Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, has released a new version of StruxureWare Plant Operation Ampla, its innovative Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) software.

“New features extend our capabilities in inventory management and conformance to plan, while delivering enhanced user experience, and improved performance and scalability. This release cements StruxureWare Plant Operation Ampla’s position as a key player for production and inventory accounting systems,” says Quintin McCutcheon, southern African marketing and operations manager: Industry Business at Schneider Electric.

Designed primarily for mining, minerals and metals industries, StruxureWare Plant Operation Ampla helps improve operational performance by up to 25 percent. Ampla’s innovative operation management functionality delivers real-time visibility of plant and business information so users can improve competitiveness in global markets and maximise shareholder returns. By driving the optimisation of production, processes and performance, Plant Operation Ampla increases operational efficiencies and reduces energy consumption.
 
McCutcheon points out that Ampla now assigns quality data for each discrete sample and can automatically “bring forward” quality information for inventory movements. This provides an immediate estimate of quality for improved planning and order fulfilment. Quality data can be updated at any time when more accurate information, such as survey results or lab samples, becomes available.

“Ampla now uses survey results to automatically adjust inventory balances per Lot, Lot Group or Work Center. Inventory levels are set to the survey’s balance and Ampla calculates any adjustments required. This provides better accuracy, visibility and management of inventory across the value chain, and various time periods,” he says.

Providing users with a snapshot of inventory data for given reporting periods, Ampla’s new Inventory Accounting feature allows easy analysis of aggregated information. Once a time period is approved, the data is locked and any changes will automatically roll over to the following period as an adjustment. Users can visualise inventory based on production, consumption adjustments, and closing balance.  “With the ability to also include aggregated quality data for Lots and Lot Groups you receive enhanced visibility of your inventory over time,” continues McCutcheon.
“With the latest release, Ampla allows inventory movements to be matched to an executed plan. Movements, and their material flows, can be readily matched to your original plan (from ERP or other systems) via configurable matching criteria. This delivers superior visibility of your processes, and allows easy comparison of planned versus actual performance. Conformance to Plan easily highlights any deviations from plan, and initiates the root-cause analysis of these variations.”

Ampla 2014 r1 continues Schneider Electric’s commitment to reduce the total cost of ownership and offers improved user experience to customers. New features include multi-language support and an updated filter builder. Supported languages include: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese.

Ampla 2014 r1 also delivers further enhancements to performance and scalability, including the introduction of sparse columns and persisted evaluated fields. This dramatically changes the way the data repository works and greatly improves the performance and scalability of Ampla systems.

Key benefits of Plant Operation Ampla 2014 include:
·        improved visibility into your operations;
·        better management of inventory levels and quality data through your processes;
·        easy comparison of planned versus actual results;
·        effective root-cause analysis;
·        improved performance; and
·        enhanced flexibility, performance and scalability.

Plant Operation Ampla software is part of the StruxureWare software applications and suites for supporting company-wide performance optimisation. StruxureWare software applications and suites make up a comprehensive platform that gives industrial customers the ability to see, measure, and manage an efficient enterprise from resource-to-market, and across three levels of their business: enterprise, operations, and control.

“By addressing the primary challenges of each area, it delivers the right information to the right person, anywhere, anytime. Interoperable applications work with virtually any software, hardware or system,” concludes McCutcheon.