Automation Support Services

Further to the industrial revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, and more recently the advent of the Information Society, industry has become increasingly more dependent on Automation Control Systems. The introduction of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) into the Industrial workplace has benefited the manufacturing, assembly and storage related industries in terms of providing more efficient means to control automated equipment.

The convergence of the technologies concerning digital computers and tele-communications has enabled the possibility to directly link plant based PLCs to remote computers. This possibility provides the opportunity for users of automated control systems to be able to accurately monitor plant conditions and obtain vital diagnostic and statistical data.

Under the category of Technical Support Services, ASS are offering various services associated with the design, installation and maintenance of Automation Control Systems. These services are designed for potential clients who may be existing users of Automation Control Systems, or clients that are planning to introduce automation in the future.

The services offered by ASS under the category of Technical Support Services are as follows :

• Consultancy in the planning and design of Automated Control Systems
• Design and implementation of small to medium scale Automated Control Systems
• Design and implementation of small to medium scale SCADA systems
• Refurbishment of and modifications to existing Automation Control Systems
• Project management and Site management
• Mechanical and Electrical maintenance of Automation Control Systems
• Maintenance of Automation Control System software

To compliment the services offered under Technical Support Services and to be in a position to offer clients turnkey solutions for Automation Control Systems, ASS has aligned itself with a major UK supplier. Partnering with renown UK company MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd (MHA), broadens the scope of services that ASS is able to offer its clients as it enables ASS to engage in the design and implementation of large scale projects.

The agreement with MHA gives ASS the assurance that they are fully supported both technically and commercially to undertake large-scale projects.

MHA is a private company formed in 1988 to provide total turnkey solutions to core industrial sectors. The growth of MHA has given rise to a wealth of experience and talent in the field of technical automation and control technology.

MHA have an extensive portfolio of blue chip clients who benefit from the company’s philosophy of cross-pollination between industry sectors and co-ordinated activities, whilst maintaining quality in accordance with ISO 9001.

The company are aware of the ever growing need for technical evolution and are pro-active in the development of industrial products, which can be used both in turnkey projects and by 3rd party companies.

During 2010 MHA have taken full control of a former joint venture company Exmac Automation Ltd making them a 100% owned subsidiary of MHA. Exmac Automation Ltd are able to offer clients a complete range of quality material handling equipment and solutions with the combined strength of the total system integration competencies of MHA.

The partnership between ASS and MHA means that we are able to offer clients all or any of the following services :

• Total Material Handling System Solutions
• Total System Solutions
• Project Management, Site Management and Consultancy
• System Designs, URS and FDS Development
• Electrical Control System Design, PLC Software Design and System Software Design
• Control Panel Assembly
• Installation and Commissioning

The partnership between ASS and Macdonald Humfrey (Products) Ltd allows us to offer clients a range of Industrial LED display products. The displays are Tri-colour, and used for various applications such as, ANDON information boards in the automotive industry, information boards at International airports in association with Baggage Handling Systems, and information boards for railway systems.

Macdonald Humfrey (Products) Ltd is one of the major manufacturers of LED displays in the UK. They have a World-wide contract with the Ford Motor Company to provide Factory Vision ANDON display boards to all of their production plants. Other clients include, Toyota, Honda and General Motors.

MHA have recently introduced a comprehensive and unique Pick to Light System under the MachPick banner. This product is complimented with their Integrated Manufacturing Operations System, MachSense.

Calling on resources with more than 20 years experience of industrial control, automation and information systems, Macdonald Humfrey’s proud heritage of supplying to blue chip clients has resulted in the development of additional products to compliment the current extensive range on offer.

Apart from supplying the display products, the partnership between ASS and Macdonald Humfrey (Products) Ltd permits us to offer clients a full installation and support service to ensure our customers remain satisfied throughout the life of their display.

The products and services offered under the partnership are as follows :

Products

• Factory Vision Tri-Colour Displays
• MachPick and MachSense Systems

Services

• Site Installation, commissioning, maintenance, technical support and spare parts

The technical director of ASS has over 25 years experience working with Automation Control Systems in the industrial and commercial sectors. These activities have taken him throughout central Europe, the UK, Ireland, and for the past 12 years South East Asia. During this period he has built a comprehensive network of contacts for suppliers of electrical equipment and electro-mechanical components.

Recent experiences in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan of locating and obtaining parts and components for Automation Control Systems, together with avid interest shown by system owners, has encouraged ASS to offer a service to source and supply parts and components, particularly from Europe.

To offer this service ASS have not entered into any formal relationships with any specific partners. This is a deliberate strategy which we feel will be of benefit to our potential clients. Often the same part(s) or component(s) are available from a range of different suppliers. However, due to a number of differing factors such as availability, cost can vary considerably. In adopting our strategy we can ensure that we are able to source the products at the most favourable terms for our clients.

