rni no.

MAHENG/201034042

IoT: Internet
of Tyre

Customised
solutions

new testing
machines

Paolo Butti
Rockwell Automation

Roberto Tamma
Marangoni Meccanica

Jakob M Hess
inmess

June/July 2015

US$20

200

2015

Vol No 6 Issue No 3

POLYMERS & TYRE ASIA JUNE/JULY 2015

Peter Haan, Digital Factory Division,
Factory Automation, Siemens AG

Ashutosh Chincholikar,
Head of Business, Smart Controls

SIEMENS & SMART CONTROLS

rni no. MAHENG/201034042

POWER OF

SYNERGY

Global Impact
of Labels,
Trade Barriers
Debates over
new rubber
lands

Cover Story

SIEMENS & SMART CONTROLS

POWER OF

SYNERGY
PTA News Bureau
It has been a win-win partnership between Siemens AG, the global leader in supplying
world class technological platforms for providing Control System & Automation
Solutions, and Smart Controls India, the innovation-driven Smart company that has
made a niche for itself in Process Control Automation and IT Integration. The power of
synergy this partnership effuses has worked remarkably well for both companies.
Automation solutions can be applied to almost all Industry segments, including automobiles and
tyre. In order to implement these solutions in the tyre industry someone who understands the
intricacies of tyre manufacturing processes is needed. This is where Smart Controls plays a big
role in the Siemens scheme of things. With over 15 years of experience in serving the tyre industry,
Smart Controls has full knowledge and experience of using the Siemens Technological Platform to
implement automation solutions for almost all processes of tyre making.
68

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

2015

Driving the
Digital Enterprise
PTA News Bureau

ome weeks ago, the most

important global industry show,
the Hannover Fair 2015, opened
its doors to show the visitors
the latest trends towards Digital Factory,
Digitalisation and Industrie 4.0. How
important are those trends for global tyre
manufacturing? What is the translation
from general trends to the implementation
in a tyre plant? What are the examples that
show already today the approach of the
new technologies?
The most important key learning
process: Automation does not start
just with machine automation, which
means integrating a programmable
logic controller (PLC) into a machine and
doing the PLC programming. The modern
automation approach starts much earlier
and covers all phases of the product
development and production process.

recipe according to local needs. Including

correct versioning and back tracking.
Security aspects are also mandatory for
compound and recipe handling, because
this contains important intellectual
properties.
The same transfer process should also
work for the BoM of a complete tyre:
BoM data relevant to order management
are forwarded to the MES
BoM data relevant to the mixer are passed
on to the mixing room management
BoM data relevant to the tyre building
machines passed on to them etc.

In the phase of production planning,

cutting edge concepts like the digital
factory approach pay off best. It is very
usual nowadays to do the layout of a new
production area or a complete greenfield
plant based on a CAD software tool.
Material and production flow simulation
can generate real benefits for tyre
manufacturers.
The tyre production consists of several
storage areas which are connected by
different types of transportation systems
or connected by the production machines
themselves. Some of the following
questions can be answered by tyre plant
simulation:

By passing on this data, it can be assured

that all parts of the tyre are produced
according to the BoM specification a
major lever to reduce quality cost.

Will the targeted throughput be reached

considering

Another example which is easy to

retooling times for different tyre types or

the transportation systems,

anticipated downtimes per machine or
transportation segment?
What happens in case of a machine
failure? What is the influence on the overall
throughput?

The key success factor

is to reuse all data generated during
the early phases of the product and
production life cycle directly in
the later phases (PLM).
Starting with the tyre design, a
tight data connection between
the tyre R&D department
and the production planning
and production execution
departments is the key to success.
As soon as, for example, a new
compound is designed in the
laboratory of a tyre manufacturer,
the Bill of Material (BoM) and
the recipe of how to mix this
compound should be available at
the mixing rooms of those plants,
which are designated to produce
this compound. Onsite it should
be easy to modify the global

understand refers
to the reuse of the profile
design specification (e.g.
created by the Siemens NX design
software for the production of dies that
are used in the curing process).

Where are possible bottlenecks in the

production flow and how could these be
solved?
What is the optimum amount of
machines of each type?
What is the utilisation rate of each
machine?

