Reviewer details
Name: Erwin Lisser
Company: Atlantis Foundries
Telephone: 021 573 7230
E-mail: [email protected]
Product details
Vendor: GE Fanuc Automation
Product name and version: Proficy HMI/scada - CIMPLICITY 6.1
Telephone: 031 583 2602
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.gefanuc.com
General
Q:What industry (eg, mining, food and beverage, automotive etc) is the scada being applied in?
A: Automotive - casting and machining of car and truck engines.
Q: Describe the application briefly giving a description of any existing control systems, any previous scada system that was in place etc. If relevant, describe the switchover from the previous system.
A: We needed to upgrade the automation of our core blowing machines. Up until the end of last year they worked on relay logic, obviously without any scada system. Working with Lodicon we switched over to a fully GE Fanuc PLC controlled system plus CIMPLICITY scada system on four machines in four days.
Q: Who did the system integration?
A: Lodicon in Bellville, Cape Town.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the integration take?
A: Off site - 100 hours, on site - 48 hours.
Q: How is the after-sales support handled (eg, remote-dial-up, e-mail, Internet access etc)?
A: Although CIMPLICITY is capable of remote dial-up and Internet access, neither of these is implemented since the scada is in the middle of the foundry and not on any network connection.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on this particular system? Does one licence cover all modules, or can the user only buy those modules that he wishes to use?
A: The CIMPLICITY licence is based on the number of points used. As long as the licence covers the points used all modules of CIMPLICITY can be used.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have? Analog? Digital? Maximum possible?
A: Each one of the four CIMPLICITY systems uses a 75-point licence. This might not sound like much, but by using arrays for each point the total number of points can increase drastically. Mostly digital I/O points are used, with the maximum being about 200 points on the bigger machines.
Q: What operating system is the scada running on (eg, Windows NT, Unix etc)?
A: Windows XP Professional.
Q: What impressed you most about the architecture? Open standards, wide range of drivers, the ability to upgrade, etc? Please elaborate.
A: The ability to upgrade CIMPLICITY and incorporate MES systems at a later stage is very convenient.
Q: Is the system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet? If so, does the configuration allow simple remote monitoring, or is it configured to allow full remote control? If not, what level of intranet/Internet control does the scada allow for future use?
There is no network connection at the moment, but CIMPLICITY does cater for full remote control and/or monitoring. In fact it is capable of full Internet access and control from any Internet browser anywhere in the world.
Q: What sort of redundancy is built into the system?
A: There is none as this was not a requirement. It is an option that is available in CIMPLICITY. You can do Windows Server Redundancy with CIMPLICITY redundancy, CIMPLICITY redundancy on its own and there is also network redundancy. This is all available with the redundancy option.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process - eg, did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
A: Lodicon used a combination of library images and images they drew from scratch using the mechanical machine drawings as well as sketches we provided them indicating how we wanted the scada images to appear.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: Lodicon did all the scada work, but the graphics library is extensive. You can also develop your own library with smart objects that can easily be used again by just adding the tag names related to the object.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images (eg, embedded video clips, photographs, 3D images etc)?
A: No, but it is possible.
Compatibility
Q: Did you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software? Describe.
A: Yes, Microsoft SQL Server.
Q: Does the scada allow for the user to create scripts to perform specific tasks? Describe any specific scripts that were written for this project.
A: The only scripts that we wrote in CIMPLICITY for this project was the selection, loading and saving of certain crucial setpoints for our operation. User levels are also examined so that only supervisors can make alterations and save them, but anyone can load a set of setpoints. These setpoints are saved in an SQL database.
Management reporting
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included? Please elaborate.
A: A simple trending system was included on the scada system. The machines do not really lend themselves to trending and historical data reporting, but CIMPLICITY is extremely capable of handling both of these areas should the need arise in the future.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: No, but it is available. Other reporting packages can also be used, for example: Excel, Crystal reports, etc.
Q: Is the system integrated into a manufacturing execution system?
A: No, but it can be done.
Q: Is the scada system integrated into a management reporting or control system (eg, SAP, Baan)?
A: No, but it can be done.
Conclusion
Q: What impressed you the most about the system?
A: The fact that the integration and commissioning worked so well and everything was finished correctly and on time.
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another (ie, ease of use, support from the vendor, upgrade path, redundancy features etc)?
A: The fact that CIMPLICITY works so well with the GE Fanuc PLC we used for the control system.
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