The Client
Pharmaceutical manufacturing company
Capabilities Demonstrated
- New equipment automation
- Remote FAT
- Plant automation simulator
- Batch-process automation
- Electrical design
- PLC programming
- DCS programming
- VFD installation / integration / configuration
- HMI software development
- Reporting software development
- Database configuration
Skid-based batch process control system supports increased global market share
Problem
Our customer needed a way to allow foreign manufacturers to formulate their vaccine in a way that they could ensure would comply with their own manufacturing standards.
Solution
A&E was a sub-contractor to a prime contractor for this project. The prime contractor delivered the overall skid-based manufacturing system. A&E provided the batch control system automation expertise.
Results/Outcomes
- Increased global market share for vaccine product
Overview
A&E focused on the control system aspects of the system, while the prime contractor delivered the overarching skid-based manufacturing system.
A&E performed the following:
- Hardware Design Specification (HDS) development.
- Software Design Specification (SDS) development.
- Control system Electrical & Instrumentation (E&I) design.
- Batch system programming.
- Validation of control system hardware and software.
- Remote startup support.
- Language translation functionality (customizable language tables provided to end customer; they provided the translation).
A&E provided control system expertise (design, definition, programming, guidance), while the customer provided process knowledge.
A hybrid DCS/PLC batch system was developed to assist operators in the manufacturing process for a repeatable and high-quality product. Recipes were used to facilitate the process of making the vaccine. The transfer and mixing of solutions was fully automated.
The manufacturing equipment mainly consisted of:
- tanks,
- valves,
- pumps,
- scales,
- mixers.
The customer led Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT). A&E was involved in assisting with test runs and executing the Software Verification Testing (SVT).
| Software Developed |
|---|
| Batch process automation |
| Operator interface application (HMI) |
| Custom Batch Reporting |
| Plant automation simulator |
| Hardware Utilized / Integrated |
|---|
| Siemens control hardware |
| VFDs |
| tanks |
| valves |
| pumps |
| scales |
| mixers |