Making the planning of tyre development, machine and production design easy: handling massive amounts of data with high
performance and scalability with the 4th generation design software from Siemens PLM

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

69

2015

Cover Story
integration into the overall systems
such as SCADA, MES and logistics. In
addition Additionally, a clear definition
of the communication interface has to
be described and also handed over to
the machine builder as part of the RFQ.
Three types of information have to be
distinguished:
How to communicate between the
machine and the higher-level systems
(vertical integration)
How to communicate inbetween
machines (horizontal integration)
What has to be communicated, e.g.
download and upload of recipes
commands to control the machine
The Siemens Tecnomatix software allows you to model, simulate, explore and optimize logistics systems and their
processes. Well in advance of production, these models permit the analysis of material flows, resource utilization and
logistics for all levels of manufacturing planning, from global production facilities to local plants and specific lines

What is the optimum storage capacity

for the raw material stock, the green tyre
stock, etc.
How do holidays without delivery affect
stock capacities?
Of course, all of these questions can also
be answered by a team of specialists. But
a nearly 100% optimized solution can
only be developed using simulation and
scenario technologies. For example, it is
also possible to simulate scenarios with
different machine types, different levels
of availability, different throughputs, but
also different prices for comparison. With
the latest version of Tecnomatix Plant
Simulation, it is also possible to simulate
the energy consumption, which adds
another perspective to the total cost of
ownership, which has become essential
lately.
In the future, this plant simulation
process and different machine option
scenarios will also be supported by
innovative machine builders providing
key information about their machines, not
only on datasheets, but also via a plugin
for plant simulation. Thus each machine
builder can easily proof the benefits of his
machine to potential customers, the tyre
manufacturers, in the simulation of the
future production line.
As soon as the plant and its lines are
designed, the integration of the machine
has to be planned. Of course, there is the
mechanical integration. Are all kinematics
of all machines in a production shop
working seamlessly together? This is
once again a question to be answered by
simulation based on Siemens Tecnomatix.
But how about logical integration?
Modern plants have a supervisory control

70

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

and data acquisition (SCADA) system

and a manufacturing execution system
(MES) covering the entyre production
chain. Additionally, there is the integration
into tyre logistics. All machines have
to be connected to all three systems.
Because in the tyre industry, normally one
machine builder does not supply all of
the machines. Instead, there are various
suppliers with different automation and
different communication behaviors. To
integrate all of them into one production
line in order to work with maximum
performance and produce high-quality
tyres may easily become a nightmare.
Therefore, it is essential for a tyre
manufacturer to define a so-called
preferred parts book, together with the
automation provider(s),. , This describes
the automation components to be used
for the new production. The advantage
of the preferred parts book for the tyre
manufacturer is the reduction of different
automation components installed in the
plant, which results in a reduced spare
parts stock and even more important
in dramatically reduced training effort
for the maintenance team of the tyre
manufacturer. The components in the
preferred parts book always represent a
tradeoff between the optimization of a
dedicated machine and the reduction of
complexity. This has to be worked out by
the tyre manufacturers automation team,
supported by the automation and drives
vendor. The preferred parts book has to
be forwarded to the machine builder as
part of the request for quotation (RFQ),
because this type of standardization may
also require some effort on the machine
builders side.
However, just defining a preferred parts
book is not enough to guarantee seamless

machine feedback such as status

information (no material available)
provision of quality datasets for a
tested tyre
When to define the interface between the
control center and the machines?
Already during the tyre design it has to
be decided whether there are critical
manufacturing processes that need to
be monitored in detail. This may require
additional or special measurement
equipment to ensure the acquisition of
important quality data.
At the latest when the production design
is finished do the integration requirements
also have to be described and forwarded
to the machine suppliers.
If the integration requirements are
announced later to the machine builder,
e.g. during the commissioning phase, this
very often leads to a change request and
additional cost for the tyre manufacturer.
Standardization of defined preferred
parts and standardization of the machine
communication interfaces are two ways
of standardization. A third type is the
standardization of the machine states and
a standardized machine HMI. Even without
any standard, most of the production
machines will be equipped with so-called
light stacks. However, the behavior of one
machine may differ from the others. For
example, the state no material available
may be signaled once with a blue light
stack, at the next machine with a blue
flashing light stack. According to EN / IEC
60204-1, the flashing mode is correct.
Moreover, each screen of the local
machine HMI may look different. Of course,
different functions of a tyre building
machine and of a curing press will always
look different. But there is no reason to
have different behaviors for going into
automatic mode or switching to manual
mode. Such types of standardization help

