Increasing Throughput Capacity at a Global Parcel Hub
A global parcel service reached out to E Tech Group when they were asked to increase their throughput. Our engineers helped them meet peak-season demand through our turnkey material handing controls systems to improve the capacity of one of their more dated hubs.
The Project: End-to-End Automation System Upgrades
A global parcel service reached out to E Tech Group after being tasked with increasing throughput capacity in one of their older hubs prior to the peak season for shipping. The turnkey project involved upgrades to 70% of the site’s control systems, along with expansion of the control room and package handling systems.
E Tech Group was responsible for every aspect of this building-wide automation upgrade, including:
- Engineering design
- Software design
- Procurement and installation of all electrical hardware
- Start-up and validation of the updated control systems
Once the new systems were implemented, integrated facility-wide and validated, our automation team provided ongoing support through the course of their peak period.
Challenges
- The project start date was delayed condensing the original schedule down from 9 months to 5 months
- The scope of work had to be planned sequentially because each upgrade was dependent on the previous one
- The mechanical upgrades had to be completed prior to control system completion, further limiting installation and start-up windows
- All installation and start-up work had to be completed during weekly downtime windows that started Saturday mornings and ended at 11:00 AM on Monday
- Both mechanical and electrical equipment deliveries were “just in time” and sometimes late, requiring a very agile installation and start-up team
- While the customer had very detailed specifications, many exceptions were allowed so that the new installations would match the existing operation. This required more rigor during definition to review prior precedents set at the hub.
Solution
A dedicated E Tech Group project team was deployed to the site to complete definition through both audits and reviews. The project team produced a highly-detailed report with a list of exceptions to the customer’s specifications. These exceptions were submitted to the customer for approval prior to the start of the design.
Our automation engineers worked with the customer’s mechanical consultants to develop and then continuously refine plans to sequentially install the control system upgrades in scope blocks that could fit into short downtime windows. In several instances, multiple E Tech Group teams were deployed to the site simultaneously to work in different areas.
Our engineering design team also worked to standardize new electrical panel designs so they could easily be adjusted from one area to another with minimal notice, if required. The automation software was also standardized across the facility to make it more easily supportable during deployment and ongoing.
Once installation began, our engineers deployed full site management to the hub to oversee all deliveries and installation activities. E Tech Group’s site manager was also the single point of contact for the hub manager and the mechanical consultant, creating a seamless communication channel from the customer to the E Tech Group project team.
There were several challenges associated with the successful completion of this project, ranging from tightly-scheduled downtime to dealing with delayed equipment deliveries. Our engineers closely managed the project and evolved the highly-detailed schedule to accommodate the customer’s needs.
The Results: Exceeding the Client’s Automation Expectations
This turnkey systems upgrade required rigorous planning and constant communication, making thorough and collaborative project management essential. After completing this project on time and on budget despite all the obstacles, E Tech Group has been awarded several other projects with this customer at the same facility.
For manufacturers with multiple locations, finding an automation company you can rely on for projects across facilities is key to operational integrity and consistency in each plant. E Tech Group cultivates these symbiotic long-term relationships through a unique brand of project management, focused on close collaboration with the client and strategic control system design that allows the facility to improve, adapt and scale.
Helping a Food Manufacturer Grow Production Volume With Automation
Our engineers used Rockwell Automation technology to program process automation controllers, perform troubleshooting and upgrade support for a manufacturing expansion.
The Project: Accommodate and Integrate Processes for a Warehouse Expansion
E Tech Group completed a fast-track project for a 110,000-square-foot addition to an existing food processing facility for the company, a hummus and dip producer. The expansion included warehouse space, additional and renovated employee amenities and offices, as well as the installation of new processing, packaging and utility generation equipment.
E Tech Group was brought under contract to provide the programming of the Process Automation Controllers (PACs), HMI, Historian, and Recipe Management systems. The engineering team provided a solution consistent with the existing facility automation, which our engineers previously implemented, while improving I/O communications with the use of Ethernet/IP and valves with an AS-Interface.
