UPGRADE PROJECT

03 October 2022 | Au2mate A/S

• Focus on sustainability
• Food Processing

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BACKGROUND

The Cream cheese dairy has a yearly production of 58.000 ton cream cheese in different taste varieties. The process plant has around 3.500 plant components connected to the control system. Their existing control system was old and the background for replacing it was mainly problems in getting spare parts as well as limited options for support.

The success criteria for the technical solution were to have an open system which the dairy was able to maintain/extend themselves, a secure investment, as well as securing the knowledge and experience at the dairy.

Furthermore, the system had to be in accordance with company framework / ISA S88 / ISA S95 and build for data collection and traceability via integration to enterprise IT report system and SAP.

SCOPE OF DELIVERY

8 Siemens S7-414 PLC’s
1 Wonderware Intouch station with a large KPI monitor in the control room.
14 Wonderware Intouch stations divided in respectively control room and process area.
3 Redundant Wonderware IAS servers
1 Siemens programming station
ISA S88 structured Siemens software application
Wonderware Intouch SCADA application
Data collection to ISA S95 structured database

THE PROJECT

The project was estimated to take place over a period of 3 years. It was carried out as a staged upgrade/extension divided in a total of 12 stages so the migration could be done with a minimum of operational disruptions. The project has been carried out after the GAPP project model (Good Automation Project Processes – developed by SESAM-FOOD) where each phase follows the project model from description of solution to handing over of the final project.

The project has been carried out in close collaboration between the technical staff and operators at the dairy and Au2mate and 23 functional description reviews and 9 software FAT’s has been held.

GAINS FOR THE DAIRY

The upgrade has had a vital role in the reduction of energy costs (electricity, steam, and ice water) with more than 20 % as well as a 30 % reduction of costs for water and chemicals. Furthermore, the dairy has reduced their maintenance costs for the control system and increased the flexibility and integration opportunities.

Increased horisontal and vertical integration, combined with the applied MES elements (product definitions and recipes) has led to a more effective production with minimum downtime and maximum traceability and reporting.