make the life of the operators in the plant

much easier!
Therefore, Siemens provides the state
model and the common HMI screens as
a sample code, which is contained in a
sample project for the standard machine
types in tyre manufacturing and is based
on international standards. The aim is to
also make the life of the machine builders
easier by providing such a solution to tyre
manufacturers.
It is essential for the management
team of a tyre manufacturer to make
clear decisions regarding how much
standardization is wanted and how much
additional cost for implementing this
standard is accepted. Standardization
is not for free! But the total cost of
ownership (TCO) for the new production
will be greatly influenced by this
decision. And there is another important
factor: Standardization may reduce the
integration risk considerably! As already
mentioned, many machine builders supply
products for new tyre production lines.
The risk of integrating all of these different
machines into an optimized production
line will be reduced considerably by the
strict predefinition of standards. This is also
shown in the following graphic.
A good part of the standardization
cost will already pay off during the
commissioning phase of the new
production. Another part is the TCO
reduction over lifetime.
In the end, it is a tradeoff from four factors:
TCO
Degree of standardization
Cost of standardization
Risk reduction
But major global automation suppliers
such as Siemens also have influence on
the cost for implementing standards in
tyre manufacturing: By suggesting and
providing the same standard across the
tyre manufacturing industry, Siemens tries
to avoid company-specific standards and
promotes industry-global standardization.
Thus, as soon as a machine builder has
standardized his production according
to the described model, he can reuse it
for all future projects. This reduces the
implementation cost for the machine
builder in the long run considerably!
To avoid difficulties during the
commissioning phase, there is another
lever that arises from the digital factory
approach: virtual commissioning! This will
be illustrated based on the development
of a curing press. But generally the process
can be applied for all production machines
in the tyre industry.

Today, all machine designs are created in

CAD systems and cover the mechanical
parts of the machine. The output of most
CAD tools can be imported into Siemens
Tecnomatix Process Simulate and three
additional inputs can be added:
The kinematics of the machine
The behavior of electrical parts such as
proximity switches or actuators such as
motors or valves
The list of all electrical inputs and outputs
connected to the PLC
Siemens PLCs have access to this list of
all electrical inputs and outputs. The
PLC- internal I/O memory and the I/O list
of the simulation are linked via an OPC
connection. Now it is possible for the PLC
to control the simulation of the curing
press in the same way as the control of
a real curing press would take place.
This enables the PLC programmer at the
machine builder to implement and test all
program routines, even if no real machine
is available yet. It is even possible to test
program configurations that cannot be
tested with the real machine because
of possible damage to the machines
mechanics. Furthermore, the complete
machine- local HMI can be programmed
and tested without the real machine. It is
also possible for the tyre manufacturer and
the machine builder to align the final look
and feel at a very early project phase. The
tyre manufacturer can use the simulation
to train the local staff in the new
production. As soon as the real machine
is available, the OPC connection between
the PLC and the simulation is replaced by
the real I/Os and the curing press should
operate as defined. In the picture above,
this is shown by the switch between the
simulation and the real curing press.
When the real machine is delivered, the
local staff knows already how to operate
the machine. So virtual commissioning
happens in real time and reduces the risk
in the commissioning phase!
When the plant design is finished and
all machines have been designed,
commissioning be implemented without
major risks but how about the operation

of the new production? Do digitalization

and the approach toward Industrie 4.0 also
help? The answer is yes! The next picture
provides an overview of all important
functionalities required to operate a
complete tyre production based on
Siemens SIMATIC IT and SIMATIC WinCC
and forming a complete Tyre Production
Control Center:
Lets have a look at the dedicated
functions:

Production planning and

scheduling:
Based on the input from the higher-level
ERP system, system production planning
and scheduling divides all ERP orders into
work orders for each production area.
Optimization guidelines, for example
those that keep the curing presses
running 24x7 whenever possible, are
equally considered as constraints from
the viewpoint of predictive maintenance,
e.g. to schedule the right time to clean the
mold of a curing press. The overall goal of
this module is to optimize the utilization
of all production equipment units in the
factory and to optimize output.

Order handling:
Coming from planning and scheduling,
every work order is split into area-specific
entities, e.g. for the curing area.

Track and tracing, genealogy:

Especially when entering the market
for premium cars, it is essential to be
able to show the genealogy of each
tyre of the automotive manufacturer
when requested. In the food and
pharmaceuticals industry this is a common
requirement and it will also become the
standard for tyre manufacturing, because
tyres are still the root cause for around
1,200 car accidents per year in Germany.
The track & tracing approach has to
cover the complete value chain from the
inbound area, with all of the materials
arriving there, to outbound delivery. A
challenge is to overcome the step from the
process-oriented part of the value chain
to the more factory-oriented part from the
semi area.
Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

71

2015

Cover Story
Visualization:

Key parameters and key actions of all

machines should not only be visible
at the machine, but also in the plant
control center in order to have access
to all machines from a central point, if
required.

