Michelin’s goal with the PI System is to implement real-time visual analytics for safety, quality, and productivity. The PI System is being used to master the fundamentals of data collection and analysis. The ongoing efforts focus on visual presentations of the system’s real-time performance and hour by hour summaries. The most important visualization is a production summary dashboard in every control room and lab as well as on the monitors of operations managers and process engineers. A simple color-coding scheme and behind-the-scenes calculations provide real-time production goal analytics and identify bottlenecks that require additional support resources. Real-time tools are used to plan raw material chemical preparations with supply chain, operators, and chemists working from the same information. These tools also enable real-time and hourly performance evaluation of key processing equipment. Dashboards provide a snapshot of all major quality parameters for a given production system to instantly identify where additional technical support is needed. The quality dashboard calculates recipe values outside of the control system providing an independent verification in real-time, and can even alert operations of pump failures before a control system alarm is triggered. The operators dictate additional elements for the dashboards to help them better monitor the process. The PI System makes it easier for operators to do their jobs correctly. PI notifications was implemented to enable SMS safety alerts being sent to operations and safety managers’ cell phones for safety alerts. The PI System provides instant identification of problems to enable faster decision making. It also provides continuous, automated analysis for safety, quality, and productivity at a cost below technician and engineer salaries."
Speaker
Bruce Lucas
Mr. Bruce Lucas currently works in Louisville, KY for Michelin where he was the process engineering manager for five years. Mr. Lucas works as part of a central engineering team with his focus on new technologies to improve process performance through automation and driving progress on the shop floor through visual analytics. Mr. Lucas has an expertise in polymer process modeling and simulation. His past work also included projects in pinch optimization. Mr. Lucas holds a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from NJIT along with a PhD from Virginia Tech.