KEPServerEX, Manufacturing Suite

With over a century of rich experience through its founding companies, ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the company employs over 140,000 people and operates in approximately 100 countries around the globe. ABB's business is comprised of five divisions: Power Products, Power Systems, Low Voltage Products, Discrete Automation and Motion, and Process Automation. Each of these divisions are in turn organized into business units in relation to the customers and industries they serve.

One of the biggest technical challenges ABB faced with this project was automating the collection of well data. The project called for between 1,000 and 1,500 well sites to come online in 2014, and beyond 6,000 by 2030, over an area of more than 4,500 km². Each of these wells have between 50 and 70 data points being scanned on a 30-second cycle time.

Once the program was in place, however, the issue of interoperability across the multiple facilities quickly became a concern*The plant floors consist of hundreds of different machines from a variety of vendors, with each speaking its own language or^protocoirMoreover, the varying architectures across the company^ fbrty^five locations added an additional challenge. Molex needed to find a solution that could ^cilitate communications between disparate machines and scale to fit into any industrial environment.

Unfortunately, there no one-size-fits-all protocol in the Manufacturing Industry" Behlen said-^You see it in your day-to-day technology usage as well: software needs to communicate differently if it's running on a Mac or a PC The same thing applies on the shop floor. You have to be nimble and be ready to adapt to whatever is thrown at you, and we needed a communications solution that would do the same.

Molex determined that an OPC server best addressed its need to support a growing range of protocols, which would continue to increase as the international shop floor program expanded. It also had to consider the diverse current and future needs of the several different industries being served. Typically, OPC servers have a narrow, niche-industry focus: Molex needed a solution that could easily and efficiently handle any language it encountered in any environment.

After extensively vetting numerous solutions, the team selected Kepware's KEPServerEX to deliver a reliable OPC connection to all of its equipment in each industrial environment With KEPServerEX, Molex can now support multiple PLCs, process monitors, and controllers.One of ourfavorite things about Kepware's product is its consistent reliability.The confidence that our program will work in any environment is invaluable as we continue our expansion into other facilities," Behlen said.

Since implementing KEPServerEX, Molex has been able to make smarter business decisions. With its accurate and reliable data collection from the entire shop floor, KEPServerEX has enabled process improvements, facilitated quality issue identification, and improved overall efficiencies. For example, in one of its larger production areas, Molex experienced an average 37 percent reduction in equipment downtime—information Molex could only manually estimate before.

Molex has also developed an industry-leading shop floor interface for each facility that uses KEPServerEX to improve numerous logistical challenges (such as shipping confirmation and packing requirements). Since its implementation, it has prevented significant revenue loss and ultimately allowed the company to offer better prices to its customers. The program also improved customer service by ensuring that Molex can deliver its products more efficiently. As the program continues to evolve and support additional shop floor interfaces, Molex plans to use KEPServerEX to drive better decision-making.