RESULTS:

• Simplified control of production line
• More efficient data collection and analysis
• Reduced energy consumption and costs
• Improved plant productivity

CHALLENGE:

The various systems that are used to control production lines at the company’s plant in San Pietro were completely isolated, and operators had to physically go to each individual machine and regulate each production parameter manually. An enormous amount of data relating to the plant systems needs to be processed and stored, and this was being collected manually several times a day and entered onto an Excel spreadsheet for analyzing. The production process has a number of different phases that include machines for washing the potatoes, ovens and fryers, all of which consume large amounts of electricity and water. However, energy consumption was not being monitored at all, which was causing great concern that costs were not being contained.

SOLUTION:

Pizzoli wanted to completely automate these procedures, as a means of centralizing the monitoring and control of its production line processes, increasing the efficiency of data collection and analysis, and reducing its energy consumption and costs. I.T. Technologies – an Italian company that design engineers and installs software solutions and electric panels in the industrial automation sector – was asked to provide an automation solution. Movicon 11 from Emerson was selected as the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software platform for the plant. “The strength of Movicon lies in its flexibility of use and ability to connect devices of all different makes using different communication protocols. This makes it ideal for decentralizing and managing modern and efficient factories.” Ivan Tedeschini, CEO of I.T. Technologies. 

“The strength of Movicon lies in its flexibility of use and ability to connect devices of all different makes using different communication protocols. This makes it ideal for decentralizing and managing modern and efficient factories.”

—Ivan Tedeschini, CEO of I.T. Technologies

With Movicon 11, all the various automation systems used in the plant to control the production process have been centralised. A production process data control dashboard allows operators to modify parameters directly from the control room. The plant’s process data is stored on a SQL database and then used for creating comparison reports and Excel work spreadsheets automatically.

The complicated procedure of processing and storing the enormous amount of data produced by the plant has been simplified by using the integrated functions of Movicon 11. Production data and the overall state of ongoing production line processes can be viewed in detail and controlled from the home screen page. With a quick glance, operators can see whether everything is running smoothly or whether there has been a malfunction or machine downtime has occurred.

Consumptions are controlled by means of using real-time trends and reports which enable operators to understand where and which interventions need to be made to obtain greater efficiency.