Discussions / Questions - Recent Threads

SX Controller – EDC block CAS_IN_D Difference Between Versions

Prasanth Gopalakrishnan Nair — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 23:59:11 GMT

Hello All,

We have observed a difference in SX Controller behavior between DeltaV versions 14.3.1.7332 and 14.3.1.7412 related to EDC / CAS_IN_D functionality.

With the CAS SP Track device option disabled, EDC1 / CAS_IN_D is not modifiable in DeltaV 14.3.1.7412 during the LO Mode ( Interlock active ). However, in the previous version (14.3.1.7332), CAS_IN_D could be modified under the same conditions.

In our pump logic, the CAS SP Track option is not enabled, and the EM HOLD command is used to drive CAS_IN_D to the passive state during interlock activation. After upgrading to DeltaV 14.3.1.7412, we noticed that when the EDC block enters LO mode, the HOLD logic is unable to write to CAS_IN_D.

Has anyone experienced similar behavior or can share insights on this change?

Thank you,
Prasanth

How to command an EM from button in DeltaV Live

AutoEngineer1 — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:30:35 GMT

I'm struggling to create a new button in DV Live which functions to command multiple EMs to Idle. I'm using WriteAsync function as below. The A_COMMAND.CV parameter is a named set value. The Idle command has named set value of 1. The script verifies without errors but when I test it, the command is not written. I'm sure it's something to do with a type/field mismatch but I've tried so many combinations and can't get it to work.

DLSYS.WriteAsync("EM_Name/A_COMMAND.CV",1)

PLM Watchdog Failures putting Batches into Hold

Douglas Gigliotti — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:10:05 GMT

Hi everyone,

Been having this issue for quite some time now where PLM Watchdog Failures are putting our Batches into Hold. They appear to come when Requests are being sent to the Batch Executive, generally for Report parameters. The number of PLM Watchdog Failures has just recently increased significantly, and appears to be coming in sets of 2 for back to back days, in which the next set of 2 will come roughly 2 weeks later. These also appear to come around the same time each day (i.e. between 2am and 3am). Of course, sending Requests to the Batch Executive are a standard part of the system and we have been doing so since the system was built with no issues. The only thing I can think of that has changed recently is that we have Commissioned quite a few new Units with CIOCs on the system, but those Units were Disconnected without first being Decommissioned, leading to an increase in Device Connection Failures that we're reading in Process History View, that all seem to come in a cluster ever 2 minutes or so. I am quite suspicious that the Device Connection Failures could have something to do with increase in PLM Watchdog Failures, but I wanted to get a second opinion before trying to narrow it down. We did end up Decommissioning those CIOCs and Downloading Changed Setup Data to the associated Controllers, but rather than eliminating the Device Connection Failures, it just removed the associated CIOC Tag we had created in the system, and replaced in with a random ID# (i.e. before they were saying "Device Connection Failure - [Unit#]CIOCnn", and following the Decommissioning and Changed Setup Data Download for the CIOC, the message now says "Device Connection Failure - ID = #xxxxxxxx"). Interestingly enough, we were able to eliminate Device Connection Failures for a few of our CIOCs following the same procedure as we did for the others, which were all on the same Controller, but there are still CIOCs on that Controller that are Decommissioned and showing up with Device Connection Failures still. I should also point out that we are using DeltaV v13.3.2 with a combination of SQ and SX Controllers, though the Units that appear to be causing the PLM Watchdog Errors (ones with an active Batch that is sending Requests to the Batch Executive) have had instances from both SQ and SX Controllers. In short, we are basically trying to figure out:

1. Could these Device Connection Failures be a factor in causing the PLM Watchdog Errors? Are there any other factors anyone can think of that we should be considering?

2. If these Device Connection Failures are a significant facor in causing the PLM Watchdog Errors, does anyone know how to eliminate them?

Thanks everyone, this help will be greatly appreciated!

Doug

How to convert an Integer to String in DeltaV

Vikas Patil — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 13:57:23 GMT

Hello Experts,

We have one requirement where the Detector gives output to DeltaV as an Input in an Integer (ASCII Code). Further we need to convert this Integer value to String to read in to the DeltaV.

