Reviewer details
Name: Tessa Clase
Position/designation: Head of department: Systems and Support
Company: Airports Company South Africa (ACSA)
Telephone: mobile 082 551 1519, office 011 921 6740
E-mail: tessa@airports.co.za
Product details
Vendor: Rockwell Automation
Contact person: Rudolf van Wyk
Product name and version: RSViewSE ver 3.2
Telephone: mobile 082 494 7123, 011 654 9700
E-mail: rvanwyk@ra.rockwell.com
General
Q: What industry (eg, mining, food and beverage, automotive etc) is the scada being applied in? Describe the application briefly.
A: The scada is applied in the building management industry. The infrastructure monitoring and control system (IMCS) is a tool used by the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) to monitor its infrastructure. All mechanical and electrical equipment is monitored/controlled by this system.
Q: Who did the system integration?
A: Process Control and Integration.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the integration take?
A: It was approximately 480 manhours (three months).
Q: How is the after-sales support handled (eg, remote-dial-up, e-mail etc)?
A: Due to the system integrator being stationed onsite, the after-sales support has been excellent.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on the system? Does one licence cover all modules, or can the user only buy those modules that he wishes to use?
A: Each module contains a separate licence and the system is scalable to the users needs.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have? Analog? Digital? Maximum possible?
A: The current I/O count is approximately 16 000 tags.
* 60% digital tags.
& 40% analog tags.
Q: What operating system is the scada running on (eg, Windows NT, Unix etc)?
A: The scada is a server-client-based system and runs on Windows Server 2003. The client machines have a combination of Windows XP (Service Pack 2) and 2000 (Service Pack 4).
Q: What impressed you most about the architecture? Open standards, wide range of drivers, the ability to upgrade, etc? Please elaborate.
A: The seamless connectivity and ease of programming impressed me most about the system.
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?
A: The system was integrated on an intranet and because it is a server-client based software it allowed for simple remote monitoring and full remote control.
Q: What sort of redundancy is built into the system?
A: The server is backed by a secondary server which serves as a redundant server.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process - eg, did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
A: Standard library images were used in the development process. Some images were developed from scratch.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: The graphic images cover most industries and can be modified to suite the application.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images (eg, embedded video clips, photographs, 3D images etc)?
A: Photographs, clip art and pictures were used in the application.
Compatibility
Q: Did you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software? Describe.
A: The scada is run in conjunction with many third party applications eg, Honeywell Enterprise Software.
* There are numerous third party OPC servers that are part of the application eg, HIMA OPC and KepWare BacNet OPC Server.
Q: Does the scada allow for the user to create scripts to perform specific tasks? Describe.
A: The scada has Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) embedded within the application. This allows for code writing and thus allowing further customisation of the application.
Management reporting
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included? Please elaborate.
A: Trending and historical data is included in the system. All critical data is logged and Historical Trends are used to display this data. The data is stored and can be interrogated if the need arises using MSSQL.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: The RSBizware package has been included in this package.
Q: Is the system integrated into a manufacturing execution system?
A: No.
Q: Is the scada system integrated into a management reporting or control system (eg, SAP, Baan)?
A: No.
Conclusion
Q: What impressed you the most about the system? 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 RSviewSE installation was an upgrade of the RSView32 scada. Although an upgrade path and a similar package to the previous version the new scada is proving to be an impressive system. The ease of use and the seamless connectivity to clients and other devices (PLC, Third Party PLCs and Third Party Software) has been the most impressive update to the system.
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