PLANT 4.0 REPORT

Septembre 2019
PLANT 4.0 REPORT

On 18th September, our Consultant for the Development and Integration of Industrial Systems Ing. Antonello Mangiacapra presented us some results regarding the management of the plants.
It was an interesting meeting and a particular experience, because he decided, surprisingly, to be joined by his guitarist friend, Fabrizio Furci, concert performer, composer and arranger, who accompanied his relationship with the notes of several Spanish and South Americans composers!
We had already anticipated with a June 2019 news how the LS_ENERGY project works. Here are some results.
According to the CIM Model (Computer Integrated Manufacturing), an abstraction that generally defines an Industrial Automation System, we can summarize the objectives achieved.
All PRODUCTION CELLS, in turn composed, for example, from machine tools or robots called MACHINES, together with sensors, actuators, system components, the so-called FIELD devices, are managed with real-time control hardware: the PLCs (programmable logic controllers).
The FACTORY, which includes all the production cells belonging to an Industrial Plant, receives the instructions from the management level (planning, order management, etc.) and implements them in the form of Operational Plans for Production.
At COMPANY level, where occur the support management processes for all lower levels, we no longer speak of a control system, but of a Decision-Making System. The software infrastructure is implemented on workstations, with client / server structure, connected to the corporate mainframe.
It was decided, for example, to collect data from production cells by acquiring additional sensors for monitoring energy consumption. For each zone, a threshold in kWh has been defined, which defines whether that production cell is in progress or not.
With this modeling it is possible to calculate both the production hours, on a daily basis, that the energy consumption, for all the areas involved. This information, added to the production data, where present, provides the company with valuable technical support for decision-making information.
With the introduction in 2018 of the new Capstone cogeneration plant it was necessary to collect other data deemed essential. The answer to these questions is a software system called "LS_ Energy".
The infrastructure is managed by a back-end software (server side) and by data acquisition and recording software. Below is an example of flows.

PLANT 4.0 REPORT

Data reading takes place via front-end software. It has been realized a dynamic web visualization which takes the data from the cataloging tables of communication devices, sensors and measurements, where the relations between them are defined to visualize their relationships and the numbers.
The data can be viewed through the graphical tool of dendrogram, that provides a good representation of our special universe, how it can be a telescope that allows to observe distant stars invisible to the human eye.

PLANT 4.0 REPORT

Ends up the Ing. Antonello Mangiacapra (with a document that spans all directions of science) “ In the industrial environment and in business in general, it would seem appropriate to create less hierarchical and rigid structures, where job descriptions are reduced to general indications on repetitive activities, leaving a lot of freedom to conscientious, prepared, motivated and educated operators. In conclusion I would like to extend the feeling of Sara, referring to her family of entrepreneurs, of which she is the representative of the third generation, inheriting the spirit. It is true that "what we are is what we were". So, in conclusion, I would say that this statement applies to defining us as children of our Western culture, taking the best part of it, the one that leads to progress using reason and scientific techniques. These values, but above all the critical and reasoning skills, come from the teachings, on the school desks, by our best professors. We have treasured them and maybe we will in turn be able to pass on to the fourth generation. “

Percoto (UD), 18th September 2019.