End-User Highlight: Hirzel Canning and Farms, Inc.

SACRAMENTO, CA AUGUST 14, 2007 - This month we interviewed John McEvoy, the Project Supervisor of Hirzel Cannery, about his experience with Inductive Automation software.

Located in northwest Ohio, Hirzel Canning and Farms, Inc. is a family owned business, passed down through the generations, serving the food industry for over 70 years.

They oversee the entire processing chain of events, from planting a seed in our greenhouse, to the harvesting, canning, and the final delivery of a labeled container to a wholesaler, or directly to a corner store.

They provide their clients with a wide range of products. Anything from Palletized 300 gallon totes, private labeled products in various sizes of metal, glass, and plastic containers, and of course, their famous in house labels, "Dei-Fratelli, Star Cross, and Silver Fleece".

IA: What do you use Inductive Automation software for in your company or facility?

John McEvoy: Our management, maintenance, and operations teams need precise and timely information regarding our production systems. Given the current state of networking technology, the best choice to disseminate this information is via some sort of "Web Based" system.

By making information available via our internal Intranet, any of our internal "Information Consumers", can get precisely the information they need, when they need it, via our Intranet.

Example 1:
We have authored pages in FactoryPMI that look exactly like the Operation Screens at the production control station. This allows our management, supervisors, QA lab, or anyone with authorization, to "Tune In" to the Operator’s screen and "Look over their shoulder", seeing the same screen as the operator is seeing.

Example 2:
Our QA lab needs to document many of our processes. We have authored FPMI screens that allow Lab personnel to search, display, and print historical data, on demand, directly from a FPMI screen.

Example 3:
In a similar manner, our Management and Supervisors need the ability to review production data in order to establish production requirements and goals. Having historical data available at their fingertips takes the guessing out of this task.

IA: Why did you choose Inductive Automation software?

John McEvoy:
a. Mainly, Inductive Automation’s logical solution to the SCADA problem;
b. No tag limitation.
c. No concurrent user limitation.
d. No proprietary connections, IA uses MySQL (or many other) database, OPC client, Java based web server.
e. The entire system is infinitely expandable.
f. Cost - We’re a small company. When I make a purchase, its "my" money I’m spending. We’re very, very conservative, when it comes to "New Purchases". We want the most value for our dollar.

FactorySQL

Two way communications to/from an OPC server. This is the only thing that touches the OPC server, no multiple connections.
Read an OPC server. Write the data to a data base.
AND
Read a database. Write the data back top the OPC server.

FactoryPMI
Two parts to this;
Authoring package - I can design and build pages, In our case we actually built a "Web Site" that contains all of the FactoryPMI screens.

Server - Sends the pages to the end user (client). These Java based pages can run inside an "Internet Explorer" screen or as a stand alone Java screen.

Data that’s required on the screen, is retrieved from the Database, Not the OPC server.
If the end user (client) is allowed to change things on a page, the changed data is sent back to the database. (FactorySQL then sends the change back to the OPC server, if required)

Over the years we’ve reviewed several popular Name Brand SCADA software packages, Iconics, Cimplicity, and Wonderware. Although each of these packages meet our basic needs, They all had several technical or financial limitations that would require work arounds;

Tag Number limitations - Although not a big problem now, this could be a problem later as our systems expand. A license needs to be purchased for X number of tags the system processes.

Concurrent connections - Same as Tag number limitations.

OPC Connectivity - (Iconics, Cimplicity) Allowing an end user client to directly connect to an OPC server can cause problems. Particularly, as the number of clients increases, the server starts to bog down.


Proprietary connectivity - (Wonderware) problems, Although Wonderware is transitioning from DDE based to OPC based, they still face the same connectivity issues as the other two.

IA: What features have you found most useful to your specific process?

John McEvoy: Selected OPC readings go into a database. Now, anyone can read them.
Web based monitoring of production lines.
Everything in Item 2.

IA: What have you found to be the main benefits of the software?


John McEvoy: See item 2

IA: How do you plan on using IA software in the future?

John McEvoy: As we get more familiar with the FactorySQL and FactoryPMI products, we’ll be connecting to other "non-OPC" type databases that we use at our facility. Here are a couple things the boss has already requested:
a) Real time cost analysis of production lines. Read the financial database to retrieve several financial components, labor rates for individuals assigned to a task, current overhead rate, current COM, etc. Apply this to current product speeds and runs to display "REAL TIME" production cost, based on a lot code.

This information is invaluable when submitting a bid to a customer.

b) Web based access to our inventory control database, Allow authorized users to view and/or update inventory data items.

IA: Is there anything else you can say regarding your experience with Inductive Automation?

John McEvoy: Service and Support from Inductive Automation has been exceptional.

IA answers their phone. If I have an immediate problem or question, there’s a human being available almost immediately.

The "HELP" sections of the IA software packages are reasonably up to date and often contain examples to guide us.

I’ve found the "Forums" area of the IA web site is an ideal place to ask questions, and find solutions to our design or operation problems.

This type of "support" system is invaluable, Not only as a "Problem Solver" but as "Learning Tool". While browsing the forums for one topic, I often run across other topics that I find interesting, and tuck away for later use’

NOTE ON FORUMS - One of the Other SCADA suppliers doesn’t provide access to their forums unless you’re a licensed user. I ask myself, what are they hiding. The forums were one of the selling points to us.

IA is very responsive to feature requests.

Its nice to talk to the "Designer"; I can explain a problem, or describe a feature that would be nice to have, and the response I get is; "Hey, I can do that, it’ll be in the next release". BRAVO
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