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Metal Products ActiveFactory software, InTouch HMI, Wonderware Historian BHP Billiton

“Our philosophy is to

simplify and adopt

rather than adapt.

This implementation

is aligned with that

viewpoint and provides

us a sustainable

platform for our

SCADA environment.”

Paul S Venter (Pr Tech Eng),IPS Superintendent, BHP Hillside Aluminium

BHP Billiton’s Hillside aluminium smelter replacesits extensive SCADA facilitiesby Wonderware Southern Africa

VALUE DRIVERS

Goals

• Replace existing VXL supervisorysystem.

Challenges

• Solution needed to becompatible with BHP Billiton’sother smelters at Bayside andMOZAL (MOZambiqueALuminium);

• Managing large volume ofvariables;

• Development teammanagement;

• End user coordination.

KEY METRICS

Wonderware Solutions

• ActiveFactory software;

• InTouch HMI;

• Wonderware Historian.

Results

• Full product offering andseamless integration with its ownas well as third-party products;

• Redundant I/O servers andhistorians were configuredwithout any additional code beingnecessary;

• Improved reporting;

• Improved system diagnosis;

• Improved standardisation.

Company Overview BHP Billiton – Johannesburg, South Africa BHP Billiton is an international companythat adopted its current structure in 2001as the result of a merger between BHPand Billiton two of Australia’s mining andnatural recourse giants. BHP,incorporated in 1885, was a leadingglobal natural resources company, with adiversified commodity suite that includedminerals, oil, gas and steel. Billiton, whoseroots go as far back as 1860, was one ofthe world's premier mining companies,with a portfolio of best-in-class miningand metals operations. The merging of these two companiesresulted in a world leader that built onthe past by combining each of theirassets and utilising the very best of theirskills and people. Today, BHP Billiton isideally placed to lead the resourcesindustry into the future.

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When the southern hemisphere’s largestaluminium smelter, delivering 685 000 tons ofproduct per annum, decides to replace its entire

SCADA system while doing business as usual, there’s noroom for mistakes. There’s even less room for doubt as tothe suitability of the chosen replacement and those whowill provide it.

With the vision of being the world's leading aluminiumsmelter, BHP Billiton’s Hillside Aluminium facility nearRichards Bay in Kwa-Zulu Natal wanted to replace itsexisting VXL supervisory system. At the same time, anychosen solution needed to be compatible with BHPBilliton’s other smelters at Bayside and MOZAL(MOZambique ALuminium).

Background

VXL had been the supervisory system in use since thecommissioning of Hillside. It is a supervisory control HMIfor the OpenVMS platform. In use since 1995, VXL isknown for its ease of use and the many hardwareconnectivity options it affords.

The need for upgrading happened when the hardwareplatform in use was nearing its end-of-service date as ithad been in use for over 6 years. The software versionhad been in use for over 12 years. Furthermore, there was a need to improve diagnosticfunctionality, which would make fault finding andmaintaining more efficiently.

Hillside was already an existing customer of Wonderwaresolutions and was familiar with the company’s level ofsupport and product capability. The other two smelters inthe group were also using Wonderware solutions and itmade sense to align all three smelters to the sametechnology. This would allow the BHP to capitalise onexisting skills and experience based on trustedtechnology.

“Another reason for choosing Wonderware was because ofits full product offering and seamless integration with itsown as well as third-party products,” says Juan le Roux,Project Manager at Convenient Software Solutions, BHPBillton’s chosen system integrator for this project.

Solution selection

In fact, two of these third-party solutions were key to thesuccessful implementation of the project as shown in thefollowing list:• Wonderware InTouch HMI/SCADA was chosen for itsrapid application development and rich features such assmart symbols;• Wonderware Historian (formerly known asIndustrialSQL Server or InSQL) was selected for its trackrecord as the world’s most popular real-time databaseand its proven performance;• Wonderware ActiveFactory software was the historical

as well as real-time data-reporting tool of choice for itsflexibility;• Software Toolbox’s Top Server was selected as the I/Oserver for its ability to handle larger volumes of data, itsfull OPC compliance and ease of configuration;• MDT’s Mass AutoSave was selected to handle thebackup and revision control for all InTouch HMIapplications (AutoSave together with InTouch HMI’s NADgreatly helped change management and rollout).

Solution implementation

A new tag naming convention in line with the ISAstandards was implemented in order to be moredescriptive of plant areas and devices. This was followedby the definition of security and alarming requirementsas well as the communication method and architecture.

Documentation requirements for the project wereidentified and developed and during this phase of theproject, plant operators and production personnel wereconsulted to ensure an operator-friendly graphicalinterface and navigation screens. A complete thin slice ofthe system was set up and tested before role out couldcommence.

The Hillside site consists of the treatment and logistics,carbon, cast house and substation logical process areas(see figure 1). All of these areas are controlled by morethan 230 Allan Bradley PLCs that monitor over 220 000tags whose processes are being displayed on more than2000 InTouch mimic diagrams.

