ABB demonstrates IndustrialIT in discrete parts factory

Lodz, Poland— ABB recently gave some trade editors a look at its “first fully IndustrialIT-driven manufacturing plant” in this city about 80 miles southwest of Warsaw. The plant makes products for ABB’s Power Technologies division, and is considered a “focused factory” for medium-sized distribution transformers, meaning that it supplies 250- to 2,000-KVA transformers to European industrial, commercial and utility customers.

Launched two years ago, IndustrialITis ABB’s software technology for running industrial plants. Its original target was for process automation, but ABB says it will now use the software in its own manufacturing plants for discrete applications. ‘IndustrialITis highly beneficial and profitable for customers. We radically increase speed. We cut the total cycle time from months to weeks and ensure a consistently high-quality product,’ says Peter Smits, head of ABB’s Power Technologies division.

Consistent application of IndustrialITat the Lodz factory has reduced the total cycle time from 16 weeks to two weeks and has increased production by 100%, according to David Lawrence, head of information technology at ABB Distribution Transformers. “The usual delivery time for a distribution transformer in the industry is five weeks. However, the actual production time is only five days. Having many interfaces leads to additional waiting time and the need to double-check information. Real-time applications and the integration of all systems in the factory cut that time drastically,” he says.

Online software called Trafonet helps salespeople configure and price the transformers while they visit their customers, and has replaced the traditional, slower approach in which quotations and offers were produced from ‘hard copy’ catalogs and price lists quoting standard lead times for delivery. A salesperson can immediately configure the technical data for a transformer on a laptop, quote a price, verify the factory’s production capacity and schedule, place the order in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at the factory, and confirm the delivery date.

Mass customization possible ‘Changes to order planning, caused for instance by machine constraints, are executed in real-time,’ says Brice Koch, head of ABB’s Distribution Transformers business area. ‘We have mass customization, and thus meet all the specific needs of individual customers.’

The system allows management to monitor all parts of the process. “It is the first time in ABB and the industry as a whole that control and business information has been accessible on the same interface,” says Koch.

`One global factory’ In the future, the new system will be able to check the capacities of other ABB factories worldwide, and provide an online answer about which factory can carry out an order quickest. Work can either be done in one factory, or spread across multiple factories in a region or globally.

‘We’re in the process of implementing the ‘virtual’ global factory concept. Once completed, it will be an important breakthrough for ABB in the drive for increased speed and the full utilization of capital resources,’ adds Koch. ABB has 30 production plants worldwide, with about 5,000 employees, and claims to be the world market leader for distribution transformers, with 14% of the market share.

Koch explained that Lodz is also the first ABB factory that can automatically generate full technical documentation for every product based on the technical data located in the company management information systems. Drawings, technical data, test results and other necessary data can be delivered to the customer in electronic form with every ordered transformer.

Control Engineering Daily News DeskMike Babb, European editor, Control Engineering Europe michael.babb@ntlworld.com

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