CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION
Moving to digitalisation at Tiger Brands
Touching the lives of millions of South Africans over the past century,Tiger Brands produces many of the country’s best known consumer brands including Oros, Energade, Hall’s, Fatti’s & Moni’s, Jungle Oats, All Gold, andTastic Rice. As the organisation embarks on a digitalisation drive, an overhaul of the technology management solutions at its manufacturing plants is required.
T aking a phased approach to the digitalisation rollout, Tiger Brands selected its beverages manufacturing facility in Roodekop, Germiston, some 25 km east of Johannesburg, as the first plant to be upgraded. The immediate challenges were linked to the stability of a legacy control system and the communication network in place. Additionally, the existing control and automation platform had limited capabilities in terms of batching, reporting and the tracking and tracing of materials. Plant upgrade The project involved upgrading the legacy plant control system with the implementation of a combined Siemens WinCC SCADA system and PM (process management) Add-ons, together with the associated network and con- trol equipment which included communication converters, PLCs, VSDs, and ASI modules for various process areas. As the chosen system integrator, Control Systems Integration (CSI) worked with Tiger Brands to execute the project. CSI has extensive engineering experience in the field, including expertise in the food and beverage (F&B) sector. Additionally, CSI’s management team applies industry best practice and professional governance models which are implemented jointly with its team of directors, to
consistent and specific batching to deliver more accurate throughput and quality. Tiger Brands can now adjust recipes in a more robust manner, according to the final specified product in the new environment. This was not possible with the previous control system. Furthermore, the Siemens solution presents Tiger Brands with a manageable OPEX pricing framework providing for a long-term approach in moving Tiger Brands onto the Siemens digitalisation framework. Managing time The project began in December 2019 with the hardware and software procurement phase. It was completed in August the following year with the final commissioning and handover process. Thus the project was commissioned during the Covid-19 pandemic. Commissioning took place in phases as parts of the plant became available using the new Siemens technology. Partnership approach According to Shailen Toolsi, Lead Process Engineer at Tiger Brands, “One of the reasons for the success of this project is the collaboration between CSI, Siemens and Tiger Brands, which brings about efficient technical and sales support. We see a long-term partnership with Siemens going forward.” “We are proud to be building on this partnership with Tiger Brands to demonstrate our expertise through the digital portfolio,” says Claudio Ranaudo, Senior Vice President, Digital Industries, Siemens Southern & Eastern Africa. “The future of the food and beverage industry requires production that is tailored to customer demands. Our F&B solutions provide flexibility and higher productivity and, with customisation at various sites, we can adapt our offering for the specific case as well as the entire industry. We look forward to working further with Tiger Brands to develop solutions that will enable a gateway for its digitalisation projects,” he adds. Recognising the value in the Siemens control system, Tiger Brands is currently implementing the same control system across another site. □
achieve project excellence. The close collaboration between Tiger Brands, CSI and Siemens provided a roadmap to a successful project outcome. Tiger Brands also uses Siemens Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal. This offers the organisation a unified engineering platform and diagnostics for all the associated devices on site. The WinCC SCADA system and PM Add- ons provide enhanced visualisations and product traceability across the whole production line. The system also delivers
The beverages manufacturing facility in Roodekop, Germiston, was the first plant to be upgraded.
For more information visit: https://new.siemens.com/za/en.html
4 Electricity + Control MARCH 2022
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