of Proficy® Scheduler Release 4.1 for Finite Capacity Scheduling. Proficy Scheduler provides planners with a standardized tool to develop production viable schedules using commercial off-the-shelf software rather than homemade spreadsheets. It also complements existing Advanced Planning Systems (APS), where it delivers the additional real-time granularity needed to produce shop-floor- executable schedules from the APS master plan, easily adaptable to dynamic manufacturing needs. Proficy Scheduler links plant data in real-time providing the ability to run multiple what-if scenarios and to quickly accommodate changing situations in production execution.

Production planners need a visual interactive way to plan production orders for production equipment. Proficy Finite Capacity Scheduling takes the APS plan (usually based on an infinite capacity assumption) and considers the impact on the schedule based on instantaneous material availability, asset capability, labor, and delivery time. Proficy Scheduler enables greater confidence to make delivery promises to customers and their customers and reduces the cost to do this at the same time.

“Manufacturers are increasingly required to produce products faster, better and at a lower cost,” said Rich Breuning, Product General Manager, Manufacturing Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. “Missing delivery targets can mean that they may lose customers. It’s much better to negotiate a realistic delivery date than to make an unrealistic one that may be missed.”

Proficy Scheduler simplifies and makes visible very complex tasks with many parts to allow the planner to balance the resources and simulate what-if scenarios. It has already shown great results for customers: lead time reduced 30%, efficiency improved 20%, time spent on planning reduced 50%, response time from days to minutes, bottlenecks and material shortages detected in advance and avoided / not caused. In addition, they have been able to achieve greater than 99 adherences to plan consistently and with 50% less effort.

“EKA Chemicals use Proficy Scheduler every day to schedule production for customers across the world,” said Stefan Malmsten, Global IT Leader for AkzoNobel Eka, the world’s largest paint and coatings provider and a world-leading chemicals producer headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. “This solution allows us to make informed decisions from a single consolidated view of our business updated minute by minute. This way we can provide the best possible service to our customers locally across 19 countries in Europe, Americas and Asia Pacific.”

Proficy Scheduler offers customers valid schedules checked against finite capacity and material availability, schedule down to minutes to facilitate a leaner manufacturing operation, and reliable delivery dates across multiple sites, allowing companies to improve productivity, work-in-progress, inventory and due date performance. In addition, Proficy Scheduler can add significant value to ERP, MES and T&A (time and attendance) solutions.

New features in Proficy Scheduler 4.1 include Tool Operations, Alternate Routes and Sequencer.

Tool Operations: Proficy Scheduler includes a new feature for tool operations which is particularly relevant for manufacturers who need specific tools to run specific products. An example of this would be in the manufacture of plastic components (plastic injection molding) where different shaped moldings need different tools to manufacture the end product.
Alternate Routes: The new Alternate Routes facility in Proficy Scheduler V4.1 gives manufacturers greater control and accuracy when using different equipment or plant to make the same product. One example of alternate routes is when a company has two different production facilities, e.g. one facility in Denmark and another facility in Poland. The routes between Denmark and Poland are completely different with different setup and cycle times to produce the same product.
Sequencer: This feature provides better operational and fiscal control of the plant. It enables advanced control of the calculation of individual work time steps of an operation (setup, workload, switchover, etc.) and how to calculate the operation capacity (production rate). In short the above values can depend either on the resource they run on or they can depend on previous or next product planned on the same resource.

Proficy Scheduler is the latest example of how GE’s $2.5 billion-a-year software and solutions services businesses are helping customers improve productivity.

Reduce operating costs and improve efficiency

Optimising operational and environmental performance by integrating critical system data to manage energy use and requirements

GE is demonstrating its commitment to imagine and build innovative solutions to today’s environmental challenges while driving economic growth through its ecomagination^® efforts. Today, there are 130 products and solutions in the ecomagination portfolio. Offerings in the ecomagination portfolio must demonstrate improvement to a customer’s operating performance or value proposition, while also improving environmental performance.

