I was invited recently to participate as a delegate to an overseas event arranged by the South African branch of Siemens Automation and Drives. The itinerary included two days of visits to the company’s’ German production facilities, and three days at the annual Hannover Fair. Both redefined the term ‘world-class’ for me.
The site visits served as a powerful illustration of how the digital factory has gone from concept to reality. To meet demand for current and future production, engineers at the Amberg Electronics Works have developed computer models for the specifications of every product produced in the plant, every machine used in production, and every connection between those machines. This has enabled them to assemble, test and optimise any proposed change in a production process, virtually, prior to implementing changes on physical infrastructure. Its seems to me that setting up facilities with this level of versatility must require planning akin to that of a NASA shuttle mission. However, if the goal is to sustain market leadership through innovation and automation then this is the benchmark!
Take the Simatic S7 300 production line for example. When operated at full capacity (four shifts, 24/7) some 18 000 PLCs per day roll off the end of the conveyor. What is immediately striking is the sophistication of the automation. The benefits manifest themselves not only in capacity but also in quality, out of the box failure rates having been reduced from 2,5% in 1991 to the current level of 0,1%. Interestingly enough, I saw a number of S7 200 PLCs controlling S7 300 production. “Robots making robots,” commented SAI&C managing editor, Graeme Bell, during a post-trip discussion. It seems that the virtual and real worlds must become inseparably intermeshed in order to build facilities that win awards such as: ‘Best European Factory of the year 2007’.
Then, the Hannover Fair, an event of astonishing proportions; attendance figures for 2008 were in excess of 200 000. A focal point this year was energy efficiency, a four metre tall wind driven energy tower being one of the highlights for me. Another was the Siemens exhibit, a fully automated motor vehicle assembly line that kept the visitors enthralled. These apart, there was also much emphasis on the digital factory (enough said for now), the growing acceptance of wireless technologies in industrial automation and the impact of nanotechnology.
The Mobile Robots and Autonomous Systems display was perhaps the best entertainment choice. The soccer-playing humanoids, competing in the RoboCup German Open, delighted young and old. Speaking of entertainment, our hosts were most cordial in this department. To tour leader, Ryan Chetty, and the Siemens team, many thanks for a most enjoyable week of technology and hospitality. Ditto, organisers élancommunication, who proved that sustained exposure to German beer and cutting-edge automation technology is an excellent combination for removing the barriers between strangers. Fellow delegates, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all!
Scada review
June is the month in which the annual SAI&C scada reviews are published. We have stuck to the usual format of submissions being written by end-users, for end-users. The reviews offer an opportunity for control professionals to read objective opinions on the different scada options supported currently in the local market.
Steven Meyer.
Deputy editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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