As part of Cargill's strategy to standardize best practices throughout the organization, the company is using information within OSIsoft's real-time performance management (RtPM) platform, powered by the PI System data historian, to gain operational efficiencies. Following a rollout of additional systems to individual sites, Cargill will begin benchmarking to compare equipment reliability, plant efficiencies and ultimately identify and expand deployment of those applications that deliver operational performance gains.
"If the western world is to compete in manufacturing, we will have to become more sophisticated," said Ron Christenson, corporate vice president and chief technology officer, Cargill. "Part of this effort will certainly be based on the competitive advantage that real-time information delivers. We continuously hear from our plant managers that PI enables a more intelligent use of people's time and resources. It is truly a powerful advantage when people have insight into operational information and can quickly make the right decisions."
Within individual sites at Cargill, OSIsoft's RtPM platform has been employed for several years to monitor critical systems, ensure compliance standards are met and optimize resources. The technology also helps sites identify and stay on target within various key performance indicators. For example, the information within the PI System can be used to calculate materials, temperature and other factors against product produced to determine exact efficiency in a given batch or process. The ability to analyze and standardize this information leads to process optimization, localized at one site or across similar sites within the enterprise. Other factors such as financial information or sales data can also be compared through interfaces into ERP systems or other data repositories.
"Cargill is an ideal organization to benefit from an enterprise agreement and clearly recognizes the value in having unbound access to real-time information. We are seeing more customers interested in and committed to initiatives like Six Sigma, KPIs and other scorecards which require metrics and data to be shared across the organization. OSIsoft has always believed that by giving everyone across an enterprise access to real-time information, they are able to do extraordinary things - and see both short-term and long-term gains - without protracted implementation cycles," said Pat Kennedy, CEO of OSIsoft.
With the efficiency gained through a comprehensive services and support agreement, Cargill can focus IT and process resources on the common goal of providing the right infrastructure to allow the organization at large to meet business objectives. From a field service perspective, OSIsoft and Cargill are actively installing and upgrading all systems to a common suite of packages. The central network operations center, located within OSIsoft's San Leandro, Calif. headquarters, utilizes best practices for naming conventions, security and patch management, and extending the software updates across Cargill's global footprint.
"Companies that have an infrastructure in place to make the management and delivery of information-especially operating metrics and key performance indicators-will be able to react to the market faster and ultimately out perform those that can't," said John Hagerty, AMR Research.
