AUTOMATION TEAM

2010:Year in Review
Automation Team
from the editors of

Copyrighted by Summit Media Group, Inc.

 Automation Team: Automation Profession

Automation Profession
Faces Transition
The state of the automation profession follows
directly from its genealogy and environment.
It is in transition, unsettled by current events and its own successes.
Automation draws together multiple threads of knowledge with
little regard for traditional domain boundaries: machine design from
mechanical engineering, control theory from electrical engineering,
software from computer science, and methods for design and integra-
tion from systems engineering.
This synthesis that comprises automation evolved in an
unprecedented, cooperative effort on the part of government,
industry and academia to build control systems for the aerospace
projects of the 1960s and 1970s. Then industry rapidly adopted
automation in petroleum refineries, chemical plants, paper mills,
water treatment facilities and the like. Automation systems soon
became an essential—and largely invisible—part of society’s
industrial infrastructure.

“Technology has done us a lot of good. But if your people can’t manage
the technology effectively, it can bite you.”
But with principles expressed in terms of the calculus or Fou- obsolescence and will open new doors. The U.S. Food and Drug
rier transforms and practices learned empirically in specialized Administration Process Analytical Technology (PAT) initiative is
environments, a coherent treatment of automation was never only one example of the demand for automation systems that can
adequately incorporated into high school, technical school and deliver fine-grained control with solid reliability. The challenge is to
undergraduate university curricula. The broad foundations nec- create systems that are true allies. “The key to getting the most from
essary for continuity were not developed. And now, the people technology is focusing on its business value, not on technology alone,”
who developed the conceptual synthesis, as well as those who says O’Brien. “That’s where you need to consider the people.”
kept the systems operational, are retiring or have already done so. Professor Raffaello D’Andrea has worked in industry and currently
does research in adaptive systems at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal
Ten Years Out Institute of Technology). “We now have systems that offer high per-
“We’re experiencing a major resource crunch in the process indus- formance, but are becoming complex,” says D’Andrea. “They can per-
tries at just about every level: operators, mechanics and engineers,” form very well under certain conditions, but when conditions change,
says Larry O’Brien, research director at ARC Advisory Group Inc. their performance can degrade rapidly. We need, and are developing,
(www.arcweb.com), in Dedham, Mass. “I work with the major adaptive systems that learn. The longer they run, the better they get.
automation vendors every day, and this is a real problem. We’re But if people don’t know how to handle these systems properly, they
looking to the colleges and technical schools for qualified people, will not deliver the promised performance.”
but they’re hard to come by.” D’Andrea adds: “People who know how to build, deploy and oper-
At the same time, new automation systems are becoming more ate these systems will be in high demand. Automation professionals
complex, particularly from the perspective of the shop floor. “In the need to be ‘T’ individuals: deeply knowledgeable in a particular tech-
last decade, we’ve seen technical advancements that greatly increase nical specialty and educated broadly enough to communicate with
the amount of available information,” says O’Brien. This information other specialists. This is another way to say, ‘systems engineering.’
isn’t always easy to use productively: “The way things are now, process Automation systems are complicated, complex, high‑performing and
operators spend too much time responding to alarms in the plant and challenging. We need people who can manage that complexity.”
don’t have enough time to work on making the process better.”
The trend to more sophisticated automation systems seems inevi- Marty Weil, [email protected], is an Automation World
table, and desirable. Such systems are the necessary response to Contributing Writer.

