With so many automation and manufacturing execution system (MES) projects being implemented by consultants and contractorswww.cechina.cn, it is important to have good processes in place to make these projects productive as quickly as possible. In many projectsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, the on-boarding time—which is the time to setup all of the proper hardware, accounts and privileges—and the ramp-up time—which is the time it takes for someone to start doing useful work on the project—can be a month or more. This month of non-productive time can be a substantial part of project cost.
        Most IT departments have on-boarding processes for getting PCs, user accounts, and standard tools set up. These processes work well for on-boarding administrative and clerical personnel, but workers in automation projects often need additional specialized hardware, software toolsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, and IT administration rights. Automation contractors also need to know your automation project processes and their roles in those processes.
        It’s important that this information is readily available to reduce on-boarding and ramp-up times. It is even more important to have the information easy to find if the contractors are offshore. Because of time zone differences and potential language problems with offshore contractorswww.cechina.cn, simple misunderstandings of project process rules can take days to be resolved控制工程网版权所有, negatively impacting the project’s schedule.
        Automation-specific additions
        On-boarding for automation projects should augment the IT on-boarding process by adding other necessary components such as PLC or DCS programming toolsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, fieldbus network cards, configuration management accounts for code check-in and check-out控制工程网版权所有, defect tracking accounts, test system accounts, documentation system accounts, project management too