Emerson Exchange 365

Tracking Hygienic Status of Component Prep Parts (Clamps, Forceps, Scissors...)

Hi,

I am an automation professional in the US. My customers have asked for a solution to track hygienic statuses of all Component Prep parts (clamps, forceps, scissors, etc.) that will be used in the manufacturing process. This is in order to mitigate risks associated with using unclean or non-SIP parts during manufacturing. This is handled as a procedural control as of now. We have Allen-Bradley PLCs, DeltaV and Syncade systems installed in the facility. We use barcode scanners to read and transfer data to Syncade now (for Tanks, etc.). Unfortunately, with the Syncade system, it takes 5-10 seconds for each scan to be successfully transferred. I am willing to explore options within Syncade or DeltaV. Has anyone implemented this solution (tracking Small Parts) in DeltaV or Syncade before? 

Also, I am willing to explore options outside of Syncade/DeltaV - an independent hygienic status tracking software suite would be okay as well despite adding another system for operators to deal with.

Any insight you can provide in this area would be appreciated.

Regards,

Bhaskar

• Equipment Tracking
• automation
• Hygienic Status
• DeltaV

bhaskarvs

• 16 Jun 2015 11:45 PM
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4 Replies

• Youssef.El-Bahtimy

  

  • 17 Jun 2015 1:54 AM

  I faced a similar requirement in both the equipment tracking and order material management areas. The transaction round trip time is not something you can easily get around, but if you reorganize how the scan data is entered vs. how it is sent and validated by the system, you will move closer to achieving the procedural performance you require.
  
  Specifically, we created a web part launched by the work instruction to allow for multiple scans to be be stored in quick succession. Upon completion of the activity, the list of barcode inputs was sent via the appropriate equipment tracking / order management webservice for validation and ultimately for state change / consumption. In this manner, the overhead of each individual barcode input transaction was reduced by bussing the inputs into a single web service call.
  
  Appropriate handling for the failure of a subset of the inputs must be accounted for in the web part to ensure the user is aware of which inputs failed, while allowing the successful inputs to finish unhindered.
  
  My suggestion is to engage Emerson's Advanced services group to help you develop the web part and/or web service needed to suite your needs.

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• bhaskarvs

  

  • 17 Jun 2015 2:32 AM

  In reply to Youssef.El-Bahtimy:

  Thanks for the quick response, Youssef. I will engage appropriate EMR resources for this approach. Meanwhile, have you or anyone you know of used 3rd party asset tracking software solutions in conjunction with Syncade?

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• jlustri

  

  • 17 Jun 2015 1:03 PM

  We have found that it is possible to get scanning of items down to 3.5-4 seconds within Syncade workflow. If that is fast enough, it may be better to look at optimizing the workflow rather than developing a special web part. WHat we found slows workflow scanning down is the use of one or more auto instructions in between scans to do validity checking of the scanned items. Use ONExit behaviors in the same EWI as the scan to check the validity conditions of the scan. Use the behavior pop up messages if any of the validity conditions fail. By doing this, we found we could reduce scanning down to 3.5- 4 seconds per scan. I don't think its possible to get faster than this without other means as presented by Youssef

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• bhaskarvs

  

  • 17 Jun 2015 4:29 PM

  In reply to jlustri:

  Thank you.

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