Challenge
When is the best time to upgrade a decades-trusted PLC system? This was the challenge for a global supplier of spice ingredients. Their Allen Bradley PLC-5 system was commissioned over 25 years ago and, while it performed well for many years, the outdated platform began experiencing constraints. The obsolete equipment was limiting network connections. This urged the global spice supplier to seek a system integrator that could provide timely PLC migration support using the latest technology available. E Tech Group was recruited to modernize their obsolete PLC system to a more IIOT friendly platform.
Solution
The first step was reverse engineering the customer’s legacy system and well-documenting its current design to address potential risks and how to best program the new system. E Tech Group analyzed existing diagrams and worked extensively with the customer’s personnel to further detail device and wiring configurations. This step was crucial to improve system performance and have an accurate picture of their control environment before moving to the design phase.
As a leading Rockwell Automation system integrator, E Tech Group developed a simplified migration plan leveraging the latest Rockwell Automation technologies. The global spice supplier’s legacy Allen Bradley PLC-5 system was upgraded to the ControlLogix platform. An L82E processor was utilized and the old RIO and DH+ networks were changed to Ethernet/IP network communications. Outdated Allen Bradley 1336 variable frequency drives were also upgraded to Powerflex 525 variable frequency drives, offering a wide range of motor control. Additionally, the customer’s FactoryTalk View SE screens were updated and consolidated which made the system easier to understand and operate by plant personnel.
Results
The project was successfully executed to schedule. The global spice supplier’s focus was continue their journey to digital transformation and the PLC-5 to ControlLogix migration accomplished this goal, supporting improved performance, greater uptime, and a more user-friendly interface. E Tech Group staffed the project with four subject matter experts to provide comprehensive multidisciplinary engineering support in PLC programming, FTView SE application programming and networking, as well as drafting and design. The project team successfully upgraded the customer’s PLC system with trusted projected performance for decades to come.
Challenge
From decreased productivity to system downtime, legacy equipment can pose many challenges to operational efficiency. This was the case for a leading consumer packaged goods company who was relying on PLC-5 hardware to control most of their facility. The plant recently experienced a major disruption during peak production because of a network switch failure, and it was later discovered that the disruption could have been minimized if the facility had been separated into multiple virtual local area networks (VLANs). To support the creation of VLANs, the customer’s existing PLC-5 control system would need to be upgraded to the ControlLogix system which could handle multiple independent Ethernet connections. E Tech Group was called to support the project given their previous assistance with consolidating the company’s DH+ and ControlNet network communications in support of their industrial automation applications.
Solution
E Tech Group performed a comprehensive investigation to identify all PLC types and determine each PLC’s connection to other systems. After completing their analysis, E Tech Group presented which PLCs were deemed the most critical to upgrade and designed a VLAN separation plan to reduce the likelihood of connection loss given the vast amount of device communications. The customer’s personnel were initially surprised by the number of PLCs that needed to be upgraded to fulfill the VLAN implementation, which was about 21 PLCs. For the best implementation process, it was determined to perform the PLC upgrades in three phases with the first phase switching out the most critical PLCs.
Six PLC-5s needed to be upgraded in the first phase. E Tech Group considered several factors to include local and other server racks, a labor-saving conversion kit, the maintenance of other communications protocols, and ways to thoroughly test the success of the conversion. The customer also requested the migration and testing be completed within 72 hours. With these considerations in mind, E Tech Group worked closely with the customer to determine the best conversion process within the short timeframe. This included the use of only replacing local racks, using DH+/RIO and ControlNet communication modules to support existing networks, complete I/O list development, and spot testing plans. A PLC-5 to ControlLogix conversion tool was utilized to migrate logic from the old hardware to the new hardware, and all drivers were updated in the Wonderware system to allow for proper communication to the new PLCs. DH+/RIO ControlLogix cards were also used to connect into existing DH+ networks and allow ControlLogix PLCs to talk to existing PLC-5 Remote I/O racks.
