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Conquer the Next Level of Modernization

Modernizing industrial automation and control equipment can cut downtime, increase production, improve plant-wide processes, and increase visibility.

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Factory worker solo climbing a wall with hand holds made from 2 stacked words “next level” repeating endlessly.

By Randy Fischer, Market Development Lead - Paper & Wood Products, Rockwell Automation

Modernizing industrial automation and control equipment, including distributed control systems (DCSs), is a worthwhile endeavor. But, it can be a significant capital expenditure (CapEx) investment. As a result, manufacturing leaders tend to maintain and sustain automation platforms for a long time — often until the platform reaches an obsolete life-cycle status. It’s not uncommon to find a facility that still operates systems installed more than 35 years ago.

However, holding on to legacy systems beyond a reasonable point of sustainability negatively affects the business. For instance, multiple factors affect equipment reliability, including subcomponent lifespan, exposure to harsh environments and field wiring or cabling connections that loosen over time.

As equipment reliability decreases, the ability for personnel to support, maintain and sustain the equipment also becomes increasingly challenging. When a failure occurs, workers might have difficulty finding replacement parts, and they might lack the legacy system knowledge or bandwidth to provide efficient support for events that negatively impact production.

When Equipment Fails

Equipment failure can lead to significant downtime and potentially create risky environments for workers. For example, electrolytic capacitors, found in power supplies, dry up and fail over time. Older equipment has a finite lifespan. New equipment either doesn’t have electrolytic capacitors or has some designed with improved longevity, which greatly increases equipment life expectancy and prolongs the point of failure.

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Some environments contain highly corrosive gases such as hydrogen sulfide. These gases accelerate corrosion and are especially damaging to any exposed electrical components and connections that don’t have conformal coating or other means of protection. And field wiring and cabling connections can loosen over time and insulation becomes brittle, which can lead to signal loss and I/O card damage.

Often, these types of issues can surface intermittently, causing a system failure that then self-corrects, making it challenging and time-consuming to troubleshoot the cause.

These situations can be avoided and, in some cases, eliminated completely with proper maintenance and equipment updates. A caveat, however, is that even if some replacement parts or recondition services are available to fix individual issues, a systematic failure might be irrecoverable or take an extended amount of time for full sourcing.

For example, a piping failure in an adjacent room or a fire in a DCS rack room can result in months of total business loss.

Modernizing to a new platform resolves these types of process reliability risks, and helps facilities improve operations to drive business outcomes and remain competitive.

Modernization Improvements

Modern technological solutions typically include benefits such as:

  • Increased production.
  • Improved plant-wide processes and visibility.
  • Reduced raw material usage.
  • Improved energy efficiency.
  • Disparate data sources brought to one screen.
  • Reduced unscheduled downtime.
  • Fewer safety incidents.
  • Less overall spare parts needed.

When implementing a new DCS platform in each area of a facility, the modernization process requires a logical plan. This is because it often carries other responsibilities, such as training personnel, adding a new centralized server or data center or designing a facility network. An upfront plan helps define the interfaces to any remaining legacy DCS or other systems.

To get the most from modernization, consider two strategies for facilities: phased migrations and rip-and-replace.

It’s impractical to consider a complete facility-wide DCS migration in a single effort unless a major process change is being implemented, such as converting from one product type to another. Depending on specific needs, even a rip-and-replace strategy can be implemented on an area-by-area approach.

Paper mill production of paper roles for the printing industry.
Case Study
Paper Mill Rip-and-Replace Modernization Project

Rockwell Automation performed a rip-and-replace modernization of a batch digester house for a paper mill in Wisconsin, changing from an obsolete APACS system to PlantPAx over a three-day outage. The project included the following:

• Generating functional design specifications.

• Intelligent process optimization.

• A new PlantPAx DCS with new redundant controllers, I/O, marshalling panels, wiring, new server and network switches, operator and engineering workstations, and associated software, engineering, project management.

• Installation services and start-up.

The data previously found in disparate systems caused operators to view several data sources on separate screens, which made their role more difficult. The modernization project provided the operators with information on a single screen, so they had better process visibility and control.

The marshalling panels were a great improvement from the existing ones, because the wiring was clean and properly labeled, terminations were tight, and the system was easier for maintenance to support with accurate documentation.

