Prime Time Batch Analytics

I mentioned last week that I was helping out at the Emerson Exchange during the technology exhibits for DeltaV Batch. And while we had good traffic from customers (despite my tag as a booth babe), the two areas on either side of us were packed. To the left was the Syncade area where folks were 2 and 3 deep waiting to get a chance to see both the current offerings and soon to be released version 5.3.

To the right was the Advanced Control area, and specifically, the Batch Analytics tool. Emerson announced during Exchange that Batch Analytics will be part of the version 12 release of DeltaV. Coupled with its PAT implications, Batch Analytics promises to be a game changer in the batch process control world.

I’ve been following the development of the Batch Analytics tool for almost 4 years now. And while the discussions about its PCA, PLS, and Dynamic Time Warping components are better left to Terry Blevins, David Rehbein, and Chris Worek, I feel I’m qualified to talk about the Batch Analytics interface app for the iPad.

It is so cool! Paul Muston from Emerson in England did the development work and I nagged enough folks to get the first version installed on my iPod Touch, and then the enhanced iPad compatible app this past May (to be fair, I bought the iPad as a mother’s day present to my wife – she proceeded to get me diamond studded earrings for father’s day).

Below you’ll find some iPad screenshots of the fault detection, endpoint quality, and contribution screens. I’ve also posted a video on my YouTube channel showing the iPhone version running on my iPad.

FDA sponsored PAT Conference

The FDA and the University of Rhode Island are sponsoring a two day Conference entitled “FDA and PAT for Pharma Manufacturing FDA-Partnering with Industry”. It’s being held on May 11th and 12th at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD.  It's part of the FDA's 2010 Conference Series.

Besides my buddy Terry Blevins from Emerson, there are 16 other speakers from both industry and the FDA. You can use this link to get to a PDF with all the important info, including another link to register.

Lobbying will start immediately to secure my attendance.

Going Bolding at Emerson Exchange 2009

I’ve known Terry Blevins for years and if I was only half as smart as he is, I’d be happy. Terry was manning the Advanced Process Control booth at Emerson Exchange and he was demonstrating something he’s been working on for 3 years now – Online Batch Process Analytics.

So for the first time in a process automation system, there’s a tool to monitor the quality and predict the endpoint of a batch based on a PCA/PLS developed model. He implemented a really cool technique call Dynamic Time Warping (beam me up, Scotty) which is based on logic used in voice recognition software to remove the time variation in batch to batch runs in developing the models.

Through a presentation layer making use of Microsoft Silverlight, operations and engineering personnel can then monitor, via Internet Explorer, the progression of a batch in real time and not only identify deviations, but quickly determine if the variations will effect the overall batch quality based of critical quality parameters.