Operating room container

Capturing plant metrics is a key priority these days at the Richmond, VA, plant of Madison, NJ-based Wyeth. Among those responsible for implementing the ambitious data collection initiative now underway at Wyeth's Richmond plant is controls engineer Brad Neuroth (shown). "We're working on an infrastructure for SCADA, process history, and process reporting," says Neuroth. "But the first step was plant metrics, and OEE in particular. Without OEE calculations, downtime reporting, and other operations metrics, we can't run our business as efficiently as we'd like." OEE is a measure of three machinery factors: availability, performance, and quality. At Wyeth's Richmond plant, where well-known liquid cough/cold products such as Dimetapp and Robitussin are packaged, five lines have now been given automatic data collection systems that permit real-time OEE calculations.