Integrated Engineering On The Rise

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TURCK GmbH

Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH

ProMinent GmbH

Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH

Siemens AG

Pilot Projects Report Positive Experiences

As early as 2009, Sanofi-Aventis Germany launched its first integrated engineering pilot project at its Frankfurt pharmaceutical site, making it a pioneer in this field. Based on its initial experiences, the company rates the concept very positively and, in a follow-up project, has also begun the evaluation of future functional expansions as a pilot customer.

According to the experts, savings of 20% in the field of functional planning and automation software creation may be an understatement since much of this is still “handmade”.

Additional benefits of integrated engineering that have been noted are shorter project duration, simplified qualification, up-to-date system documentation, and a “learning” organization.

“All in all, these advantages are much more decisive than the 20% engineering expense that I save in the software area,” comments Dr. Thomas Tauchnitz, head of engineering of the Technology Process Group at the Frankfurt pharmaceutical site of Sanofi-Aventis Germany.

Pilot projects at other companies resulted in time savings of up to eleven weeks, or 12.5%, and up to 315 fewer man-weeks, equivalent to nine percent of the costs.

Additional Information

Integrated Engineering: A Step Forward In The Direction Of The Digital Plant

The ultimate objective is the digital plant. With Comos for plant design and Simatic PCS 7 as the process control system, Siemens facilitates integrated engineering with central data management for plant designers and operators. This enables the merging of data from parallel work processes and sequences during planning and engineering. At the touch of a button, the entire plant structure (hardware and software configuration) is generated in the control system from the engineering data. The availability of all plant data and information simplifies decision-making and supports modern, cost-optimized plant management. Conversely, in the event of changes, the engineering data and all documents are continuously updated in Comos during operation. Through the consistent data flow, the integration of both systems meets the specific requirements of plant engineers and operators, management, and partners throughout all project phases. Integrated engineering throughout the entire lifecycle brings the worlds of plant design and operation closer together and is thus another step forward in the direction of the digital plant.

Outlook: The Concept Of The Future

Numerous other companies have become convinced that the concept will significantly improve efficiency and have already started projects in various industries. These projects demonstrate that integrated engineering with Comos and PCS7 is suitable both for greenfield and brownfield projects.

The advantages for plant designers or operators are considerable, whether the project covers the complete design phase — from the initial process engineering development, through the engineering of the mechanical systems, all the way to the automation — or just a small subset of these. The users, particularly in industries with batch processes, can implement the integrated engineering concept in their plants with relatively little effort.

One further advantage is that, in the event of future version changes of the software that is being used, no additional effort is required on the part of the user for macro-reprogramming of the interfaces. This is because the integrated interface of the system components is maintained and validated by Siemens.

* The authors are with Siemens AG Industry Sector, Industry Automation, Karlsruhe/Germany.

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