Digitalization

With "Module Type Packages" and "Digital Twin" - Ziemann on the way to digital transformation

The construction of a new production facility poses increasingly greater challenges for the international brewing and beverage industry. To name just a few factors: its flexibility must be ever greater, it must consume fewer and fewer resources and raw materials and its time to market must be as short as possible. Against this background, ZIEMANN HOLVRIEKA GmbH is breaking new ground in the realization of a turnkey project. In this case, standardization and digitalization are of vital importance.

Until now, the manufacturers of a production facility have set up and prepared various levels for the customer in order to implement the customer’s specifications. These levels are: the actual production process, the mechanics, the electrics as well as the automation, which ultimately links these levels. For all these levels, documentation is prepared more or less independently of each other and handed over to the customer. This means, however, that if the customer needs the concrete specifications of a lauter tun, for example, he has to look for the data in several documents. The actual engineering process and the commissioning of a production facility are also subject to manual interventions. These are due to the incompatibility of different systems.

The reason for this are poorly defined interfaces between the different plant sectors.

MTP precisely maps process steps such as lautering or mashing

This is exactly where the principle of “Module Type Packages” (MTP) starts. The MTP contains all necessary information in a standardized format to integrate a module into a modular plant, such as the communication, the services as procedural functions, a description of the human-machine interface (HMI) and maintenance information.

A MTP thus combines all relevant data from the process, mechanics, electrics, automation and maintenance for each process step and links them with each other – right down to the field components (valve, pump, sensor, etc.). In this way it is possible to design a brewery, which is made up entirely of MTP-capable modules (plant components). This means that every selected control system, which supports MTP, speaks the same language. This results in easier, safer and lower integration efforts on the construction site. The MTP functions more or less like a printer driver, which connects the computer with the printer fully automatically. Challenges that arise unplanned on the construction site and that have to be solved there are thus a thing of the past. For the construction of a new production facility, MTP means “plug and produce”.

The MTP enables a high degree of standardization in the process description and automation – this significantly reduces manual interventions both in engineering and in commissioning. In addition to a considerable time saving, this also means a significantly reduced potential for errors. Furthermore, all MTPs have a high degree of standardization. Individual framework conditions are always adapted. This results in a reduced error potential in the project planning phase. Last but not least, the MTPs provide the customer with all the necessary data and information to change or add individual process modules at any time.

“Digital twin“ breathes virtual life into data

ZIEMANN HOLVRIEKA is taking things one step further and breathes life into the data of the MTPs by means of a “digital twin”. In principle, this twin is a cloud-based data platform, which the customer can access with a standard tablet, for example. All data of the MTPs are stored in the cloud and can be retrieved. In addition, the twin has visualization tools as well as simulation and analysis algorithms.

For the customer, the “digital twin” offers numerous advantages: among other things, a virtual tour through the future brewery is possible at an early stage of the project planning – at all levels, such as the process or the mechanics. Furthermore, you can see what you will get, long before the commissioning of the plant. After commissioning, sensors can feed real-time data, such as consumptions, temperatures or yield into the cloud. By means of modern analysis tools and algorithms, the “digital twin” simulates complex “what-if” scenarios in order to determine the best possible operating conditions. In addition, the shown trends allow for proactive maintenance. For example, a blocking bearing of a pump is detected at an early stage due to a constantly increasing power consumption. The central customer benefits of the combination “MTP” and “digital twin” are summarized in table 1.

In use – immediately and worldwide

In order to make the data exchange as secure as possible, ZIEMANN HOLVRIEKA relies on the so-called Weihenstephaner standards for brewery projects. These standards define a communication interface for the standardized transmission of machine and process data to superordinate IT systems. Via a special module, the data from the cloud can be exported to any customer-specific IT solution and can be processed there. The state-of-the-art turnkey approach with “MTP” and “digital twin” is offered by ZIEMANN HOLVRIEKA worldwide. The first major project is already being successfully completed.

Table 1: “MTP“ and “digital twin“ – what does it mean for the customer?

• A shorter implementation period – plug and produce
• What you see is what you get
• Meaningful process simulations (e.g. fluctuating malt qualities, identification of savings potential)
• More efficient maintenance work
• Higher availability through proactive maintenance
• Reduced operating costs (OPEX) due to fewer breakdowns
• Modular additions possible at any time