Inductive Automation – Automation Group

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EnvironmentalMitigating Risks Through Modernization: PLC/HMI and Radio Upgrade Plus Water Well Expansion

July 31, 2023

Outdated systems have the potential to transform assets into liabilities. It is important to know the signs and risks of using outdated systems, and when it is the right time to invest in a modern solution. This was a challenge faced by a company specializing in environmental management services who was operating eleven water well sites across a five-mile area. These sites were being controlled by legacy PLCs and HMIs and relied on slow serial radios for communication, posing several risks such as high maintenance costs, poor HMI responsiveness, and limited scalability due to the outdated equipment. The customer recognized how their outdated system negatively affected their productivity and efficiency which prompted them to seek engineering support. The company engaged Automation Group to design and deploy a modern solution, which included upgrading their PLC, HMI, and radio controls as well as install an additional water well to expand their operations.

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Wine & SpiritsPLC and SCADA Upgrade Improves Red Fermentation Process for Long-Standing California Winery

March 13, 2023

Outdated controls can pose many operational challenges. Companies that operate with outdated controls often experience frequent downtime, expensive or obsolete hardware replacement parts, or few personnel with knowledge to perform maintenance on legacy systems. These challenges were faced by a long-running California winery who needed to modernize the controls for their red fermentation process. The winery needed to address how a system upgrade would impact their operations and engaged Automation Group to create a PLC and SCADA upgrade solution.

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FoodMajor SCADA and PLC Upgrade Increases Uptime and Lowers Maintenance Costs for Rice Milling Company

February 13, 2023

Complex upgrades require advanced expertise. Experienced system integrators will use a holistic approach to fully scope automation system upgrades and consider how the project’s complexities will impact the customer’s budget, uptime, timeline, or performance requirements. An example of this was a PLC-5 and SCADA application upgrade for a leading rice milling company. The company had an obsolete PLC-5 controlling their rice finishing line, in addition to an obsolete SCADA application controlling their entire facility. The legacy SCADA system was costly to keep operational, and the existing network caused communications issues between the customer’s production areas. The customer needed a new PLC program to be installed within a 48-hour timeframe to minimize production impacts, and the existing SCADA system needed to remain operational during the migration to Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform. Automation Group was engaged as the customer’s choice system integrator given their advanced expertise in system migration and the successful execution of projects at the customer’s other facilities.

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Wine & SpiritsHVAC Controls Upgrade Enhances Efficiency and Reliability of Wine Operations

January 3, 2023

Heating and cooling technology has come a long way in recent decades. Upgrading legacy HVAC controls can be a daunting project for many businesses where downtime is simply not an option. This was a challenge faced by a California-based wine company who needed to recontrol their HVAC system in one of their largest production facilities. The original system was outdated, hard to maintain, and only supported local control. The wine company engaged Automation Group to upgrade their HVAC controls and integrate Inductive Automation’s Ignition SCADA system for improved efficiency and system reliability.

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EnvironmentalIgnition SCADA Migration Enhances Remote Operations for Eco-Conscious Solutions

December 15, 2022

SCADA systems play an important role in production processes. Over time, these systems can become unsupported or lack the same level of functionality of new SCADA systems. This was the challenge for a company specialized in environmental management services including water pollution. The company’s existing HMI software and server operating system were at its end-of-life status which impacted the visibility of their groundwater remediation processes. For example, the existing HMI application only allowed a single remote desktop session into the server through a legacy VPN solution, which was a challenge as many of their operators worked in remote offices or in the field. The company chose to migrate to Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform with the Perspective Module as its web-based interface would enable multiple operators to monitor and manage processes from any mobile device. Automation Group was engaged to support the Ignition SCADA migration which consisted of upgrading the HMI software and servers, networking equipment, and VPN solution.

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FoodDesigning a Flexible and Scalable Automated Processing System for The Better Meat Co.

December 1, 2022

Many food processors create a proof of concept in several sizing stages before they build a full-scale processing facility. Designing an automated processing facility requires flexibility in the design and the ability to constantly improve the system with things discovered through research and development efforts. This is the story of how The Better Meat Co. partnered with Barnum Mechanical Inc. and Automation Group to design, build, and automate a full-scale processing system at The Better Meat Co.’s new mycoprotein fermentation facility in Sacramento, California. Industry partner Barnum Mechanical teamed up with Automation Group to support an expedited completion timeline.

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Wine & SpiritsRed Fermenter Pump-Over Automation Yields Greater Tank Controls for California Winery

October 19, 2022

The pump-over method plays an important role in modern wine extraction and can impact the wine’s flavor, intensity, and color. For a Californian winery, their red fermenter tanks used manual pump-over technology, but it was experiencing inconsistent timing as well as limited electrical capacity to run all pumps simultaneously. For instance, each Motor Control Center (MCC) could only run 50-70% of the pumps at a time. The winery needed to upgrade to an automated pump-over system to improve monitoring and control performance, reduce maintenance costs, and support their production needs. Automation Group was engaged upgrade their existing tank controls effectively and efficiently given their expertise with similar projects in the wine industry.

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FoodIgnition Platform Supports Real-Time OEE Data and Performance Monitoring for International Almond Supplier

June 30, 2022

Production health is a synergy between availability, performance, and quality. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is the gold standard to measure these metrics and can help identify early signs of production issues with modern software solutions. This was the challenge for a leading supplier of almond products who needed to find a better way to monitor the real-time efficiency of their lines as well as record production line problems as they occurred. The almond supplier also wanted to own this data and not rely on outside data hosting resources since these often limit extensive data archives. Automation Group was engaged to upgrade the almond supplier’s performance monitoring system given their experience with the platform, OEE, and database structures.

