FEATURE SCADA & DATA ACQUISITION SCADA PROVIDES A GATEWAY TO INDUSTRY 4.0
Is there a place for SCADA in the new era of Industry 4.0? Carl Nash, technical director at Products4Automation, says SCADA is very much the enabler for the Smart Factory of the future
T
he rise of Industry 4.0 has led some commentators to question the future
for SCADA. Break down the acronym – supervisory control and data acquisition – and compare that with the goals of Industry 4.0, and we see production control handled from higher level enterprise systems as part of a Smart Factory, with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) delivering the data acquisition. Industry 4.0 opens up the potential for
companies to totally integrate their enterprise and automation systems, manage large volumes of complex data, create new operating and collaborative models, and use vertical integration to pursue specific business targets. With seamless interconnectivity between production systems and enterprise management, businesses will have access to data that enables better decision- making, leading to improved productivity, greater flexibility and reduced waste. Realising the goals of Industry 4.0
throws up a number of specific challenges that SCADA can address, such as the convergence between the plant floor
operations technology (OT) and the management IT systems. It is estimated that in many current
systems, 40% to 80% of OT data is not available at IT level – where it could be used to drive production efficiencies. SCADA provides a mechanism for aggregating OT data, translating it to the required OPC UA (open protocol communications, unified architecture) and passing it to the IT system. Thus, key performance indicators (KPIs) such as energy usage, availability, performance or quality can be monitored as part of OEE management in order to improve efficiency and reduce costs. SCADA’s ability to communicate data
from all the connected devices is crucial when it comes to developing applications for Industry 4.0. Also having the right tools to record, view and analyse collected data in the simplest way possible is equally important. The most recent development in
packages such as Progea’s
Movicon.NExT, available in the UK from Products4Automation, further underlines SCADA’s potential in Industry 4.0.
CHARTING PROGRESS IN CHEDDAR CHEESE PRODUCTION
A cheese manufacturer in Orkney is using ABB paper chart recorders to ensure its pasteurisation and washing processes are maintained within strict limits, building a record of data that helps it produce quality products and maintain the efficiency and hygiene of its production process. The Orkney Cheese Company produces its three types of cheddar cheese using a ‘dry-stir’ production
method, whereby the curdled milk is continually stirred to stop it from bonding to produce a firm and dense-bodied end product, with a distinctive flavour and texture. The cheese is made to a traditional recipe and process, using fresh milk sourced locally, with 60,000 litres delivered to the dairy each working day. The plant produces four vats’ worth of cheese in a normal production day. When the milk arrives at the company’s creamery facility, it is first pasteurised to kill any harmful
bacteria. It then goes through a separator before entering the cheese vat at 33°C. The whole process is recorded using a four-pen ABB C1900 circular chart recorder. The C1900 records the flow rate, which should be 13,000 litres an hour to meet production schedules, and the temperatures during pasteurisation. The chart also records clean-in-place (CIP) wash-downs, noting the duration and temperature of the
wash water, with the resulting data used to check that the production equipment is being properly cleaned. Different colour pens record the pasteurisation temperatures and the length of time of washing, with each paper chart representing one day’s production – four vats worth of pasteurising, plus the CIP. Additional C1900 recorders are also used on the cream pasteuriser
and the milk silos to record the storage temperatures. Maintenance is minimal, ensuring the recorders are almost
constantly available to measure process parameters. This reliability is particularly important given the site’s remote location. “We use data for analysing anomalies,” said Leigh Shearer,
maintenance engineer for Orkney Cheese Company. “Our cheese is graded every three months – if one batch has an issue, we can check back with the charts to see the temperature records and work out what was causing it.” ABB
18 MAY 2019 | PROCESS & CONTROL
SCADA can provide the mechanism that enables Industry 4.0 – but only if it offers the functionality, flexibility and scalability required.
Movicon.NExT is a true data analysis, supervision and MES station within an Industry 4.0 context
Movicon.NExT is a scalable and modular
software development platform that provides all the necessary graphics tools, predefined modules and a simple and intuitive development environment on which to build Industry 4.0 projects. It is based on OPC UA technology and
has OPC Foundation certification for ease of communication between the OT and IT systems. Data can be transferred through OPC UA, or alternatively through communications drivers for different device manufacturers which can easily be integrated with the platform. Therefore,
Movicon.NExT provides a gateway between the plant floor and higher-level systems.
Movicon.NExT also has historian,
redundancy and alarm management functions and is equipped with all the HMI and data analysis features needed to create real-time and historical data analysis reports. It can also be used to view animated and dynamic screens, alarm management, trends and data tables, charts, data analysis, dashboards and analytic reports. All these functions can be used locally, in networks, or via web access. New developments to Movicon NExT are
taking Industry 4.0 capabilities further still. The Cloud Progea–Databoom platform for example, is based on non- relational databases and is designed for Big Data storage and analysis. This will allow detailed analysis and investigation of events over a long time period. With advantages such as these, SCADA
has an assured future as an enabler for Industry 4.0, offering seamless connectivity from field sensors to information management systems. Most importantly, it delivers Industry 4.0 projects that are based on open standards – ensuring the flexibility needed for applications at vertical and horizontal level across the entire organisation.
enquiries.mp.uk@
gb.abb.com
Products4Automation
www.products4automation.co.uk
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