Whilst primarily concentrating on Control System components, our extensive network also includes many of Europe’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of Material Handling Systems. These Systems would include, Conveyor Systems, High Bay Cranes and Packaging Machinery.

Therefore, through our network of contacts and suppliers, Automation Support Services (M) Sdn Bhd are able to offer our potential clients the following services:

• Source and Supply Electrical Equipment and Components
• Source and Supply Mechanical Equipment and Components
• Installation of Equipment and Components
• Warranty Support for Equipment and Components

The ASS companies have been appointed as the distributors for the Avonwood Developments Ltd (UK) Eureka and ZoneSafe range of RFID products and services in the South East Asia and East Asia regions.

The ZoneSafe range of products are proximity warning systems which produce an invisible 360º invisible detection zone around vehicles. When pedestrians wearing a transponder tag enter the detection zone the driver of the vehicle is alerted. Full information on ZoneSafe can be found at www.zonesafe.net and data sheets are available at the downloads section of this site.

ASS have a long standing relationship with Avonwood and have been responsible for the implementation of their RFID systems in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Since the inception of the agreement with Avonwood, ASS have been providing on-going technical support and a replacement parts service to these existing clients.

ASS together with Avonwood, are constantly providing proposals for RFID solutions to various sectors of industry. Solutions could be for Sortation Systems, Conveying Systems, Asset Management Systems and Vehicle Identification/Tracking Systems to name a few.

The agreement with Avonwood Developments Ltd allows the ASS companies to integrate complex RFID technology into turnkey solutions with the knowledge that they have the full commercial and technical support of Avonwood Developments Ltd.

Products

• RFID Products for Client Integration
• RFID Products and Solutions for Turnkey Systems
• ZoneSafe Products for Pedestrian and Workers Safety

Services

• Replacement Parts and Servicing
• Installation and Maintenance

ASS have a partnership with Exmac Automation Ltd who are a wholly owned subsidiary of MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. The partnership allows ASS to include Exmac’s equipment and expertise into turnkey solutions in the SEA region.

Exmac Automation Ltd have many years experience in the design, manufacture and installation of unit conveyors, conveyor systems and associated handling equipment for all industries.

Exmac are market leaders in the supply of automated materials handling equipment to the automotive, aerospace, white goods, warehouse and distribution, nuclear, pharmaceutical and food & beverage industries.

ASS incorporate Exmac’s equipment into turnkey projects in the SEA region. Together with the controls expertise of MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd and the local expertise of ASS the combination provides for a powerful and experienced force.

Full details of Exmac Automation Ltd can be found at www.exmac.co.uk

Products

• Overhead Electro-Monorail Systems
• Overhead and Inverted Power and Free Systems
• Overhead Power Pulled Chain Systems
• Roller Conveyors
• Skillet Systems
• Automated Platforms

Services

• Consultancy
• Design
• Implementation
• Maintenance, Support and Replacement Parts

During recent years, ASS have developed a comprehensive Warehouse Management System which has evolved into the ASS ALS (All-In-One Logistic System).

The ASS ALS offers the following benefits:

• Improved Stock Management Control
• Optimised Storage Locations Management and Usage
• Provide timely sock information for decision making and planning
• Optimise "Put-away" and "picking" Processes
• Management of Orders and the control of Material Flow
• Improve productivity by accelerating the Warehouse Operations

The Key Functions of the ASS ALS are as follows:

• Master Data Maintenance – Allows the system administrators to difine the master data of items to match the physical entities of logical data
• Purchase Order Management – Able to communicate to host systems (ERP and Procurement Systems) to retrieve Purchase Orders
• Receiving – Allows users to put-away the goods to suitable locations
• Cross Docking – Supports Cross Docking of the goods
• Information and Reports – Provides accurate and timely stock and warehouse optimization information and reports
• Relocation – Supports relocation from one warehouse area to another
• Automatic Replenishment – Supports Automatic Replenishment of items from one area to another once the item quantity falls below a pre-defined level
• QA Handling – Able to reflect the physical quality of the goods
• Stocktaking and Cycle Count – Allows users to perform stocktaking and supports ASRS stocktaking
• Stock Attributes Over Ride – A super user function to overwrite the stock attributes such as, expiry dates, FIFO dates, Batch Lots and QA codes
• Picking – Optimises the picking process by applying picking strategies
• Shipping – Supports shipping operations

Please refer to the Downloads area for a full presentation and Case Studies of the ASS ALS

A major driver for Airports is customer satisfaction and the development of the passenger experience. This goal has resulted in several Airports committing to the major development of their Departure areas and outbound security.