The company is working with outside companies to develop solutions that are based on innovative ecomagination products to expand and invest in research and development. Included in this effort is a solution from GE Intelligent Platforms and Trane, a brand of Ingersoll-Rand , a world-leader in creating safe, comfortable and efficient environments.

They have combined expertise to offer a new solution called Tracer™ XT that combines Trane Tracer building automation systems and GE’s Proficy® ecomagination-qualified technology.

Tracer XT offers a platform specifically designed to integrate, manage and optimize critical facility systems. It is the latest addition to the full portfolio of Tracer controls solutions by Trane. Tracer XT is the first controls offering qualified for inclusion in the Ingersoll Rand Green Portfolio of superior products that combine industry-leading performance with enhanced environmental benefits.

The platform is based on Proficy, GE’s industry-leading software platform which is helping customers around the world reduce operating costs. It builds on the solid foundation of GE Intelligent Platforms Proficy’ s data management capabilities, analytical tools and communications to provide a powerful approach to integrating data from a variety of systems for HVAC, power, lighting, safety and more into a common interface to manage energy use and cooling requirements to optimize operational and environmental performance.

The Proficy Software platform is ecomagination-qualified for improving overall process efficiency, reducing waste and defects, and reducing energy usage. GE and Trane are working together to bring customers a breadth of solutions to meet the sustainability needs of today’s business.

Ecomagination is GE’s business strategy to help customers meet their environmental and operational challenges. It is based on GE’s belief that solving environmental problems is good business around the world. It represents a pledge by the company to continually improve operations and invest in research and development that will produce more innovative ecomagination products. Through ecomagination, GE is driving a global energy transformation with a focus on innovation and R&D investment to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technology.

Accelerating access to “Big Data” across the enterprise!

GE Intelligent Platforms has launched its latest software product, Proficy® Historian 4.5. 

This Enterprise Historian solution, from GE Intelligent Platforms, collects, aggregates and organizes the massive amount of data that exists across organizations enabling effective decision-making and tight governance. It is easily integrated into any company’s enterprise systems portfolio through an open, flexible architecture that easily leverages existing investments.

The new Proficy Historian 4.5 adds support of more than 15 million tags, a capability unmatched in the industry. This feature allows users to aggregate and disseminate information across the enterprise through a secure and scalable Historian platform.

“Proficy Historian 4.5 empowers enterprises to deliver on business objectives today and in the future,” said Brian Courtney, General Manager Operations Data Management for GE Intelligent Platforms. “This platform is the enabling pillar for companies to realize value for other corporate initiatives such as Operational Excellence.”

At GE Energy’s Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) Center in Atlanta, where they use Proficy to monitor more than 1,000 gas turbine assets across the globe, they wanted to be sure their architecture and hardware/software technologies would scale to meet both their business growth projections but also accommodate exponential increase in data. The team commissioned GE’s Global Research Center to conduct an analysis of Big Data technologies on massive time-series process data which are at the heart of GE Energy’s M&D applications. 

“GE is getting ahead of the issue, taking a leading position on Big Data as so many of our businesses generate and depend on effective management of data across the enterprise,” said Bill Ruh, GE Vice President and leader of the company’s software inititiaves. “The massive growth in data generated by operations is fueling the need to retain more and more data for analysis and compliance. Open architectures and interoperability across business systems is necessary to accelerate and provide complete context for business decisions.”

In the study, conducted by the GE Global Research Center in August 2011, Proficy Historian was shown to excel against relational and unstructured databases for time series data. Typical columnar or relational databases are not well suited for handling time series process data queries at this scale and some of the newer technologies are too immature at this point for real production/operations environments, according to the study. 

“For process data, Proficy Historian is a complete solution for massive data management systems,” said Courtney. “The Historian used in the study was our out-of-the-box, standard Proficy Historian, an easy-to-use and fast-to-implement solution. We didn’t need to do any custom programming to achieve these results. The study validated our belief that this new release of Historian can solve Big Data customer problems today, without requiring extensive infrastructure changes or customization.”