Also there is a requirement to send the output to Detector from DeltaV in string.

In short:

Detector sends Integer (ASCII Code) to DeltaV as an Input and

From DeltaV need to send a string to detector in Integer data type.

Thanks in Advance!

Combo box scripting in DeltaV Live

tousif — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 11:06:01 GMT

Hello,

I have four drop down menus of combo box where I want the options in the second, third and fourth drop down menu to be hidden or remove depending of which option is selected in the first drop down menu. I already done in DeltaV Operate by vb coding, but I don't have idea to do scripting in Java in DeltaV Live application please give guidance for it.

VCAT Report or export in Excel

Vikas Patil — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 13:52:36 GMT

Hello Experts,

We have a VCAT enabled on my DeltaV System with 14.3 version.

We are looking for VCAT Export of a report which can give us the consolidate list of the changes done in .CSV or other relevant formats.

Any idea or knowledge available please do share.

Thanks in advance.

Syncade WFX 4.12 Release

kimplacek — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:29:30 GMT

Emerson is excited to announce the Syncade WFX 4.12 Release.

This release includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Addition of Phase Server functionality for the Syncade WFX engine
Reduced time for order creation
Improved operator screen refresh and responsiveness

Details of functionality and items included can be found in the release notes and the v4 Syncade Software Release Schedule on Guardian.

We are looking forward to our end users implementing this release and further improving your workflow experience with Syncade.

DeltaV Zones

Amar S Borsune — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 22:19:21 GMT

Anybody in this community from Life Sciences industry has implemented DeltaV zones in GMP manufacturing environment? Two DeltaV Systems/zones communicating (reading and writing parameter values) with each other and Syncade?

HTML 5 WEB BROWSER SUPPORT

Shaswat Raj — Wed, 26 May 2021 17:49:57 GMT

I need to incorporate HTML 5 based web page in Delta V graphic builder bit it is giving error when I load the page.

Which module should I use to embed HTML 5 based URL in delta V

DeltaV/Modbus .CSV string Server to Client data upload

John Barnacle — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 18:03:57 GMT

My company has developed a Win-IoT based instrument for use in the bio-process market to measure process output. Each measurement result and supporting information is written to a line in a .csv file. We are working on creating a background app that will upload the latest data segment to a DeltaV network. We are considering using the Modbus protocol via TCP. Our goal is to create the most "universal" data transfer style possible that can transmit a line of up to 82 ASCII characters. As this is our first foray into this market, we have a limited understanding of data types and conversion functions that exist and might be considered "standard". For reference, a new line of data would be available no sooner than 4 minutes after the last line of data.

One option we are looking at would be to convert the ASCII characters to their HEX values, and use the first 41 Input Registers to transmit the HEX encoded ASCII data. Is there a function on the Client side that can be used to convert the HEX values back to ASCII characters for data storage? Is there a better way?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

John Barnacle

Connecting DelatV OPC UA Client to a Python Server

Rich Bair — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 14:44:15 GMT

I've filed a ticket for this as well but thought I'd reach out more broadly. I just received my development ProPlus station and have the basics setup. As a simple test to start to connect lab products to DeltaV, I've created a simple python freeopcua server that I'm trying to connect to DeltaV using the OPC UA Client tool. Now UaExpert is also installed on the ProPlus station and connects to the server just fine but I'm unable to get DeltaV to connect. When I run the Test Endpoint Connection I receive an error and if I add a LDT under the PDT it fails. I am able to connect OPC UA Client to an OPC UA Server.

Thus, I'm thinking there's something DeltaV requires that perhaps I haven't included in my freeopcua python server. Anyone have experience in this area?

Thanks,

-Rich

Making a Lab Product deltaV "Ready"

Rich Bair — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 18:05:57 GMT

My team develops products for the laboratory and we often use custom embedded controllers. I'm looking for resources regarding how I might make our products ready to be integrated into a deltaV environment which some of our customer use.

