Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) is a major provider of raw sugar in Hawaii, producing about 200,000 tons annually. However, the company faces stiff competition from larger mainland sugar companies and makers of artificial sweeteners, which have been taking large bites out of the mature sugar market in recent years. To maintain its share of that market, HC&S offers its own specialty sugar brands, which cost more to produce. Therefore, efficiency becomes doubly important to achieve HC&S’s necessary cost-competitiveness. HC&S also makes something else, a “product” that it not only sells, but also uses to increase its efficiency. A fibrous residue called bagasse is used at HC&S as fuel to generate steam and electricity. Most of the steam is used to generate electricity, while the exhaust steam is funneled back into the sugar-production process. Electricity produced at the plant is also recycled back into sugar processing, with the excess power being sold to the local electric utility.

Auto-Bake, a producer of commercial machinery for the baking industry, was faced with the challenge of creating a fast yet secure production system. They aimed to design a vertical oven with a reduced footprint and increased production flexibility. The company needed an interface that would work equally well with both Rockwell Automation and Siemens programmable logic controllers (PLCs). They were also looking for an independent supplier of touch panels to replace some proprietary technologies that had become outdated. The company markets its products worldwide and thus needed to support numerous local languages.

New Belgium Brewing, the third largest craft brewery and eighth largest overall brewery in the U.S., was facing challenges in meeting the growing demand for its products. The brewery lacked real-time information on unscheduled downtimes at various equipment areas, which caused production slowdowns. The production staff were continually reacting to unscheduled downtime at equipment areas. Management needed to address gaps in methods and processes to drive improvements. The bottling operation lacked the ability to predict capabilities to effectively commit brewery staff to specific production goals.

Amalgamated Beverage Industries, a division of South African Breweries (SAB), was faced with the challenge of improving the overall production performance and accelerating the commissioning of a new packaging line to effectively address the annual summer demand for soft drinks. The facility needed to conform to Pack ML standards to ensure efficient operation of facility manufacturing equipment. The automation system had to work with existing SAP process order applications and daily production reporting facilities. The company wanted to capture all downtime data using the OMAC model of open control technologies for manufacturing applications. Another challenge was that the software project was being implemented at the same packaging line it was to monitor while it was being commissioned. During commissioning of a new factory line, all focus and effort is centered on this process. However, Amalgamated was challenged to implement both the hardware component and the software simultaneously.

Amadori Group, a leading food processing company in Italy, faced challenges in optimizing temperature management during meat processing steps. The company needed to ensure traceability, with exact temperature data for every step: processing, stocking, and preservation. They aimed to deploy a system that improves plant efficiency. However, they faced difficulty in software migration from an outdated version to a highly innovative and scalable system. They also needed to create a temperature control system that adjusts according to the external weather conditions. The most sensitive part of production was the correct management of temperature, both in the processing and in the stocking and preservation steps. Temperature must be kept constant in the cold stores used in the preservation of slaughtered meat in order to prevent it from quickly spoiling.

Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, is a leading innovator in the fields of crop protection, nonagricultural pest management, seeds and plant biotechnologies. The company has invested nearly 10 million euro at La Dargoire over the last two years to provide the existing laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment. The Biology department has benefitted from this investment with the creation of a new, fully-robotized system for large-scale testing of the effectiveness of new molecules on plant diseases. The FROGSS (Fungicide Rotating Greenhouse Spraying System) project was born. Its functional scope concerning the steering monitoring solution remains to be defined. The company requested a tool that was able to change easily according to needs identified during the course of the project, without jeopardizing what already existed. Their options were quickly narrowed to a Wonderware solution which offered a modular and open architecture based on market standards.

Xcellerex, a company revolutionizing the way biopharmaceuticals and vaccines are developed, manufactured, and commercialized, faced the challenge of integrating complex technology with ultra-high levels of functionality. The company aimed to create a biomanufacturing platform that employs single-use technology, controlled environment modules, process automation, and electronic batch records. The goal was to address the growing demands in the biomedical market space for more effective biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes and develop a solution that would define a model for improving how biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, and other therapeutics are developed, manufactured, and commercialized.

