Customized Flexible Batching System

A customized flexible batching system, based on the ISA S88 Batch Control standard, was designed and implemented for a blending facility in a large pharmaceutical company.  The goal of this project was to provide an electronic Batch Sheet that the floor operator would use when processing batches.  The Batch Sheet is composed of a set of instructions that guides the operator during the batch. 

There were two major areas of flexibility provided in this project.  First, the Batch Sheets were composed of a configurable sequence of instructions.  A set of 15 instruction types was designed for the system.  The user could configure each Batch Sheet differently using this set of instructions.  The user was allowed to define any sequence of instructions as well as multiple iterations of any instruction.   The Batch Sheet Editor saves these product-specific Batch Sheets to an Oracle database.

A custom application was created using Visual Basic to be executed on the plant floor.  This application is used to display the electronic batch sheet to the operator while the batch is being processed.  The application also provides support for real time data collection that occurs while the batch is being processed.  The application displays header information about the batch being made.  It also shows the current batch sheet instruction being executed.  Some instructions are integrated with a barcode scanner program to verify that the proper ingredients are being consumed into the running batch.  The barcode scanner program is responsible for verify barcode labels on raw materials as well as packaging labels that are applied to the finished containers of the batch being made.  The plant data being collected for each instruction is saved in an Oracle database.  The data is saved with data linking it to a specific batch and blender.  Once saved, this data becomes part of the permanent batch record.  This information is used for Batch Reports.  The data saved for a batch includes certain environment variables such as room temperature and humidity where ingredients are exposed to the air.  It also includes information detailing who processed an instruction and when.  Each instruction type has specific data that is collected for that instruction.

The second area of flexibility that was provided with this project was the ability for the customer to extend their plant capacity without any software changes.  The electronic Batch Sheet application was designed to query the Oracle database for configuration parameters that defined which blender line was being executed.  The customer was able to add blending lines by simply installing a new HMI for that blender and configuring the database with its setup parameters.  Once done, the Visual Basic application was used to run batches on the new blender.  This flexibility eliminated the need for additional screen and scripting support for each blender that was added to their plant.

Integrated Process Automation & Control Technologies