As a global organisation and the world`s 2nd largest brewery, SABMiller has an aggressive programme to implement production systems with the optimum level of flexibility and speed of implementation necessary to fit the geographical markets in which they operate. As an extensive user of Wonderware solutions, the next step in the evolution of brewery deployment included the migration of existing SCADA solutions to the ArchestrA environment. ArchestrA is Wonderware`s industrial automation architecture designed to optimise the integration of disparate solutions, develop and maintain standards and cut engineering costs by 35-50%.
In order to compete in today`s FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) markets, it is necessary to meet several key challenges. The first is product quality if a customer base is to be captured and retained. Next is product consistency which contributes towards sustained growth. Production efficiency is directly linked to the bottom line while capacity utilisation is a significant measure of ROI. Some of the key factors that contribute to increased wealth creation are plant availability (meeting required production schedules), production flexibility (responsiveness to change) and the ability to reduce time-to-market of new products.
SABMiller also has to contend with a diverse spread of manufacturing operations and market demands, varying existing degrees of automation and a huge diversity of control system hardware platforms and software environments. In addition, there are unknown levels of flexibility and adaptability in legacy systems to accommodate changes as well as different levels of understanding regarding the future role of the workforce.
`The chain of events that would enable us to meet these challenges started with the implementation of Ibhayi brewery in 2000,` says Thinus van Schoor, Automation Manager at SA Breweries. `Ibhayi would become our blueprint for excellence. In the same year, we started a programme for the definition of standards which was designed to maximise ROI of plant and operational assets. This led to a list of requirements and a search for a solution that matched these requirements. ArchestrA from Wonderware was chosen because of its ability to address our needs for standardisation, rapid and flexible deployment, change management and application integration. We became a Beta test site for ArchestrA and implemented it at our Midrand training institute to investigate if it could live up to our expectations.`
ArchestrA would need to support operational excellence and market demands through scaleability (up to 200 000 tags per site although ArchestrA has no practical limit to this) and flexibility. It would need to be adaptable and re-configurable while providing ease of maintenance for lean manufacturing purposes. It would also have to accommodate the reuse of application engineering in order to minimise duplication and promote the introduction of standards across a variety of projects. It would also have to be the platform on which to integrate different vendor offerings (a critical need in a diverse company) in order to provide true interoperability.
The migration from the training institute`s existing SCADA implementation to the ArchestrA framework involved the following steps:
* Creating object templates using SAB`s divisional standards (making a "model" of each object including its operational attributes, I/O characteristics, alarm conditions, performance history, PLC addressing requirements and many more - an object can be a device like a pump or valve or can constitute any number of such devices in a connected system)
* Defining an area model for each section of the "plant" or micro brewery at the institute using the S88 Process Cell model
* Creating object instances (where the defined objects are used) and storing these in ArchestrA`s "galaxy" repository. The galaxy can constitute a connected network of physical and/or logical servers of any size where data is shared and selected functionality can "dragged and dropped" to servers at will to more evenly distribute the computing load.
* Creating the Deployment Model which included creating Platform Objects (participating computers), creating Application Engines (which host and execute application objects), placing areas on engines and creating the OPC client object.
* Converting the InTouch SCADA application from its native mode to the ArchestrA environment. This required replacing tag server references with galaxy references, writing scripts and specifying animation links.
* Thin slice testing which included "hot" testing and deploying one object from every device type at a time in order to minimise any impact on the microbrewery. Mistakes were corrected at the template level, which meant that the re-deployment of corrected objects was very rapid. * Deployment - which occurred live - and final testing.
`This exercise brought home to us the importance of the accurate definition of standards including naming conventions and the definition of object classes,` says van Schoor. `Something else that was highlighted was the necessity for up-front planning. These are all requirements that are vital to every project but, until now, there hasn`t been a framework to enforce them or to capitalise on them, with the result that every project is normally implemented from scratch and at duplicated expense. The migration to ArchestrA proved easier than we thought and we now have a tool that we have adapted to our specific requirements and that will ensure the conformance with standards while minimising engineering costs far into the future. The next step is to use it on a full-scale project and this is currently in progress.`
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