Packaging
Rockwell Automation Publishes Whitepaper on Qualified Building Automation in an Integrated Environment
Thursday 08. May 2008 - Rockwell Automations new white paper on qualified building automation systems (QBAS) describes how life sciences companies can cut costs and facilitate validation procedures by integrating building automation with process automation. The whitepaper, entitled "The Role of Industrial Automation in Qualified Building Automation Systems", is available for download free of charge from Rockwell Automations website
The whitepaper describes the challenges faced by regulated industries due to a lack of integration between building automation and process automation systems. Building automation systems (BAS) monitor factors like temperature, humidity and air pressure to provide a comfortable working environment for the buildings occupants. For the average office, this level of control can be sufficient. However, in sensitive – and highly regulated – pharmaceutical and biotechnology environments, the minor fluctuations tolerated by humans may be detrimental to product quality. The result is non-compliance with regulatory requirements, rejected products, and lost revenue. One solution has been to ask BAS suppliers for specialized systems that track and record these fluctuations to meet tighter environmental and regulatory controls. However, some of these systems comprise different controllers, protocols and instrumentation that were not designed with validation requirements in mind. Some are also customized solutions that come with costly maintenance agreements.
“The Role of Industrial Automation in Qualified Building Automation Systems” notes that an effective solution to this issue is to take a unified approach to automation, so that the building becomes an integral part of the manufacturing process. Using a single, integrated platform for environmental monitoring, building automation,
and process automation eliminates the need to validate data from disparate, unconnected systems. An enterprise-wide architecture with harmonized information, networks, products and instrumentation can help make regulatory compliance and process validation dramatically easier and more cost-effective. It can also help reduce the environmental fluctuations that impact drug quality and shorten time-to-market. Another major benefit is reduced costs from a coherent, plant-wide maintenance strategy; the use of common control modules; less need for training on multiple systems; and a lower on-site spare parts inventory.
Rockwell Automation has invested in the development of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) functionality in a range of Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs) within its Integrated Architecture. The building automation PACs are pre-engineered modules for controlling HVAC as well as boilers, chillers, and compressors. The Integrated Architecture utilizes common information, common open networking, and common products to provide a unified manufacturing control platform.