The Solution: A Recipe for Scalable, Automated Success
Phase 2 of the project included automation and monitoring of the utilities, clean-in-place (CIP), cooking, ingredient preparation, garnish, mixing, and filling systems. This was a fast-track project, with the order being placed in December for on-site commissioning of the first systems to start in April the following year. All of the systems were designed, developed, and commissioned on time.
How we expanded production abilities with a scalable automation solution:
- The system was implemented using a redundant Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk View SE distributed HMI with six servers and fifteen clients.
- ACP ThinManager was used to provide the thin client solution.
- Seven Rockwell Automation ControlLogix PACs were used for providing monitoring and control of the equipment.
- The combined systems included approximately 1,500 I/O points with 136 drives.
Food and beverage automation, much like pharmaceutical automation, requires control systems that improve production speed and reduce failures and downtime. E Tech Group has continued to work closely with the client on many additional projects to give the company flexibility in its control system for batching of products.
Identified Challenges: Flexibility, Fine-Tuning and Further Integration
After Phase 2 was complete, E Tech Group automation engineers continued to work heavily with the client on general support requests or running certain equipment. If the client wanted to fine tune the process system with tasks such as changing the sequence, relocating equipment, or adding some functionality, they would typically call in, and we would quickly complete those tasks.
In the most recently-completed project, E Tech Group incorporated a new modified mixing system (MMS). A new pasteurization line was also added, which the client previously didn’t have on site. This MMS is connected to a pasteurization line which allows for some modifications and improvements to their production that couldn’t be done before.
The product coming out of the mixer is then heated to high temperatures for a certain amount of hold time and then it is rapidly cooled back down right before it goes into the fillers that package the hummus into a cup. This is done to eliminate pathogens and increase the shelf life of the product. This specifically helps with their organic products due to the restrictions around preservatives and additives for organic products by still allowing for a healthy shelf life.
The client is working to add flexibility into their production equipment, with the goal of eventually having this line dedicated to organic products. A current project we are working with the client on is to replace a manually-involved process for adding organic tahini to the mixing system. Currently it involves a manually-wheeled-around tote with non-permanent connections. It is being replaced with a dedicated tank, removing the need for manual actions with automation technology that also provides the ingredient at a larger scale.
The Results: Ongoing Growth Requires further Automation and Integration
In terms of technology on the more recent projects, they’re building off of most of the same hardware and software stacks that they were using in the previous effort.
The team at E Tech Group has worked with vendor prepackaged systems to ensure that they communicate with the existing control system and operate properly after installation. The vendor prepackaged systems will be expecting input from our systems, whether it is ingredients, water, chickpea paste, etc., then it will likely be sent to one of our pieces of equipment.
To have better data to maintain the highest quality control, the client has implemented FactoryTalk Historian and VantagePoint, allowing the company to monitor and report on process conditions such as pressure, temperature, status of hardware such as valves, and also process specific step and phase data. Having this information available allows the client to more easily troubleshoot situations when they arise as well as having a deeper insight as to what areas may be best to next upgrade or make modifications to further improve efficiency.
E Tech Group is proud to have been a part of helping the client grow production volume and product diversity while allowing the manufacturing line to retain flexibility. The food and beverage industry requires automated processes that ensure precision, consistency and scalability. E Tech Group’s breadth of experience in this industry keeps us poised to help industrial food producers stay competitive by increasing production capacity and quality with integrated control systems that provide end-to-end coverage for your processes.
Customized Validated Critical Monitoring System
E Tech Group supported a biopharmaceutical’s expansion with a new validated control system. The company focuses on serious, debilitating and genetic diseases.
The Project: Implement a Highly-Customized Facility-Wide Control System
A biopharmaceutical company committed to bringing to patients novel products for the treatment of rare and ultra-rare diseases with a focus on serious, debilitating genetic diseases, was looking to expand. When they began building a new pharmaceutical research laboratory at their New England facility with an extremely condensed timeline, they reached out to E Tech Group to provide the qualified automated monitoring and alarm system (QMAS).