My thoughts are 1) maybe we just need to expose data via MODBUS well and then our customers can use a PK controller to connect our device or 2) maybe there is an embedded deltaV API were a product can include this API and fully integrate features where by the product communicates directly with deltaV.

I'm looking for contacts that may have experience in this area and any recommendations.

Thanks,

-Rich Bair

DeltaV Live layout issue

SHWETA ASUTKAR — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 12:34:18 GMT

Hello ,

I am facing the error in DeltaV Live in layout which is mention below . I have verified the Layout in graphic studio it is working fine. Let me know if any one know about it.

MAS PLC products or solutions for Lifesciences, Cleanroom applications

praveen.jose@emerson.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 06:43:00 GMT

Dear All,

Have MAS products been used for Life Sciences or clean room applications and if YES, how do we comply with the 21CFR part 11 applications? Are there specific segments here where General purpose PLC is asked for?

Do we use the MAS IO's along with other EPMI products to form a solution for these industries. Any presentations around it or success stories around it?

I am based out of India, and was interested in knowing what solutions can be built with MAS products for these industries and how 21CFR part 11 is addressed?

VIDEO: Safely Speed Up Manufacturing with a Digital Twin in Life Sciences

Rachelle McWright — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 18:05:10 GMT

Emerson’s Digital Twin solutions deliver proven business results for automation projects in the Life Sciences industry. In the quest to develop and manufacturer life-changing pharmaceuticals for customers across the globe, new solutions are needed to reduce the cost and risk to production and patient safety. Digital Twin technology is a proven solution to meet these needs. In this video, I will explain how Digital Twin can help you avoid shutdowns, significantly reduce the operational costs of validation and reduce time to market by 20%.

www.youtube.com/watch

Do you have questions about using the Digital Twin in Life Sciences? Share your challenges and connect with me Rachelle McWright or any of our dynamic simulation experts in the Emerson Exchange 365 community by commenting below.

SQL Event for One Time Event Listener?

Mircea Darius Bujor — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 17:59:08 GMT

Currently in our recipe, we are using a polling method using repeating parameters to advance to the next work instruction, but I am trying to find a better way for this type of scenario. I have heard talking about using one-time event listening as an alternative ( Event Monitor).

Does this work only with OPC Events as trigger? Can I use SQL Events as trigger?

The Rise in Single-Use Instrumentation Options in Bioprocessing

Jordan Kohnen — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 20:25:50 GMT

Many pharmaceutical manufacturers are adopting single-use manufacturing methods for a variety of reasons, but when they do existing equipment configurations and mounting methods often no longer work. This is the situation Brandon Haschke describes in his article posted on BioProcess Online, The Rise in Single-Use Instrumentation Options in Bioprocessing. Gleaming stainless steel equipment looks wonderful, but operationally the design constrains it to the original use case. Users want more flexibility, and single-use manufacturing methods can be a major advance to meet this goal.

The growing implementation of Single-Use manufacturing methods for upstream vessels and downstream processing equipment addresses these and other issues by providing options for scalability and operational savings, but it also introduces some new requirements. This is especially true with regards to how processes are instrumented and automated. Traditional automated measurement techniques are fixed-in-place just like the conventional equipment they are designed to be connected to, so the instruments and fittings must evolve for use with disposable Single-Use methods.

That sounds good, but what about instrumentation? When moving from fixed-asset stainless steel, how do you get the needed DO reading, or pressure or pH for that matter?

Single-Use bags are fabricated with pre-installed fittings and use materials compatible with the product and able to survive the gamma radiation sterilization procedure. It is also possible to install traditional DO and pressure sensors through standard fittings so they could contact the process, but this introduces difficulties for initial setup and calibration during operation. A more advantageous option is to use sensors based on traditional technologies but installed into specialized bag fittings that isolate the sensor from process product contact but still allow the measurement.