Alarms and system

diagnostics:

Quality trends have to be provided

not only for single production steps, but
also for the combination of different parts
of the value chain, e.g. to visualize the
influence of a changed compound on the
tyre uniformity behavior.
Yield rates:

one of the most important key

performance indicators (KPI) for a plant
manager! To establish an ongoing
improvement process, it is essential to
define the right KPIs, based on the right
granularity of measured problem classes
and failures. If you go too much into detail,
you will lose the overview. And if the KPIs
are too general, its no longer possible to
derive quality improvement measures
from it.

Management reports generate

optimized reports for each group of

persons in the tyre factory and are another
measure to reduce the TCO. Thus, for
example, the head of plant management
needs different reports than the line
manager or the quality manager. But all
reports have to be based on the same
consistent dataset.

Recipe management has to be

seamlessly integrated from the tyre R&D

department down to the shop floor of all
production areas. It should be possible
that the amount, but also the allowed
deviation of each parameter captured in
the final finishing area for each tyre, be
specified in tyre R&D and electronically
forwarded to the testing machines.
From the tyre-related functions we are
moving on to more machine-specific
functionality:

72

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

Material flow:
This screen gives an overview of the
current state of all machines, the utilization
of intermediate storage areas, and the
machine-related KPIs for each machine.

Overall equipment efficiency

(OEE) and machine utilization
rate: Always remember: We already

discussed the utilization rate of each

machine during the plant design phase,
when we optimized our plant design using
the Tecnomatix Plant Simulation Software.
But now we have the same screen based
on real machine data. All classified failures
and problems are displayed. And so
we can see whether the plant design is
already optimized or if there are areas for
improvement. It is also very important
to be able to analyze the root cause,
because in many cases the insufficient
utilization of a single machine may be
caused by problems with another machine
or a storage area. Showing all of these
relationships between the machines is one
of the tasks of this function.

Downtime monitor: The

downtime monitor also aims at machine

optimization. It shows when a machine
was down and how long it took to make
it work again, including all intermediate
steps such as failure evaluation and repair.

Energy management: EM today

is essential for operating a plant in an
optimized way and to reduce the TCO.
All types of energy have to be covered
and this function has to provide the right
degree of transparency to the plant team
so that it can take the right measures and
reduce energy consumption.

In case of any problems, the

appropriate persons in the plant
should get notified by the correct
alarm messages according to their
responsibility in order to ensure fast
response by the staff. And they have
to get all of the information required
to solve a problem as soon as possible.
For example, Siemens SIMATIC PLCs are
equipped with intelligent functions to
detect problems such as cable breaks
automatically and to display the logical
location of the broken cable directly as
an alarm message at the operator station
without additional programming, because
this is a SIMATIC system feature.

Maintenance:
Even better if there are no sudden problem
alarms due to an effective implementation
of predictive maintenance methods to
ensure 24x7 operation of all machines.
Now everything is prepared to deliver
the machines to the new production line
and to ramp up production according to
schedule. Digital Factory, Digitalization
and Industrie 4.0 have been major
levers to make this happen smoothly.
Regarding the question whether the
Digital Enterprise will be the digital copy of
the company in the future, Anton S. Huber,
CEO of Siemens Digital Factory Division,
answers: The digital representation of
the value chain is just one aspect, but
an important one. The Digital Enterprise
emerges from the connection of the
real company with its digital image.
The intelligent collaboration of these
two worlds, the digital and the physical
one, leads to the economic advantages
that are absolutely vital to maintain
competitiveness and project profitability
in global business.
Of course, not all of these digital concepts
have already been implemented. But we
think Siemens is on the way to Industrie
4.0 - driving the digital enterprise. Also in
tyre production! Siemens provides such
leading edge concepts, but Siemens does
not provide any production machines
for the tyre industry. This is done by our
partners, system integrators and machine
builders, such as Smart Controls from
India.

