Systems run better when they’re better understood. This starts with Discovery.

The system also allows the customer to collect, store, and review their batch and recipe data consistently.

Operators work with traditional HMI displays, while production managers, front office personnel, and supervisors can view the plant status from PC’s and mobile devices at their convenience.

The project benefits from being both centralized (project modifications are published immediately at all client stations) and easily accessible to a variety of plant personnel.

During the whole Magnum installation, the tech support, along with the people that Magnum had out to help us, was amazing. I mean, the guys knew everything they were doing.

When you look at the craftsmanship of the equipment on the first delivery of equipment and inspection, I knew we’d made a good decision due to the nice-looking work, welds, and paint. It was really a professional job.

How they can engineer and program to make those settings work on a day-to-day basis for us promptly, and just extremely knowledgeable on their equipment and how well they could install it.”

I think it’s the total solution Magnum can provide from the sales team to the engineering team to the service team. They’re with the customer every step of the way to ensure success.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group IT prowess is evident elsewhere in the project with secure, full-line network, the implementation of EWON full-line remote access device, integrated RFID login tools that utilize existing, in-plant badge technology, and detailed overhead television
solutions which guide warehouse personnel.

Since the line control addresses the entire line rather than machine by machine, the line is deployed with full data collection and OEE which help the client benchmark operations from the fi rst day of production. This has proved enormously helpful for the development of operating staff.

In addition to the physical line control, Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group developed all the middleware to facilitate communications to and from the end client’s Adage ERP system. Work orders fl ow easily from the ERP to the Ignition line control and fi nished information returns during and after a product run. This allows lot tracking to the pallet level or better. The level of integration also provides a huge reduction in the amount of paperwork involved with the process.

This FT Batch solution is now used to clean six (6) different production areas in one of the company’s manufacturing areas.

The system was set up to run for the same amount of time regardless of the equipment being cleaned or the actual level of cleanliness that was needed. With FT Batch, the company can now modify the time, flow, and amount of chemical used for each of their six production areas.

Integration of the CIP systems with Factory Talk Batch simplified the creation, operation, optimization, and maintenance of the CIP procedures.

The control system was integrated with the plant ERP system (both top-down and bottom-up), allowing (a) production shop orders to be sent to the plant floor system for execution and (b) material usage, lot data, and production totals to be reported back to the plant ERP system.

The use of FactoryTalkBatch not only allowed the amount of equipment required to be reduced, it also put the ability to modify recipes into the hands of the plant personnel, without any need for knowledge of controller programming. New recipes, new products, could be evaluated using FactoryTalkBatch, which had simplified the processes occurring in the kitchen.

Thus, it was possible to construct a solution that consistently delivered high quality products at the lowest possible cost.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group effectively created a gateway between our manufacturing floor applications and our legacy ERP system. This allowed transactions between the two systems for real time data either to be sent up for inventory tracking or pushed down for scheduling and production needs.

The collaborative efforts between OEM, integrator, and customer provided an innovative solution that utilized a variety of new technology to control the ratios of product. The real-time data collection and product historical trends provided by one cohesive platform enable speed to market improvements and new products, troubleshooting issues for quick resolutions, and supporting data for nutritional label declarations.

In just a few months of production, JTM has created, controlled, and tracked hundreds of batches and dozens of products.

My relationship with ECS has been great…The team members care just as much about what is going on as I did (do), which is greatly appreciated.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group developed and applied the timers to multiple vessels and provided the necessary programming and configuration modifications to the ControlLogix controllers and the HMI’s to track times as the batch is processed. Timer logic was added to the appropriate unit and equipment module logic within the controller, eliminating any need to change the FactoryTalk Batch recipes or area model. A dashboard was set up for the operators to see the times to show the Batch Product Life and an individual virtual gauge was generated for each vessel on the HMI to show the unit times.

The automation modifications reduced variability in the manual procedure, reduced errors, and provided a visualization tool to the operators.