Proficy Historian 4.5 is the latest example of how GE’s $4 billion-a-year software and solutions services businesses are helping customers improve productivity.

Software deployed in coal, wind and gas power generation

Predictive diagnostics to be used in combined-cycle, coal, wind, and gas storage—along with new research project on boiler tube leaks

SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) is widely expanding its use of GE Intelligent Platforms' Proficy® SmartSignal predictive-diagnostic software and services. This is in recognition of initial value achieved by implementing the SmartSignal solutions in its coal and combined-cycle plants and SSE’s desire to provide this same level of protection for all of its critical equipment across all diversified assets.

SSE supplies energy to 10 million customers throughout Great Britain, is independently recognized as the best energy supplier for customer service on the island, and is Britain's leading generator of electricity from renewable sources. In the spring of 2010, SSE chose Proficy SmartSignal solutions to protect its entire large thermal fleet. This agreement covered all coal and combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants in Britain, consisting of 6.5 GW of generating capacity. The contract included fleet-wide licenses of GE’s flagship Proficy SmartSignal Epi-center solution, along with Proficy SmartSignal xConnector software, which provides a comprehensive gateway between Epi-center and the OSIsoft PI System™. This purchase also included implementation of the first two units: a CCGT unit at Medway and a coal-fired unit at Fiddler’s Ferry.

With the new agreement, SSE will expand its use of Proficy SmartSignal software beyond its thermal fleet to wind farms and gas storage. SSE will begin trials at its Toddleburn wind site, including all 12 Siemens turbines, along with the Aldborough Gas Storage site, including three Siemens gas compressors. If successful, these tests will lead to further expansion across the wind fleet and incremental gas storage assets.

Also, SSE will expand implementation across combined-cycle units by adding the Keadby and Peterhead plants. Covered equipment will include all combustion turbines and generators, steam turbines and generators, HRSGs, feed pumps, condensers, and condensate pumps.

According to Erik Udstuen, GE Intelligent Platforms Vice President, Software and Services, SSE and GE also will be partnering in an unusual and innovative R & D project to develop a software product to provide early warning and location of boiler tube leaks.

“Tube leaks in coal-fired boilers are leading causes of forced outages and lost production. GE will expand upon its initial work in this area, along with SSE boiler-expert and operator feedback. A resulting product would revolutionize the industry, helping operators to minimize the damage caused by leaks, reduce the time to repair, and make repairs during off-peak production,” he said.

Neil Connolly, Engineering Centre Manager of SSE, further explained the partnership, “Through our initial purchase, GE has proven its industry leadership and engineering expertise, and we’re really excited about working with them—and having the best monitoring and maintenance equipment across our gas storage and wind farms.”

Paper plant control

Tiancheng Paper Company, a subsidiary of Guangxi State Farms Sugar Group companies, has chosen GE’s  DCS, Proficy® Process Systems, for all plant equipment interlock and data acquisition. Located in Laibin City, China, Taincheng Paper has an annual output of 95,000 tons of bleached pulp. They chose Proficy Process Systems as part of a full plant automation designed to improve production efficiency, operator efficiency and asset optimisation.

With Proficy Process Systems, GE Intelligent Platforms provides an advanced DCS that delivers the power and effectiveness of a distributed control system with unmatched flexibility, openness and price affordability. With the Proficy software layer inherently architected into the process control system, optimization and analytics, and production management are simply layered on.

"With this win we see yet another example of how customers in China are seeing the benefits provided by our system. Our customers there and around the world are under increased pressure to grow and optimize their businesses in this challenging global business environment. The ability to control the process with accuracy, flexibility, and high availability is more important than ever to increasing quality, productivity and providing a sustainable competitive advantage," said Steve Ryan, General Manager of Process Solutions for GE Intelligent Platforms.

The foundation of Proficy Process Systems is a contemporary hardware and software infrastructure that delivers the benefits of traditional DCS systems. Proficy Process Systems provides scalability that allows customers to architect a system that fits their business today, and easily grows with them in the future. With Proficy Historian integrated in the solution for data acquisition, analysis of operational performance is enabled allowing for performance and efficiency optimization.