January 2010 l Automation World 12

 Automation Team: OEE

OEE: A Shop-floor Metric That

Links Cost Reduction to Revenue
“OEE is the missing piece in benchmarking,” OEE’s usefulness in answering that question emerges by breaking
says Ulf Stern, senior advisor for asset management solutions OEE into three factors: availability, performance and quality. “Over
with enterprise software supplier IFS AB (www.ifsworld.com), a fixed time interval inside four walls, disregarding influences such
Linköping, Sweden. as material and labor costs that are set ‘outside’ before production
OEE, or Overall Equipment Effectiveness, is a numeric index begins, there are really only three things you can do to reduce the cost
that represents actual revenue‑generating production in terms of of a production process,” says Smith. “One: reduce your unproduc‑
potential revenue‑generating production. Applied to a machine tive machine time (increase availability). Two: reduce your cycle time
or work cell, OEE analysis focuses attention on cost-reduction (increase performance). Three: reduce your waste (increase quality).”
opportunities that will be realized by true process improvement
rather than by subtracting value from the manufacturing process or Calculating OEE
from the product itself. “To optimize investments and operations OEE equals availability times performance times quality. All
budgets,” Stern continues, “you cannot only look at the cost side, three of OEE’s component factors are always fractions between
because everything you do in the plant also influences revenue. zero and one. Availability is calculated by first subtracting the
OEE analysis balances cost reduction, efficiency and revenue.” machine’s down time from its planned operating time to get the
OEE is defined as the ratio of a machine’s actual defect‑free machine’s actual operating time, then dividing actual operating
production per unit time to the machine’s maximum (sustain‑ time by planned operating time. Performance is calculated by
able) defect‑free production per unit time, with “machine” being dividing the machine’s best (lowest) sustainable cycle time by
taken to mean any production asset: machine, work cell, line or its actual average cycle time. Quality is calculated by subtract‑
plant. OEE is always a fraction between zero and one that when ing defective production units (including units designated for
multiplied by 100 yields a percentage. rework) from total production units to get units of good produc‑
“It’s a very easy metric to get your head around,” says Todd tion, then dividing good production by total production.
M. Smith, product manager for FactoryTalk Metrics at supplier Any value less than one for availability, performance or quality
Rockwell Software (www.rockwellautomation.com), Milwaukee. results in an OEE that is less than one, which indicates that a
“Everyone does that calculation mentally at some level. You “loss” has occurred. Reducing these losses will reduce the cost of
start asking the question, ‘I made 5,000 last shift. It seems like I a unit of product.
should have made 6,000. Why didn’t I?’ ” There is a catch, though: data acquisition has to be good. “We
have worked with one paper mill for many years,” says Stern.
“They are always aware of their OEE and have incorporated it
into a process improvement effort that has doubled their capac‑
ity. This paper mill has more than 100,000 events per year that
affect OEE. With data collected manually by operators, perhaps
10 percent of those would be captured. The company would see
only 10 percent of reality. Today, we automate the data acquisi‑
tion and see 100 percent by continuously polling production
processes. Also, the most relevant data must be presented intui‑
tively to operators fast enough so that they can take corrective
action when losses first appear.”
“The primary driver behind interest in OEE is economic,”
concludes Smith. “By discovering capacity, you can reduce
cost. That’s the end game, and so implementing OEE tends
to be a management‑led initiative. But it’s only truly effective
when it’s a shop-floor initiative too. That’s when it will
improve the process.”

Marty Weil, [email protected], is an Automation World

Contributing Writer.

February 2010 l Automation World 12

 Automation Team: Lean Manufacturing

Overcoming Management
Tradition Reaps Lean Benefits
The odds are about two chances in 100 that with old accounting methods, such as standard costs and annual
your Lean Manufacturing efforts will result budgeting, and replacing them with strategic pricing, target
in a sustained improvement to your bottom line. costing and ongoing cost management through a process called
That is what Cliff Robson learned as an investment expert with SOFP—Sales, Operations and Financial Planning.
financial services firm State Street a few years ago. His study of
hundreds of firms announcing Lean strategies indicated that Breaking silos
98 percent had no discernable improvement in their results five They also organize themselves differently, breaking up the old
years later. functional silos and replacing them with value streams—cross-
The matter of sustaining the improvements from Lean was functional management teams focused on providing superior
tackled by a handful of folks back in 2005 at what has evolved value to their customers while rooting out all of the spending
into the annual Lean Accounting Summit. that does not add to that value. They have
Those experts, from a wide range of com- taken on the culture shock of disbanding
panies, along with a handful from academia their manufacturing, engineering, sales and
and consulting, correctly identified tra- supply chain departments, and instead are
ditional financial practices as the greatest organizing around how they go to market.
barrier to Lean Manufacturing. The issue is Lean enterprises measure total spending
management—not anything happening on on more of a cash basis, and evaluate their
the shop floor. How you manage the business machine performance by OEE—Overall
Equipment Effectiveness; they toss out old
They have come to the metrics having to do with labor efficiency
and machine utilization. In a broader sense,
inescapable conclusion they have adopted the Pogo adage—“We
that the factory floor have met the enemy...and he is us.” After
years of expecting the factory floor to
is merely an extension change radically to meet global, low-cost
of management. competition, they have come to the ines-
capable conclusion that the factory floor
is merely an extension of management.
determines results, and companies turning Manage the same way and you will get the
Robson’s gloomy data around are those that same results. And it all begins with redefin-
recognize that running the business as a Lean ing cost and profits.
enterprise is what makes the difference. As the Lean enterprise manufacturers
The annual gathering of manufacturing grow and make money in the teeth of the
managers and Lean enterprise experts has steepest economic downturn since the
taken on a life of its own, and more than Great Depression, the necessity for rethink-
500 people attended last year’s Summit, including people rang- ing how manufacturing is managed is becoming unavoidable.
ing from huge organizations such as Boeing and Parker Hannifin The traditionally managed companies—those still operating
to smaller companies that are rapidly gaining a reputation for under the illusion that inventory is an asset, that standard costs
generating extraordinary results. This latter group includes Wahl are valid, that pounding on direct labor and suppliers is a worth-
Clipper Corp., Sterling, Ill., a grooming products maker, and while use of management time, and that setting prices based on
Buck Knives, a knife manufacturer based in Post Falls, Idaho. cost rather than value is the correct approach—stand no chance
The common thread among the Lean enterprise companies against the Lean enterprises focused squarely on their value
(other than their tendency to make more money than the rest propositions for their customers.
of the pack) is a conviction that all management—especially
financial management—has to get in the game and contribute Bill Waddell, [email protected], is a consultant at
to the Lean transformation. These companies are doing away Manufacturing Leadership Support, in Sterling, Ill.

