Crossmuller had been approached by a leading Australian F&B Manufacturer to find a better way to manage their paper and spreadsheet based trial program at their Research and Development facility. The existing system was largely paper printouts from a corporate product database, followed by clipboards where manual data observations were recorded and then manually typed into dozens of spreadsheets, and finally saved in a shared folder. There had to be a better way!
Wonderware’s new Recipe Manager Plus (RMP) integrating with Wonderware’s System Platform became integral to the solution provided by Crossmuller. This was supported by a similar upgrade to the laboratory control systems using Rockwell’s Logix family of controllers.
Timing was, as always an issue due to the fact that first discussions took place whilst RMP was still in BETA. As Crossmuller is an InvensysEndorsed System Integrator, and a member of the Invensys Ecosystem, Crossmuller joined the RMP BETA Program and was able to start developing the solution earlier using BETA versions of RMP. This allowed Wonderware to gain valuable customer feedback on their product prior to release and expedited the development process for the Manufacturer. A win-win for all concerned.
The general release of RMP 2014 came in time for the system to go live in April 2014.
So what does RMP do?
RMP aims to ‘standardise operational recipe management’ for typical F&B and CPG manufacturing facilities. In practical terms, this boils down to the following key areas.
Capabilities
What are the standard operations that my equipment can perform? we Mix, we need to specify a speed and duration… and when we Add Flour, we need to specify a weight.
Equipment
What machines do we have and what are they capable of? We have a Mixer that can… Mix and Add Flour.
Formula Templates
What are all the pieces of information, or parameters, required to make a product? To make Product Type A, we need to specify Mix Time, Mix Speed,and the amount of Flour.
Recipe Templates
What is the order of operations? To make this Product Type A we will Add Flour and then Mix.
Formula
Here we assign values to the parameters. Product 1 (of Type A): Time = 5 minutes, Speed = 50 RPM, Flour = 2 KG
Recipe
Here we marry up a Recipe Template to a Formula.
Execution
Pick your Recipe and Go!
Typical view of RMP interface giving Operator real time feedback on Recipe Steps
RMP brings many positives to the table, especially when working within cooperate IT managed environments including:
- HTML5 Web Based Management – no extra software to install on client computers
- Active Directory Integration – IT can manage security without reliance on Engineering
- Built on Microsoft SQL Server – a platform that IT is familiar and comfortable with
RMP also has an exciting roadmap including:
- Integration and data sharing with Wonderware’s larger MES database
RMP has been design to act as either a Standalone Solution, or as a key component in an integrated Wonderware System Platform and MES plant wide solution.