Fujirebio Diagnostics, a trusted source of innovative solutions in clinical diagnostics, was facing challenges with its existing paper-based GMP record system and manual process. The company was spending significant time each day manually reviewing reports. The paper-based system was not only time-consuming but also vulnerable to reporting errors. Moreover, any new system implemented had to enable the company to remain in compliance with federal regulation.

Ash Grove Cement Company, the fifth largest cement manufacturer in the United States, was facing the challenge of maximizing profit in a highly cost-competitive market. The company needed to continuously innovate and find better ways to balance both availability and utilization of its production assets. This challenge was compounded by having to develop a standardized solution that worked for each of its nine separate production facilities. The company's long-term goal was to automate maintenance data collection at each of its facilities for a well-defined enterprise asset management process to support equipment performance reliability while interfacing with its financial software, JD Edwards One World. They needed a system that they could implement to improve operations, with the scalability to contribute to sustainable development.

MMG Limited, a global mining company, was seeking to implement a standardised Asset Utilisation solution across all its operational sites. The solution needed to be flexible enough to adapt to the local operating conditions of each mine, while also providing a standardised asset utilisation data that they could analyse in real-time. The company wanted to have the capability to drill-down to the root-cause of any equipment asset that was exhibiting less than perfect utilisation, in order to drive continuous improvement through the business. The new system and processes had to be readily accepted by users everywhere, and this had to be achieved in a single sign-on environment compatible with existing systems.

Ascend Performance Materials, a global leader in the production of Nylon 6,6, was facing challenges in tracking data to ensure production efficiency and product quality. There was a lack of process consistency throughout the plants. The company was not leveraging modern technology to optimize its operations. Ascend operations had to access multiple software systems to manage day-to-day operations in an effective and secure manner. These systems generated large sets of data which contained critical information pertaining to management systems, planning and cost information in business systems and energy consumption. As a result, Ascend management was challenged with creating relevant reports reflecting performance measures in overall context of their operational process. The company’s previous process entailed collecting and analysing data manually which was not effective, since the information collected was generated after the fact, and was too complex for collaborative use across the organisation.

Hendrick Motorsports’ manufacturing complex contains six buildings, each with its own inventory warehouse. These include separate buildings for each individual racing team’s facilities. As each car is tested and modified for optimum performance on varying racetracks, its crews use parts from these buildings. Documenting the performance of each part in each possible race car configuration is important. Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) had been tracking these activities manually, which was tedious, time consuming, and costly. Scott Lampe, chief financial officer for HMS, is responsible for optimizing resource use for both on-track performance and cost. Toward this end, he implemented the Microsoft’s Business Solutions-Dynamics SL financial program, which he wanted to integrate into a single, compatible system to manage inventory, track parts usage, and maintain a historical profile of car performance. This integration required overcoming the following challenges: Coordinating information across 6 warehouses that are operated as independent entities, Tracking usage of approximately 150 components on each car, Monitoring performance reliability, Getting the system up and running within 4 months.

Vectren Corporation, a $2 billion utility company based in Evansville, Indiana, provides electricity or natural gas to nearly two-thirds of Indiana and 16 counties in Ohio. The company operates two power plants, which together use five coal-fired units and six gas turbines to produce about 1,400 megawatts of generating capacity. Keeping these plants running continuously and efficiently is vital to Vectren’s mission to serve customers. Vectren is also in the wholesale market for power sales where availability has tremendous financial implications. The company's challenge was to reduce its overall operations, maintenance, and capital spending, while keeping the availability high. As a key part of its strategy for meeting this challenge, Vectren management set out to eliminate inefficiencies in scheduling maintenance, ordering parts and keeping track of completed work.

The Southern Mississippi Electric Power Association (SMEPA) was facing a challenge of improving the heat rate and boiler efficiency while maintaining low NOx emissions at their R.D. Morrow Generating Station. The station utilizes two parallel boiler-turbine units with a capacity of 204 MW at 2400 psig. The fuel is pulverized coal from three Riley doubleend ball tube mills fed by six Stock Gravimetric feeders. The objective was to determine the most profitable operating point for the boiler and mills, as defined by a set of values for the controlled and manipulated variables in the process model.

