Digital Twin Modeling Software Facilitates Interface of Existing Equipment with an MES

ABB’s modeling software, Shop Floor Integration V2.0, allows engineers to validate the connection of existing pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment with Werum’s PAS-X manufacturing execution system in a simulation prior to running it live. 

Designed for established pharmaceutical manufacturing plants with existing machinery, ABB’s software solution, Shop Floor Integration V2.0, allows for the creation of a digital twin of the existing system so that integration with a manufacturing execution system (MES) can be validated. Engineers test the running of the line in the digital world before any connection is made in the real world. This simulation reduces engineering, validation, and testing time and minimizes the plant’s downtime. ABB reports that engineers save between 40% and 70% of the time spent on integrating systems when compared to existing solutions.

The Shop Floor Integration V2.0 interface connects Werum’s PAS-X MES to existing shop floor equipment. Prior software was only available for new sites. ABB and Werum have developed a message-based communications system that sends and receives instruction between the MES and the production equipment. This system provides regular synchronization between the systems and communicates data such as quality, setpoint, and consumption. The historical route for integration between manufacturing systems was both labor-intensive and multi-staged. ABB’s system using vocabulary and commands within messages allows fewer stages for malfunctioning and makes it simpler to program, with less machine-operator interaction during the manufacturing process.

GE Healthcare is an early adopter of ABB’s Shop Floor Integration product. GE Healthcare’s site in Uppsala, Sweden, is the first in the world to use ABB’s message-based communications system to connect the MES to its distributed control system (DCS).

Source: ABB