The new validated control system would monitor 78 relocated or new pieces of equipment. The critical monitoring and alarm system project completion date was just three months after the project kickoff, which was a very tight schedule for a customized system such as this.
The laboratory equipment to be controlled by the QMAS included:
- Incubators
- Lab refrigerators
- Lab freezers
- Cryogenic freezers
- Water generation skid
- Autoclave
- Glass washer
The Challenges: Too Little Time, Too Much Noise & a Global Pandemic
Challenge #1: A Tight Timeline
With the extremely short timeline, An E Tech Group Project Manager front loaded the project to stay ahead of schedule. The PM outlined the functional specification and got initial customer buy-off to prevent any unwanted surprises later on.
Part of the strategy to condense the schedule was to conduct the factory acceptance test (FAT) on the software functionality at E Tech Group. The control panel was tested at the fabricator, then the wiring was tested at the site with the control panel after it was installed.
Challenge #2: Construction Zone
Along with the tight timeframe, another project challenge was that the laboratory was being constructed concurrently with the development of the QMAS and delivery of the equipment. The laboratory was constructed on one floor of a five-story building and was gutted down to the concrete walls before building began. The space needed to be highly customized for the laboratory, with specialized equipment, air filtration suitable for biopharmaceuticals, and more.
Challenge #3: Site Acceptance Testing
The customer notified E Tech Group that three pieces of laboratory equipment were indefinitely delayed due to the onset of the pandemic. We quickly pivoted to create a cascading site acceptance testing (SAT) schedule, allowing the partially complete system to be validated and functional until the final equipment arrived from overseas.
Our engineers were able to break the system apart such that when they incorporated the utility equipment, it did not affect anything that was already tested. They used the modular design of the system with the notification to make a modular test.
E Tech Group’s system integrators also tested the automation system with all pieces of equipment that arrived on time so that they wouldn’t have to be retested when the remaining three machines arrived. They were able to incorporate the new equipment without impacting any testing that was already done.
Solution: Create a QMAS Tailored to the Pharmaceutical Client’s Needs
Our engineers proposed a Rockwell Automation-based solution. The off-the-shelf equipment was customized to provide the critical alarming, control and reporting to the client’s specifications. The hardware provided a single control cabinet containing an Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLC with ControlLogix I/O. The software platform included a FactoryTalk View SE server with local HMI clients, FactoryTalk Historian, FactoryTalk VantagePoint, FactoryTalk ViewPoint, and WIN-911.
E Tech Group designed a customized, validated QMAS to provide centralized monitoring and alarming for all 78 pieces of equipment, featuring local audio-visual beacons throughout the facility with an email notification system.
With the new system, the client no longer has to be present in front of a machine to know it is in alarm. Those employees on site are notified by the beacons alert to check the equipment status. Employees both on- and off-site receive alarm notifications by email.
The client created a detailed hierarchy of permissions and multiple notification lists that are triggered by which specific area has the equipment fault. At the facility, notifications are sent by room, and each area beacon covers a group of rooms.
In addition, the system provides data historian and reporting functions. It gathers data from all equipment and stores it for historical reference. To facilitate cloud data storage, the system includes a hardware module as a local data collection and storage site before it is uploaded. The client requested a minimum of 24 hours of local data storage, and the hardware module provided is able to capture more than 10 days of data, for redundancy.
E Tech Group built the entire control panel, tested it, and developed all of the automation and controls software for the project. Once the new control system was integrated, it was tested and implemented on site. Control modules were developed in-house by E Tech Group based on past experience and projects to reduce development and test time. The functionality of each module has been tested and validated. Taking one day per control module to test, the five pre-validated control modules saved five days of testing.
Results: Exactly What the Customer Ordered, But Better
With the efforts of the teams at E Tech Group as well as the client, the system was constructed, programmed, installed on site, and tested in according to the aggressive schedule. Had it not been for the COVID-19 equipment delay, they would have finished the project on time, exactly three months from the project kickoff. Considering the obstacles we faced from inside and outside the facility, our automation team worked very hard and the project went well.
