Plant Device Simulation Control for Stable Manufacturing Output
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Solution Overview
Problem
Manufacturing plants face inefficiencies and operational challenges in adjusting devices to meet target output parameters, often resulting in unintended consequences or failure to maintain production levels during maintenance, repairs, or changes in operational conditions.
Innovation Solution
A plant management system that utilizes sensor data to simulate various operational scenarios, identifying optimal settings for plant devices to achieve or exceed target manufacturing outputs by processing real-time data and adjusting device settings based on simulations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If operator adjusts plant device settings manually, then device can be modified for different operational reasons, but plant manufacturing output may decrease or fail to meet targets
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary simulation of device adjustments before actual implementation. Multiple hypothetical scenarios are evaluated by simulating their impact on plant output, allowing the system to pre-determine which adjustments will maintain or improve productivity before committing to actual device changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates virtual copies of the plant and its devices to run simulations. These digital twins allow operators to test adjustment scenarios without affecting actual plant operations, enabling safe exploration of operational changes and their potential impacts on manufacturing output.
2Ease of repair
If plant device is taken offline for service or repair, then device maintenance can be performed, but plant manufacturing output decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system simulates device shutdown scenarios in advance to identify optimal timing and compensate by adjusting other devices. By pre-calculating the impact of taking devices offline and determining compensatory adjustments to remaining operational devices, the system minimizes the negative impact on overall plant output during maintenance periods.
3Reliability
If plant device operates outside specification, then immediate adjustment is needed, but adjustment may have negative impact on other devices or overall output
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors device operational characteristics and uses simulation feedback to determine adjustments. When a device operates outside specification, the system simulates various adjustment scenarios and selects the one that corrects the specification violation while having the least negative impact on overall plant output, using simulation results as feedback to guide the adjustment decision.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, that can optimize a manufacturing plant's operations and/or production based on simulations that utilize information about the current and forthcoming manufacturing conditions to determine the optimal operational characteristics for the different plant devices. Methods may include obtaining, using data from a set of sensors, a set of current operational characteristics for multiple plant devices in a plant. Multiple manufacturing scenarios can be simulated using different sets of operational characteristics for plant devices in which at least one operational characteristic from the set of current operational characteristics is varied. A first manufacturing scenario can be determined that satisfies overall operational parameter(s) for one or more plant devices or for the whole manufacturing plant. Setting(s) of one or more plant devices can be adjusted based on a set of operational characteristics corresponding to the first manufacturing scenario.