Automation Upgrade Enables Use of Simulation to Transform Production Decision-Making

Perhaps some of the age-old questions that are not disappearing anytime soon in industrial automation can be related to a common scenario even those of us who don’t regularly work in the field can relate to. 

Here’s what we mean: If you’re driving a 10-year-old car with well over 100,000 miles on it, you will need to take it into the shop on occasion. 

When you do this, what follows is an inevitable call with a laundry list of items that need to be fixed. That when these questions run through your mind: Is it better to replace some parts versus others? What’s the ultimate shelf-life of this car and what’s the cost benefit analysis of continuing to put money into it? Should I just buy a new car?

As systems integrators who work in automation and controls, we see this battle play out every day with plant floor equipment and we help guide our clients to find solutions that meet their needs. Sometimes it’s a quick fix to get a vital machine up and running and ensure continued production on critical process. Other times it’s a complete greenfield design and build for an expansion. 

One thing we have been witness to is the value delivered when automation upgrades, whatever the scale, are installed with an eye toward predictive and adaptive environments.

Automation upgrade case study

On a recent project, a global pharmaceutical company sought to integrate one of its lyophilizers, also known as a lyos (freeze drying machines used to preserve perishable materials by removing moisture through a process called lyophilization) with the rest of their SCADA system.  This required upgrading the lyophilizer on their plant floor to another platform so that its data could be historized using the company’s new historian and reports from the lyos could be standardized to match reporting across all other system reports, such as the company’s single-use bioreactors and single-use mixers. 

This client had a real vision for the future — believing it was better to standardize technologies. After all, if you have systems in the plant that are managed differently from everything else, those systems are difficult to maintain unless you have staff who are experts on each individual system.

The main goals for this upgrade were to make it easier to operationalize their HMI/SCADA system so that they could view operations system wide to better manage operations. 

During migration of the HMIs, we wanted the operators to be able to use the new system with minimal training. For that reason, we kept much of the screen design similar to the previous version. However, we did remove unused items to simplify the screens.  We also rewrote and simplified the recipe management system. 

Integrating the lyos into the SCADA, instead of using a local HMI, allowed the plant engineers to centrally manage the system. After the migration they were able to use their Active Directory and centrally managed usernames/passwords instead of user accounts created with security configured on the local machine.  

The additional reporting achieved with the new system integrations added a level of flexibility and enhanced recipe management that allowed users to quickly pivot to new recipes quickly after a CIP cycle run between batches.  

System test simulation

The adaptability of the new system allowed the company to incorporate a new recipe for what it called a “System Test”. This simulation test, which is similar to a digital twin of a manufacturing plant, allows a recipe to be run without physical media to test the capacity of the system without using valuable product.

Using this “System Test”, we were able to take the machine to its extreme set points and measure how long it took to reach them.

If any issues reaching those setpoints occurred, operators were notified so they could make decisions about what next steps to take. This also allowed them to identify in advance what parts of the system may need maintenance.

The new system test also provided our clients with a benchmark on how the system ran following maintenance, as they could run a virtual test recipe to get a good indication of how the vacuum pumps or the cooling system were performing.

This ability to test the limits of the machine without physically involving machine with product allows clients to play out many scenarios at a lower cost and without risking product or equipment. In a pharmaceutical plant where every vial counts, this can result in massive savings.

The ultimate point in sharing this case study from one of our clients is to demonstrate how automation upgrades are no longer just about efficiency. Building predictive and adaptive manufacturing environments that enable agility and rapid product iteration is now crucial. And when you can align them with ever-changing regulatory requirements and reduce downtime in the end, you truly have an automation recipe for success.  

Erik Petersen, mechanical engineer, and Isaac Novosad, electrical engineer, work at Huffman Engineering Inc., certified members of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). For more information about Huffman Engineering, visit its profile on the Industrial Automation Exchange.

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