Reviewer details
Name: McDonald Harawa
Position: Plant engineer
Company: Lafarge Malawi
Phone: +265 1 871933
E-mail: [email protected]
SI details
Name: Pregs Naidoo
Designation: Technical sales director
Company: Afrilek Automation
Phone: +27 (0)11 552 8114
E-mail: [email protected]
Product details
Product name and version: WinCC V7.0 SP2
Vendor: Siemens
Phone: +27 (0)11 652 2000
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.siemens.com
Application details
Industry: Cement manufacturing
Location: Blantyre Malawi
Application: Manufacturing and reporting
Application statistics
Updates per day: 6 048 000 (70 tags every 1s)
Front ends: 304 DI, 96 DO, 40AI, 12 Simocode motor controllers; 1 x PAC 3200 Power Meter; 3 x Schenk Weighfeeders; 4 x S7-315-2 PN/DPs; 3 HMI Panels
Licences: WinCC Configuration/Engineering (256 Tag licence); WinCC Server; WinCC Client; WinCC powerrate add-on
End–user responses
General
Q: Briefly describe the application including information on any pre-existing control system?
The project was to replace a Mitsubishi PLC and introduce a full WINCC scada to fully automate the plant. The application controls the batching process to ensure correct aggregates are maintained. Energy consumption on the cement mill is monitored, archived and reported.
Licensing, maintenance and support
Q: What upgrade agreements are in place on this application?
None.
Q: How is the after-sales support handled on this application?
First line support is by telephone; thereafter by site visit.
System architecture
Q: Is the scada system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet? If so, what level of remote monitoring and control is configured?
Not currently. We want to use this route for maintenance and support reasons but require permission from parent company, Lafarge France, which we have requested.
Q: Do you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software (Other than MES)?
No.
Management reporting and integration
Q: Does the application include data archiving/historian capabilities with an historical data reporting system?
Yes, Standard WinCC Archiving based on Microsoft SQL.
Q: Is the system integrated with an MES/ ERP or other management reporting or control system? (eg, Baan, SAP, SYSPRO…)
No.
Q: Have any production benchmarking tools been configured as part of the scada system?
No.
Q: Has any asset management functionality been configured in the application (for software assets, control system assets or for plant assets)?
No.
Q: Has any GIS (geographic information systems) functionality been configured in the application?
No.
Q: Are you currently using tablet PCs or mobile phones to interact with the scada system?
No.
End-user conclusion
Q: In the procurement decision making process was the total cost of ownership (TCO) considered?
No.
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to purchase this product for this application?
Single source supplier for ease of maintenance, support training from the vendor, upgrade path, redundancy features over fibre-optic ring using PN DP and Siemens SCALANCE Industrial Ethernet.
Q: What single feature most impresses you about the product now that it is in operation?
The standard diagnostics.
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
The architecture simplifies expansion of the system as our plant expands.
SI Responses
Project details
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the scada configuration take?
Approximately 35 man-hours.
Q: What human factors were taken into consideration in the HMI design process?
As the client did not have scada standards we made use of Siemens’ internal scada standards for the cement industry.
Q: For the graphics development process did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
Siemens WinCC HMI Symbol Library.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
The HMI Symbol Library has a comprehensive collection of ready-made picture objects for the display of plants and plant components.
Q: Did you use any ‘special’ images (eg, photographs, 3D images, specialised dashboards, etc.)?
No.
Q: Did you use any video or multimedia technology used in the application?
No.
Q: What alarm management standards or best practices were adopted in configuring the scada system?
The Siemens Alarm Function Block ‘Alarm_8P’ was used to implement chronological messaging between an S7 controller and WinCC. Alarms created in this way are given the timestamp from the S7 controller when sent up to WinCC.
Q: What structured processes were followed to determine expected performance under full load, and during abnormal failure conditions?
None.
Q: What are the key physical communi-cation layers and communication protocols employed in the system?
