Marquee Display

CDSL has proven experience with data tracking and alarm logging. The marquee display provided a means for our customer to show that data to plant personnel in real-time.

The customer required a solution for displaying real-time data for a food packaging line. The customer wanted the data to be displayed in large format on the plant floor so that production managers, operational managers and engineering staff would be able to know at a glance how that particular line was performing without getting online to look at the raw data or waiting for a shift report. There were a variety of ways we could have communicated the required data per the customer’s requests, but we decided to evaluate the limits of what was possible at the time and anticipate what needs the customer may have over the coming years. This led us to develop a large format HMI we called a line display. The line display married an industrial computer that was already being used in many server-based HMI terminals in the facility and a large format monitor. The line monitor was industrial floor ready and only required 120VAC and Ethernet communications. We created a custom screen to display the data the customer originally requested along with an overall line mimic that showed where line issues were present. Finally, individual machine alarms were displayed in the event an operator was tending another issue on the line and was not in close proximity to a machine that was experiencing an alarm condition. 

Over the years, our customers have provided many opportunities for us to assist them in bringing their vision to the plant floor. We have worked with them to flesh out the details of their ideas and define the associated costs. During this conceptual phase we make sure that we are really listening to our customers to ensure that we are giving them not only what they need today, but solutions that will serve them well in the coming years. As one of our customers often says, “Don’t give me what I ask for, give me what I need.”