The first thing to note about the system topology (seefigure 2) is the simplicity of the design. This allows foreasy maintenance and deployment of new nodes.Redundancy allows for maximum up time and systemavailability, key factors for real-time process control.

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Metal Products ActiveFactory software, InTouch HMI,

Wonderware Historian

Figure 1: Hillside’s four logical process areas

BHP-Aluminium-Hillside.qxp:BHP-Aluminium-Hillside 30-07-2008 15:20 Pagina 43

“Thanks to the easy configuration facilities provided by thesoftware, redundant I/O servers and historians wereconfigured without any additional code being necessary,”says le Roux.

FAT testing, which involved automation specialists,production personnel and operators, was done on anarea by area basis starting with Treatment and Logisticsfollowed by Carbon then Cast house and lastlySubstation. “Once we completed the design phase and FATtesting, we started to load all the InTouch view stations,”says le Roux.

“This was followed by loading MSSQL, WonderwareHistorian and Topserver onto their respective servers.Thanks to easy to follow prompts, the set up and licensingproved very easy. As we were working on a live plant, itwas decided to run both old and new HMI systems inparallel. This allowed system users to report any bugs. Theimportance of thorough pre-commissioning testing can’tbe over-emphasised. The more testing there is, thesmoother the commissioning. In this case, the end resultwas a fully-tested and proven system with zero downtime.”

Challenges

Some of the challenges that CSS faced were:■ Managing large volume of variables - A unified tagnaming convention had to be created throughout thesolution, which meant that all the tags used by InTouch,Top server and Wonderware Historian needed to be

aligned. As different plant areas were implemented byvarious contractors, this posed a challenge to create asingle standard throughout the plant withoutredeveloping the PLCs. According to Le Roux, this is thesingle most important step in a project of this nature. “Ifstandards are clearly defined from the start less time willbe spent later in the project to correct/change currentstandards,” he adds;■ Coordinating with end users - In any corporation, itis difficult to reassign skilled staff to a development teamfor testing without sacrificing the plant maintenance andsupport requirements. This requires careful management,a high degree of understanding and collaboration fromall involved as well as the clear definition of roles andresponsibilities if the project milestones are to beachieved;■ Development team management - Managing manysoftware developers working in a single userdevelopment environment always poses a challengeunless everyone involved can focus on their commongoal and their contribution in achieving it.

Derived benefits

■ Improved reporting - allows for sound businessdecisions based on actual fact rather than guesswork;■ Improved system diagnosis - Previously, automationspecialists were unable to drill down to the device levelto determine PLC I/O and status. This is now availableeven to operators who are proactively assisting inreducing plant downtime;

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Metal Products ActiveFactory software, InTouch HMI, Wonderware Historian

Figure 2: Hillside’s topology diagram

BHP-Aluminium-Hillside.qxp:BHP-Aluminium-Hillside 30-07-2008 15:20 Pagina 44

■ Improved standardisation - Bringing all of Hillside’splant areas onto the new platform has ensured astandard HMI implementation across all three BHPBilliton aluminium smelters, thereby expanding theresource pool skilled to support the applications;■ Open door for future growth – the chosen solutionsprovide Hillside Aluminium with virtually unlimitedpotential for visualising, analysing and optimising theirentire aluminium smelting process to the benefit of itsbottom line.

“The previous system, although very stable, was a closedenvironment to the users and data was only accessiblethrough the physical nodes,” says Paul S Venter (Pr TechEng), IPS Superintendent at Hillside Aluminium SouthernAfrica. “With the implementation of the historian,information is now freely available at the users’workstations, allowing for faster response to plant events.The obscurity of the previous system was also overcomewith the ability to implement enhancements far moreeasily than before and therefore delivering business benefitfaster and at reduced cost.”

“The future scalability of the SCADA implementation wasalso improved through additional functionality to includeplant documentation and loop drawings. This willenhance fault-finding abilities of maintenance personneland improved understanding of operational personnel.”

What’s next?

At the publication time of this article, the currentprogress of the project is that 100% of the Treatment andLogistics area has been addressed as well as 80% of theCarbon area. At present, 45% of the Cast House area and20% of the Substation area are operating with the newSCADA system. However, it is envisaged that by the endof September 2008, Hillside Aluminium will be aWonderware-only site with the decision-support toolsthat will allow the plant to achieve its worthy objective ofbecoming the world’s leading aluminium smelter.

This document was realized thanks to the support of:Pieter Venter, Convenient Software Solutions

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COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESSIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIESCOMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESSIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES COMPANIES SUCCESS STORIES

Metal Products ActiveFactory software, InTouch HMI,

Wonderware Historian

BHP-Aluminium-Hillside.qxp:BHP-Aluminium-Hillside 30-07-2008 15:20 Pagina 45