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22/02/2012
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Fuchs Lubricants UK says it has seen cost and operational efficiency improvements at its Stoke-on-Trent lubricants plant since migrating to Siemens' PCS 7 distributed control system (DCS) and Simatic Batch.
 The company also says it managed the migration from an obsolete and problematic system without disruption, and is now achieving high plant availability, reduced cycle times and waste, as well as improved production visibility and flexibility.
Steve Hallam, engineering manager for Fuchs, explains that, with increasing demand for its 500-plus lubricant formulations – from engine oils to metal working fluids and medicinal products – it was time to move from what had become an increasingly vulnerable and obsolete system.
The decision to move to PCS 7 followed a site trial, involving Fuchs working with Siemens to install PCS 7 on its petroleum jelly production line. That success – which saw enhanced performance, including vastly reduced plant downtime – convinced the production management team to extend Siemens DCS into other key areas of manufacturing at the Stoke plant.
Making that work, and specifically avoiding production interruptions, meant a staged migration and a feat of scheduling, according to Hallam – who explains that the migration involved more than 5,000 I/Os, 1,000 valves, 90 raw material tanks, a large number of finished product tanks and 38 blending vessels.
"Since the expansion of the PCS 7 system we have been able to see real progress in a number of key areas," states Hallam.
"We are achieving a significant first time pass rate for the finished products, which has increased from 85% to 97%," he continues.
"This means a drop in failure rates to just 3% and that adds up to significantly lower levels of waste product ... and substantial cost savings, in terms of raw material consumption.
"In addition, our knowledge of the process is now far more in-depth, as the data we can extract from the control system informs us exactly of the type of key and highly accurate information we require to ensure product consistency and drive improvements to our efficiencies – such as around how we can reduce cycle times. This allows us to plan our production scheduling far more accurately, as well as driving flexibility."
Fuchs also comments on the fact that PCS 7 allows its engineering team to undertake a continuous improvement programme around the system, which helps to improve production efficiency.
"I believe we are currently only utilising a part of the full functionality we could from PCS 7, and the great thing is that it allows us the flexibility to continue to gauge how we are running the production process and to seek to improve matters," explains Hallam.
"The programme of continuous improvement is set to stay as we realise the full potential of the control system and the next stage is to look closely at the feasibility of real time production planning."
Other operational benefits he alludes to include eliminating the potential for cross-contamination issues related to storage. Controls are now in place to ensure the correct link between raw material intake, storage and blending tanks and finished product tanks at the end of the process. This control functionality has removed, for example, any instances of intake stock tank spills.
Incidentally, Hallam also says that high plant availability is also supported by the system, which is further contributing to production efficiency gains. He explains that, with the ability to remotely access the system from other locations via VPN dial-in, the engineering team can quickly analyse and respond to any issues before they hinder production.
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Author
Brian Tinham
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