10 Automation World l March 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Workflow Mapping

Window on Process Improvement

Process improvement is routinely portrayed as Before a single workflow symbol appears on any chart, the maxi-
a journey, so any tool that tips the scales in favor of the journey mum value from a workflow map will be determined by the extent
taker is well worth bringing along. In skillful hands, one tool of dis- that the company has earned the trust of shop-floor personnel. This
covery and analysis that has been reliable on the journey of process trust has nothing to do with sentimentality. It is, rather, a data-
improvement is the symbolic workflow map. But depending on how quality requirement. Even when much of the data that feeds a work-
it’s built, the workflow map could be powerfully helpful, powerfully flow map is obtained automatically by a data-acquisition system,
irrelevant or powerfully counterproductive. knowledge concerning many of the best opportunities for process
improvement must be extracted from shop-floor experience.

Validity essential
“The return on workflow mapping investment is a function of the
map’s validity,” says Chris Spivey, president of Spivey & Co. LLC
(www.spiveynco.com), a Dallas-based consulting firm. “The big-
gest threat to validity is lack of collaboration. Each staffing role
taking part in a workflow will see it from a different perspective.
Each perspective will be partially valid. You need an honest picture
from all the perspectives to get a solid map.”
As soon as the workflow map is created, some of the most
important work begins: The workflow map must be painstak-
ingly validated against real production runs. Validation can be
done manually—stopwatch and clipboard—but, increasingly and
thankfully, validation is often folded into a broader and more
comprehensive shop-floor data-acquisition system.
“Our product, Proficy Workflow, is similar to an ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) business process management system applied to
shop floor activities,” says Greg Millinger, product general manager
for Proficy Workflow and SOA Platform at automation supplier GE
Intelligent Platforms (www.ge-ip.com), in Charlottesville, Va. “Real
shop-floor data, continuously acquired and compared with a refer-
ence workflow map, rapidly uncovers problems and opportunities, and
allows the map to become a dynamic model with ongoing relevance.”
Kal Nawawi, director of manufacturing for Carl Zeiss Meditec AG
(www.meditec.zeiss.com), a medical tech-
“A graphic workflow map has astonishing impact.” nology supplier in Jena, Germany, agrees
that automated data validation is a real step
Fundamentally, a workflow map graphically represents a produc- forward in actually applying a workflow map to process improvement
tion system as input/output relationships (preferably annotated with problems. “By repeatedly collecting data against the workflow map
key metrics) involving materials, actions and control signals that steps with our Camstar enterprise platform system, we get instant
combine to create “something.” Its purpose is to make it easier for visibility, enforcement and traceability. Corrective actions are faster,
people familiar with similar systems to change the system of interest and root‑cause analyses are better.”
constructively. Therefore, a workflow map is a communication device When done right, the workflow map is a true ally. The amount
with a distinct audience and a distinct purpose. of work that goes into a good map is considerable, but the results
An effective workflow map embodies a paradox: the better it does are worth it. “A graphic workflow map has astonishing impact,”
its job, the less noticeable it becomes. A good map lets its audience says Millinger. “With the map on the table, even very knowledge-
see through it to the production system underneath. It puts as little able customers often respond with something like, ‘Why the heck
burden on the audience as possible. It exhibits clarity. Even the most are we doing things this way?’ ” 
complex, unique production system can be represented by a workflow
map with clarity, but it will not happen by accident. It will only hap- Marty Weil, [email protected], is an Automation World
pen by applying proven principles and conventions. Contributing Writer.