“The net effect of reduced machine downtime resulting in higher productivity of operators and less defects is what we needed from GE,” said Nong Hao, General Manager for Tiancheng Paper. “Proficy Process Systems has provided us with the ability to achieve higher production levels with the same amount of resources.”

GE Intelligent Platforms’ Professional Services team provided total system integration from initial system design to installation and post start up support.

Monitoring mission-critical assets & balance-of-plant equipment

Constellation Energy deploys new predictive diagnostic technology to help avoid surprises and eliminate equipment failures

Constellation Energy has chosen to upgrade and widely expand its use of GE Intelligent Platforms's Proficy® SmartSignal solutions across the company’s entire high-capacity power generation fleet. Constellation will deploy the SmartSignal Shield predictive-diagnostic solution, along with SmartSignal Cycle Watch software, a high-speed solution specifically designed for combustion turbine start-ups.

Constellation initially tested the SmartSignal Epi-Center software in 2008 and expanded its use in 2009 to five plants, including coal, combined-cycle, and combustion turbine. The software provided early warning of several hundred equipment problems, which helped Constellation increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs. As a result, Constellation has decided to implement a three-phase project to maximize its monitoring of all mission-critical assets and balance-of-plant equipment that impact performance.

The program includes:

Deployment of SmartSignal Shield software within the initial five plants.

Deployment of SmartSignal Shield software in all additional plants in the Constellation high-capacity fleet.

Deployment of SmartSignal Cycle Watch software on all 21 combustion turbines across Constellation’s fleet.

“With the addition of Proficy SmartSignal solutions across our national fleet of fossil fuel plants, we’re already seeing good results in reaching our reliability and maintenance goals,” said David Lillefloren, Director, Business Performance for Constellation Energy’s CPG Support Services Group. “Ultimately, this technology is going to help us to extend the life of these important assets.”

Constellation Energy is an industry innovator and world leader in operations excellence. On the cutting edge of use of technology to improve the performance of plants, Constellation Energy uses Proficy SmartSignal technology in its own Performance Monitoring & Diagnostic (PM&D) Center, with support from the SmartSignal in-house Availability & Performance Center (APC).

SmartSignal Epi-Center software is an industry-leading predictive solution for managing, controlling, and optimizing equipment maintenance and industry operations. The new SmartSignal Shield solution builds upon years of experience and provides even earlier predictions of impending failures and, now, apparent causes of the impending failures, along with prioritisations. The new SmartSignal Cycle Watch software is the only solution for increasing reliable starts in combustion turbines. Using patented technology and special high-frequency sampling, SmartSignal Cycle Watch software uniquely analyzes the highly variable conditions of start-up and detects subtle deviations that only are visible in these high-stress and transient conditions.

Erik Udstuen, GE Intelligent Platforms Vice President, Software & Services, said, “Constellation Energy is one of our most proactive customers, always looking for ways to improve availability, reliability, and efficiency. Constellation’s use of Proficy SmartSignal to protect all of its critical plants and equipment is leading the industry with new and powerful technologies. As we both continue to innovate, we look forward to a long and productive partnership.”

The Proficy SmartSignal solutions are the latest examples of how GE’s $4 billion-a-year software and solutions services businesses are helping customers improve productivity.

Control of water for Waterford (MI US)

For an Irishman waterford is the name of the capital city of Ireland's sunny south east. However the Irish diaspora from that city and county settled in many parts of the world and in some cases were able to name these places after their beloved home place. This story concerns one of them.

Waterford Township Department of Public Works, located in Michigan (US), is standardising on GE’s Proficy® Software Platform for multiple projects including an Electronic Standard Operating Procedures (eSOP) solution and connection to the municipality’s existing Geospatial Information System (GIS). Waterford personnel will be partnering with information technology experts located at GE’s Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center in Van Buren Township, Michigan to develop a platform that will tie all of this forward-thinking municipality’s disparate systems together and provide them with methodologies and best practices to better meet customer needs.

