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Excelpro is an integrator of automated systems, an electrical contractor and a control panel manufacturer who helps companies to optimize operations.
The customer is a major mining operation that manages an integrated bulk-material handling network with rail transportation, stockyard management, material reclaiming, and marine loading operations.
- High-volume operations with complex controls
- Legacy equipment was creating unreliability
- Architecture didn’t allow for growth
- End-to-end visibility
- Higher reliability
- Stronger security
- Faster troubleshooting
- Future-ready scalability
- Consistent user experience
- Improved coordination
Challenge
Obsolescence, fragmentation, and operational risk
The operation's legacy control architecture was built on aging PLC-5® hardware and a mix of third-party control systems, creating significant reliability, maintainability, and safety challenges.
The terminal's high-volume operations required tightly coordinated sequencing, robust interlocking, and real-time visibility across multiple interconnected systems, including:
- Rail operations managing multiple trains simultaneously
- Train unloading systems
- Stock yard stacking equipment
- Stock yard reclaiming equipment
- Marine loading systems
- Extensive conveying networks connecting all operational areas
Despite the facility's operational importance, the legacy environment struggled to support the level of coordination required. Years of decentralized modifications resulted in inconsistent programming standards, recurring system instability, and limited troubleshooting capabilities.
Operators faced challenges like limited system visibility, inconsistent navigation across machines, minimal contextual alarm information, and a lack of centralized view of overrides and bypass states.
Maintenance personnel often needed to access PLC logic directly during troubleshooting, increasing both safety risks and downtime.
How the partnership began
Facing growing risks associated with aging control infrastructure, the customer engaged Excelpro, one of Canada's leading industrial automation system integrators and a Rockwell Automation Gold-Level System Integrator Partner.
Excelpro brought extensive experience in large-scale modernization projects, custom control system development, virtualization, HMI/SCADA standardization, and lifecycle management for industrial operations.
The team was tasked with assessing the existing environment, developing a future-ready architecture, and eliminating operational instability created by years of fragmented programming practices.
Solution
A unified PlantPAx® and ControlLogix® architecture
Excelpro modernized the entire control environment using the Rockwell Automation's ControlLogix® platform and PlantPAx® distributed control system architecture.
Project Methodology:
- Detailed system discovery and assessment
- On-site operator and technician engagement
- Collaborative development of HMI and PLC standards
- Phased deployment and commissioning
Technical System Design
- PlantPAx® DCS architecture and libraries
- 10 ControlLogix® controllers
- 30 FactoryTalk® View SE HMI clients
- 12 FactoryTalk® View SE redundant virtualized servers
- Centralized high availability architecture
- FactoryTalk® Transaction Manager integration
- FactoryTalk® Historian integration
- FactoryTalk® AssetCentre integration
End-to-end integrated operations and safety enhancements
The new system introduced comprehensive operational visibility across the terminal, enabling personnel to monitor conditions, validate field activity, and make more informed decisions.
Key capabilities included:
- Railroad view (terminal return loop)
- Yard‑wide overview screens with machine‑specific control restrictions (local‑only control enforced)
- Task management
- Real-time monitoring of overrides, and bypass lists
- Camera feeds embedded directly into HMI for field verification
- Remote control of select equipment from a remote operations location
Improved operator awareness
Excelpro implemented high-performance HMI graphics aligned with ISA-101 principles to improve usability and situational awareness. Enhancements included reduced color usage to highlight abnormal conditions, standardized navigation and faceplate behavior, context-sensitive operational information, and rationalized alarm prioritization and management.
The modernized HMI environment improved visibility into critical process conditions and enabled operators to respond more effectively to plant events.
Troubleshooting workflow improvements
The upgraded environment improved troubleshooting capabilities by providing detailed equipment faceplates and interlock visualization Additionally, maintenance personnel were provided with active, historical, and bypass alarm management, as well as parameter-change audit trails.
As a result, technicians could diagnose and resolve issues without routinely accessing PLC code, improving safety while reducing maintenance response times.
Result
A modern, scalable, and resilient operation
The upgraded system delivers:
- End-to-end visibility across the terminal, including rail, unloading, stacking, reclaiming, and ship loading
- Higher reliability via standardized PLC/HMI code
- Strong cybersecurity and strict access management
- Faster troubleshooting using ISA‑101‑aligned, high-performance graphics
- Scalable architecture ready for future autonomous operation
- Consistent operator experience across the entire stockyard
- Improved coordination between multiple machines and trains
Through collaboration between the customer, Excelpro, and Rockwell Automation, the project delivered a unified ControlLogix® and PlantPAx® control architecture supported by a modern HMI environment.
Beyond platform modernization, the operation now benefits from greater reliability, improved operational visibility, integrated workflows, enhanced troubleshooting capabilities, and safer equipment management practices.
The result is a scalable and resilient automation platform positioned to support the customer's future operational objectives.
Published August 25, 2026