Smart Controls:
Siemens Solution Provider

stablished in 1999, the

innovation-driven Smart Controls
has made a niche for itself in
Process Control Automation and
IT Integration. The key focus topics are:
Control systems, SCADA and IT
integration for a wide range of generic
manufacturing processes and logistic
systems
Control system solutions based on
Siemens latest offerings, which includes
PLCs, drives and SCADA
IT integration solutions based on
OPC, Historian, and the latest Microsoft
technologies.
Today, Smart Controls is known for
implementing process automation in
many industry-specific segments such as
rubber &tyre, automobile, textiles, power,
metals, food, infrastructure, etc.
With a team of highly experienced and
professional engineers, Smart Controls
possesses extraordinary skills to provide
solutions for every step of the rubber and
tyre manufacturing process using the
standard Siemens Simatic platform.
Integrated solutions for tyre
manufacturing for enhanced productivity
and reduced scrap generation includes:
Turnkey mixing room solutions,
integrated into SAP, visualised through the
Web
Curing press solutions, integrated into
MES
Tyregenealogy system, directly
connected to SAP
Plant-wide MIS, especially for the
tyreindustry
Specialists in retrofitting control/SCADA
for every process in the tyreindustry

assist the control system engineers. The

result was a series of solutions where a
control system was not just controlling the
machines or the process it was working
like a hub connected to the business
platforms.
Siemens supported Smart Controls with
its innovative Simatic Automation Systems
all the way, along with some futuristic IT
products, to help create this fusion.
Today, Smart Controls has almost four
dozen mixing lines running with the
Smart Mixing solution, completely ready
to be connected to the IT and business
platforms. In fact, some of them are
already connected. In addition to this,
Smart Controls is one of the first Indian
companies to successfully roll out a tyre
genealogy and MIS system for the tyre
industry.
By offering customers its Value Proposition
Solutions, Smart Controls, backed up
by Siemens, is one of the best Solution
Providers for IT-based automation systems
in the tyre industry.

Offering added value

Smart Controls strongly believes that
added value is the solution to customers
problem. It goes hand in hand with the
problem it solves, offering added value.

Innovation
Smart Controls solutions are always
designed ahead of time. The company
believes that its solutions will help the
customer run an App on his smartphone
or tablet and that he will be able to get the
latest update on the performance of his
mixing room, or maybe his TBM or curing
presses. But this is still under development
because it is ahead of its time. State-of-

the-art software products by Siemens play

an important role in order to achieve this
goal.

Performance
Smart Controls claims that the
constant improvement of its solutions
performance is its main motto and that the
improvement always comes from the shop
floor. It always audits the solutions and
carefully makes a note of the suggestions
coming from the people who use the
machines day in and day out. This results
in a constant increase in performance.

Customisation
Customisation is the companys greatest
strength. We believe that we are not
selling cars that all look alike. We want our
solutions to be used by our customers
in their own way. Perhaps this is the
biggest strength that we possess with our
solutions, Ashutosh Chincholikar, Head of
Business, says.
Getting the job done is part of our
company culture. We at Smart Controls
understands that when a mixing line is
being commissioned, we can expect to
face challenges in terms of interacting
with different vendors, interfacing
different types of control systems, working
under unfavorable conditions and during
odd hours, and so on. But our objective is
very clear. We have to get it done.
It develops a future-proof design to ensure
that the solution can always be scaled up
in case of improvements. Comprehensive
documentation and structured training
ensure that the system can even be used
by trainees.
Smart Controls solutions are not cheap,
but its value for money, Chincholikar

PLC: An IT product
A PLC is no longer just an automation
system, It is an IT product. This was
envisaged by Smart Controls in 1999. That
is when the journey to serve the industry
with the latest offerings for IT-based
control systems started. The challenge
was to move ahead of time and to offer
something the industry was really looking
for.
With the vision to deliver the best IT-based
automation solutions, Smart Controls
formed a team of IT professionals to
Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

73

2015

Cover Story
adds. We pass on price advantages to our
customers through aggressive pricing due
to our lower input costs. Solutions that
help the customer boost his productivity
or reduce scrap is something that we
aim for. We know for sure that unless the
customer gets benefits from our solutions,
we will not be in business.
Smart Controls has been serving the
tyre industry for over a decade. Whether
mixing lines or tyre manufacturing
machines, curing presses or extruders,
or tyre testing machines are concerned,
the Smart Controls team knows the tyre
manufacturing process extremely well.
It doesnt make sense to sell a mixing
line solution. If we cannot upgrade it
in the future because, for example, the
control system hardware has become
obsolete. This is one of our key aspects.
Smart Controls provides state-of-the-art
IT-based automation systems for the tyre
industry. Due to this focus, our customers
can rest assured that changes in tyre
manufacturing technologies and obsolete
hardware can always be accommodated
by Smart Controls he says.

Top solutions
Though Smart Controls has contributed
solutions for almost every process
involved in tyre manufacturing, some
of the solutions have created significant
benefits fortyre manufacturers. This
includes: Mixing line solutions; Curing
press solutions; Tyre genealogy solutions,
and Manufacturing intelligence systems.