Some single-use bag manufacturers are already installing sensors and fittings into tube sets so readings can be taken when transferring product between production units. These do the job, but are only part of the picture. Brandon offers a whole list of considerations and requirements for sensors used in single-use service. Read the article and you’ll see what a major undertaking it has been for Emerson to create mounts and connections able to meet all the requirements. Take pressure for example

Pressure is the most straightforward process sensor that can be updated for SUT service. In fact, the sensor technology itself remains the same as for traditional sensors. The key is a disposable fitting manufactured into a Single-Use bag. This fitting features a flexible diaphragm which isolates the process fluid from the sensor element, while allowing the physical pressure to transfer to the sensor. This combination allows the sensor to be reused, lowering the consumables cost since only the fittings change from one batch to the next. The removable sensor is robust and highly accurate, and the fitting allows the sensors to be removed, replaced or recalibrated if required, even during a batch run.

In addition to pressure, Emerson offers specialized sensors for pH and DO. The pH sensor is Emerson’s Rosemount 550pH Single-Use Sensor, and it can operate for 30 days without any required maintenance or recalibration. For DO, Emerson’s Rosemount 550DW Single-Use Dissolved Oxygen Sensor Adapter can be placed into a bioreactor single-use bag to provide trouble free service.

You can find more information like this and meet with other people looking at the same kinds of situations in the Emerson Exchange365 community. It’s a place where you can communicate and exchange information with experts and peers in all sorts of industries around the world. Look for the Life Sciences Group and other specialty areas for suggestions and answers.

Drugmakers look to a more flexible Pharma 4.0

Emerson Exchange News — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 15:29:10 GMT

Dave Perkon

A forum of industry veterans explored current challenges and possibilities, as well as future opportunities in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals manufacturing industries at the 2019 Emerson Global Users Exchange in Nashville, Tennessee.

"The automation industry is going through a big transformation process,” said Bob Lenich, life sciences marketing director at Emerson. “Industry 4.0 is an example. Life sciences manufacturing is transforming in a similar way with Pharma 4.0."

Market trends and business drivers such as cost pressures, uncertainty, market growth and more product classes feed the cost, feasibility, speed and quality of the products. The life-sciences industry also has embarked upon a digital transformation that is having an impact on flexible and continuous manufacturing.

Enabling technologies and capabilities are changing how life-sciences products are being manufactured. There are many opportunities and ways to accelerate the pipeline, and there are things that can be done to make it go more quickly from development to actual full-blown manufacturing.

Historically, the life-sciences industry has produced two things: product and paper. "Over the past few years, data is the new currency," said Lenich. "Now, they produce product, paper and data. Now, you need to take the data and do something with it, such as analytics. This is a growing activity that is exploding across the industry."

Global alignment of manufacturing standards

Derek Englert, lead of global automation at AveXis, provides development, implementation and deployment of a global automation solution across AveXis manufacturing network. “AveXis is a small-molecule manufacturer, and all our equipment is single-use,” he said.

“From a DCS standpoint, we looked at our equipment and decided what could be standard across our five facilities. Most equipment is standard, but there are differences. We had control-module classes that we keep as global and maintain those across all of our sites. Phases and recipes will also be maintained across all of our sites. If the equipment modules are the same, we keep them as global but will use different equipment modules in each plant to account for differences in the equipment, but they must maintain the same interface to the phases. That means our control-module classes, phases and recipes are global."

Rex Polley, principal global automation engineer at Lonza, also commented on global alignment. "Lonza is a 122-year-old company with about 60 different plants, and it's important to note that we are a contract manufacturer. We do specialty chemicals up through large-molecule, small-molecule and cell and gene therapy. There is a lot of variety."

One of Lonza's large sites literally has a dozen plants in a campus with 55 DeltaV systems installed. "This one site is done with a single, global library, but a new plant has learnings that are fed back to the library where they can be maintained and fed back down," said Polley. "It's basically a single site acting as a global site."

“A perfect standard is only perfect for one person, but good enough can be good enough for everyone," said Polley. "Sometimes it takes a lot of pushing to get people to understand that.” Even though it's not how one person would have done it, it will work and has worked.

Englert discussed the difficulties with decisions by consensus. "When you try to say, 'Here is how I'm going to approach this,' and then try to get all your stake holders at all your sites to agree, it goes nowhere. You do get conflicts as everyone has different backgrounds and has seen different ways that work. Again, you don't have to come up with something that is perfect; it just needs to work as well as possible," he said.

