End-user details
Name: Ian Nell
Designation: Control and Instrumentation Manager
Company: Kamoto Copper Company SARL
Phone: +243 970 016 846
E-mail: [email protected]
SI details
Name: Alan Taylor
Designation: Technical Director
Company: New Africa Control (NAC) Engineering
Phone: +27 (0)11 445 2000
E-mail: [email protected]
Product details
Product name and version: WinCC V7.0 SP3 + Step 7 V5.5
Vendor: Siemens
Phone: +27 (0)11 652 2000
E-mail: [email protected]
Application details
Location: Kolwezi, Katanga Province, DRC
Industry: Mining and metallurgy
Project start date: 2012-01
Project end date: 2014-12
Application: Minerals processing
Server OS: Windows Server 2003
Client OS: Windows 7
Application statistics
Tag count: 760 718 tags
Updates per day: Approx. 3 684 800 000
Disk space for one day’s updates: Approx. 110 GB
Physical I/O count: 7100 Digital Inputs; 1530 Digital Outputs; 3470 Analog Inputs; 980 Analog Outputs. All on Siemens ET200M remote I/O racks
Front ends:
15 * Siemens S7-400 PLCs with S7-417 CPUs
12 * Siemens S7-200 via EM277 modules
4 * Siemens S7-300 via CP343 modules
1912 * Intelligent starters, VSDs, belt scales, density transmitters and dosing pumps from Siemens and other manufacturers
Licences:
2 * WinCC Configuration RC262144 512 archive tags
4 * WinCC Runtime RT262144 512 archive tags
1 * WinCC Configuration RC153600 512 archive tags
2 * WinCC Runtime RT153600 512 archive tags
1 * WinCC Configuration RC102400 512 archive tags
2 * WinCC Runtime RT102400 512 archive tags
1 * WinCC Configuration RC65536 512 archive tags
1 * WinCC Runtime RT65536 512 archive tags
10 * Simatic WinCC/Server
5 * Simatic WinCC/Redundancy
4 * Simatic WinCC/Archive 30 000 archive tags
6* Simatic WinCC/Archive 5000 archive tags
3 * WinCC Runtime Client RT128 tags
1 * WinCC WebNavigator 25 client
1 * WinCC DataMonitor 25 client
5 * Simatic Step 7 Professional 2010
Scada configuration man-hours: Approx.4000 initial development man-hours
END–USER RESPONSES
General
Q: Briefly describe the application including information on any pre-existing control system
Various mine plant areas and sections were controlled by different vendor-supplied packages with differing control system equipment, programming and visualisation standards making them difficult to operate and maintain. The mine was expanding, adding more areas and sections.
Some existing S7-400 Siemens PLC systems were chosen as the basis for a new uniform control system. Other vendor supplied systems were incorporated by replacing their standalone controllers with remote I/O racks and merging their HMIs into the WinCC scada.
Q: What was the primary motivation for the project?
Plant expansion and the need for control system rationalisation into a centralised plant-wide control and visualisation system.
Q: What were the main goals established for the project?
1. Implement a centralised control and visualisation system architecture.
2. Improve plant availability.
3. Implement single source downtime reason and production recording.
Q: In the procurement decision making process what were the primary considerations that influenced the product selection?
• The SI’s proven standards and track record.
• The SI proposed an upgrade with minimal risk.
• Some required licences existed on site.
Q: What project management principles and/or methodologies did you employ as end-user to mitigate risk, ensuring the project came out on time and within budget?
• Updated and current control philosophies were provided to the SI.
• Proven/running software formed the basis for development.
• A turnkey/fixed price contract model was adopted.
• Backup and restore procedures of the running software were established and proven before applying the new software.
• Formal FAT with the new and old system running in simulation and in parallel was performed before commissioning.
Licensing, maintenance and support
Q: How is after-sales support handled on this application?
Through site visits for training, and service.
Integration, reporting and archiving
Q: Is the scada system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet?
Yes, via two redundant DataMonitor/WebNavigator servers and two redundant MS SQL database servers.
Q: Does the system include or interface with an expert system?
Interfacing to an existing mill feed expert system is planned.
Q: Is the system integrated with an MES / ERP or other management reporting or control system?
Yes, the DataMonitor/WebNavigator servers provide WinCC data from WinCC servers to the MS SQL database servers for metal accounting and dispatch/product tracking.
Q: Does the application include data archiving / historian capabilities with an historical data reporting system?
Yes. Each WinCC server uses a MS SQL server to store all alarms and messages, tag variables and operator actions.
Maintenance, reliability and asset optimisation
Q: Have any production benchmarking tools been configured as part of the scada system?
The mine’s metal accounting package collects data continuously from the DataMonitor, keeping mine management abreast of relevant production information.
Mobile device support
Q: Are you currently using tablets, mobile phones or other smart mobile devices to interact with the scada system?
Yes. Tablets for commissioning and faultfinding and mobile phones to view actual plant area status and production.
Q: Do you allow users to interface with the scada system via their own personal smart devices? (BYOD)
Yes. Read-only access is available for suitably authorised users.
End-user conclusion
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to purchase this scada product over all others for this application?
• The SI offered proven standards and training.
• Redundancy and remote monitoring of the system was possible.
