Evergreen Solar Chooses GE Fanuc's Proficy(TM) Plant Applications Software to Fabricate Photovoltaic Modules Used In Solar Electric Systems
GE Fanuc (Nachrichten) Automation, Inc.:
Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Solution Chosen For Its
Modularity, Commercial Availability and Support of Industry Standards
Global Service and Support A Must For Worldwide Manufacturing Company
GE (Nachrichten/Aktienkurs) Fanuc Automation, Inc, a unit of GE Industrial, today announced that Evergreen Solar, (Nachrichten) a developer and manufacturer of solar power products with its proprietary string ribbon technology, has chosen a Proficy(TM) Plant Applications Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution for its EverQ production facility currently under construction in Thalheim, Germany. EverQ GmbH is a joint venture between Evergreen Solar, German solar cell manufacturer Q-Cells AG, and silicon and wafer manufacturer Renewable Energy Corporation ASA.
Evergreen Solar worked with GE Fanuc representative, Massachusetts-based AutomaTech, a leading expert in the field of manufacturing software and data retrieval from the plant floor.
"We were impressed with how quickly this project moved through the sales process because we had a tight timeframe and a loosely-defined project definition," said Scott Danielson, MES Project Manager for Evergreen Solar. "This system has to be ready when the factory ramps production in April."
"We had two goals for this system," according to Richard Chleboski, Vice President of World Wide Expansion for Evergreen Solar. "The first was to provide the manufacturing engineers with real-time data to improve operations and the second was to create a scaleable platform that could be implemented globally."
"Working with GE Fanuc's Proficy software platform, we are able to help businesses increase reliability, productivity and information flow throughout the enterprise," said Tom Schiller, President of AutomaTech. "And, with a proven track record in plant floor applications, we were able to offer Evergreen Solar a Plant Applications solution that could be implemented quickly and immediately meet their business needs." In addition, Evergreen Solar will be using GE Fanuc's Proficy Historian and HMI/SCADA iFIX applications as part of its automation solution.
The scope of the Evergreen Solar project is to track the entire manufacturing process from the growth of silicon wafers through production of the solar cells and finally to the assembly of the photovoltaic modules. The system then sends the final data results to an SAP system to provide data to track production and material usage.
Functional requirements of the project included the ability to track product movements for genealogy and traceability; record downtime and associated reasons with respect to machine, line, operator and shift; record scrap; record production counts from the PLCs, and provide a web-based reporting system for data analysis.
The solution AutomaTech proposed to Evergreen Solar was the Proficy Plant Applications software suite, made up of configurable modules. Proficy is a proof point of GE's ecomagination strategy by delivering a customer solution that simultaneously improves a customer's operating and environmental performance.
-- Efficiency Management: providing insight into overall equipment effectiveness, providing a comprehensive view of equipment uptime, downtime and waste. This module improves the throughput of a plant without additional equipment expenditures.
-- Quality Management: offering insight into how products are actually produced against their specifications and ideal conditions. This module improves the quality of products while reducing waste.
-- Production Management: improving and controlling how products actually flow through the plant by tracking production against specifications and schedules. This module provides product genealogy reporting and makes scheduling changes to reduce work in progress (WIP) and overall inventory.
-- Plant Wide Reporting: providing a series of standard web-based reports and dashboards for monitoring operations. Its interactive drill-down capabilities help users identify "root cause" problems and take corrective actions.
"We are planning to standardize on the GE Fanuc system," said Danielson. "Germany is our first commercial scale plant and, if successful, our plan is to have several more after that throughout the world. Because of our manufacturing strategy, the global aspect of GE Fanuc is very important to us."
GE Fanuc's Proficy GlobalCare offers a combination of high-quality support services, tools and cost-effective maintenance so customers can optimize their investment in their software solution. GlobalCare provides a consistent worldwide backbone of professionals that offer 24 x 7 emergency support, software version upgrades and advanced support tools to keep customers productive and plants operational.
About Evergreen Solar
Evergreen Solar, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets solar power products using proprietary, low-cost manufacturing technologies. The company's patented crystalline silicone technology, known as String Ribbon(TM), uses significantly less silicon than conventional approaches. Evergreen's products provide reliable and environmentally clean electric power for residential and commercial applications globally. For more information about Evergreen Solar, please visit www.evergreensolar.com.
About AutomaTech
AutomaTech provides sales, support, training and services for GE Fanuc and other industrial automation software applications. The company is the Northeast's leading experts in GE Fanuc and MES software for data retrieval from the plant floor. AutomaTech specializes in industrial manufacturing and processing plants with software and hardware products to help business increase reliability, productivity and information flow throughout the enterprise.
About GE Fanuc Automation
GE Fanuc Automation, a joint venture between GE and FANUC LTD of Japan, delivers automation hardware and software designed to help users reduce costs, increase efficiency and enhance profitability. With solutions and services catering to virtually every industrial segment, GE Fanuc Automation provides a diverse array of capabilities and products, including controllers, embedded systems, advanced software, motion control, CNCs, operator interfaces, industrial computers, and lasers. Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA, GE Fanuc Automation is a part of GE Industrial and combines the diverse global strengths of the GE family with the local presence customers need to design, develop and maintain their automation investments.
For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com or contact: GE Fanuc Information Center, P.O. Box 8106, Charlottesville, VA 22906, Phone: (800) GE FANUC (800-433-2682), Fax: 434-978-5205, e-mail: gefanuc@gefanuc.com.
Editors: For more information and photography of GE Fanuc products and solutions, please visit our online media center at: www.gefanuc.com/pressroom.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Evergreen Solar, Inc. (The Company) cautions you that any statements contained in this press release that are not strictly historical statements constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those related to the Company's expectations regarding future manufacturing performance or future manufacturing expansions. In addition to the foregoing factors, the risk factors identified in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission - including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 16, 2006 - could impact the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in Company expectations, or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
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