10 Automation World l April 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Manufacturing Intelligence

EMI Connects the Dots

of Industrial Information
Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) Architecting an EMI system begins by defining what you want
refers to fast, meaningful data sharing between shop floor and out of it. “To get a high return on EMI investment,” says Mik‑
business office. It refers to the “actionable intelligence” nec‑ lovic, “the enterprise must have some maturity to map its manu‑
essary to achieve both continuous process improvement and facturing processes to its products and then onto its business
demand‑driven production. While EMI is implemented as one strategies.” Choosing the right metrics for each target audience
or more software applications, it is best considered as a system is critical. Aligning EMI with existing process improvement
of capabilities that will assist decision making across the enter‑ initiatives is almost as important.
With respect to performance, the two primary selection
“The best EMI systems support decisions criteria for an EMI product are the data sources from which
it can aggregate and the time it takes to deliver output—
both up and down—in executive offices its latency. Manual entry may be an important EMI data
and at shop-floor workstations.” source, and some environments require EMI to read directly
from devices. Most EMI data, however, is aggregated from
databases: specialized “data historian” databases containing
physical process measurements, relational databases that store
scheduling and product-tracking information, and relational
databases that hold enterprise business data.
Geographically distant operations will add a degree of dif‑
ficulty. “When the enterprise manufactures in Asia, assembles
in Eastern Europe, and distributes in North America, data
aggregation with current products is not likely to be fully
satisfactory,” says Raj Rao, vice president for enterprise appli‑
cation services for information technology services supplier
Keane Inc. (www.keane.com), in Boston. “This is an area in
which EMI is still growing.”
prise. EMI output should be timely relative to the decision that the
“The best EMI systems support decisions both up and down— output supports. EMI system latency varies enormously, from less
in executive offices and at shop-floor workstations,” says Dan than seconds to weeks. Case-by-case assessment is unavoidable,
Miklovic, research vice president for Gartner Research Inc. but an overall EMI system effectiveness threshold seems to be
(www.gartner.com), in Stamford, Conn. By making the shop output available within one shift or less of the triggering event.
floor visible to management, EMI informs business strategy; Perhaps the biggest problem with EMI is the EMI marketplace.
by bringing business context straight to the operator, EMI puts The ready availability of high-capacity, commercial, off‑the‑shelf
production decisions in line with business objectives. network components and the wide adoption by industry of standard
communications protocols have removed the principal obstacles
EMI architectures to acquiring a capability that has long been desired. Vendors are
EMI performs five core functions: it aggregates, contextualizes, responding by offering solutions from all points of the compass. It’s
analyzes, visualizes and propagates. All EMI functions act on a a fluid market in which pure-play EMI products are being absorbed
mix of data concerning manufacturing processes, the status of into larger control system and enterprise resource planning (ERP)
individual products and business factors. After applying its ana‑ packages quite rapidly.
lytics to an aggregated data set, EMI output typically consists of Done right, guided by some homework up front, and mindful that
representative data samples for graphing and summary metrics every system selection involves trade‑offs, EMI can be implemented
called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). EMI output is con‑ with little disruption to current operations while adding significant
textualized, with each piece of output answering a question for value at modest cost.
one of three primary targets: operators, operations supervisors or busi‑
ness managers. Output propagates only to its target and is then displayed Marty Weil, [email protected], is an Automation World
for quick visual evaluation, often in the form of dashboards and charts. Contributing Writer.