Results
The project was commissioned on a Friday of a holiday weekend and was completed that Monday. Committed to the success of the project, E Tech Group had two teams supporting the project throughout the entire weekend in 12-hour shifts. In a few short days, E Tech Group was able to have the six PLCs successfully migrated by the customer’s requested timeframe and resolved numerous pre-existing issues within the logic by the time the PLC’s remote monitoring was completed. Using the knowledge gained during the first phase, the next two phases were completed with much smaller teams and the customer had the ability to improve their operational efficiency with a control system platform.
Challenge
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”. This quote by Benjamin Franklin emphasizes the importance of site surveys for industrial environments. With time, money, and resources on the line, site surveys act as a crucial first step to plan for maintenance, spare parts, upgrades, and mitigate the risk of unplanned downtime. This critical information was needed by a leading American food distributor to better understand the health of their plant’s automation infrastructure. E Tech Group was engaged to thoroughly assess their automation hardware and operational technology (OT) networks and provide a comprehensive site assessment report. This report would clearly identify risks and opportunities as well as crucial steps to upgrade and strengthen their automation infrastructure.
Solution
The customer’s plant had three buildings which included over 500 control panels. E Tech Group analyzed numerous factors and data points to determine areas of risk and opportunity across their plant. This included the lifecycle of parts that are currently being used on the production floor as well as the equipment’s life cycle positioning ranging from active to end of life. E Tech Group’s certified professionals also evaluated existing processor types and quantities across the plant and documented the customer’s OT network infrastructure.
The data collected from the site assessment was then organized and analyzed to serve as a roadmap for facility improvements. E Tech Group formulated a comprehensive, well-structured report for the customer’s management, engineering, and maintenance teams which outlined upgrade recommendations and a clear timeline to implement these upgrades based on the priority level.
Results
E Tech Group worked closely with a plant electrician to complete an on-site assessment of all control panels and OT networks in less than eight weeks. The data from the site assessment was used to provide a comprehensive report outlining automation infrastructure by area, OT network architecture, obsolescence, and recommended paths forward to modernize. The site assessment resulted in a proactive plan to reduce the customer’s likelihood of future controls hardware failures and provided a clear roadmap to strengthen their automation infrastructure.
Challenge
Production health is a synergy between availability, performance, and quality. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is the gold standard to measure these metrics and can help identify early signs of production issues with modern software solutions. This was the challenge for a leading supplier of almond products who needed to find a better way to monitor the real-time efficiency of their lines as well as record production line problems as they occurred. The almond supplier also wanted to own this data and not rely on outside data hosting resources since these often limit extensive data archives. E Tech Group was engaged to upgrade the almond supplier’s performance monitoring system given their experience with the platform, OEE, and database structures.
Solution
The almond supplier requested E Tech Group convert their existing production system to Ignition, an industrial application platform from Inductive Automation, to standardize their SCADA architecture due to its scalability and intuitive design features. The customer requested the project be expedited within a very tight timeline and E Tech Group was ready to put boots on the ground.
E Tech Group provided connection programing to ensure assets were properly tracked in the Allen-Bradley PLCs using Studio 5000 Logix Designer in addition to the Ignition system using the Perspective module. This supported the customer’s ability to have a personalized visualization system that could monitor, control, and record their industrial applications in real-time across any mobile device.
The E Tech Group team set up a database that could effectively log information in an organized manner and enabled seamless data extraction. This structure was difficult to develop from scratch due the high-level of efficiency desired when querying the data. The E Tech Group team engaged their Ignition specialists to configure and connect the SQL database structure with Ignition’s transaction groups and this was later proved to be highly efficient.
Result
The project was completed in three months and the Ignition Perspective module is currently being tested by the customer. The project deployed seamlessly given E Tech Group’s proactive collaboration with the almond supplier. The Ignition platform enabled the customer to track shift start and end times as well as monitor the shift time efficiency. E Tech Group’s Ignition specialists leveraged their in-depth expertise to support the conversion to the Ignition platform, enabling a strong performance monitoring system that could properly track, store, and visualize data to support the customer’s OEE.