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News Article Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data

Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data

October 18
2016
GO TO WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION

By Chuck
Karwoski,
President,
CimQuest
INGEAR

LineView
Solutions is a leading European provider of
intelligent OEE monitoring solutions to the
bottling and packaging industry. Typical
LineView Solutions customers are blue-
chip companies in the fast-moving
consumer goods (FMCG) business, such
as Coca-Cola Enterprises, Ltd. and AB
InBev. It recently upgraded its flagship
product, simply called LineView, and in
doing so, needed a software solution to
connect its system to the programmable
logic controllers (PLCs) found on the
factory floor. To make this connection, they
chose CimQuest INGEAR PLC drivers. In
some respects, incorporating outsourcing
driver code to a third-party company is an
unusual decision for a software
development company to make, rather
than writing it themselves. Yet company
developers pointed to reliability and
economics when explaining the choice.

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27/07/2017 Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data | Automation.com

A LineView system monitors a customer's

entire production line in real-time and
provides performance data that drives
continuous efficiency improvements. The
LineView software ensures that all
productivity loss is correctly allocated,
meaning customers can be sure that their
improvement efforts deliver the expected
results. The web-based system
automatically captures PLC fault codes,
andprovides instant overall equipment
effectiveness (OEE) and Six Loss analysis.
As a result, LineView helps manufacturers
reduce manufacturing costs in high speed,
high volume production environments
which require reliability and stability to
operate successfully.

A LineView system is designed to work

with a customer's production line,
monitoring its operation, while at the same
time allowing it to function at full speed. A
block diagram of the LineView system is
shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. For LineView V5, LineView

Solutions redesigned the system, moving
to a distributed, Web-based architecture.

The key to this architecture is the iView

data collector, which provides the interface
between the LineView system and the
production line. Each iView contains an
embedded PC with the INGEAR drivers
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27/07/2017 Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data | Automation.com

and gathers data from a production line's

PLCs and remote I/O. iView collects data
from a single production line, and multiple
iViews can be used to support more than
one production line.

The iView connects to the FactoryView

data server via Ethernet, which in turn,
connects to a wide range of control and
display devices, including mobile devices,
big-screen LCD displays, LED displays for
the factory, and industrial PCs on the
factory floor. Because the system is
Ethernet-based, users can also use a
secure VPN/ADSL link for remote access
and support.

INGEAR drivers connect to Allen

Bradley, Siemens, Modbus

When LineView Solutions first began

designing LineView Version 5, the
company had some decisions to make.
Earlier versions of LineView were built on a
third-party historian platform that required
powerful server hardware to run.
Production-line PLCs interfaced to this
server via a PLC that acted as a data
collector.

This new version of the LineView platform

would, however, use the iView data
collector to communicate with the PLCs.
As a result, new drivers were needed, and
company engineers had to make a crucial
decision. They could either develop the
drivers for communicating with production-
line PLCs themselves, or they could
purchase third-party software.

Both approaches had advantages and

disadvantages. For example, according to
Andrew Giles, Operations Director for
LineView Solutions, one advantage of
developing their own drivers is that the
company would have had total control over
the software. The downside, however, is
that developing drivers for even just the
most popular PLCs on the market would
have taken longer and cost more than
purchasing them from a third party.

After a thorough evaluation, LineView

opted to leverage CimQuest INGEAR
driver software embedding it into iView.
This was a big step for LineView, as the
INGEAR drivers are the only third-party
software used anywhere in the product.
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27/07/2017 Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data | Automation.com

The INGEAR drivers they are using

include the drivers for Siemens S7 PLCs,
the Allen Bradley suite, and Modbus PLC
communication. According to Giles, the
INGEAR drivers gives LineView the
flexibility to interface with multiple PLCs
without requiring additional OPC server
software. And because CimQuest doesnt
require each copy of its INGEAR software
to be individually licensed, as OPC
software vendors do, the INGEAR decision
has saved thousands of dollars in licensing
fees.

We essentially had three choices, Giles

explained. We could purchase OPC
drivers and pay high recurring software
costs. We could write our own drivers with
complete control but at an internal cost.
Or we could use the INGEAR solution,
which in the end gave us what we needed
at a very low software cost, good reliability
and stability.

This decision has worked out very well for

LineView. The integration of the INGEAR
software went relatively smoothly, and
when problems did pop up, CimQuest
engineers were available to respond
quickly and resolve any issues. And,
because the INGEAR drivers seamlessly
integrated with the LineView software,
installation and use is transparent to the
end user. End users don't have to install
the drivers separately nor learn how to use
them separately.

In the end, it's all about product success,

and according to Giles, INGEAR software
has definitely contributed to the success of
the new LineView V5 platform. More than
80 LineView systems using INGEAR
software are now in production
facilities/plants and working flawlessly.
The INGEAR drivers have helped us to
provide a more scalable solution, which in
turn, has opened up sales opportunities
that had previously been impractical,
Giles noted.

Simulation not a game for Real

Games

Real Games faced a similar decision in

driver control software. Real Games'
FACTORY I/O is a real time automation
sandbox where you can build and simulate
industrial systems. This fully interactive
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27/07/2017 Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data | Automation.com

simulation environment includes cutting

edge physics, high quality graphics and
sound, and allows users to create 3D
industrial systems quickly and easily using
a drag and drop approach.

One of the features that makes FACTORY

I/O so valuable for teaching automation
engineers and technicians is that the
simulated systems can be controlled in
real time by connecting FACTORY I/O to
external technologies, both hardware and
software. Using the actual hardware and
software that will be found in the
production system makes the simulation
more accurate.

To interface FACTORY I/O with Allen

Bradley programmable automation
controllers, Real Games uses CimQuest's
INGEAR NET.LOGIX and NET.ABLINK.
Real Games chose INGEAR as part of its
strategy to reduce the complexity of
developing automation systems and make
it as easy as possible for its customers to
get their systems up and running.
INGEAR drivers are very easy to use,
says Bruno Vigario, CEO of Real Games,
They just work.

According to Vigario, with INGEAR drivers,

beginners can enable communication
between a PC and a PLC just by
connecting an Ethernet cable between
them. They do not have to learn how to
use communication protocols, such as
OPC and Modbus, nor do they have to
figure out how to enable them in the
controller and fool around with
configurations.

Another big plus is not having to buy

dedicated DAQ hardware and do the
wiring. This can be very scary and
intimidating to someone just starting in the
world of automation technologies.

Real Games developers are also

benefiting from the use of INGEAR drivers.
Because the INGEAR drivers all use same
interfaces, Real Games can avoid code
duplication and follow the same
architecture in the data exchange aspects
of their applications. There is also the
benefit that getting a tested and proven
solution reduces the amount of testing and
verification Real Games needed to perform
to have a solid product.
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27/07/2017 Production Line Monitoring Utilizes Live PLC Data | Automation.com

Both Real Games and LineView solutions

agree that purchasing INGEAR drivers
instead of developing their own was a
good decision. Although their products are
quite different, both companies found that
INGEAR drivers are very economical, easy
to integrate into their systems, and have
proved to be reliable in the field.

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