Automation vendor GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms this week unwrapped the first element of its evolving service-oriented architecture for production processes. The Proficy Workflow product is best described as an industrialized version of business process management (BPM).
The Workflow system, which defines and digitizes logical execution steps in a process to trigger a workflow, can accommodate both manual and automatic interactions. It graphically defines processes ranging from executing the download of a recipe to having an operator conduct a visual inspection and entering data into the system manually.
GE Fanuc officials said the system provides an easy-to-use graphical representation of a production process at all levels. For example, it can outline alarm analysis and action at the control layer, digitize work instruction and task execution at the batch layer, outline production management and corrective action at the MES layer, and even reach up into ERP workflows, the company said.
Proficy Workflow is the first deliverable in GE Fanuc's SOA platform, which has been in development for three years. The company wrapped its own value-added technology around the Microsoft workflow engine, including a real-time service bus, centralized configuration management, a global data and services repository, role-based security, ISA-88 and ISA-95 data models, and a core set of services to build applications.
GE Fanuc will release early packaged applications based on Proficy Workflow, including alarm and event corrective action, electronic batch, and hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) monitoring, throughout this year and into next. Officials said manufacturers can also build their own use cases, including orchestrating high-level processes and managing data between systems, digitizing good manufacturing practices and standard operating procedures, and defining workcell and machine setup.
The existing Proficy portfolio of products can easily be integrated into the GE Fanuc SOA platform via a technology wrapper, as can third-party HMI, MES, or ERP systems, GE Fanuc said. In addition, the Microsoft workflow includes the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), which can talk to Oracle or SAP BPEL workflow implementations, for example.
The value-add of Proficy Workflow is its ability to create repeatable templates that can shave days off the time it takes to construct a workflow, says Greg Millinger, GE Fanuc's Workflow/SOA product manager.
In addition, early adopters of Proficy Workflow are finding new uses for the technology. "The thing that shocks me the most is that I didn't expect to have people telling me they'll use this as a gap filler," Millinger told Managing Automation in an interview.
"What that means is that after they get a system installed and the dust settles, they find all these gaps in the system that they didn't know were there. What they typically do is start cranking out clipboards and creating manual processes to fill gaps in the system, be it in MES or a workcell. But the way we architected this, they can lay it on top of an existing system and [easily] fill those gaps in automation," Millinger said.