The new tank farm arrangement allows used oil to be stored and available for reuse when required rather than pumped to a waste tank.

A significant improvement resulting from the installation of the new controls was the ability to reliably track the amount of oil being used in the manufacturing process. It was now possible to establish an inventory of the oil onsite. Knowing exactly how much oil was on hand and how much was used from week to week was clearly a major advantage for the company.

The repurposing of the tank farm could be considered a greenfield installation, providing various oils to a new fryer system. The new designs would allow the storage and transfer of (1) newly delivered oil, (2) flavored oil to be reused, and (3) waste oil to be discarded.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group provided electrical design drawings as required to aid in the installation of the new mixer and integration into the existing controls. It was also necessary to design and construct the power feed for the mixer, and to engineer the network to connect to the plant. Further programming was provided to improve recipe storage and retrieval, making it easier for the company to modify or add recipes.

To improve the line setup, Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group programmed the HMI to specify the configuration of the line and how it was required to operate. Pipes in the system were manually disconnected and reconnected, and sensors were installed on the pipes and programmed to confirm that the arrangement was correct. The operators would be able to select the proper setup and confirm that it is correctly arranged.

With the changes, it is now streamlined because everything happens in the same place, and there is more visibility into what must happen to make a specific product.

Feedback from the top engineer was that the product quality has improved, and there is significantly less waste material.

The customer’s management felt that ECS had to dig in and truly understand the very complicated Proprietary application and how critical it was to their operations.

The manufacturer now has a supportable, predictable system that is used in multiple functional areas of the plant.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group implemented a migration strategy to install and commission the Ignition system in parallel with the existing system to avoid a major system disruption.

The modification has allowed the company to maximize the utilization of its equipment.

The batch engine is responsible for coordinating all the activities, including the parameter value transfer and Report information capture.

After the modifications, the utility has more capacity and is able to filter and treat more water. The collection and retrieval of data for the historian is a simpler process. Previously, several steps were required to obtain reports from the data. Reporting has now been simplified and streamlined in Ignition.

The change to Ignition was cost-effective since the service portion for Ignition is cheaper than that of Wonderware.

Intentionally, the SCADA system itself was not improved, avoiding a large learning curve for the employees of the utility.

The migration to Rockwell’s standard PlantPAx solution provided the consistency and reliability needed to provide the plant with the necessary functionality and achieve qualification and validation.

Using eProcedure, electronic prompts allow operators to review and respond, including the provision of detailed photographs of equipment setup.

The absence of a standard Process object was the major driver for the migration.

It was a simple yet elegant solution that leveraged all the strengths of the Rockwell Automation platform in a powerful yet small form factor that fit the needs of the application both logically and physically.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Groups’ methodical approach to systems upgrades was exactly what the revised solution required. Their team worked onsite to reverse-engineer the existing systems by interviewing the client’s staff, reviewing the physical connections inside the panels and in the field, and conducting a detailed review of the data code. Based on this investigation, they developed controls narratives and plans for the eventual equipment installation.

Perhaps most importantly, this satisfied client has already engaged the team to continue their modernization efforts elsewhere in the plant and to investigate an area or facility-wide Ignition solution for enhanced supervisory control in the future.

The end customer hoped to achieve better control and visibility of the overall process, which they have”, says Muller. “They’ve also reduced their overall startup time for the complex operation by 1/3 to 1/2, and that is a huge financial gain when you’re talking about products and materials as valuable as theirs included in an operation that spans multiple shifts to fully start.

This customer has been excellent to work with,” he says. “No doubt the overall scope has changed since we started this a few years ago, but the open lines of communication have allowed us to collaborate on desired changes and tackle the updates in a pragmatic way. There’s a mutual trust between our companies, and everyone is comfortable that all teammates on this are pushing to a common positive outcome.

When one of my largest customers asked me if I was interested in bagging the material we previously manufactured, I jumped at the chance. Researching other plants, I found that most of the operations I wanted to emulate were based on Magnum’s operating systems. I found their sales staff to be very knowledgeable and helpful. Any equipment needs to be tweaked and adapted before installation. Those changes were dealt with promptly and fairly. When this system is operating at its capacity, I plan on working with Magnum again to install a duplicate system.

