Hi There!

A company Im working for needs to improve their efficiency, buy, first of all, measuring their "reasons for stopping the line". The line this company is working in does packaging of Veggies in cardboard boxes

Their steps into this subject are:

1.-Build a list of reasons for "line stop" and create a compilation of conditions that lead to each stop. For instance: Switch 1 closed, switch 2 open and no detection of photocell 5 for 5 seconds, means "No cardboard in feeder 1"

2.-Insalla and configure an OPC in the building to monitor all the criticil signals

3.-Design and program a software that reads these signals and determines the root cause of all stop conditions according to table defined in step 1

We are now in the stage of determining the OPC software to use. For no, our only options seems to be KEPServer-EX. It seems that being UA is the trend and way to go nowadays.

Can you suggest any other alternate for an OPC? ALl agreed we need a UA opc?

Is there anything else in our plan that you believe is not correct?

All the PLC's in this line are Omron (fairly new) but in the future this plant will have to be connected to another (distant) plant using a mix of Siemens and other brands. 

Thanks in advance for any suggestion on this topic

Eduardo

Hi EduGimenoG,

if you prefer using a OPC server KEPware will always be a good choice, esp. because of its wide variety of available interface to PLC vendors. But What is your plan after you measured your data? How will you analyze them?

Do you know ibaPDA? It is a powerfull data acquisition software. Connection Omron and Siemens will be possible. And the Analyzing tool ibaAnalyzer is free of charge, so build analysis and reports is no problem.

It is just a suggestion :-) (look at my signature, who I am working for)

Please ask your local dealer for a free demo.

Hello

Why do you ask this question here in a SIemens forum if you have PLCs from non SIemens brands?

-> of course siemens has own OPC Server solutions but either they are integrated already in a product (HMI or PLC) or the OPC Server is especially made for connectiong Siemens PLCs like Simatic Net OPC Server.

Bye Murof

Thanks, I will consider it, but they will be building a windows program that shows on screen the possible reason for the last stop, and counts the time for each stop type in order to create statistics and try to eliminate the most critical and avoidable stop conditions

Thanks

 The reason why Im asking here is, to be honest, cause this is the best forum about PLC I know of. Also this plant does have Siemens PLC's, and as I mentioned above, in phase 2 they will be including these PLCs in the OPC, that's why I need to make sure that the OPC works for these Omron PLC's now on phase I and then work with Siemens (and others) on phase II.

Thanks

Murof

Hello

Why do you ask this question here in a SIemens forum if you have PLCs from non SIemens brands?

-> of course siemens has own OPC Server solutions but either they are integrated already in a product (HMI or PLC) or the OPC Server is especially made for connectiong Siemens PLCs like Simatic Net OPC Server.

Bye Murof

Dear EduGimenoG, 

Let me share my comments, 

1. What is the model of Omron PLC? For what I know, Omron PLC is a very basic PLC. Based on what I know, OPC Server is normally built in SCADA software. I do not think Omron PLC has this OPC UA communication protocol.

2. Kepware LinkMaster is commonly used, it can adapt to a different type of communication and consolidate into one. But do you have so many OPC capability PLC in your plant?

3. In my opinion, you can have a PLC programmed with the Root Cause Matrix list, make a PLC-PLC communication with all the Omron PLC, then buy an HMI to display the Root Cause Matrix. If your Omron PLC has OPC capabilities, it will be the best, because no program changes needed for the PLC. 

Hope I understand your request correctly and hope my two cents is helpful for you. 

 Thanks Jaz, but this solution would basically (if I understood well) leave the displaying of the cause in a designated HMI screen. This information would have to be accessible from many people in the plant. Probably an HMI screen near the line to show what's happening and why, but also production manager, line manager, and many other people should have access to this data without having to walk by the line, that's why I believe a decentralized solution (OPC+Web Application) would better fit this. Also this way other analytic tools could query these values and show their own recommendations.

Do you still think that an UA OPC and a custom program would be fine for this?

Thanks

JazTai

Dear EduGimenoG, 

Let me share my comments, 

1. What is the model of Omron PLC? For what I know, Omron PLC is a very basic PLC. Based on what I know, OPC Server is normally built in SCADA software. I do not think Omron PLC has this OPC UA communication protocol.

2. Kepware LinkMaster is commonly used, it can adapt to a different type of communication and consolidate into one. But do you have so many OPC capability PLC in your plant?

3. In my opinion, you can have a PLC programmed with the Root Cause Matrix list, make a PLC-PLC communication with all the Omron PLC, then buy an HMI to display the Root Cause Matrix. If your Omron PLC has OPC capabilities, it will be the best, because no program changes needed for the PLC. 

Hope I understand your request correctly and hope my two cents is helpful for you. 

Yea, I believe Web application is a better choice. OPC, yes, you can choose to have OPC comm, provided your plant is OPC enabled. Need to check those HMI coming with OPC server capabilities. 

For Siemens, I guess Mindsphere, XHQ, or OS Web Options might be able to meet your requirement. （depend). 

Mindsphere - https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/109755908

XHQ - https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/109766404

OS Web Option - https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/109766404

What I think is, being able to convert all the data in your plant and identify the root cause matrix is the hardest part. To integrate them into web-based, it will be quite easy once the root cause matrix is cleared. 

The difficult part will be, if your current PLC doesn't ready for all these stuff, to have this system built, the challenge is very high. 

Hello

Or you use a Omron OPC Server (i found that they have an own OPC AServer that can connect their own PLCs) and in the second Step if you use S71500 PLCs you can use the integrated OPC Server of the PLCs to access the information you want to share.

At front End you just need an OPC UA client that can connect to all OPC Server and collect the Data you want to visualize or proceed.

Bye Murof

Ok but if at the end I still need a OPC UA server to communicate with both brands, I prefer to use the OPC UA directly to Omron and Siemens

Murof

Hello

Or you use a Omron OPC Server (i found that they have an own OPC AServer that can connect their own PLCs) and in the second Step if you use S71500 PLCs you can use the integrated OPC Server of the PLCs to access the information you want to share.

At front End you just need an OPC UA client that can connect to all OPC Server and collect the Data you want to visualize or proceed.

Bye Murof