The client was able to run the new automated alarm system even before the last three machines arrived, and they seem very happy with its performance. With the QMAS in place, future additions to lab and storage equipment can be installed at the customer’s own pace.
E Tech Group offers top-tier process automation solutions to entities across the life sciences industry, as well as data centers, metals, material handling, and more. Using the best in automation products, like Rockwell Automation and Siemens Global, our engineers and staff design, build and implement strategic control systems that increase your production capacity and capability while decreasing safety and security risks.
BioTech Manufacturing Scale-Up
A promising biotech startup with drug candidates progressing from stage 2 to stage 3 clinical had limited automation staffing. The startup turned to E Tech Group to transition their processes to full-scale manufacturing.
Project: Create Scalable, Integrated Controls out of a Piecemealed Automation System
The plant selected for production of clinical material and initial launch had islands of automation that often predated 21 CFR part 11 requirements from numerous OEM manufacturers that were not designed to be integrated into a plant network. Some of the equipment did not even have Ethernet connectivity.
Through a collaborative effort, the automation team designed a highly-scalable system for the biotech client by starting small to fit into their budget. This system can be expanded to a large multi-site manufacturing network when the drugs are approved.
Although the new Data Historian system is currently licensed for only 3000 tags, the underlying infrastructure is designed so that the system can expand to 100,000 tags with only license upgrades and integration of the new tags and systems.
Because of the diverse disparate OEM systems in the plant, OSIsoft’s PI was chosen as the plant historian as it has documented success for integrating the required systems. For the cGMP HMI plant SCADA system backbone, Rockwell’s Factory Talk View Site Edition (ViewSE) was chosen because of the installed base of Rockwell controlled equipment in the plant and the migration path of PanelView HMIs to a 21 CFR Part 11 compliant system.
Solution: A Scalable SCADA System that Keeps Up With Compliance Specs
E Tech Group designed and implemented a new 21 CFR Part 11-compliant SCADA system that is scalable and sustainable for the biotech manufacturing plant.
- The centralized server/thin client architecture facilitates authentication and logging of operator actions in a cGMP environment.
- This SCADA system utilizes a SCADA server that hosts a Data server, an Alarm & Event server and a Terminal server that hosts thin client sessions for the day to day HMI operations.
- The Terminal server also hosts Rockwell’s ThinManager software that is used to setup and manage the thin clients.
- An Engineering Workstation (EWS) hosts the configuration tools for Rockwell and PI software.
- All servers run as virtual machines under VMWare for ease of maintenance by the biotech client’s IT department and so that resources can seamlessly be reallocated as the system grows.
User Requirements Specification(URS), Functional Specification(FS) and Software Design Specification (SDS) were developed for the new SCADA system and will serve as living documents for future integrations.
As part of this effort, the E Tech Group automation team replaced a legacy PanelView HMI with a thin client HMI and converted the legacy Panel Builder software to ViewSE. We also converted a legacy SLC 504 controller to a new CompactLogix controller integrated with the new plant SCADA system. Components that were not converted properly by the conversion tools were documented and manually modified to fit the new configuration.
In the HMI conversion process, features of the converted HMI were enhanced by cleaning out the legacy tag database of obsolete tags and revamping the graphics to be compatible with touch screen with easily readable modern fonts. Built-in security features of ViewSE such as autologin logout were implemented and integrated with Windows Active directory. Screen security was also implemented based on domain logins.
In the PLC program conversion process, all the key rungs in the legacy ladder logic were commented with the appropriate descriptions in the new program which will aid in code comprehension and maintenance.
Result: End-to-End System Support for Plant-Wide Coverage
E Tech Group provided total support during the installation and commissioning of the new controller and the HMI panel. We also performed the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and Site Acceptance Test (SAT) on the complete SCADA system and controller installation and supported validation activities adhering to GMP.