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MiningSCADA System Upgrade Enhances Automated Gold Mining Operations

April 18, 2022

In the mining industry, the ability to quickly respond to process changes is essential. One minor process change can negatively affect resource extraction and cause expensive periods of downtime. To help manage their complex operations, mining companies rely on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems to oversee their industrial processes locally or at remote locations; however, these systems are oftentimes outdated which cause operational challenges. This was the case for a mining company focused on gold recovery who needed to upgrade their legacy SCADA system for enhanced control capabilities across multiple locations. Automation Group was engaged to support their mining operations by upgrading their outdated SCADA system.

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FoodSCADA Software Conversion Improves Operational Performance and Cross-functional Communication

February 14, 2022

Communication is an essential tool for operational efficiency. Poor communication across manufacturing departments and their control technology can result in production downtime, inferior product quality, unhappy customers, and ultimately the loss of focus as an industry leader. After all, a company’s expertise is their product and generally not control system communications. When one of the world’s largest almond processing companies became unsatisfied with their legacy SCADA system and its limited report capacity, Automation Group was called to action to support the conversion to a new SCADA system.

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FoodCulinary Oil Production Company Pivots to Automation Group After Competitor Dissatisfaction

January 31, 2022

Terminating a system integrator can be a difficult decision. From suboptimal performance to poor communication, unfulfilled promises from a failed partnership can be devastating to the project outcome and client-integrator relationship. For one of the world’s largest culinary oil production companies, poor communication and staffing issues with a large system integrator challenged the company to find a new partner for state-side support. Automation Group was given the opportunity to renew their trust in system integrator partnerships.

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FoodCSIA Methodology Streamlines Olive Oil Packaging Line Automation

December 14, 2021

Challenges in the packaging process can impact the ability to scale operations and can affect many aspects of a company’s product line such as quality, safety, product professionalism, and maintenance costs. Deploying automation solutions can help with these challenges and better streamline operations. When one of the top 4 olive oil companies in California recognized the costly operational challenges of their manual packaging process, automation was key to help them remain competitive.

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PackagingTransitioning to an Automated Performance Monitoring System Empowers Manufacturers to Cost-Effectively Reach New Levels of Efficiency

November 30, 2021

Co-packing allows consumer packaged goods manufacturers faster turnaround times, greater flexibility, and often a significant cost savings over doing it themselves. Successful co-packing relationships are based on good communication and the ability to measure, benchmark, and validate performance. When the largest independent beverage co-packer was facing data acquisition challenges from their manual performance monitoring system, the company needed to find an automated solution that could monitor real-time operations across its manufacturing sites.

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FoodCandy Manufacturer Conveyor System Modernization Increases Efficiency, Decreases Noise, and Minimizes Maintenance Costs

November 15, 2021

After producing some of the world’s most famous and flavorful confections for many years, a Northern California candy manufacturer’s aging conveyor system was becoming old, noisy, and obsolete. The existing conveyor system, which had sorted and moved large volumes of product for over a decade, was a line shaft design and was beginning to degrade. The factory was in desperate need of a conveyor system modernization which would increase efficiency, decrease noise and minimize maintenance costs.

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PackagingAutomation Integrators Turn to the Ignition Platform to Provide Organization-Wide Access to Quality Data

October 25, 2021

Prima Frutta, a Linden, California-based cherry packaging facility, recognized that operational difficulties were preventing the packaging facility from fully utilizing all its production lines while operating at maximum capacity. Management determined it was time for an overhaul of their control system and systems integrator Automation Group of Modesto was called to help within a very tight timeline.

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Criminal JusticeAutomating Antiquated Jail Controls System Enhances Security Reliability

August 23, 2021

The City of Clovis Police Department’s mission is to “provide superior protection and service.” That mission includes ensuring that Clovis City Jail operations remain uninterrupted and anyone booked into or working in the jail holding cell area is kept safe from harm. For that reason, the area had been equipped for years with a hard-wired panel that managed critical jail cell door operations, intercom communications, light switch functions and other security-related processes.

EnvironmentalMitigating Risks Through Modernization: PLC/HMI and Radio Upgrade Plus Water Well Expansion

Wine & SpiritsPLC and SCADA Upgrade Improves Red Fermentation Process for Long-Standing California Winery

FoodMajor SCADA and PLC Upgrade Increases Uptime and Lowers Maintenance Costs for Rice Milling Company

Wine & SpiritsHVAC Controls Upgrade Enhances Efficiency and Reliability of Wine Operations

EnvironmentalIgnition SCADA Migration Enhances Remote Operations for Eco-Conscious Solutions

FoodDesigning a Flexible and Scalable Automated Processing System for The Better Meat Co.

Wine & SpiritsRed Fermenter Pump-Over Automation Yields Greater Tank Controls for California Winery

FoodIgnition Platform Supports Real-Time OEE Data and Performance Monitoring for International Almond Supplier

MiningSCADA System Upgrade Enhances Automated Gold Mining Operations

FoodSCADA Software Conversion Improves Operational Performance and Cross-functional Communication

FoodCulinary Oil Production Company Pivots to Automation Group After Competitor Dissatisfaction

FoodCSIA Methodology Streamlines Olive Oil Packaging Line Automation

PackagingTransitioning to an Automated Performance Monitoring System Empowers Manufacturers to Cost-Effectively Reach New Levels of Efficiency

FoodCandy Manufacturer Conveyor System Modernization Increases Efficiency, Decreases Noise, and Minimizes Maintenance Costs

PackagingAutomation Integrators Turn to the Ignition Platform to Provide Organization-Wide Access to Quality Data

Criminal JusticeAutomating Antiquated Jail Controls System Enhances Security Reliability

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