Mixing line solutions

Rubber mixing lines are
always a tricky subject. Its
not just about the integration
of various machines such as
mixers, feeders (commonly
called mixer upstream
equipment), mills and batchoff systems. Its all about
achieving the right viscosity,
dispersion and distribution of
the rubber compound.
Smart Controls, as a Siemens
Solution Partner with
excellent knowledge of the
rubber mixing requirements
and a rich experience in
commissioning around
four dozen rubber mixing
lines, remains one of the
best Solution Providers for
control systems for both new
and old mixing lines. It has
the capability of replacing
obsolete existing control
systems with state-of-the art
control systems in less than
48 hours of mixer downtime.

74

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

Salient features include:

Solutions based on the standard SIEMENS
Simatic platform

Siemens WinCC-based monitoring SCADA

system for several presses
Recipe management

Scalable with short retro fitting times

Diagnostics and reporting

Highly flexible and customizable recipe

system

SAP/ERP connectivity

Highly flexible production scheduler

Powerful process diagnostics &reports

Bar coding
Display solutions

SAP connectivity, Web visualization

Salient features:

Common reporting for all mixers (CRM)

Centralised recipe management for all

presses

Benefits
Improved productivity due to flexible
design of recipe and production scheduler
Reduced downtimes due to powerful
diagnostics
Less scrap due to powerful reporting
Reduced manpower due to innovative
design
Value for money, the perfect solution for
retrofits

Curing press solutions

Smart Controls has rolled out a solution
for curing presses that can be applied to
individual presses and groups of presses.
This solution is based on the standard
Siemens Simatic PLCs and HMI at the press
level and on WinCC at the monitoring
level.

Scope:
Siemens Simatic-based press controls
with HMI

Shop floor display providing all of the

required details such as production, critical
alarms, etc.
Advanced Web-based, press-related
reporting module, providing many
different reports, e.g. on production, scrap
generation, downtimes, quality, etc.
Circular chart on SCADA for temperature
and pressure during curing
Advanced data logger for fast and
compressed data logging
MES/SAP connectivity

Benefits:
Scrap reduction by avoiding mistakes in
mold selection and recipe verification and
intelligent, active monitoring of the curing
temperature and pressure
Quality analysis and comparison using
SPC modules
Consolidated data visualization for better
press comparison

The tyre is then stored in the warehouse,

where the location of storage is linked
with the tyre number and also the mold
serial number.
This solution not only facilitates product
traceability in the event of customer
complaints, it also reduces scrap and
increases productivity of the tyre plant.
Thanks to the advanced validation
methods and automatic recipe selection
designed by the Smart Controls team.

MIS Building
Manufacturing Intelligence
Abstract
Soft circular chart on SCADA results
in low maintenance costs for the chart
recorder

Tyregenealogy Building
manufacturing intelligence
Almost every tyre manufacturer feels
the need to improve his response to the
customer in the event of quality-related
issues. This generates the requirement
to build up a foundation for automatic
inventory and product traceability.
Keeping in view this scenario, Smart
Controls rolled out its tyregenealogy/track
&trace solution, which helps to record and
track critical events regarding a specific
tyre and provide real-time Work in Process
(WIP) visibility. Now the user can track
important processes, production, and
quality information.
The biggest challenge when implementing
this solution was to establish a large
network and to acquire data from different
controller types and models.

The solution works like this: a barcode

sticker is attached to the green tyre, called
as tyre number, at the tyre manufacturing
machine, which captures basic information
such as TBM machine no., operator
details, recipe details, etc. Now the tyre is
transferred to the curing presses, where
the tyre type is validated based on mold
type and recipe code. The tyre is NOT
cured unless validation is performed. This
drastically reduces the probability of scrap
generation. Once the tyre has been cured,
it is transferred to the visual inspection
area, where the tyre inspector inspects
the tyre for any defects and records his
comments for the tyre number in the
human machine interface. Then the tyre
is tested for uniformity and balancing.
The recipe selection for the uniformity
machine takes place automatically while
the tyre number is scanned by the fixed
barcode scanner installed on top of the
tyre conveying system. Finally, the tyre is
tested in the X-ray machine. The results of
curing, TUO/run-out testing and X-raying
are stored in the server together with the
ty renumber.