10 Automation World l May 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Alarm Handling

Lifecycle Alarm Management

for Performance Improvement
Understanding the problem of alarm
management must begin with a sense of the
alarm’s sound. In the control room of a modern chemi-
cal plant running under normal conditions, the alarm horn will
sound once or twice in every 10-minute period. Under upset
conditions, engineering guidance considers one or two alarms
every minute to be manageable; but many alarm systems cannot
meet this standard and will generate far more. During a true
emergency, thousands of alarms will sound, coming so fast that
no meaningful response to all of them is possible.
The consequences are significant. Financial losses associated
with poor alarm systems amount to tens of billions of dollars
annually. Operators cannot optimize complex production pro-
cesses when they are continually responding to alarms, many of A lifecycle approach recognizes that alarm system perfor-
which are irrelevant. Buried in noise and misdirection, critical mance depends on the definition of solid system requirements
alarms can go unnoticed. Time spent operating under upset (referred to as an “alarm philosophy”) and on the cumulative
conditions lengthens. The frequency of plant shutdowns forced effect of a series of actions repeated cyclically over time. The
by safety instrumented systems increases. In the extreme, the lifecycle encompasses design, training, operation, maintenance,
result is catastrophic failure. monitoring and change management. According to Kim Van
Camp, ISA‑18.2 committee representative for controls vendor
“Alarm management problems Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com), in
Austin, Texas, the best way to understand why the lifecycle
will not be solved by alarm approach works is to conceptualize it as a classic, iterative, feed-
improvement projects alone.” back control loop. The setpoint is the alarm philosophy, which is
the requirement that the alarm system must satisfy where it is (or
So why not fix it? In many plants, alarm management prob- will be) deployed. Feedback comes from ongoing monitoring of
lems have been fixed—and fixed again—only to return as bad or system performance relative to the alarm philosophy. Lastly, the
worse than before. It is a pattern seen often enough that industry people who design and operate the system are the mechanism of
experts conclude that, although the tactics are often right, the the loop’s control action.
strategy is wrong. “Alarm management problems will not be “A true lifecycle approach requires us to think more broadly
solved by alarm improvement projects alone,” says Nicholas P. than we often do,” says Peter Andow, a former professor of chem-
Sands, CAP, PE. Sands is co‑chair of the International Society ical engineering who is now principal consultant for advanced
of Automation’s (www.isa.org) committee on ISA‑18.2 (2009), solutions in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Honeywell
one of industry’s principal standards covering the design and Process Solutions (www.honeywell.com), the Phoenix-based
management of alarm systems. automation vendor. For example, where training is concerned,
develop curriculums for design engineers and operators that
Continuity Lacking would graduate specialist operations engineers, because running
Essentially, discrete solutions are ill‑equipped for solving contin- a distillation column is different than designing one.
uous problems. Projects start and stop; project teams come and “Considering the entire lifecycle also reveals the interfaces
go. Without some organizing structure to link them together, between our systems and their surroundings,” says Andow. “It
however well they are conceived and executed, independent allows us to see alarm systems in the context of fundamental
projects lack continuity. Between improvement projects, the process design, and to see the plant in the context of the com-
alarm system inevitably degrades. “Only a true lifecycle approach munity around it—to take account of the interactions.”
to alarm management will retain the benefits of alarm improve-
ment projects. This approach becomes as much a part of the Marty Weil, [email protected], is an Automation World
alarm system as any of its physical components,” says Sands. Contributing Writer.

10 Automation World l June 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Collaboration

Collaboration Strikes Balance

Between Opposing Forces
In business, collaboration is typically a consortium formed by members of the semiconductor industry
team activity in which the interests of the that takes its name from SEmiconductor MAnufacturing TECH‑
prospective team members are known to be in nology. “In collaboration, the hardest work is done up front.”
conflict. For example, in the marketplace, vendors want to The emphasis on up‑front work is due, in part, to the psychological
sell high; purchasers want to buy low (supply chain collaboration dynamic of collaboration itself. Collaboration is a form of agreement.
challenge). Each subcontractor working on the design of a complex In consideration of any agreement, each party consciously or uncon‑
system wants to concentrate on satisfying its own obligations (col‑ sciously has a “walk‑away” alternative, the one that will be adopted
laborative engineering design challenge). An internal subject matter in the absence of reaching agreement. The easier it is to accept the
expert, tapped for an ad hoc consultation by another unit within the walk‑away, the less likely that the proposed agreement will be accepted.
company, is typically already working on something else (knowledge Collaboration in industry is rarely pursued unless the existing rela‑
management challenge). These conflicts are inherent and won’t go tionship between potential partners is at least tolerable—as with buy‑
away. Nevertheless, these situations exemplify some of the most ers and sellers in a supply chain, for example. In such situations, the
important opportunities for collaboration in industry. walk‑away alternative to collaboration becomes a fairly comfortable
status quo—an easy, safe choice. Much
“In collaboration, the hardest work is done up front.” of the burden for overcoming this barrier
falls to the team leader, who must present
the common denominator at the collaboration's launch meeting; but,
policies set by management could help or hurt.
“In many enterprises, collaboration represents change that intrudes
on the daily routine, and people will resist it for that reason alone,” says
Tara Holloway, industry quality manager for Graham Packaging Co.
Inc. (www.grahampackaging.com), a York, Pa.-based manufacturer
of custom blow-molded plastic containers for branded consumer
products. “Management must explicitly allocate the time necessary
to build and maintain collaborative relationships—and must protect
that allocation against day-to-day erosion.”

What works?
A few, well-chosen performance metrics tracked by senior manage‑
ment across all collaborative projects will show what works and what
Collaboration combines fast‑track team building with ongo‑ doesn’t in a particular enterprise, and will make it easier to pinpoint
ing conflict management. Whether collaboration succeeds or fails and reward staff who have mastered collaborative skills. Regularly
depends, first of all, on how well the team leader identifies and com‑ forming cross‑functional teams within the enterprise will make col‑
municates the ways in which collaborating will serve the interests of laboration more of a habit before attempting riskier external col‑
the team’s members. Separating underlying interests from arbitrary laborations. On major collaborative projects, an executive steering
preferences is the basis for constructively managing conflict and for committee that can be invoked to contend with entrenched “we’ve
revealing the team’s true purpose. Appreciating that the current col‑ never done it that way” obstacles is a recommended practice.
laboration can set precedents for the future will make collaborative Manufacturing currently lives in a world in which many of the
partnerships sustainable. Understanding the nature of complemen‑ improvements possible within four walls have been achieved, or soon
tary capabilities exposes the mechanisms for creating value that will be. Much of what remains to be done demands that manufactur‑
would not be available without collaboration. ing enterprises look outward. In such a world, collaboration offers
“Clearly defining the common denominator—the areas where unique returns on low capital investment; but, it is not free. More than
it makes sense to share resources, costs and risks—is the single money, collaboration exacts a price in creativity and insight.
most important task in establishing a collaboration,” says Daniel
Armbrust, president and chief executive officer of SEMATECH Marty Weil, [email protected], is an Automation World
(www.sematech.org), East Fishkill, N.Y., a research and development Contributing Writer.