With 13 water treatment plants and 62 sewer pumping stations covering a district of 36 square miles, Waterford’s DPW serves a population of approximately 72,000 people, capable of producing 30 million gallons of water per day. In addition to the GIS, the department has deployed many advanced technology projects including a state-of-the-art SCADA solution, automated meter reading, computer maintenance management system, broadband wireless network that streams video from cameras deployed around the township and document management, among others.

“Our goal is to have all of our platforms integrated and we view this project as a major step in helping make that a reality,” said Terry Biederman, Director of Public Works for Waterford Township. “This project will allow us to further leverage all of the operational benefits we currently enjoy as a result of implementing these kinds of tools.”

“Waterford Township is a highly automated department and we are excited to be working with them on a forward-thinking water application,” said Alan Hinchman, Global Industry Manager for GE Intelligent Platforms. “Work on the solution will be collaborative effort by a team comprised of top information technologists from GE’s Technology Center in Michigan and Waterford Township. This platform convergence solution links Waterford Township’s existing HMI/SCADA and GIS-based application to a new eSOP system that will allow operators to be more responsive and timely in their actions related to alarms at the plant.”

The “platform convergence project,” as termed by Waterford, uses Proficy SOA as the collaboration technology. Proficy Workflow will power the eSOP application, which includes Proficy Historian, Proficy Real-Time Information Portal and Alarm Response Management templates working closely with the utility’s already implemented Proficy iFIX systems. The solution will be used to digitize standard methodologies and best practices providing them with immediate access to the right information so the team can perform at the highest level. It can be configured to document procedures so operators are guided through them step-by-step via a user-friendly interface; automatically trigger workflows in response to alarms and events; digitize operator log books; and generate reports that capture important information that helps Waterford make critical decisions regarding their operations.

Waterford is starting with three workflow applications to assist with the Pump Station: Pump Station Inspection, Pump Station Motor Starts and Pump Station Motor Durations.

“In today’s challenging economic climate, many organizations are responding to the need to reduce capital investment, asset utilization and maximize return from their resources,” said Erik Udstuen, Vice President of Software & Services for GE Intelligent Platforms. “In Michigan, companies and government agencies are working hard on these issues and Waterford Township is at the forefront of this activity. Partnering with GE’s Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center is accelerating the development of state-of-the-art solutions that will keep Waterford competitive and forward-thinking in meeting the needs of its constituents.” 

GE’s Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center is a state-of-the-art information technology and research and development facility focused on helping GE develop innovative new software, processes and technologies to drive excellence in manufacturing for the company and its customers. Bringing on talented experts at a rate or nearly two people per day, the Center has hired more than 550 new hires and will eventually house the largest concentration of GE IT experts around the globe. 

Proficy is an example of how GE’s $4 billion-a-year software and solutions services businesses are helping customers improve productivity.

Intelligent control room management solution enables compliance

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced that its Proficy® Workflow work process management solution has been chosen by S3 Development Corporation (NH US), as the foundation for an Intelligent Control Room Management solution for the company’s natural gas and hazardous liquids customers. The solution will be piloted at three East Coast natural gas utilities, starting in Q1 2011.

The Control Room Management solution is in direct response to the Control Room Management/Human Factors mandate from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that requires companies transporting natural gas and other gases as well as hazardous liquids by pipeline to comply with minimum safety standards. The PHMSA regulation, 49 CFR Part 192 and 49 CFR Part 195 specifies procedural guidelines around access to information, alarm and change management, fatigue mitigation, operating experience, training, compliance validation, and compliance deviation. The government is hoping to reduce risk and improve safety during the transportation of hazardous gases and liquids. The deadline for compliance to these regulations was accelerated by 18 months, so companies must have plans and procedures in place for compliance by August 2011 and implemented by February 2012.


“With companies scrambling to determine how to comply with this mandate, S3 Development is on the leading edge,” said Sheila Kester, General Manager of Operations Management Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. “As a leading technology and consulting company in the natural gas industry, their solution will take all parts of the mandate into account, allowing companies to capture events and trigger the necessary Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for action – whether related to alarm management, operator duty cycles and fatigue mitigation or change management. This application plays to the strengths of GE’s Proficy Software solutions, helping companies achieve success through compliance by providing a model for what global companies could do to reduce risk.”

