Mitsubishi Electric Automation Teams with Oracle

VERNON HILLS, IL --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Mitsubishi Electric Automation, a world leader in industrial automation solutions, announced they are the first hardware vendor in North America with an Oracle tested and approved connection to Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center, and Oracle's new Sustainability Sensor Data Management feature. The announcement was made at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 in San Francisco, California.

e-F@ctory and eco-F@ctory is Mitsubishi Electric's vision for how manufacturing unifies its best-in-class control hardware and networks with enterprise IT systems offered by strategic partner companies, including IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. Working with Oracle, Mitsubishi connected e-F@ctory and eco-F@ctory to the new Sustainability and Sensor Data Management capabilities within Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center to give customers real-time information about their plant floor production and energy consumption.

"Allowing customers to make more intelligent decisions pertaining to their manufacturing process is key to increasing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) while reducing their Total Cost of Ownership. Oracle's Sustainability and Sensor Data Management capabilities add the ability to determine very precisely the energy consumption of each system," said Bob Miller, Solutions Marketing Manager, Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc. "Being able to determine the energy cost of each individual product and classify the energy consumption as value added verses non-value added consumption allows customers to reduce costs by reducing the non-value added energy consumption. This enables the customer to reduce green house gas emissions and simultaneously improve their cost of production."

All manufacturers are facing the need to continue to improve performance while reducing manufacturing costs. Having real-time information on machine status and energy consumption gives them the ability to make decisions immediately, enabling them to achieve their operational goals. Being able to identify energy losses on the plant floor will also enable companies to determine if upgrading their systems will have a beneficial ROI, calculated using actual values. Automatic calculation of carbon emissions will also help provide the company with reporting information needed to receive tax rebates for green manufacturing, and help them to determine if they are complying with any regulatory mandates.

"The connection that Mitsubishi Electric has delivered to our new Sustainability Sensor Data Management feature helps organizations monitor all their energy usage in the context of production activities in real-time," said Manish Modi, Vice President of Applications Development, Oracle. "This integration allows customers to achieve quicker ROI and help them accelerate their sustainability and continuous improvement initiatives."

e-F@ctory and eco-F@ctory's enterprise connectivity solution offers numerous advantages over traditional data collection methods and is built to handle high levels of data processing and interaction, not just today, but in the future. By leveraging various sensors and automation hardware, such as VFDs, in rack meters, energy data can now be collected and logged as well. As more and more IT systems are used to remain competitive in the manufacturing space, they require increasing amounts of shop floor information. Without e-F@ctory, the sheer volume of data required would overwhelm the control systems and force costly retrofit or clumsy work-around solutions.

Traditional solutions used today may include OLE for process control (OPC) servers, SCADA software, and Excel spreadsheets, or other business applications. Data collection and database connectivity between the business and plant floor was not their intended design which in itself causes issues related to data gathering. These solutions require complex infrastructures, often with multiple PCs on the floor which need to be constantly maintained and protected. Such multi-layer architecture has many possible points of failure and can be very difficult to implement and maintain.

Miller added, "Customers now have the opportunity to test drive a system that includes plant floor hardware along with Mitsubishi's e-F@ctory and eco-F@ctory solution and Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center. This will allow them to experience the full potential of the solution and understand the impact it can have across the enterprise."

About Mitsubishi Electric Automation
Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., in Vernon Hills, IL, offers a comprehensive line of factory automation solutions. Products include e-F@ctory and eco-F@ctory solutions, automation platforms, programmable logic controllers, human machine interfaces (HMI), AC variable frequency drives, servo amplifiers and motors, motion controllers, control software, computerized numerical control systems, and robots.