PROX SIMPLIFIES PAPER PRODUCTION

Jul 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By RANDY SOUTHERLAND

Although they may seem unrelated, there's a good chance the three-part form you signed when you bought a new car and the thermal paper the secretary loads into the fax machine both came from a plant operated by Appleton Papers.

Located on the northern end of Lake Winnebago in the eastern reaches of Wisconsin, the company bills itself as the world leader in the production of carbonless and thermal paper. From its main converting plant — a facility covering most of a city block — the company rolls out paper products that account for $1 billion in annual sales.

During its almost century-long existence, the employee-owned company was never very concerned about either security or access control. Safe within its walls, a complex series of mostly automated processing tanks, coaters and converting equipment has produced a seemingly endless procession of paper products. Around the clock, every day, the plant runs full-tilt to keep up with its worldwide customer demand. On each shift, a handful of operators monitor the processes at computer terminals, with occasional help from technicians and engineers in charge of maintaining the control systems.

Despite the relatively small number of people in charge of operating the machinery, the plant itself is a beehive of activity. A steady stream of employees and occasional visitors pass through the production area, and the constantly shifting traffic has been a source of concern for company officials.

Operators periodically rotate between more than 20 terminals that control the coating processes. In other offices away from the production floor, those same control systems can be modified and fine-tuned by engineers at their desktops.

At each computer terminal, operators can use a pop-up keypad to mix batches of chemicals, or click on-screen buttons to start or stop production. The obvious security problem: Virtually anyone could step in and take control of the process. Operators knew the potential for tampering, and although it had never happened, they wanted to make sure it never would.

“We wanted to make sure that only people who should be initiating a process could do so,” says Steve Savoie, control systems supervisor at Appleton. “We also wanted to know who was doing what [and] at what time.”

Appleton officials wanted a control system for computer terminals that allowed authorized personnel easy access, while ensuring that no one else could interfere with the processes — causing potential loss in production or even harming workers. The biggest obstacle was choosing a system to suit the plant's needs.

In late 2000, company officials decided it was time to move to a more secure system. “The only limiting factor was the lock on the front door,” says Savoie.

They chose the pcProx reader distributed by RF IDeas Inc., Arlington Heights, Ill. The compact reader plugs into a standard serial port on the back of any desktop PC, and allows multiple users to log on and off from each terminal.

“We started out wanting a reader that allowed the operator to just stick the card in their pocket, and when they got within six feet of the system it would automatically log them on,” Savoie explains. They wanted to avoid the time-consuming hassle of requiring each operator to log on and then off when leaving the area, he adds.

At first, operators didn't like the system's standard set-up, which allowed long-range log on and off, but also created confusion about exactly who was on the system when more than one cardholder was in the vicinity. If problems developed in the production process, managers needed to know which operator had actually been running the process at the time.

Another challenge was that the pcProx device disabled the computer screen by setting up a screen saver program when no authorized user was on the system.

“Operators don't want blank screens,” Savoie says. “Many times operators may be walking by the screen and they want to be able to look at them to see if there are any alarms. If there's an emergency they need to be able to stop something, so anybody walking by a terminal on the floor should be able to look at the controls and stop the processes during an emergency.”

Appleton engineers decided they needed to modify the existing pcProx software so that the reader only required an authorized card for starting a new process or emptying a tank.

The company was able to integrate the pcProx software developers kit supplied by RF IDeas into their standard HMI program. Ultimately, the detection range was narrowed from six feet down to one inch, and required that the card be placed on top of the reader or inserted into a vertical pocket holder on production floor terminals. Appleton engineers also disabled the screen saver that caused each computer screen to go blank when not in use.

Savoie says the new system allows the company to monitor work processes to a greater degree. Each user is automatically verified as valid and given the correct operating privilege when the card is read. “We have alarms that pop up if something goes wrong with the process,” Savoie says. “We have log files that allow us to look at past runs. If there is an alarm during the process, the operations people can catch that.”

Say, for example, an operator thought he entered a formula for a coating mix requiring a 0.3 ratio, but mistakenly entered a 0.33 ratio, resulting in an improper mix. After discovering the error, computer files can be searched to pinpoint the source of the problem and make the necessary correction. “We can figure out what really happened,” Savoie says.

Proximity access cards supplied by Irvine, Calif.-based HID Corp. operate the readers. These ProxCard II badges are sturdy plastic RF-programmable cards that are equipped with an embedded coil that can be detected when placed near the reader.

“Each card has it's own unique electronic identification number,” explains Savoie.

When the reader detects the card and registers its number, it then checks the information against the listing in an Excel database maintained on the main server. Within that file are all the names of authorized users, along with their particular access levels. Depending on their authorization, they may be granted access to all or only part of the process icons on the screen.

Appleton has not yet expanded its use of the prox cards to entry access or use as employee ID cards, although that has potential in the near future.

FOR THE RECORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randy Southerland is an Atlanta-based writer and regular contributor to Access Control & Security Systems.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, please circle the appropriate Reader Service number (listed below) on one of the Reader Service cards in the issue or visit infoLINK at www.securitysolutions.com.

HID Corp.	18
RF Ideas Inc.	19

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