Proficy Workflow is the foundation for similar compliance-related solutions in use at water and wastewater municipalities as well as other end users in diverse industries. The software easily layers on GE’s award-winning HMI/SCADA systems, iFIX and CIMPLICITY – and integrates with third-party SCADA and other software systems. The S3 solution, which layers on top of iFIX, is expected to incorporate other pieces of the Proficy Software Platform including Proficy Historian and Real-Time Information Portal.

The Control Room Management solution begins with a step-by-step plan on how to conform to the mandate. It leverages the Work Model capabilities within Proficy Workflow to flowchart and digitize the standard operating procedures, guide and track operator steps, trigger workflows as needed, and record what steps are taken and by whom. Reporting functionality is also critical to this mandate as companies must show PHMSA that they have responded appropriately to the order, so the solution can generate reports to not only ease compliance, but also improve processes.


“Proficy Workflow fits this mandate perfectly,” said Paul Thoman, Chief Technology Officer for S3 Development. “The software allows companies to capture events - whether a problem in the natural gas system or a problem in shifts, and trigger workflows to perform the necessary procedures for the right action at the right time. This will help bring companies into compliance with PHMSA and reduce the risk of disasters by operating within safe limits.”

As an example, Proficy Workflow, for a single emergency, can track multiple procedures and personnel, and record details of each step in the procedure. When a process is triggered, because of an alarm, or a defined action, GE Workflow Software can step through the process based on prescribed procedures built by capturing best-practice and controller expertise as digitized workflows. In the event of an emergency, a workflow can be initiated, and the controller can be guided through a series of steps to determine if emergency services should be notified. And, at the end of a shift, if a task is in process, that outstanding work can be apparent in the Workflow application. The steps completed and yet to be accomplished, can be viewed and discussed by the controllers.

In addition, by using workflows to facilitate alarm management, the operator can also determine if a controller is inadvertently causing alarms to occur because of flawed equipment manipulation. And, by setting up alerts with expected time limits allows the operator to be reminded that a signal is off scan, alarm inhibited or manual values need to be returned to normal.

Reducing consumption to save

Proficy® for Sustainability Metrics Accelerates Energy and Water Reductions with Actionable Information

GE Intelligent Platforms has a new software solution aimed at helping producers achieve more environmentally sustainable operations. Going beyond utility billings, or facility-level meters, Proficy® for Sustainability Metrics offers a starting point for measuring and analyzing energy and water consumption at the area, process or machine level within a facility. The solution makes utility consumption data actionable by exposing it to those in a position to manage it day-by-day in a facility.


“A combination of regulatory, customer and cost pressures are driving every sector, most notably manufacturing, to reduce consumption of energy and water throughout their operations,” said Erik Udstuen, Vice President, Software & Services. “Some customers may realize significant savings, on the line of approximately 20% of energy or water in an area or process, simply by exposing unusual consumption patterns and prompting intervention by operators and supervisors.”

Measurement of resource usage has commonly been based on utility bills, or on “whole facility” levels of measurement. And, most existing software applications that deal with utility consumption deliver information and analytics in isolation from contextual data that would provide insight into the factors that actually drive usage. By enabling detailed measurement and reporting in relation to the processes and equipment that are consuming resources, Proficy for Sustainability Metrics enables both real-time response to unusual usage, and provides a detailed history to drive analysis and improvement efforts. This combination of responsiveness and data-driven equipment tuning has enabled some GE customers to realize water or energy usage reductions of more than 10%.

The Proficy for Sustainability Metrics solution is built on industry-leading software products from GE’s Proficy Software Platform: Proficy Historian, Proficy Pulse and Industrial Gateway Server I/O drivers, and it includes visualization objects that can be used in the Pulse environment as well as Proficy iFIX. This architecture means Sustainability Metrics to be easily integrated with existing supervisory and monitoring systems or deployed alongside, leveraging existing investments in data collection or automation.

