A single line, an entire factory or in any case a process in its complexity, is governed by controllers (PLC, SCADA, etc…) and more precisely by their internal logic: obviously changes are often made to these, the most recent versions of the SW, Patches, etc. are installed…on a single PC we can talk about frequent backups (at each variation?), but when we refer to more complex systems, IT help can make the difference between success and failure.
- SO HOW CAN WE KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE CHANGES?
- DO WE KNOW WHICH ALL THE LATEST APPLICATIONS WERE RUNNING THE PLANT?
MDT AutoSave is an environment of interactive real-time change management tools for software and industrial applications residing on programmable devices (PLCs) and PCs (HMI/SCADA), intelligent factory devices, software and related documentation.
MDT AutoSave brings together all industrial plant automation software under a single user interface and creates a centralized, documented, controlled, well-defined environment that increases productivity and safety in the management of complex projects and installations of industrial devices and software.
MDT AutoSave is an application in the Microsoft environment that can be fully integrated with all editing and programming software for industrial devices.
Why is it so important for a line or plant technician (or manager)? The 3 fundamental points (reported by the technical manager of ServiTecno ed)
Short times for the production of the system
Once the architecture has been planned and the required prerequisites (operating system and its add-ons) have been prepared, the installation of the MDT AutoSave server and some client/agent will take a couple of hours.
Once the installation has been completed and the connectivity checks between the server, client/agent and devices in the field have been completed, even the initial configuration of a few dozen devices only takes a few hours.
Once the initial configuration has been completed, the system is ready to be put into production and provide the first results: automatic backups and scheduled comparisons.
Use of software already available and known by operators
To connect to field devices – plc, hmi, scada … – AutoSave uses the specific programming software of the devices themselves: Step7/TIA Portal for Siemens devices, RSLogix for Rockwel devices, Unity PRO for Schneider devices …
These software are normally already available in the company and already known by maintenance operators, so no additional expertise will be required to use AutoSave with all supported field devices. AutoSave agents and clients will automate the use of such software to obtain backups and comparisons between various program revisions.
Interface of common use towards heterogeneous software
In a plant with field devices of different brands (Siemens, Rockwell, Schneider, GE ...), the programming software of these devices is also different and can have very different installation prerequisites (operating system, hardware requirements ...).
AutoSave clients and agents easily adapt to these prerequisites, allowing for a distributed, efficient and uncompromising architecture. In this architecture composed of heterogeneous environments and software, AutoSave provides a homogeneous operator interface for all the functions of comparison, upload, download, creation of a new version/revision, roll-back… In other words, operators will use AutoSave in the same way to compare two versions of a Siemens plc program, a Rockwel plc program or an iFix project.
Do you want to test the solution? Do you want to find out how much easier it will be to manage supervisory applications (and not only)?