The Water and Wastewater Division of Toronto Works and Emergency Services (WES) was operating with outdated preventive maintenance and inventory programs that were developed internally. Each facility had its own version of these programs, and the functionality was very limited. The division was spending most of its time in a reactive maintenance mode, which was identified as a productivity gap. The division aimed to shift towards a more proactive maintenance approach, which required advanced business tools and information systems.The division was involved in a broad improvement initiative called the Works Best Practices Program (WBPP). The WBPP aimed to develop a highly efficient organizational structure through the application of redesigned work practices and the acquisition of new process control and information systems. An Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system with full maintenance, inventory, and purchasing functionality was identified as a key component of the WBPP applications architecture.

Western Refining, an independent crude oil refiner and marketer of refined products throughout the Southwest, was using an aging legacy system for asset management. The system, which came with the purchase of the El Paso refinery and terminal assets from Chevron Texaco, promised powerful functionality to automate maintenance, purchasing, inventory, and related accounts payable. However, it was of an earlier generation and was deemed too complex, cumbersome, and expensive to maintain. The company felt they were missing out on opportunities to cut costs and improve efficiency. The functionality was probably there, but they just couldn’t get at it easily. Western Refining’s changing business needs prompted an evaluation of asset management system options.

Woodlands Dairy faced the challenge of integrating a second-hand powder plant from Denmark with an outdated control system into their existing operations. The control system was not suitable for the modifications required to adapt the process to Woodlands Dairy’s specifications. This prompted the company to consider how this expansion could be integrated with the rest of the site. The company needed a single platform that could integrate all the disparate plants on site while preserving past investments in expensive assets and legacy systems while making provision for future expansion. They also needed a centralized environment for process data logging which would allow them to analyze data in real-time and produce reports. The system also needed to comply with ISO 22000 standards and the project had to be completed without any interruptions to production.

The Infineum Group, a producer of additives for lubricant oils, was facing challenges in maintaining safety and productivity in their petrochemical plants. The proximity of the plants to inhabited areas made it essential for the sites to be safe and reliable at all times. The company was also struggling with the detection of critical indicators, such as vibrations or the presence of foreign particles, which automatic instruments do not usually detect effectively. The company wanted to maximize the value of the time and experience of the field operators. The company's goal was to increase the plant’s availability by anticipating any potentially damaging situations, optimize operators’ efficiency and reliability during inspection activity, and limit production downtimes to scheduled maintenance only.

Seminole County Water Division was facing the challenge of ensuring the safety of the more than 46 million gallons of water produced each day. The County had to keep an operator 24 hours a day at a SCADA desk or waiting for alarms to come in so people could be called or paged out. The County needed a better method to access data from the historian and communicate it to operators in the field. The department realised it needed to have a more mobile way of managing plant facilities and communicating among plant managers by making plant operations data more mobile so share in the field.

Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) was facing a challenge of training their personnel on the newly-commissioned Distributed Control System (DCS) to reduce operational incidents, increase uptime and equip operators to respond to emergencies. The company also wanted to maintain a high level of performance for experienced operators and new hires alike. Another challenge was to quickly and effectively prepare new plant operators to work in actual control room and field environments. The company was also facing manpower challenges due to upcoming retirements and anticipated higher attrition rate. The company needed a solution that could expose new hires to critical and emergency scenarios that happen only infrequently.

Aibel, a leading service company in the upstream oil & gas industry, was tasked with the engineering, procurement, and construction of a 22,500 ton drilling platform for a global energy company called Equinor. The project was massive in scale and required collaboration from over 850 engineers from all over the world. The challenge was to manage this large-scale project across multiple international offices and deliver the platform on time and under budget. The scale of the project was such that it was unsupportable by most software.

Adani Transmission Limited, part of the Adani Group power and utilities conglomerate, is responsible for designing, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining electricity transmission networks across India. The company was tasked with a demanding project that involved the construction of hundreds of towers to carry transmission lines for an inter-state high voltage transmission line project from the new NTPC power plant in North Karanpura. The project required four different types of towers, each with unique detailing. The challenge was to work effectively across the whole design, manufacture, and construction process with no margin for error.