The new Mach-SmartLane® which has been installed at Airports with great success has resulted in major increases in efficiency and throughput and has made a major positive contribution to the overall passenger experience.

The new Mach-SmartLane® is an Integrated X-Ray baggage tray handling system that ensures optimum performance is achieved through the out bound security screening process.

The development of the solution was undertaken in close partnership with all of the various Airport key stakeholders resulting in a system that addressed all of the recognised key criteria inclusive of the following issues: – Dft and Government security approval; Passenger Efficiency, Acceptance & Usability; Operator Simplicity; Operator Ergonomics; Robustness and Redundancy; Maintainability and Cost effectiveness.

The new Mach-SmartLane® is only part of the ongoing story of innovation and development which has been undertaken by MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd in the field of Airport Passenger Security.

The new Mach-SmartLane® is one of a family of products currently being released by MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. The total Outbound security family of products reside under the name of Mach-Secure and includes the following product range:

• Mach-SmartLane® – Integrated X-Ray baggage tray handling system
• Mach-SmartView® – Integrated X-Ray Remote Screening Facility
• Mach-SmartGate® – Integrated Automatic Metal Detector/Gate Security System
• Mach-SmartAccess® – Integrated Access Control system
• Mach-SEMS® – Check Point Security Efficiency Management System

The ASS companies and MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd are now offering their clients the opportunity to install any or all of the MACH-Secure Product range which have been designed to be totally independent and transparent to any of the key component suppliers I.E. X-Ray machine manufacturers.

The ASS companies and MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd have the in-house capabilities to offer their clients a full design service to upgrade an existing outbound security screening facility to a fully automated solution adopting the MACH-Secure Product range. This service can include PAX throughput simulation to determine equipment layout, architectural and layout design through to the complete installation and commissioning of the facility.

Through their partnership agreement with MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd, ASS are able to offer clients in the South East Asia Region some unique and innovative products associated with Baggage Handling Systems for airports.

Baggage Orientation Devices (BODs)

The BODs are an innovative device which enable bags approaching apertures such as, the entrance to an X-Ray Machine or a wall opening for a fire door, to be automatically oriented to ensure that the bags can pass through the apertures without stopping the Baggage Handling System.

This approach can eliminate the need for CCTV surveillance that is commonly used to detect that bags are causing system faults. Many conventional Baggage Handling Systems require a great deal of manual intervention to ensure the correct bag orientation is presented to the x-ray machines, especially during the busy peak periods. During these times, additional personnel are required to be positioned locally to ensure bag misalignments are immediately responded to and do not affect the system throughputs dramatically.

The BODs can be manufactured to suit specific applications and provide interfaces to various types/brands of X-Ray machines.

The devices have been successfully installed at airports in the UK and Europe.

Intelligent Check-In Desk (ICD)

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd has recently announced the development and introduction of a new innovative product under the name of ICD-Weigh. The ICD-Weigh integrates the weigh scales into the Check In Desk Touch Screen.

The ICD (Intelligent Check in Desk) is believed to be the only European weigh scales that have been approved by the National Weights and Measures Laboratory as an integrated weigh scales for point of sale activity.

Recent developments have progressed the concept further to incorporate full weigh scale technology. This new product effectively takes over from the weigh scale display on the operator side and incorporates the display into the check in desk touch screen display.

The new Intelligent Check-In Desk screen (ICD) also takes control of the passenger facing weight display, which has been changed to a touch screen display. The passenger facing touch screen display now has additional passenger satisfaction features such as foreign language interaction. All passenger baggage weights are completely and dynamically captive and available for immediate upward transmission via Ethernet communications (or other) to the Airlines DCS. These weights and bag units are tallied by bag/customer/family/class/flight.

An additional feature installed as part of the weights and measures approval process is the ability to automatically calculate charges by individual airline tariffs. This approval procedure came under the certification of ‘Point Of Sale Equipment’.

The Touch screen has in built databases configurable relative to any Airline. Therefore a passenger checking in on a flight would have their bag weighed and if overweight the ICD would automatically calculate the overweight charge adopting the Airline tariff and display the charge to the passenger on the ICD. This weight charge would be displayed to the operator and to the passenger on the passenger facing display. (In their own language).

One of the main features of the ICD is the de-cluttering of the check in desk of superfluous equipment such as the operator weigh scale displays and controls and also the removal from the desk of the conveyor pushbutton controls. All of these features now reside within the ICD plus much more functionality.

• Operator Main Screen
• Password Protection to open desk
• Conveyor Inch & Despatch Pushbuttons
• Flight Allocation
• Alarm Page
• Maintenance Page (Password Protected)
• Incorporates weigh scale information
• Individual Airline Tariff Database
• Training Prompt
• Language Information Page