How AveXis approaches it is with a center of excellence where it has a team that takes in information from all the stakeholders, so people know their voices are being heard, continued Englert. "However, the team has the final decision on how it will be implemented," he said.

Automation enabling flexibility

In Englert's experience, he has often seen people who think automation reduces flexibility. "But automation can add quality and reduce paper," said Englert. "It really depends on how you automate the system, but paper can be very easy to change."

The executive leadership should clearly lay out what flexibility is needed, said Englert. "However, you cannot demand all the flexibility without any of the constraints," he said. "Meeting the business objectives is possible with automated systems."

Polley noted that as a contract manufacturer that has to fit a customer’s process into its facilities, Lonza's flexibility is inherent. "It's hard not to be flexible," he said.

"To non-automation people, it is necessary to explain the concept of templating, classes, instances of classes and aliasing in automation. Breaking these concepts down and putting them in non-automation terms for people allows them to quickly realize that automation can give them quite a bit of flexibility while still having structure."

AveXis has been unhappy with how some of their skids have been functioning, explained Englert. "They often have their own proprietary software system that we cannot touch," he said. "We can only interface to them through recipes. It limits what can be added and how to validate the system because you don't have full visibility.”

Because of that, AveXis is pulling some of its skids, removing the proprietary software and installing a DCS implementation. "These are currently lab-scale skids,” said Englert. "When it grows in scale, you need the flexibility in the process. The only way to do that is with a DCS."

Generate Batch report using VB script provided in DeltaV BOL.

makarand.kulkarni — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 03:08:48 GMT

DeltaV Books online has provided a std script to generate custom batch report. Has anyone tried it with DeltaV Live? If yes please share the solution.

LINK: Address Cell Therapy Batch Production Challenges with Syncade

Michalle Adkins — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 16:26:31 GMT

Science & technology developments are enabling better treatments for serious diseases through the use of cell therapy & patient-specific batch production. Checkout this video, Address Cell Therapy Batch Production Challenges with Syncade, where I discuss patient-specific batch production and tracking and how using MES technology can help you ensure that you get the right material to the right individual at the right time. Questions or Comments? Reply below the video in the "MES, SCADA and others" forum post.

Three Key Elements to Creating a Sustainable Reliability Program

Shirley Marquardt-Tynan — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 18:47:47 GMT

More Life Science companies are addressing maintenance strategies and reliability as a way to increase and improve production. "Life sciences companies operate from a unique position in manufacturing. They are tasked with adapting operations to provide access to therapies that not only enhance, but in many cases, save lives. Continuous improvement is essential because life sciences operations must keep pace with the increase in aging populations across the globe." This month in Reliability Connections we bring you an article in the Life Science Realm. https://reliabilitymobile.com/reliabilityconnection/FY18/August2018.html

Don't forget to join us at Emerson Global Users Exchange in San Antonio as three new finalists present their achievements in an effort to become Emerson's RPOY!

Bringing Smart Instrumentation to Life Sciences

Deanna K Johnson — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 16:33:31 GMT

Imagine you’re 6’ 5” tall and weigh 150 lbs. If you’re trying to buy clothes, regardless of your fashion sense, when you see something you like the first question you have to ask is, “Do you have it in my size?” The size element outweighs every other consideration, and you have to take what you can get.

Maybe this analogy is a bit silly, but it makes a critical point: sometimes one element of a selection process is far and away the most important and has to be considered first. People who work in the pharmaceutical industry understand what this means, and Kyle Knutson addresses how it affects instrumentation selection in his Pharmaceutical Manufacturing article, Bringing Smart Instrumentation to Life Sciences.

Say an engineer wants to add a pressure transmitter to a bioreactor. There are dozens of units on the market from various suppliers suitable for the application based on the needed range and precision. But, probably more than 95 percent of the options cannot be used because they do not meet requirements imposed by the regulations. Those with threaded connections or a recessed diaphragm need not apply. Ditto for devices with too coarse a surface finish, or the wrong shape. When the specifications necessary to satisfy the regulatory requirements are applied first, the number of possible products drops to a handful, and often less, depending on the application.

