Asset optimization, open technology and a single platform capable of meeting future expansion programs, these were EPCC's requirements for the new plant control system at its cement facility in Saudi Arabia. Rapid installation with minimal plant downtime was crucial.
The control system at Eastern Province Cement Company's cement plant in Saudi Arabia was 20 years old and in need of modernization.Malfunctions and equipment failures were difficult to predict and time-consuming to rectify. Maintenance staff had to work hard to keep the plant's running factor at its historically very high level. Rapid fault rectification
With the new plant control system based on ABB's Industrial IT platform and Aspect Object technology, operators and maintenance staff can rapidly access a complete set of aspects (process graphics, control programs, manuals, maintenance records, etc, the list is extensive) for the thousands of objects (devices and components) in the plant. As T.V.S. Chidambaram, the EPCC plant manager says, 'This drastically minimizes the time for fault rectification and enhances production efficiency.' Integrating future expansion
Another key requirement for EPCC was that the new control system should integrate the extensive modernization programs for other parts of the facility that EPCC has in the pipeline. The system had to be open, with all process controls under a single platform and with industry standard communications, and the flow of information had to be enterprise-wide, linking the plant floor to other levels of the EPCC enterprise. With rapid installation and minimal downtime crucial, ABB completed the upgrade in three ten-day phases without ever bringing production at the facility to a stop. This is a substantial improvement on the accepted industry standard for a project of this size and complexity. |
