Challenge
The pump-over method plays an important role in modern wine extraction and can impact the wine’s flavor, intensity, and color. For a Californian winery, their red fermenter tanks used manual pump-over technology, but it was experiencing inconsistent timing as well as limited electrical capacity to run all pumps simultaneously. For instance, each Motor Control Center (MCC) could only run 50-70% of the pumps at a time. The winery needed to upgrade to an automated pump-over system to improve monitoring and control performance, reduce maintenance costs, and support their production needs. E Tech Group was engaged upgrade their existing tank controls effectively and efficiently given their expertise with similar projects in the wine industry.
Solution
The first challenge to address was the customer’s limited electrical capacity to run their pumps simultaneously. E Tech Group created a first in, first out (FIFO) scheduling algorithm for each MCC which would allow the pumps to run in the order that they were scheduled. The FIFO scheduling structure simplified the pump-over process, queuing pumps to run based on priority with the customer’s electrical capacity in mind.
With the algorithm established, the E Tech Group team pivoted to tackle the next area of support. The customer needed an automated pump-over system that was user-friendly, powerful, and modular. The team leveraged the customer’s existing ControlLogix PLC and Ignition SCADA platform by Inductive Automation to build robust code that could be swiftly tested and deployed. For example, the project team utilized the add-on instruction (AOI) to maximize code reusability and simplify code development in the ControlLogix PLC programing. Ignition’s user defined types (UDTs) were also utilized as a powerful tool for dynamic system modeling, and field devices, such as flowmeters and temperature and pressure sensors, were IO-Link enabled to provide diagnostics and data more effectively.
Results
The customer was equipped with a fully automated pump-over system for their red fermenter tanks by their upcoming grape harvest. E Tech Group’s subject matter experts in wine processes and the Ignition platform fully automated the customer’s existing pump-over technology, improving its efficiency, reliability, and ability to scale with the growth of the company.
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.