The IntelaTrac solution is a practical, highly flexible system of software and hardware components that are integrated within the Adaptive Process Management (APM) workflow model.

APM is a rules based model for developing and managing best practices, automating standard operating procedures, and integrating work processes to align organizations for consistent remote field task execution, workforce optimizations, early detection of abnormal events, and integrated reporting and performance monitoring. For example, many customers implement IntelaTrac to enable Operator Driven Reliability (ODR) as part of a Reliability Center Maintenance (RCM) or Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) initiative, whereby plant equipment operating strategies are defined in the system and mobile operators perform inspections to ensure the equipment is running within safe operating envelopes.  If an abnormal situation is detected by a field operator, a maintenance work order is generated to schedule the necessary repair or equipment tuning. In short, IntelaTrac serves as a catalyst for implementing best practices for the field workforce, thus enabling behavioral changes which will help improve overall employee productivity. IntelaTrac provides an integration framework and mobile front end to extend Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems, Plant Automation systems, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to the “stranded” frontline workforce. 

Wonderware’s solution works in concert with existing computing systems to significantly improve operational and administrative processes. Through business process automation and management Wonderwarestreamlines processes and significantly reduces administrative and operation costs by:

• Enabling businesses to codify and support best practices
• Managing visibility into business process performance across the enterprise
• Providing users with visibility into the status of requests, work items, inquiries to monitor activities
• Facilitating interaction between people and the data they need from a myriad of business systems
• Providing mobile data collection, intelligent workflow, notifications, alerts and escalations
• Archiving and auditing all activities associated with a plant operations and Operations Task Management





Process-Driven Field Force Challenges
Significant investments in manufacturing decision support systems have been made by the process industry to help manage processes and guide personnel. Now that these systems are in place, new user interfaces and mobile computing devices must be deployed to further enable the use of these complex systems, and ultimately, extend decision support capabilities to the field force worker.

In addition to the challenges of extending manufacturing decision support systems to field workers, process industries are also facing many other business and workforce challenges:

• Non-standard and out-of-compliance situations in the U.S. alone are costing the process industry over $20 billion per year; 73% of these losses are directly attributed to lack of procedures and inconsistent procedure execution.
• A "graying" workforce in the process industry threatens the asset of retained knowledge. The average process industry worker age is 48; one of the oldest demographics in U.S. labor. Forty percent of the current workforce will be eligible for retirement in four years. Manufacturers have also had difficulty attracting new employees to these roles, which have traditionally had limited advancement potential.
• Refineries are operating at 96% capacity, requiring process units to be operated at the upper limit of reliability. Any equipment outages cause loss of production that can never be regained.
• Merging of operations and maintenance activities to achieve Total Productive Maintenance efficiencies presents significant data communication challenges.
• New, more complex processes, de-bottlenecking, and process re-engineering are required to produce clean fuels and increase product throughput at aging facilities.

APM Framework
The Adaptive Process Management (APM) model provides a framework within which these challenges and many others can be addressed. It is the foundation for the IntelaTrac system of software and hardware components developed by Wonderware to address the complex requirements of automated field force information management.

APM is a rules-based workflow model for implementing mobile computing solutions around complex processes. This workflow model facilitates the migration from a manual, paper-based data collection process to an automated, field force information management system.

Once APM principles are implemented, organizations move from reactive work practices to predictive rules-based work management. To enable field force effectiveness, APM techniques are applied to surveillance activities, standard operating procedures, and field-enabled decision support systems.

For consistent and repeatable procedure execution, the APM workflow model facilitates a systematic way to collect field data and apply business rules with defined responses to changing process conditions and abnormal situations. Many early adopters of APM are already realizing significant benefits with very short payback periods.

Capture
One of the key steps to implementing APM is the availability of easy-to-capture, valid field data that can be integrated with existing enterprise systems. Field workers need a single interface to multiple enterprise systems for simplicity in data capture and speed in making critical decisions. Companies need automated data capture technology, like RFID, to positively identify assets, expand equipment monitoring with existing personnel, and leverage their investments in existing enterprise systems by seamlessly integrating field-captured data.

Analyze and Plan
Implementing APM with a single user interface and a common, integrated data repository helps to facilitate alignment between various constituencies, captures procedures/action items with triggered alarms and events, consolidates procedures/action items by round and by asset, allows assignment of tasks by operator/craft type, and supports schedule rounds/inspections with exception reporting.

Act
Successful APM programs must create repeatable and consistent work processes through systematic knowledge capture. In doing so, they must provide increased early detection of abnormal situations through automatic notifications, an ability to initiate work requests at the point of execution, and real-time access to manufacturing information. In addition, they must facilitate visibility and performance in cross-functional activities.

Continuous improvement
APM allows continuous learning organizations to expand field worker surveillance programs to monitor and close performance gaps, identify and eliminate costly and low-value activities, and provide scheduled look-backs to re-evaluate strategy and adjust alarm points.