Magnum provided a total solution for us from the start of the plant to the warehouse, (as well as) all the equipment and all the engineering needed to complete our process. Magnum was with us step by step, revision through revision, ensuring we could fill our needs as a company.

The customer can now count on an application that can be supported by the customer’s personnel or any FTBatch knowledgeable engineer.

I thought the batch system would be ready on time for testing to begin but would have quite a few bugs to work out due to the short timeline and complexity of the system.

Transparency, accountability, and communication. These attributes are critical for projects with short timelines. AmeriQual and ECS were true partners in the project. There were many challenges and tough discussions throughout the project but we were able to make decisions and prioritize tasks based on what was best for (the project).

We have approximately 20% of our staff that is Spanish speaking. ECS translated the system so that the operator interfaces could easily be toggled from English to Spanish depending on the team member. This has improved our team member’s willingness to work in this area of our facility as well as reduced training time.

Ignition provides a reliable platform that can be supported and developed internally or by system integrators. Ignition would provide the power to reliably replace the existing system and the flexibility to extend the application to other functional areas of the plant, allowing visibility across the plant from a single system. Additionally, Ignition enabled a single platform to control both processing and packaging areas of the plant.

The complete modifications included a “clean-out” function. If a new product type was selected to run on a Process Line, the system automatically dumped the old product from the line before allowing the new product to proceed. This additional functionality contributed to removing the need for manual intervention to prevent product mixing.

The program chooses the best path available based on product types in the process line, in the transfer line, and in the destination.

After the programming for automatic transfer was added, operators can select a source and a destination.

Using FactoryTalk Batch recipes to drive CIP processes not only simplified the use of the CIP system but also established repeatable, consistent cleaning cycles.

The addition of FactoryTalk Batch to the control system has allowed the pharmaceutical company to author version-controlled, electronic recipes that execute consistently from batch to batch.

The weigh controller allows us to switch between bag sizes in quick and easy steps. Also, calibrating the machine and ability to change the speed as we need to is simple.

There is nothing automated or factory-like about what we do. It is and will always be a craftsman’s venture.

We opened the Parisi Artisan Coffee roasting facility in 2006.

Again, very reliable and trouble free

We have an additional TE 100 in our fertilizer plant that has lived there for nearly 15 years.” … This bagger is put to the test daily and I’d say it’s a great machine.

It’s easy to operate and we have been very pleased with its performance

Magnum Systems was very knowledgeable and easy to work with, giving us new ideas to help streamline the project

One of the best things about your equipment is the simplicity of the design that works in a very sophisticated system. It is easy to maintain and clean and has been very reliable.

Magnum Systems was very knowledgeable and easy to work with, giving us new ideas to help streamline the project. One of the best things about your equipment is the simplicity of the design that works in a very sophisticated system. It is easy to maintain and clean and has been very reliable.

When we started looking for a company to provide us with bulk bag unloaders and bulk bag fillers we wanted to stay close to home for technical support and quick turn around on parts ordering

The final startup element included a detailed tuning phase which ensured proper responsiveness and timing without overloading the legacy controllers nor the associated networks. This allowed for the full HMI migration to be completed with zero production downtime during what the customer considered their busiest time of year.

The technology and upgrade plan weren’t unique, by themselves, but the ambitious scale of the application made it particularly challenging.” The client’s request included integration of tens of thousands of tags across twenty-two core, satellite, OEM, and utility controllers spanning an entire midwestern manufacturing facility.

Our client approached us with a fairly ambitious plan for this migration based on our deep experience with Ignition products

The organization now stands poised to propagate this new level of integration and productivity throughout additional manufacturing processes and sites.