“Providing a solution that contains standard products with a set of re-usable objects enables customers to quickly construct a measurement and reporting framework that matches the physical realities of their facility, and reduces the time and cost associated with delivering by-area or by-asset views of consumption,” Udstuen continued.

Manufacturers will be particularly interested in this solution as it represents a low-cost, low-risk way to begin collecting and presenting data that not only offers internal economic value, but also is required by an increasing number of customers. And, for campus-based organizations like universities, multi-building corporations and hospitals, it is the first step in a campus optimization journey to view data from islands of automated systems across the campus.

Hidden energy savings uncovered!

Proficy software solution uncovers hidden energy savings across manufacturing facilities

General Motors, a 20-plus-year customer of GE Intelligent Platforms, has augmented its Proficy software solution to control the lights and other big energy consuming equipment in its assembly plants, saving the major automobile manufacturer energy costs and considerably reducing its carbon footprint.

In a car factory, which has a few million square feet of floor space, turning lights off when that part of the plant is not in use, saves a lot of energy, and money. General Motors realised that if they tied the lights to the schedule of the conveyor (outside of the security lighting), they could considerably reduce energy consumption in the plant. GE Intelligent Platforms’ Proficy® CIMPLICITY controls the conveyor so GM managers approved an application based on CIMPLICITY that schedules the lights to coincide with conveyor operation. This led to other discoveries of potential energy savings.

“Everything in a vehicle assembly plant is tied to the conveyor,” said Mike Durak, General Motors, Global Information Technology Manager. “A hidden benefit was that once we scheduled the conveyor we had a good view into what the plant was doing, so we were able to schedule the on and off of big energy consumers in the plant like air supply houses on the roof, ovens in the paint shop, lighting, water, and compressed air generators.”

The savings comes from being able to control millions of square feet of plant floor space with Proficy CIMPLICITY software, a client/server based HMI/SCADA solution that allows operators and management team to make more informed decisions with real-time visibility technology. In GM’s case, the team can manage certain parts of the factory or the whole plant from any location.

Employees are not affected by the automatic shut off of lighting and equipment. From the lighting perspective, lights are turned on two or three minutes before employees arrive at their workstation. The general building lighting goes on a few minutes earlier. “We’ve also scheduled different turn on/shut offs on weekends,” said Durak. “For instance, ovens in the paint shop need two hours to warm up so we need to take that into account when we turn them off. Therefore, we have different times for end of shift, weekends, extended long production, lunch and end of day, just to name a few.”

The paint shop in automotive assembly is a significant energy consumer, because in order to make sure that the car’s paint does not contain dust or other contaminates in the final product, it is important to have the optimum air quality and temperature. Proficy CIMPLICITY is used by General Motors to monitor the paint shop environmental conditions alerting the paint shop staff when process circumstances begin to trend out of acceptable ranges.

With its less than six month payback and low cost to implement, the solution is now rolling out to 20 plants in the GM family. Example annual savings versus one-time implementation costs at individual plants include:

• For weld water pumps/cooling tower/fans, chilled water and exhaust fans, annual savings 7 times greater
• For hydraulic pumps, ovens, weld water pumps/cooling towers/fans, annual savings 4 times greater
• HVAC and line lighting savings are 5 times greater
• Ventilation, line lighting, air supply/exhaust savings are 5 times greater

“General Motors has extended their application of Proficy software to further their goals of operational excellence,” said Erik Udstuen, Software Vice President for GE Intelligent Platforms. “This is a perfect example of what Proficy can do to connect the enterprise to execution systems driving real-time decision making, enabling lean operations, and improving efficiency.”

vProficy CIMPLICITY is presently deployed by General Motors in 85 global facilities in the USA, South America, Europe and Asia. Proficy CIMPLICITY either provides or is the basis of GM’s 11 Global common manufacturing applications that include Production Monitoring and Control, Bank Management and vehicle routing and control in the paint process.