GE Digital upgrades its industrial control offerings for ‘modern’ workers
GE Digital has unveiled enhancements to its Cimplicity and Tracker software that “provide critical decision support for operators to make them more efficient”, says the company.
Cimplicity is GE’s name for its human-machine interface and supervisory control and data acquisition (HMI/SCADA) solution, which provides client-server visualization to monitor and control operations.
Tracker, part of GE Digital’s Proficy Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) offering, automates routing and sequencing to accelerate time to market, reduce warranty and recall exposure, and support Lean operations and building right the first time.
Based on decades of GE Digital’s research and development, Cimplicity is the HMI/SCADA of choice for the world’s largest industrial manufacturing organizations, water / wastewater utilities, and power utilities.
It is an ideal solution for industrial companies building remote operations centers including power and water utilities with multiple locations.
Tracker, an extension of Cimplicity, is a critical part of the production environment for complex, high-volume manufacturers – including automotive companies producing 65% of the vehicles manufactured in North America.
Key to these newest versions is Proficy Operations Hub integration. Centralizing operations with Operations Hub enables businesses with multiple locations or large sites to centralize operational views and enables remote access to information and control to support site operations, increasing efficiency and reducing downtime.
Richard Kenedi, general manager for GE Digital’s manufacturing and digital plant business, says: “Today’s digital plant and its mobile, connected workforce accelerate and sustain continuous improvement to drive greater productivity and efficiency, lower total cost of ownership, and increase profitability.
“Connected workers enable industrial companies to accelerate digitization enabling more advanced insights into operations. Whether you are looking at multiple sites that you need to manage or you have multiple applications at a site, centralizing views makes operations more efficient.”
Providing a single-entry point for operations, Cimplicity enables a consistent, paperless view for operators, plant management, and quality personnel, says GE.
The new Operations Hub Widget for viewing Cimplicity provides multi-site views for Lean operations, offers reduced training through consistent operator experience, and leverages displays and data from existing installs.
The new Widget also allows for mashup displays of Cimplicity and other Proficy application screens in Web Apps, in context.
Another new feature is multi-user development for Tracker, which accelerates configuration and deployment. Tracker is a comprehensive routing, tracking and order execution management system that helps manufacturers raise productivity and cut costs by monitoring and managing the execution of production orders. It is ideal for high volume, high variability, and high value operations.
Combined with Cimplicity, Tracker is a “unique, proven solution” that increases throughput with detailed, continuous information to help manufacturers make the best decisions, says GE.
The company adds that it enables faster time-to-market with powerful order execution and reduces risk in the manufacturing process by minimizing recalls with genealogy and traceability data for audit trails and regulatory compliance.
Supporting Lean initiatives, Tracker helps manufacturers and suppliers understand real-time sequence requirements and handle situations that occur on the plant floor when the sequence is broken – enabling manufacturers to build right the first time.
It helps facilitate a large reduction in WIP inventories along with finished goods inventories while meeting production targets.
Craig Resnick, vice president, ARC Advisory Group, says: “The combination of remote workers and centralized knowledge centers that were deployed or greatly accelerated as a result of the pandemic – and will remain in a hybrid form post pandemic – require a new set of digital transformation software tools to both leverage and optimize the operational functionality and productivity of this new normal workforce.
“GE Digital’s Cimplicity HMI/SCADA and Tracker MES solution are designed and well suited to support this new normal workforce, providing a single version of truth and actionable intelligence to workers regardless of location.
“This better enables these organizations to meet or exceed their business and financial objectives, respond quicker to their customers’ evolving market demands, and make required changes to their supply chain in real time, all of which maximizes operational resilience.”