Operators are now prompted to identify via barcode scan specific ingredients which will be used in a given mix. This ensures that the proper ingredients are not only known and planned, but that they are physically on hand and ready to be introduced, when directed, to a current mix. This includes identifying both the bulk ingredients and any required pre-weighed materials.

The results are streamlined operations for mixing personnel, non-invasive enforcement of the mixing steps and procedures, and more complete data records regarding specific ingredient usage and batch performance.

Every ECS teammate learns Ignition from the start of their tenure with us… Many at ECS achieve Gold certification which indicates that they have a deep understanding of the tools.

This level of integration allowed us to speed development in a way that keeps things from getting unruly. Our R&D and prior use of these elements really shone through on this project.

We didn’t consider using manpower temporarily because it is tough to find manpower and the processing requirements for the product would be challenging to accomplish by a person.

We did a tour of the facility so they could see the operation firsthand and explained where we would like to get. From that ECS came back to us with ideas as well as showed us what their systems looked like and could do. We came up with a strategic path that could be implemented in a phased approach. The phased approach has allowed us to implement improvements to our operation in shorter timelines and simplify the training requirements for our team members.

Quality is not just another goal; it is our basic strategy for survival and future growth.

The people, processes, and equipment must be able to adapt to ever changing market demands.

Transparency, accountability, and communication. These attributes are critical for projects with short timelines. AmeriQual and ECS were true partners in the project.

Outside of cursory I/O checkout support, the bulk of the system was deployed via remote connection.

The control system also handles the functions of the mixer itself, thus allowing the batch software to dictate the different duration and mixing intensities as well as proper dosing of sub components.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group merged this information into the configuration within the FT Batch and the client’s recipes quickly assumed a functional stance within the back end and as visible to the operators via the programmed FT View interfaces.

Magnum’s Controls & Process Automation Group’s pragmatic design and methodical approach to project management ensured that operators were involved in the review process and, through pre-deployment training, were eager and supportive of system startup. Today they execute the process control with the same confidence they had for decades before the system upgrade.

Each instance of similar equipment looks and behaves exactly the same so operators’ learning curve is reduced and they have more confidence when using the control system.

From a project development standpoint, using PlantPAx objects reduces development time since a good deal of the component code for them is pre-validated.

The tight connection between the batch engine and the HMI allows operators to simply visualize what might be complex operations. Authorized users can watch a recipe’s progress while retaining control over start, stop, hold, resume, and required manual operations or input.

The fast nature of the project nearly assured that some minor changes were required on the physical equipment but, overall, the system ran as expected nearly out of the box.

The robust nature of the ECS system allows for rapid deployment regardless of ingredient count or complexity of operations.

It was quickly evident that a fully integrated solution from ECS was not only possible but that it would be integral to long term success.

The result of this application is a flexible solution that matches the required flexibility of the canning line itself.

Work orders flow easily from the ERP to the Ignition line control and finished information returns during and after a product run.

All the line’s machines communicate to the Ignition line control application via standard drivers and schemes.

The solution provided maintains the integrity of the original HMI screens while providing additional information and tools to improve the effectiveness of the users.

The ability to historicize an unlimited number of data points has changed the way we do business and make decisions.

The entire project moved smoothly, even though we were blazing new ground.

The new CIP system is now able to control the amount of CIP liquid as well as the run time on the CIP circuits based on the equipment being cleaned. This control difference can now be tracked and reported using FT Batch to help the company determine the amount of savings they are receiving, and where they can still make improvements.

The new line Magnum has installed for us has significantly sped up our production rates. Before, we could only do about three to four bags a minute. Now, we’re up closer to nine bags a minute, so we’ve almost tripled our production rate.

The new line Magnum has installed for us has significantly sped up our production rates. Before, we could only do about three to four bags a minute. Now, we’re up closer to nine bags a minute, so we’ve almost tripled our production rate.

Magnum provided a total solution for us from the start of the plant to the warehouse, (as well as) all the equipment and all the engineering needed to complete our process. Magnum was with us step by step, revision through revision, ensuring us they could fill our needs as a company.