Nearly a year to the day after a fire destroyed Latex Foam International's Connecticut manufacturing operation, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc, participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the new plant in Shelton, CT.
North America's only manufacturer of latex foam mattress cores and the world's largest maker of latex pillows and cosmetic applicators, LFI was forced to rebuild after a May 2001 fire destroyed its home of 25 years in nearby Ansonia, CT. The company's new location is about 50 miles northeast of New York City.
Siemens provided LFI with a totally integrated automation and manufacturing execution system based on an extensive array of manufacturing technologies and electrical infrastructure products. The total scope of supply includes Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software that will interface to LFI's Great Plains ERP system and the factory floor automation equipment, multiple redundant SCADA packages, operator panels utilizing thin client technology, redundant PLCs, drives, and low-voltage switchgear and lighting controls. Siemens also provided project management and engineering services.
Partnering with Siemens were NIC Systems of Plantsville, CT, for plant floor integration, and Interwave Technologies, Exton, PA, for MES integration.
The rebuild process allowed LFI to integrate a number of powerful new technologies for control and management of its continuous batch manufacturing operations. The MES system incorporates Siemens' Industrial Framework technology, an XML-based open platform for integrating data from ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), manufacturing execution, and control levels. Key modules being implemented within Industrial Framework are Production Modeler, a graphical environment to represent plant processes; Maintegrity, an integrated predictive maintenance and asset management software; Real Time Data Server; Finite Capacity Scheduler; Message Manager; Order Manager; and Material Manager.
Two sets of redundant servers hosting the SIMATIC WinCC SCADA software will manage the bulk of plant floor operations. An independent server hosting WinCC will be used for the raw material and compounding area.
A unique twist is the use of the Windows 2000 advanced terminal servers to communicate via TCP/IP with up to 24 distributed Windows CE-based SIMATIC MP 370 HMI panels as thin clients. This eliminates the need for individual PCs with resident HMI software. Each operator panel requires only RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol -- true thin client) to perform control and maintenance functions with the WinCC utility, WebNavigator, loaded on the WinCC servers.
As the new LFI location promises to be a showcase for new manufacturing technologies, the company has agreed to a Siemens-hosted Excellence Room on premises for demonstration and Best Practice Sharing purposes.