In other words, for pharmaceutical manufacturers, there may not be much to choose from, and the smart instrumentation capabilities that engineers working in chemical companies or refineries enjoy simply aren’t available. Or are they? Kyle says the situation is beginning to change.

For many years, regulatory requirements have kept many pharmaceutical producers stuck with basic instrumentation. Regardless of all the advances made across the board with process instruments, when the first selection criterion is hygienic configuration and compliance, none of the others matter. Fortunately, the picture is changing as more smart instrumentation is becoming available using hygienic designs, offering improved performance in many areas.

The Rosemount 3051HT Hygienic Pressure Transmitter is a prime example. But for people who have been working in a pharmaceutical plant, given the historic conditions, they might ask, “What are those smart features you’re talking about? What capabilities should I be looking for?” Kyle explains:

A smart pressure transmitter can provide the basic process variable while simultaneously sending additional information via a digital signal superimposed over the analog value using the HART protocol. [It] can send additional process variables, such as the temperature it is sensing, and it can also monitor its own condition and performance. If something is going wrong with the circuitry used to process the data, it can send a warning of an impending failure. It can retain its own calibration history, and even send a signal if it is approaching the end of a calibration interval. Transmitters with WirelessHART communications can do the same thing, all without the need for cabling.

The article reviews several practical examples of how these capabilities can be put to work, and also examines specific types of instruments designed to take their readings without penetrating the process, so they are not subject to such stringent regulation. In any case, there are many new possibilities that pharmaceutical users should be considering.

Users working in pharmaceutical manufacturing may need to reexamine their underlying assumptions about instrumentation, and how they might be able to use new technologies. There are many products on the market designed specifically for these applications, so it is no longer necessary to live with reduced capabilities to accommodate regulatory requirements.

You can find more information like this, and meet with other people looking at the same kinds of situations in the Emerson Exchange365 community. It’s a place where you can communicate and exchange information with experts and peers in all sorts of industries around the world. Look for the Life Sciences Group and other specialty areas for suggestions and answers.

Improving Performance and Regulatory Compliance with Instrument Calibration

Deanna K Johnson — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 18:41:46 GMT

While we tend to think of pharmaceutical companies as having very sophisticated manufacturing processes, when we get into the real world sometimes we discover things aren’t what we’d hoped. Naturally such companies are very careful with processes and practices that have a direct bearing on product quality, but some of the ancillary activities might be a little behind the curve. One of those is instrument calibration.

Michalle Adkins spent a lot of time working in the pharma industry, and she calls on her experience in her article in the December, 2017 issue of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Improving Performance and Regulatory Compliance with Instrument Calibration. Companies in all sorts of industries have to calibrate instruments under requirements from ISO, API, FDA or just plain common sense. How they handle the mechanics and record keeping can be all over the map, even in pharma plants. As is often the case, the FDA says that calibration needs to be done, but doesn’t go into much detail on how.

[FDA] regulation places the burden for creating a compliant calibration program on the facility. It does not specify how or how often any specific instrument must be calibrated or checked. At the same time, when the facility is being inspected by a government agency for regulatory compliance, those details will certainly be examined. A facility will have to defend its calibration practices within its larger validation and verification programs. So ask yourself if your calibration program is appropriate for the instruments you’re using today, or if it still reflects the needs of less sophisticated process instruments of years past.

To Michalle, this is the dividing point: is your company taking full advantage of modern instrumentation or is it still using the techniques of yesteryear, both in how the calibration is done and how records are kept. Both elements can and should advance into the modern age.

Electronic records for product movement and manufacturing have largely replaced expensive and troublesome manual techniques. Unfortunately, in a surprising number of facilities, manual recordkeeping for process instrument calibration and maintenance persists. Since calibration tasks tend to be manual by nature, recordkeeping by hand often follows, but better methods are available. Just as electronic batch records improved manufacturing processes, they can also do the same for calibration.