In this competitive world, every

manufacturer wants to produce faster
and better while keeping the costs under
control. This is only possible if there is a
way to measure the overall equipment
effectiveness (OEE). Because if you can
measure it, you can manage it.
Keeping this requirement of the industry
in mind, Smart Controls rolled out the
Manufacturing Intelligence System,
commonly called MIS Solutions.
The concept is simple: connect all plant
level controllers to a server and obtain the
data related to production, downtimes
and quality. For this you need an advanced
software to analyse the data and convert it
into Manufacturing Intelligence to support
the Decision Support System.
Smart Controls Manufacturing Intelligence
system turns large amounts of plant
data into Manufacturing Intelligence by
connecting to all plant level controllers in
addition to multiple data sources such as
SQL, Oracle, SAP and lab data. In short, it
collects and processes data from the plant
floor, corporate databases, and anywhere
in between.

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

75

TIA: TOTAL
ADVANTAGE
T

he Totally Integrated Automation

(TIA) solution developed by
Siemens has had a great impact
on the tyre manufacturing
process. How has this system evolved
over the years? What is the latest from
Siemens TIA?
Because tyre manufacturing, both globally
and in India, consists of many machines
from different vendors, Totally Integrated
Automation brings a unique advantage to
the manufacturer, and also to the machine
builder. The TIA portfolio offers automation
products and systems for the complete
tyre production chain, from mixing to final
finishing. With STEP 7 and S7-300, Siemens
has established a remarkable double digit
market share. With TIA Portal and S7-1500,
the latest development within the SIMATIC
family, Siemens is addressing innovations
concerning:
usability and reduced time to production,
implementation of added values for end
customers (tyre manufacturers), e.g. CPUs
with integrated HMI and HTML server for
easy diagnostics directly at the machine,
dramatically increased performance in
combination with footprint
reduction.
As the manufacturing
processes in industries
particularly the
tyre industry - change
with more stress on

sustainability, how does Siemens

keep pace with or keep ahead of these
changes?
The development of the TIA Portal and
the new PLC generations S7-1200 and
S7-1500, combined with the new PC-based
software controller S7-1500S, gives our
customers a clear advantage to allow them
to stay ahead of their competitors. And it
also brings Siemens into such a leading
position. The TIA Portal will be the
platform for many future developments to
keep SIMATIC, but also SIMATIC customers,
in a leading edge position. However,
sustainability also means compatibility: all
existing S7-300 and S7-400 programs can
also be used in the new PLCs.
From a sustainability point of view, what
are the advantages that Siemens TIA
delivers?
Sustainability has to be considered in two
directions:
Towards the machine builder: automation
products and systems have to be scalable
and easy to be adapted to different
versions of a machine, e.g. from small to
large scale machines.
But scalability goes further: some tyre
manufacturers prefer traditional dedicated
PLC technology, like S7-1200 or S71500. Others standardize the entire
corporation on PC-based control.
Using a modern PLC system, the
same PLC program can be used
for both outputs: for PC-based
or for traditional dedicated PLCs.
This saves a lot of effort at the
machine builder.
Safety is another example for
scalability: a modern automation
system has to offer integrated
safety as an option, so the option
can be used if it is required by
the tyre manufacturer.

Peter Haan, Digital Factory Division,

Factory Automation, Siemens AG

76

Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

Ashutosh Chincholikar,
Head of Business, Smart Controls

2015

Cover Story

Towards the tyre manufacturer:

automation has to support a clear
reduction of the total cost of ownership
(TCO). This contains easy maintenance,
access to all data inside the machine to
improve quality and productivity over the
life cycle and easy integration of additional
machines into an existing line based on
standard interfaces.
How do your SIMATIC technologies and
technology-based solution approach
help the tyre industry?
Industry fit: SIMATIC products and
systems cover all technological
requirements from mixing to final
finishing, from the MES top floor down to
the shop floor.
Siemens avoids generating industryspecific products. Instead we drive our
product portfolio in such a way that the
standard portfolio covers all requirements
of the industries supported by SIMATIC.
Global reach: this standard portfolio is
supported by our global organization at
the machine builders and also at the tyre
manufacturers location by our local teams.
Technology extensions: those standard
products are extended by tyre-specific
software technological application
samples offered by
our tyre team
to interested
partners.
Those
examples can
be used by
the partners
like an own
software
development.

Do you offer hardware solutions to the

tyre industry?
Concerning hardware, there are two
standard delivery channels:

Advantage automation
Siemens goal is to support machine
builders for developing machines on
latest SIMATIC products and systems
(this is already a reality in many cases)
thus benefiting the Tyre manufacturers
by increasing productivity by using
latest technology available in the
market.

