Sparkling clean modernization
Production plant converted to integrated automation technology without interrupting operation

Automation structures established over the course of many years must often be converted to integrated solutions while the plant remains in operation. The result of such a conversion at Reckitt Benckiser is a significant increase in productivity as well as increased availability and production efficiency, and enhanced data management capabilities.

Reckitt Benckiser, which evolved from a merger in 1999 between the Benckiser Group and the UK-based Reckitt & Colman plc, is the world’s leader in household cleaning products, and is one of the leading international manufacturers of detergents and cleaning agents. Market leading products demand state-of-the-art production facilities, which in this case is comprised of the logistics section, the mixing section, which is the actual production unit, and the production lines, in which the tabs are pressed and the powder filled and packaged. The technology, which was based on Simatic S5 and S7, combined with a Scada system and proportioning controllers, was no longer able to meet the requirements of modern production techniques, so at the beginning of 2002, the company decided to put the automation technology for the mixing section on a single integrated platform.

Step by step
The raw materials such as the Big Bags transported by truck and the powder and liquid components transported by tanker, they are placed in storage silos as soon as they are delivered. Production facilities are supplied directly from the silos, for the most part over pipelines and Big Bag loading stations with the associated conveying routes and diverters. In the mixers themselves, the powdery components are combined with the liquid components and scents, and made available to the press lines in containers as an intermediate product.
The plant is divided into a batch section with a number of stand-alone units, and a continuous production section. Batch proportioning is handled by a large number of intelligent Siwarex M proportioning controllers, that are directly integrated in the PCS 7 process control system. The proportioning controllers in the continuous production section were integrated in the system over serial interfaces. In addition, there are numerous simple weight measuring stations, all of which are part of the Siwarex U weighing system. All process cells and units are networked with one another on basis of Totally Integrated Automation and its components. Operators are supplied with the latest process information via PCS 7 display units located in the raw materials area and in the material output area downstream from the mixers, as well as on various operator panels and on plain text displays that are connected directly to Profibus.
After comparing systems from a number of different control system manufacturers, the customer selected the Simatic PCS 7 process control system from Siemens. The most important reasons behind the decision for the Siemens Simatic PCS 7 process control system were satisfaction with the existing Simatic S5/S7 platform, the uniformity of the Simatic components, the ergonomic display-building capabilities of the HMI level, and the ability to link the system to the corporate management level using standardized products and interfaces. Reckitt Benckiser was and is focusing on “getting away from homemade applications” in favor of standardized software modules and interfaces.
The actual implementation was a team effort, with Reckitt Benckiser coordinating the plant modifications and Siemens delivering the hardware and the control cabinets as well as assuming responsibility for all electrical installations. The Siemens Support Center of Mannheim, Germany was responsible for developing the software and integrating all of the hardware components. Testing, commissioning, and trial runs were handled as a team once everything else had been completed.
The old weighing technology was replaced by the Siwarex M weighing system which is tightly integrated in Simatic PCS 7. The implementation of more than 60 of these devices significantly increased the proportioning accuracy while also increasing the proportioning speed.
The next stage
In the next stage, which is currently in progress, the RFID (radio frequency identification system) system Moby F, is an additional component in the Totally Integrated Automation Platform and is being integrated in the overall system. Moby F is a non-contact identification system developed specifically for logistics and distribution applications. All containers which are used to forward the intermediate product to the presses or in which material is to be temporarily stored are being equipped with rugged read/write data chips, making it possible to track the material flow throughout the production process. All together, around 50 Moby read/write devices and more than 100 Moby chips which are installed in the material containers will be integrated into the Simatic PCS 7 system. The plant operators also benefit from the new Simatic PCS 7 process control system. In contrast to a Scada-based solution, the process displays are much more interactive and full of information. The operators are shown a much larger number of production and plant parameters, which are better organized and easier to read.
Dosage weights are constantly monitored, and can be modified if necessary. A well thought-out messaging system provides warning messages long before a problem occurs, and informs the operator about the cause or causes of a pending problem. The plant operators were active members of the configuration team during the definition phase, which helped to ensure a high level of acceptance and satisfaction when the system was brought online.
The conversion stage, which ended in April 2003, saw the replacement of the old Scada application-based recipe system with a state-of-the-art Simatic PCS 7 process control system. Flexible recipe processing in the Simatic AS 417 automation systems enabled a significant increase in the number of batches per day. Not only was the proportioning accuracy significantly increased, but the production capacity of the plant also experienced a double-digit increase.
Next steps being planned
Based on the new automation infrastructure created in the first stage, Reckitt Benckiser is planning to coordinate the production sequences in the next stage and monitor them using the Simatic IT management execution system from Siemens. First steps are already being made in the installation of a bar code reader for the input of raw materials in Big Bags, as well as monitoring of the dosing stations and the intermediate materials containers using the Moby F RFID system from Siemens. The material flow is monitored from start to finish, preventing over- and underfilling and cross-contamination. Traditional steps utilizing Simatic IT, such as the implementation of the Simatic IT Production Suite with its Simatic IT Components: Simatic IT Framework, Material Manager, Order Manager, Personnel Manager, Messaging Manager, Report Manager and Historian Data Module, are planned for 2004, enabling continuous monitoring, analysis and archiving of the entire production process, from inbound logistics through production to delivery of the product to the packaging units. In the stage that was implemented in December 2003, continuous powder production was integrated in the existing Simatic PCS 7 process control system. In this stage, the three AS 414 and AS 416 automation systems which are used for ancillary control systems such as the truck depots were upgraded from PCS 7 version 5.01 to the current version of Simatic PCS 7 for to allow them to be integrated into the new instrumentation and control landscape. The existing autonomous single HMI systems were upgraded using the existing hardware and were interfaced as clients to the new powder mixing system’s server. The objectives achieved to date have led Reckitt Benckiser to enhance their competitive position in the market. The new process control system based on Simatic PCS 7 and Simatic IT also offers considerable potential for additional production expansion in Ladenburg, Germany.