Industrial Ethernet (over fibre) for communication between the controllers and scada.
Q: What levels of redundancy are incor-porated in this scada application?
None.
Q: What specific custom code or scada scripts were written for this project?
None.
Security and data protection
Q: How have authentication, authorisation and role management been configured?
Standard WinCC User Administration was used.
Q: Does the design make provision for a DMZ and firewall segregation of process (scada) network and business networks?
A firewall has been added for segregation between the corporate LAN and the scada network. This has been added for future remote monitoring of the control system.
Q: What intrusion detection has been incorporated on the plant network(s) on which this scada system exists?
None.
Q: What configuration backup and data archive backup methodologies have been adopted?
Message and tag archives are broken into individual segments of 50 MB each. These segments are stored on the local WinCC Server and on the Engineering Station (as backup) for a period of 6 months.
Q: Did you use any integrated or third party configuration control system for the scada configuration during the engineering of this application?
No.
SI conclusion
Q: How would you rate the ease of use of the historical reporting system?
Very easy to use. Configuration took less than 5 minutes.
Q: What impresses you the most about the engineering/configuration aspects of the product now that it is in operation?
Because the tags and alarms are configured in the PLC engineering system, no configuration of tags and alarms was required in WinCC. This saved a lot of time on the scada configuration.
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
Our decision to use WinCC hinged on the system being universally scalable. It has flexible expansion capability, from the small single-user solution to the redundant client/server solution with a central archive server and several hundred web-based operating stations. It also has a migration facility for older projects and can be expanded with multi-vendor third-party components.
Vendor responses
Product
Q: Vendor comments on product/modules?
WinCC V7.0 SP2 is the current version.
Operating systems/VMware
Q: Vendor comments on OS?
Microsoft SQL server is the standard archiving backbone and it is included in the base package.
Licensing, maintenance and support model
Q: What sort of licensing agreement options are offered?
The WinCC licence is based on tag count. Licensing uses a modular model. Users only need to purchase the required modules.
Q: Are licences sold outright or subject to periodic (eg, annual) renewal?
Licences are a once-off purchase and no annual licence fees are applicable.
Q: What upgrade agreements are offered?
WinCC Comprehensive Support can be purchased. This entitles the purchaser to all upgrades, service packs and patches at no additional cost.
All service packs, hot fixes and patches are free and can be downloaded from the Siemens support website.
Q: What after-sales offerings iro support and maintenance are available, and which technologies are used to deliver them?
Siemens offer an SLA (Service Level Agreement) with the customer and this is done via the After Sales Service department, which has its own service personnel.
Technology incorporated
Management reporting and integration
Q: What native historical data reporting options are available?
Built in WinCC reporting. Web reporting with Microsoft Excel and MS Reporting Services on top of MS SQL (MS SQL included in base package).
Q: What product specific interface does the product have iro well-known MES packages?
SAP and integrated OPC.
PLC configuration and programming
Q: What capabilities does the scada offer in terms of generation and/or management of PLC configuration files or PLC application code?
WinCC can automatically generate the S7 tag database, alarms, some screens and diagnostics.
Security and data protection
Q: If the scada system generates application files that are transferred to the PLC, how are Stuxnet style PLC virus attacks prevented?
Dependent on virus scanner software with appropriate Stuxnet signatures.
Q: What authentication, authorisation and role management models are available?
* Simatic Logon can protect against unauthorised access.
* Windows authentication.
* WinCC/ChangeControl – version management and documentation change control.
* WinCC/Audit – operator and change control monitoring to aid compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and EU 178/2002.
Unique selling proposition (USP)
Q: List the top five feature/benefit pairs that contribute to this product’s USP.
* TIA – totally integrated automation: Auto generation of tags, screens, diagnostic data, alarms and events.
* Integration with STEP7: Reduces engineering time.
* Once off purchase: No annual licence fees.
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