Arnott’s Ingredients Handling System Upgrade
Project Completion Date: 2017
Project Highlights
- Replacement of aging automated Ingredients Handling System and recipe management
- Web based Wonderware Recipe Manager Plus installed
- More flexible recipe execution
- Easily customised and maintained
- Improved diagnostics and reporting
- No downtime for the duration of the project.
Overview
Division: Systems Integration
Location: Virginia, QLD
Industry: Food and Beverage
Arnott's is the largest producer of biscuits and the second-largest supplier of snack food in Australia. Whilst the business is now owned by overseas investors, manufacturing proudly remains within Australia.
The automation components in Arnott's Ingredients Handling System (IHS) at their manufacturing plant in Virginia, had reached end of life. Spare parts were becoming problematic and there had been many modifications and additions to the automation system with processes not necessarily being documented.
The Crossmuller Systems Integration team were tasked with replacing the IHS, installing a new distributed control system, and upgrading the PLC and SCADA.
Location: Virginia, QLD
Industry: Food and Beverage
Arnott's is the largest producer of biscuits and the second-largest supplier of snack food in Australia. Whilst the business is now owned by overseas investors, manufacturing proudly remains within Australia.
The automation components in Arnott's Ingredients Handling System (IHS) at their manufacturing plant in Virginia, had reached end of life. Spare parts were becoming problematic and there had been many modifications and additions to the automation system with processes not necessarily being documented.
The Crossmuller Systems Integration team were tasked with replacing the IHS, installing a new distributed control system, and upgrading the PLC and SCADA.
The Challenge
Wonderware’s System Platform and Recipe Manager Plus with an Allen Bradley Guardlogix PLC, Point IO, EthernetIP, and Powerflex 527 VSDs were chosen as the platform to deliver this project.
To minimise the risk to production, the work was split into two projects, separating the electrical hardware replacement from the PLC and SCADA upgrade.
This was the first use of Recipe Manager Plus for the site and was a large undertaking as it would not just manage formulas but also the sequence of ingredients into the mixers (procedures). Crossmulller created a standard structure for a set of common recipes and then worked with the quality and production teams to expand these into over 200 recipes that represent the full range of what is produced on site.
To minimise the risk to production, the work was split into two projects, separating the electrical hardware replacement from the PLC and SCADA upgrade.
This was the first use of Recipe Manager Plus for the site and was a large undertaking as it would not just manage formulas but also the sequence of ingredients into the mixers (procedures). Crossmulller created a standard structure for a set of common recipes and then worked with the quality and production teams to expand these into over 200 recipes that represent the full range of what is produced on site.
The Solution
Over the course of 12 months, tested code was progressively migrated to site and tested during scheduled shutdown windows.
The final commissioning of the new control system was conducted over a period of two weeks during the plant's scheduled Christmas shutdown.
The initial plan called for the first week of the shutdown to be reserved for dry running, however, due to the extensive testing carried out prior to the shutdown, the first full dough was produced at the end of the first day. By the end of the shutdown, the system had been running at near full production for a week.
Making use of the site's existing System Platform install base, 26 additional high-resolution touchscreen Operator Interface Terminals (OIT) were installed. Ten of these were installed at the Mixer operator stations running a hybrid Intouch/Recipe Manager Plus application which for the first time gave Mixer Operators visibility into the operation of the IHS system and allowed for Recipe selection directly at each mixer.
The final commissioning of the new control system was conducted over a period of two weeks during the plant's scheduled Christmas shutdown.
The initial plan called for the first week of the shutdown to be reserved for dry running, however, due to the extensive testing carried out prior to the shutdown, the first full dough was produced at the end of the first day. By the end of the shutdown, the system had been running at near full production for a week.
Making use of the site's existing System Platform install base, 26 additional high-resolution touchscreen Operator Interface Terminals (OIT) were installed. Ten of these were installed at the Mixer operator stations running a hybrid Intouch/Recipe Manager Plus application which for the first time gave Mixer Operators visibility into the operation of the IHS system and allowed for Recipe selection directly at each mixer.