One is the delivery of products to the

machine builder or its panel builder.
Another is the delivery of complete
control panels designed according to
the requirements of the machine builder.
Partly this is done by Siemens internal
panel builders, but very often also by
Siemens Solution Partners like Smart
Controls.

We support our customers (both

OEMs and Tyre Manufacturers) during
all project phases from planning to
commissioning up to SOP. We too are
keen in rendering timely after-sales
service to ensure high up time of the
plant keeping customers satisfied.

How much has the synergy coming out

of the partnership between Siemens
and Smart Controls helped both entities
sharpen their capabilities?
Siemens is the global leader in supplying
world class technological platforms for
providing Control System & Automation
Solutions. These solutions can be applied
to almost all Industry segments like Metals,
Power, Cement, Food, Pharmacy, and
Automobile and of course Tyre. In order
to implement these solutions in the tyre
industry, someone who understands the
intricacies of tyre manufacturing processes
is needed. This is where Smart Controls
plays a big role. With over 15 years of
experience in serving the tyre industry,
Smart Controls has full knowledge
and experience of using the Siemens
Technological Platform to implement
automation solutions for almost all
processes of tyre making.
How did this partnership come about?
What unique features did Siemens pick out
in Smart Controls that led to this alliance?
Siemens formed a team worldwide to
focus on the needs of tyre manufacturing
processes. There was certainly a need
to find a solution partner that is close
to the tyre industries and knows the
manufacturing process. There was no
better fit than Smart Controls: Centrally
located in India, huge panel building
factory, manpower resources with good
know-how of Siemens platform and tyre
manufacturing processes.
What are the latest technology
innovations coming out of this
partnership?
Solutions for mixing lines had always been
on the cards. But the latest innovations will
be in terms of plant-wide solutions with
Siemens PLM software tightly integrated
with Siemens MES Simatic IT and factorywide automation systems.
How positive has your experience of
operating from India been? Do you think
the Indian market offers as many growth
possibilities as it boasts?
Especially for the future tyre market

Milind Kulkarni, Head Business

Development, Factory Automation,
Siemens India, said: Siemens believes
that the tyre industry in India can gain
enormously by starting automation at
the beginning of the production life cycle.
This means starting with the tyre design
and extending it to all key departments
or functions in the complete value chain
of tyre manufacturing - Tyre R&D centre,
production planning, production,
quality assurance, ware housing.
Proper data integration and flow
between these key departments or
functions is important for success.
This can be easily realised by seamless
handshaking of Siemens PLM Software
with Totally Integrated Automation
(TIA).

Siemens advantages
Partnering with involved OEMs, Solution
Providers and Tyre Manufacturers
throughout the value chain from
Tyre design to manufacturing and
maintenance
Seamless integrated
system portfolio

product

and

Tyre manufacturing consists of many

machines from different vendors;
Totally Integrated Automation brings a
unique advantage to the manufacturer,
but also to the machine builder.
Tyre production know how by our
presales support team, our solution
team (CoC-Tyre) and our Global reach
is a differentiating factor amongst our
peers in the market today.

development Siemens evaluated India

as a major driver. There are the following
reasons for this evaluation result:

What challenge does Smart Controls face

when partnering with a global leader like
Siemens?

There are many local tyre manufacturers

in the country operating its business since
years based on the local demand and
generating sustainable profit. This local
home base market offers the big players
in the market to go global. This offers
significant market opportunities for Indian
machine builders, but also for the global
tyre machinery industry, for Siemens and
Smart Controls.

The biggest challenge for Smart Controls

when partnering with a global leader
like Siemens is to continuously train its
manpower to use the latest technologies
and simultaneously keep the cost of its
solutions under control. That is why Smart
Controls is known in the industry for its
Value Proposition Solutions.

On the other hand Indias population

development is so much promising for the
big global players in tyre manufacturing
that we could see major investments in the
Indian tyre industry, e.g. from Continental
and Michelin. This is another growth
opportunity for machine builders, but also
for Siemens and our solution providers like
Smart Controls, because this generates a
lot of retrofit business.

How does the partnership strategy work?

Do Smart Controls and Siemens work
together in the Go To Market process to
assess market needs?
Yes of course. This Go to Market approach
involves a lot of work at the pre-sales
stage. Its a constant process of innovation.
Customer needs are to be jointly analysed
by Smart and Siemens in order to arrive
at the most appropriate solution. This
ensures that a true Value Proposition
Solution is offered to the customer.
Polymers & Tyre Asia June/July 2015

77