Listen to what Scott
Simmons,
Manager of Quality, Environmental
and Technical Services had to say about how Domtar
uses the Testream - PI interface...
Isabella:
How are you presently using the Testream-PI
interface?
Scott:
We are now tracking and using the 2-way
PI Interface in a way that is helping us identify
variations in our recipes. It has
been helpful. As we
continue to incorporate other Testream tools with
this data, I believe we will have a very nice
grade recipe system in place.
We currently use the PI Interface to
bring in major process chemical addition rates
into Testream. We are
storing additives for tracking purposes. In a
recipe, specific additives in specific quantities
are needed.
It is good to have consistency and a
history of the past recipes. Some
Target quantities are set and we measure the test
property based on the additive. For
example: measure dye flow to control color. We are
archiving recorded values for tests as well as
additive values.
If we are adding 5#/ton of an additive,
there are several tags. One is the
process variable as measured by flow meters and
consistency meters (using math to calculate the
addition rate). The other value
is the controller set point. The set
point is a steady input value (5#/ton) and the
process variable constantly varies (for example
between 4.8 and 5.2 #/ton depending on real world
conditions).
I am not interested in analyzing process
data for the process variable type variation. I just
want to make sure that we are shooting for the
same recipe every time. Therefore
bringing
over the set point at time of turn-up
tells me how we intended to set-up the
recipe.
If I need to know details about whether we hit
that set point, I go to PI to answer that
question.
We use the Testream-PI Interface to
identify recipe variations as well. PI is
bringing chemicals back into Testream. They look
like a test property that is stored, but use the
QC program to set operating ranges for chemical
addition rate. For
example, for a specific chemical, the addition
rate falls within a specific range or between
these 2 values. This gives
you a recipe for each chemical. It can be
viewed on the floor display (Real-time Display) to
be used as an Operating Review check for our
targets and ranges to make sure you are hitting
your targets.
Isabella:
What do you do with this
information?
Scott:
There may be times when you want to check a
test property, for example color, and the chemical
controlling that test property. There
maybe times you want to see the relationship
between test properties, for ex. L-A-B values for
color.
Using ReportWriter or Data Extractor we can
create a chart to trend the B value and blue dye
additive rate. It works
nicely.
If we want to see how more or less
dye will affect the color, we create a chart to
see the trend. It is very
exciting to plot these properties. We can
plot the b value for each reel and dye additive
rate for the same reel over time.
Isabella:
Are there any other uses for this
information in your
organization?
Scott:
We like to archive our data over time. We use the
Performance Summary report to see the data over a
long period of time and answer the question: “How
are we doing?’ This is a
very valuable report. We use it
daily to answer customer questions about
properties on our paper.
The last piece is reporting on how well we
meet our customer’s needs. We use a
Product Performance Report to check customer
performance but cannot test, only predict, where
our recipe should be. There
maybe times we need to set reject specs for
addition rates.
We also have a financial application for
our reports.
Periodically we review our grade recipes,
from a financial standpoint. We analyze
how much we use of a specific additive thru the
Performance Summary Report. It is a
very nice report we use to make cost analysis and
financial decisions.
****
AcquiData, Inc.
would like to thank Domtar and Scott for
sharing his experiences with us about
Testream. If you have any
questions about this interview or how to
expand the use of Testream at your
location, contact me at imitchell@acquidata.com.