She goes on to point out that many companies have procedures from the era of mechanical and analog electronic devices, back when it was often necessary for a technician to correct the performance of a device, even a brand new one. Fortunately, today’s digital field instruments are much more accurate and stable than their predecessors, and many have self-diagnostic and calibration features.

These capabilities have greatly improved the calibration picture. A smart transmitter can be linked to control and monitoring systems via a digital data network, which can communicate its internal diagnostic information along with the basic process variable. Since verification is a process rather than an event, it is possible to monitor the condition of all process instruments on a unit continuously while the process is running. Internal diagnostic routines can warn of a problem developing with any instrument. Calibrations still need to be performed, but they become opportunities to verify known performance, rather than to correct drift and errors.

Therein is the key difference: calibration verifies correct performance, rather than determining how much the instrument needs to be adjusted. At the same time, the condition of a given device can be monitored automatically using asset management software such as Emerson’s AMS Device Manager.

Effective companies automate the process of sorting through the [diagnostic] information by using an asset management system. Each smart instrument has its own record in the system, and AMS Device Manager can communicate with each instrument through plant networks. Using a communication protocol such as HART, WirelessHART, or a mix of both, the AMS Device Manager can poll each instrument following a pre-determined interval based on criticality. Each attribute has its appropriate operating range, and any critical deviation can be set up to trigger an alarm.

These capabilities work together to bring process manufacturers of all kinds into the modern age. You can find more information like this, and meet with other people looking at the same kinds of situations in the Emerson Exchange365 community. It’s a place where you can communicate and exchange information with experts and peers in all sorts of industries around the world. Look for the Life Sciences Group and other specialty areas for suggestions and answers.

Reflection, Inflection and Direction

hgrover — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 19:14:17 GMT

People observing an industry like to look for trends to find out “What’s new?” and “What’s the next big thing?” Answering these questions usually begins by looking at recent developments because they point the direction of the future. Within the pharmaceutical industry, the simple answer is, a lot is going on, much of it involving automation.

Michalle Adkins takes stock of what’s been happening over the last few years in a column in the November 2017 issue of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. Her Reflection, Inflection and Direction column begin with a reflection on some changes influencing where companies are headed.

It is incredible to reflect on 21st century advances in life sciences. The mapping of the human genome was completed in 2003, and the gene responsible for a cancer’s surface cell protein was identified. Medications are now available to block these proteins and prevent cancer cell growth. The intricacies of the immune system are more understood now than ever before, resulting in new products enabling a patient’s immune system to fight off cancer cells.

She points out that these improvements are often the result of new technologies able to improve processes so they can create purer and more concentrated products. We’ve come a long way, but there is still far to go.

More treatments are available now than ever before, but new therapies are still needed. Companies must make a profit to stay in business and invest in acquisitions, partnerships and R&D. Therefore, better ways of operating are emerging to drive down costs, making more products available to more people.

Michalle cites four specific technologies as keys to more effective manufacturing and better patient care: single-use processing, continuous manufacturing, Pharma 4.0 and personalized medicine. Each of these has its promises, but also its challenges.

Single-Use Processing: Advantages include a smaller manufacturing footprint, fewer cleaning chemicals, less energy usage and more production flexibility. Challenges include more complicated setup, tracking of additional components and disposables waste handling.

Continuous Manufacturing: Challenges include in-process monitoring, material traceability and deploying new control schemes.

Pharma 4.0: This includes IoT, data exchange in the manufacturing space, cloud-based solutions and more. Capturing more data and putting it in context — then using it to build models manually or automatically — can help pharma manufacturers prevent problems, react to issues and optimize processes.

Personalized Medicine: Potential benefits are tremendous because the patient receives the exact treatment for their specific circumstance, and no more, reducing side effects. Challenges include complete traceability to ensure the right product gets to the right patient, in-process tracking of many batches, and the tremendous amounts of stored data.

These all represent huge advances, but are very different things. Nonetheless, there is one common denominator: automation. The right manufacturing automation technologies make these advances possible and practical. For example, continuous manufacturing can’t happen without continuous monitoring and better control schemes. That’s what Emerson is about.