10 Automation World l July 2010

 Automation Team: Return on Automation

Talk The Language of Executives

Calculating return on doing something capital. Looking at the profitability side return, he adds that the
appears, on the surface, to be a straightforward ability of the solution to accomplish process improvements, such
financial calculation. First-year accounting students are taught as increasing yield or efficiency, has a direct impact. Another
ways to calculate “return on investment,” or ROI. Then they are consideration when justifying automation is its ability to reduce
introduced to increasingly complex formulae for including the variability. “This reduction impacts consumption and amount of
future cost of money (as in discounted cash flow calculations), raw feedstock required, and it lowers maintenance, makes better
among other things. use of inventory and has the opportunity to have at least a soft
In fact, the term ROI has taken on a life of its own in which value to it,” says Sustaeta.
sales people in many fields have morphed the phrase into mean-
ings for their particular product offerings, sometimes straying Easily quantified
far from the original concept of “how much additional profit Rockwell Automation, along with several other automation tech-
(money) did we earn on the additional money we invested in nology suppliers, offers model-based analysis. “In my world,” says
that project.” Many people without financial rigor simply use Sustaeta, “we find it’s easier to quantify if we can baseline current
the phrase ROI to mean “benefits you receive from investing in performance. Even if we haven’t worked with that company before,
our product.” we can model how they have been operating and then system-
atically make changes in the model and
Talking in the language simulate future performance.”
There is another potentially useful
of decision makers analysis tool—relating automation
carries much weight. investment to support of corporate
strategic initiatives. Senior corporate
A useful metric for managers is executives are loath to discuss improv-
return on net assets (RONA)—a mea- ing performance of an individual pro-
sure of how much profit (money) is cess, but their interest increases when
earned per dollar invested in net assets. programs support corporate programs.
Automation World covers the imple- Doug Weaver, an officer with MESA
mentation of automation into manu- International (www.mesa.org), discussed
facturing and production processes, this analysis with Automation World in a
so our preferred term is “return on recorded interview which can be found
automation”—how much additional at www.automationworld.com/pod-
money is earned by the plant through cast-7241. Weaver is also a practitioner
an investment in automation solutions. in a manufacturing organization. He
But sometimes the variables involved in discovered that when pitching an idea, if
calculating everything involved in the he could identify the particular strategic
resulting plant profitability are so com- initiative that an executive was charged
plex that a simple financial justification with, then he could couch the project in
number is all but impossible to obtain. terms that mattered. Some of these ini-
Angel Sustaeta, manager of predic- tiatives are found in the MESA Strategic
tive intelligence solutions at controls vendor Rockwell Automa- Model and include Lean Manufacturing, Quality and Regulatory
tion Inc. (www.rockwellautomation.com), in Austin, Texas, says, Compliance, Product Lifecycle Management, Real-time Enterprise
“When you’re looking at the lifecycle of an asset or total cost of and Asset Performance Management.
ownership (TCO), we’ve had enough rounds around the block to There are many tools available to managers and engineers who
have historical performance information on platforms. An engi- seek to improve operations through automation investments.
neer or manager putting justification together can pull records Talking in the language of decision makers carries much weight.
now to see cost or hours of service. The contract is easier to This language includes both dollars and alignment with corpo-
quantify when looking at historical performance of the system. If rate strategic direction.
you are evaluating a competing vendor, then that’s more difficult.”
Sustaeta points out that sometimes you analyze capital Gary Mintchell, [email protected], is Editor in
invested vs. benefits. But some investments actually reduce fixed Chief of Automation World.