• Maintenance staff already familiar with product.
• Operations and management required a centralised system to view plant and operation/production.
Q: What was the most significant change that you implemented in scada engineering practice / technology in this project?
Using mobile devices such as Android phones to access the WebNavigator servers and have a view of the scada system.
Q: What single operational feature most impresses you about the product now that it is in operation?
A similar look and feel throughout all plants. Navigation systems are identical on all scada servers and clients.
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
The ease of scalability of the system. The ease of access to plant data for users, external applications and systems.
SI RESPONSES
Project details
Q: What tools were used to minimise the man-hours taken?
We used our internal PLC/scada rapid application development tool and the “AS to OS” object editor.
Q: What human factors were taken into consideration as principles or development standards in the HMI design process?
The “Basic Process Control” and “Picture Tree Navigator” options of WinCC provided a high degree of uniformity in navigational menus, screens and screen layers.
Q: For the graphics development process did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
Library images and objects from our project standards were mostly used.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
Comprehensive and includes the industry standard symbol factory library.
Q: What structured processes were followed to determine expected performance under full load, and during abnormal failure conditions?
In-office testing of all standard objects or devices and load testing of objects to determine CPU and RAM load with maximum devices per page and update times of objects.
Q: What are the key physical communication layers and communication protocols employed in the system?
ISO-Ethernet over copper for scada to PLC communication and single mode fibre for longer distances to clients.
Q: What levels of redundancy are incorporated in this scada application?
All servers are used as redundant I/O communication and archive servers. A dedicated Ethernet network/link exists between server pairs for redundancy monitoring and to synchronise archive databases.
Q: What specific custom code or scada scripts were written for this project?
Most of the device status text and colours, displaying of interlocks and sequences, and animation was achieved using C-scripting.
Security and data protection
Q: How have authentication, authorisation and role management been configured?
Operator, technician, engineer, manager, and administrator groups are configured in WinCC.
Q: What configuration backup and data archive backup methodologies have been adopted?
Local backups of the project are made prior to changes and at the end of a working day. A backup of this project is copied to a remote backup server on a frequent basis. Redundant runtime servers are used for runtime backups.
Q: Did you use any integrated or third-party configuration control system for the scada configuration during the engineering of this application?
The PLC and scada configuration is done in an integrated manner through the Simatic Manager.
SI conclusion
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
Its simple architectural scalability and the ease with which additional devices, plant areas or more scada clients can be added.
Q: What impresses you the most about the engineering / configuration aspects of the product now that it is in operation?
The efficient way in which tags are managed, added and synchronised and the availability of wizards to simplify configuration.
Q: How would you rate the ease of use of the historical reporting system?
Very straightforward.
VENDOR RESPONSES
Product
Q: Vendor comments on product / modules?
WinCC is a scalable scada system with built-in historian functionality and optional web-based clients. It natively supports Siemens’ communication protocols, OPC, Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi and Modbus.
Operating systems / VMware
Q: Vendor comments on operating systems
WinCC runs on Windows, using C-Script for low level functionality and VB Script for higher level functionality. Both scripting engines are also supported on Web-based clients.
Licensing, maintenance and support model
Q: What sort of licensing agreement options are offered?
Configuration and runtime packages are available in eight different sizes ranging from 128 to 260 000 tags. Options include archive tags, WebNavigator, DataMonitor, PerformanceMonitor, SIMATIC Process Historian and Information Server.
Q: Are licences sold outright or subject to periodic (e.g. annual) renewal?
A licence is a once-off purchase for a particular version.
Q: What upgrade agreements are offered?
Upgrade packages are sold per computer and include all standard WinCC options on that computer. Updates and service packs are free of charge. An optional Software Update Service is available.
Q: What after-sales offerings iro support and maintenance are available, and which technologies are used to deliver them?
Support is provided both by Siemens and SIs. Siemens provides a telephone hotline at no cost to the customer. Further support/analysis and on-site assistance are fee-based.
Q: Do you have a documented process in place to manage and test OS patches and to release scada system software patches?
Yes.
Technology incorporated
Integration and reporting
Q: What generic and/or product specific interfaces does the product have iro well-known MES packages?
Interfaces are possible to Siemens’ SIMATIC IT MES system, with SAP, and via OPC DA, OPC Historical Data Access, OPC Alarms & Events, OPC UA and OLEdb.
Q: What native historical data reporting options are available?
WinCC includes a native reporting system with freely definable reports for tags, alarms and trends.
Maintenance, reliability and asset optimisation
Q: What maintenance, reliability, asset optimisation and/or continuous improvement related modules or capabilities does the product incorporate?
All Siemens S7 system alarms, system information, network (PROFIBUS/PROFINET) and module diagnostics are automatically sent to the WinCC event archiving system and are displayed in the event/alarm list to facilitate fault finding and root cause analysis.
Security and data protection
Q: What authentication, authorisation and role management models are available for the runtime environment?
These aspects can be managed internally by WinCC or based on Windows user management.
Unique selling proposition (USP)
Q: List the top five feature/benefit pairs that contribute to this product’s USP.
To view the unabridged version of this scada review, please visit http://instrumentation.co.za/+C20137
| Tel: | +27 11 652 2000 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.siemens.co.za |
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