Automation — including enhanced process modeling, predictive analytics and plug-and-play solutions — is a critical lever for capitalizing on these trends. New and improved technology will propel us into this future with various automation components underpinning success. Suppliers to the life sciences industry are investing in these technologies, and in turn investing in patients by developing/improving products and services to meet future demands.

If you’re trying to tame these challenges, you can find resources and meet with other people looking at the same kinds of situations in the Emerson Exchange365 community. It’s a place where you can communicate and exchange information with experts and peers in all sorts of industries around the world.

VIDEO: Amgen’s Use of Control System Virtualization Helps Reduce Risk and Improve Operations

Emerson Exchange News — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 03:14:49 GMT

Virtualization of process control systems is growing in appeal across industries because it enables optimization of computer resources. For Amgen, it’s also reduced failure recovery time by 87 percent.

Virtualization of its existing server infrastructure is helping Amgen, a biologics manufacturing facility that develops and manufactures medicines, reduce risk to operations, execute more efficient maintenance, and optimize its server footprint for reduced power and cooling requirements.

Utilizing Emerson’s DeltaV Virtual Studio, bundled with Dell’s PowerEdge VRTX integrated virtualization hardware environment, Amgen Rhode Island (ARI) recently completed the migration of its Upstream and Downstream production DeltaV server infrastructures from physical architectures to virtual machines.

The strategic migration was key to helping the 14–year old ARI site prevent issues typically associated with an ageing facility, such as hardware obsolescence, limited flexibility for process improvements, and complex maintenance that could result in lost production time and critical data loss.

Virtualization of process control systems is growing in appeal across industries because it enables optimization of computer resources. Traditional process control systems often require many computers, which can be expensive to maintain and disruptive to upgrade. Virtualization of these systems results in less hardware to buy and maintain while offering increased configuration flexibility, higher availability, and extended system life. Virtual machines use an operating system or application environment installed on software to replicate dedicated hardware. Multiple virtual machines can be run within a single host server, and multiple host servers can be run in a server cluster using shared network storage.

Emerson’s DeltaV Virtual Studio, designed specifically for virtualization of process control systems, enables the reduction of physical computers making it easier to replace hardware or update software when needed. Its “high availability” and disaster recovery options help minimize downtime from system maintenance and disruptive events. Specifically, it protects against host system failure by automatically moving virtual machines from a primary host that has failed to a secondary host without any application downtime

Amgen’s average Recovery Time Objective (RTO) after failures was reduced from more than eight hours to less than one hour after virtualization. The virtual system also allows for “hot” failover of Amgen servers to enable restart of critical servers with no data loss or end-user impact.

In addition to reducing its RTO, Amgen is executing more effective maintenance. Traditionally, when servers are turned off for maintenance, software functionality is disrupted, jeopardizing system operation. With the built-in redundancy afforded by virtual servers, the software can run independently of hardware. This decoupling of software from hardware allows flexibility to work on either, independently of each other for improved maintenance.

Amgen’s use of virtualization also has resulted in better space utilization through reduced server sprawl and the retirement of 60 operator workstations, which were replaced with ThinClient solutions. These ThinClients are not only helping Amgen realize space savings, they’re resulting in improved maintenance, as evidenced by a decreased number of calls from the field related to failed hardware as well as a reduction in the time needed to apply updates and troubleshoot issues with operator interfaces.

In total, Amgen’s Upstream server infrastructure was reduced from 11 servers and 35 workstations to six servers and nine workstations with 14 virtual machines and 23 ThinClients. Its Downstream infrastructure was reduced from 11 servers and 39 workstations to five servers and seven workstations with 15 virtual machines and 19 ThinClients. This initial conversion was completed without disruption to Amgen’s production, and additional conversion of Amgen’s critical servers is scheduled for a future planned production outage in 2018.

Watch this video below to learn more about how virtualization can improve overall performance, reliability and availability.

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How have you used virtualization to improve performance and project certainty? Post in the comments below!