10 Automation World l August 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Leadership

Motivating Knowledge Workers

One of the essential functions of leadership carrot and the stick. The idea persists that to get people to work
is to motivate followers to do the work of harder, pay them an incentive. If that doesn’t work, then threaten
the organization. An old joke goes: How many people them with unemployment.
work here? About half. When did you start working here? Pink found that there are two basic kinds of work. One kind
When they threatened to fire me. As you survey your automa- is rote work. All the steps of the task are predefined. The worker
tion team, how many people work there? Do they want to be need only follow the steps, complete the sub-tasks one-by-one,
there? Or are they there because they need a paycheck—and and then the task is finished. The other kind of work requires
their minds are elsewhere? the worker to think. She must devise the way to do the task and
thinking is required to complete the task. Researchers have
If a knowledge worker feels paid to the studied these types of work and conducted research by giving
rewards for completion of certain tasks in the laboratory.
anticipated level of the position and skill, That workers doing the first type of work were motivated
then money is no longer an issue. to do more work faster when offered greater rewards propor-
tional to the completion of more work would not be a surprise
to almost anyone. However, workers doing the second type
of work were actually disincentivized by the offer of greater
reward for completing more tasks. They would joyfully work
on solving the problem for free in the controlled part of the
experiment. But when the researcher offered money for com-
pleting more, they seemed to lose interest and performance
went down.
The first thing leaders should do with new knowledge
worker hires is to pay enough to take the issue of money
off the table. If a knowledge worker feels paid to the antici-
pated level of the position and skill, then money is no longer
an issue. So how are knowledge workers motivated? Pink’s
research reveals three areas of expectation. These are auton-
omy, mastery and purpose.

Autonomy, mastery, purpose

Knowledge workers need to be trusted to be left alone to accom-
plish the work. Put a programmer in an office with some pizza
and soda and check back later to find the program finished. Let
these workers determine how they’ll go about organizing the
work. Trust them to finish, but still follow up with them.
Knowledge workers seek mastery. Give them an opportunity
to polish their skills, as well as to take classes that will enhance
To obtain the productivity your organization needs to survive their skills. Give them an opportunity to show off their work—that
amongst some of the toughest competition the world has known, is, their mastery of a skill.
you need to discover what makes people come to work and what And third, knowledge workers live with purpose. Why does the
makes them want to do a better job. If you want to avoid costly organization exist? What benefit does your product or service pro-
employee turnover and the recruiting and training expenses that vide to society? Why should they be working on this project?
turnover causes, then you need to know what makes people tick Peter Drucker identified knowledge workers about fifty years
and what will keep them there. ago. We’re still learning how to make use of their talents and
There exists some surprising research about what motivates skills. As the newer generations enter the workforce, it will be
people to work. Daniel Pink, a best-selling author, reviewed the even more critical to understand how to motivate them.
research and published his findings in his latest book, “Drive:
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Most people, Gary Mintchell, [email protected], is Editor in
when considering motivation, fall back on the old analogy of the Chief of Automation World.

10 Automation World l September 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Lean Six Sigma

Tie Lean Six-Sigma

To Tangible Business Impact
Managers, professionals and executives have business strategy and market dynamics. The most successful
long been on a quest to find the perfect tool for becoming firms today understand the interrelationships among structure,
effective at their jobs, as well as for making their organizations process, offerings and customers and their effects on profitable
effective. Lean Manufacturing was developed, in part, to pro- growth. Without this understanding, the costs of complexity go
vide a methodology for achieving optimum flow of materials unchecked and can often destroy shareholder value faster than
and products through manufacturing while reducing waste. Six Lean Six Sigma can help create it.”
Sigma, named from the statistical analysis of a normal distribu-
tion curve indicating the number of “standard deviations” from Tools approach
the mean, strives to reduce variability. Some have thought that If you look back a couple of decades, companies frequently took
if each is good, why not combine them. So, Lean Six Sigma was a tools-based approach to business process improvement—
developed to provide the best of both worlds. thousands of companies embarked upon initiatives with the
Mark George, managing partner in the Process and Innovation implementation of a single methodology, such as Total Quality
Performance Group at global consulting firm Accenture, based Management (TQM), Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM)
in Dallas, says, “Lean Six Sigma has come a long way. Today, or Continuous Flow Manufacturing (CFM), which was based
organizations are more focused on business outcomes than they on the Toyota Production System (TPS) (which later evolved
are on tools and techniques—business leaders have less tolerance into Lean Manufacturing) and Six Sigma.  “By around 2002,”
for wide-scale training programs. Around the globe, the theme George continues, “the majority of firms around of the globe
of ‘effective execution’ reverberates. In fact, all recent studies began to embrace Lean Six Sigma as a way to simultaneously

