Siemens introduces Simatic PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator

May 3, 2017 - With the Simatic PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator, Siemens is launching a cross-system engineering tool for planners and automation specialists to allow Simatic PCS 7 process control system development.

The large number of entities, data formats and interfaces involved means that process plant engineering workflows are often prone to transmission errors and system conflicts. Information can frequently go missing or have to be manually corrected during data exchange between different disciplines. The object-oriented approach of the Simatic PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator enables users to work on a central data platform, for integrated planning based on an electronic workflow, starting with plant engineering through to automation.

All the planning data of a project exists in the central data model of the Simatic PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator. Automation specialists have access to functions required for the compilation of quotations such as bills of material and automatically generated control data from the electrical plans of the Siemens Simatic PCS 7 process control system, including controlled mass data engineering, through to as-is process automation documentation. The standardization and tool-supported configuration additionally save time during the project phases. Synchronization between planning and automation data helps prevent the double input of data and interface losses, as well as reducing project lead times.

The Simatic PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator builds a digital bridge between plant planning and the Simatic PCS 7 process control system. The tool enables integrated engineering across the entire life cycle of an industrial plant – at the same time minimizing the number of interfaces. At the press of a button, the entire plant structure is generated in the control system from the engineering data. Changes occurring in the automation system during running operation, for instance following an exchange of field devices, can be played directly back into the planning software. At the same time, the database in the engineering tool is immediately updated, and along with it the entire plant documentation.

To speed up the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), it can often be beneficial to generate a simulation of the plant prior to commissioning and so minimize the error quota. Data such as measurement points and signals of a digital plant can be exported over the Simatic PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator to the Siemens simulation tool Simit, allowing a digital twin of the plant to be generated.

Data synchronization of the control system and planning automatically produces plant documentation, providing sustainable investment security for future plant upgrades and migration processes, both for existing and new plants.