In minimal time, the obsolete equipment was eliminated, mill operations were more more reliable, the process itself was improved and the maintenance team was better positioned to self-support the automation equipment.

Using a Phased Migration

Considering the CapEx costs typically associated with modernization efforts, many facility managers choose to implement a phased migration to distribute the cost over time and avoid or minimize extended outage requirements. A phased approach can start, for example, with migrating controllers and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) first, and then migrating I/O later as time and funds allow.

Implementing equipment over scheduled maintenance outages instead of a dedicated modernization outage can significantly reduce costs associated solely with a migration. Using proven interface solutions, a new controller can connect to legacy I/O and reduce risk and initial project implementation time.

Also, with a lesser amount of new equipment subject to rare early failure, human wiring errors or programming errors, project start-up risks decrease. As new equipment replaces old equipment, the risk of future unplanned downtime due to obsolescence is also reduced with each successive phased implementation.

Another benefit is that as equipment is replaced throughout the phases, the equipment removed from service can then be used to support any future failures of other remaining legacy equipment until it’s all transitioned.

Consider, for example, a phased migration where a large ethanol production facility used the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx® DCS via legacy APACS field I/O. Once the controller and HMIs were migrated, the facility then was able to migrate its legacy APACS I/O to 1756 ControlLogix® I/O one process element at a time over several years. Using in-house technical resources during normal working hours drastically reduced cutover labor expenses.

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How HMIs Help Improve Operations

In this episode of The Journal’s award-winning “Automation Chat" podcast, “HMIs Help With the Heavy Lifting: Improving operation & business agility,” learn how modern human-machine interface software removes barriers to accessing a manufacturing operation’s data and empowers OEMs and end users.

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A phased migration approach, however, has some potential drawbacks. Project management and engineering costs are likely greater than a large conversion because of a longer overall migration timeline, additional billing events, support costs for multiple platforms and engineering efforts associated with each phase.

The risk of future unplanned downtime caused by equipment failure is reduced with each phase, but not eliminated until the final conversion phase is complete and the system is fully converted to the new hardware. Facilities that require third-party obsolete equipment system expertise will incur additional labor costs until the conversion process is complete and in-house staff is better positioned to provide support.

The flexibility associated with a controlled modernization spend, smaller and lower risk equipment changes per phase, and reduced event resource-management efforts associated with phased migrations tend to outweigh the drawbacks, and, therefore, are more attractive to many facilities.

Using a Rip and Replace Approach

Manufacturers who no longer tolerate downtime due to obsolete equipment failures might choose to do a rip-and-replace migration. Although a DCS can be large, even within a single facility area, and require a substantial CapEx spend to complete within an outage, this strategy helps remove unreliable equipment completely.

A rip-and-replace migration involves removing all hardware associated with the obsolete DCS and fully replacing it with new equipment in one outage. This strategy minimizes the risk of future unplanned downtime.

A single outage reduces overall project management and lowers engineering costs because of the shorter migration timeline when compared to a phased approach. Medium to large modernization projects, however, typically require a longer production outage timeline, which can substantially increase total project cost.

Completely removing obsolete equipment also eliminates the need for hard-to-find subject matter experts who have legacy equipment expertise. However, facility areas that haven’t yet been converted might still require this legacy support.

Demand for field and staffing resources to complete the work over a single outage will also be higher, which can increase project travel costs. The work must be completed in a defined order and often in space-restricted areas that limit the number of people that can effectively complete the work simultaneously. Coordinating larger staffing can be more complex and time-consuming, ultimately increasing project management costs.

Project start-up risk is also increased due to the larger amount of new equipment subject to rare early failure, human wiring errors or programming errors. Some of these risks can be reduced with thorough acceptance testing, but they can’t all be eliminated.

With all these concerns, remember that your automation supplier can help you implement your system upgrade with a clear path to true modernization, digitally transforming new technologies and integrating disparate systems (see case study above).

Bottom Line

Modernization benefits outweigh project risks, because the cost of not advancing technology to a modern and reliable system is likely greater than supporting an obsolete system with poor reliability. Experienced specialists can help by reviewing an installation and helping determine what solution and services are best suited to meet specific business goals.   

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The Journal From Rockwell Automation and Our PartnerNetwork™ is published by Endeavor Business Media.

Topics: The Journal Process Solutions Smart Manufacturing
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