“Today, organizations are more

focused on business outcomes
than they are on tools and
techniques.”
of global CEOs (chief executive officers), as researched by the
Conference Board, indicate that execution excellence is their improve quality, cost and speed. Literally hundreds of thousands
overwhelmingly greatest concern. Accenture has found that only of Black Belts and Green Belts have been trained on its tools and
through an architected focus on simplicity, speed and discipline concepts. Many legacy programs unfortunately only measured
can true execution excellence be achieved.” success by the number of people trained and the number of
George finds the Lean Six Sigma framework is still a vital projects in process. In later years, Lean Six Sigma programs were
and pragmatic component of this approach—it is necessary, but tied more closely to tangible business impact and shareholder
not sufficient. “Its powerful, yet generally reactive approach to value creation.”
problem-solving must be complemented by a proactive and delib- News this summer detailing the woes of Toyota’s product
erate road map of transformation toward a defined end-state— design and manufacturing initially generated some negativity
achieved in part through Performance Management,” he con- toward Lean in the mass press. Eventually, even Toyota’s execu-
tends. tives admitted straying from the principles that brought the
Some think that excellence is a destination. But that can company world-wide acclaim. That was just one further example
lead to a false sense of arriving at perfection. George says, that these tools are like walking staffs to help you along the
“Achieving true execution excellence is a journey requiring con- journey to operational excellence, not a tent along the river where
tinual management and refinement. Organizations today real- you can rest in perfection.
ize that structure (operating models) and execution are deeply
intertwined. True transformation and competitive advantage Gary Mintchell, [email protected], is Editor in
requires a concerted effort to optimize both and align them with Chief of Automation World.

10 Automation World l November 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com

 Automation Team: Leadership

Building Inner Excellence

“I am dragged along by a strange new force. Concentration and focus are keys to overcoming the inner elephant
Desire and reason are pulling in different and putting the inner executive back in charge. Once, at a party, people
directions. I see the right way and approve it, were asked what factor was the most important in getting to where
but follow the wrong.”—Medea they had gotten in life? Warren Buffett said it was his focus. Bill Gates
gave the same answer.
Why do leaders not behave as they intend? Maybe it has hap- One thing that will help to improve focus, attention and concentra-
pened to you. You wanted to lead the team to success, whether tion is to write down intentions. Then you can refer to them when
on the basketball court or in delivering that new manufacturing you start to drift. Then, Daft says, “A good way to improve concentra-
project on time and on budget. You saw yourself as a good leader, tion is to shift your attention away from future goals to the present
but somewhere along the way, things broke down. moment.” He also advises learning to calm down to speed up. Some
students have told him that if they are unable to concentrate at home,
Concentration and focus are keys they go to the library where others are present, and they focus better.
To help his Master of Business Administration (MBA) students
to overcoming the inner elephant achieve needed changes in their lives, he adopted a coaching method.
and putting the inner executive Students chose something about themselves that they wanted to
change and were paired with another student as coach. The coach
back in charge. had two responsibilities: to call and ask a few questions each evening,
and to be very supportive and encouraging. The coaches were not to
Vanderbilt business school professor Richard L. Daft asked that be analytical, rational or critical, as if an authority figure. Roughly 80
question and answered it in his new book, “The Executive and The percent of the students reported solid progress over the three weeks.
Elephant: A Leader’s Guide To Building Inner Excellence,” just pub- The lesson—overcome your inner elephant and do what you
lished by Jossey-Bass. In one study that Daft cites, the records of 38 intend to do.
ineffective chief executive officers (CEOs) revealed that all were good
at cognitive skills—vision, strategy, ideas and the like. Things broke Gary Mintchell, [email protected], is Editor in
down during execution. The CEOs’ behavior did not follow through Chief of Automation World.
on their thoughts and words.
Says Daft, “The big challenge in leadership is not in figuring
out what to do but in actually doing the thing you know will
produce great results. The challenge is learning to lead yourself
to do what needs doing when it needs doing. Personal mastery
aligns your behavior with your intention.”

Divided self
Daft’s research points to people containing divided selves as the root
of the problem. “If passion drives, let reason hold the reins,” said Ben-
jamin Franklin, reflecting the two selves.
“The metaphors I use in this book for our two selves or parts are the
executive and the elephant,” explains Daft, “which I will often refer to
as the inner executive and the inner elephant. The inner executive is
our higher consciousness, our own CEO, so to speak. The inner ele-
phant symbolizes the strength of unconscious systems and habits.”
The inner elephant manifests itself in many ways, but Daft offers
helpful methods to overcome it and do what you want to do. He
cites six mental mistakes that occur because you let your unconscious
systems and habits rule. They are: reacting too quickly, inflexible
thinking, wanting control, emotional avoidance and attraction, exag-
gerating the future and chasing the wrong gratifications. Certainly,
upon reflection, you will notice that you’re guilty of at least one of
these—most likely all six, at one time or another.

12 Automation World l December 2010 Visit www.AutomationWorld.com