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PLC Integration with SAP MII

Former Member
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Hi,

I am trying to understand the integration between PLC's on the shopfloor and SAP MII. I came across SCADA, UDS , OPC Servers but couldn't able to trace out what's the best way to integrate PLC's to SAP MII. If someone can make me undestand how we can achieve integration between ERP, SAP MII and PLC'c  would be helpfull.

Thanks,

Prasad

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

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Generally speaking, PLCs are integrated via a DC or Historian before connecting to MII.  Some of this is due to normal processing environments being segregated from "office" environments by firewalls.  Some of this is due to process engineering desires to keep outside connections to a minimum.  In general MII does not need to connect directly to the PLC which is a real time device.  MII just needs access to the data records which are not normally retained in the PLC.

So the simple answer is that you generally will have one more system involved ERP, MII, OPC Server/Historian/DC, then PLC.

Regards, Mike

Former Member
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Thanks Mike, we have a requirement where the customer is only  willing to integrate the PLC's and SCADA to MII and capture the data in MII, I have experience working with ERP and MES but dont have experience integrating with PLC's and SCADA and capturing data in MII Dashboards, how can we achieve this technically? would be really helpfull if you could guide me.

Thanks,

Prasad.

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Hi Prasad,

PLCs are typically used to control the actual manufacturing equipment.  I have seen advertised some which retain data, but most in my experience are real time systems.  In other words, they have a measurement of flow, pressure, rpm, etc. only for the time in which you query the device.  So capturing the data is typically something for which specialized equipment called historians were created.  OSISoft (PI Systems) and Aspentech (IP21) are two of the leading vendors (products) in the industry, but GE, Rockwell, and others exist.  Historians capture the data in very efficient ways and generally also provide  a suite of analytical tools and functions. 

MII is not a historian, although there have been attempts to use it as such in order to avoid purchasing a dedicated historian.  If the amounts of data are small, then using freeware or even MII to perform those functions is not un-realistic.  However, it will not work as efficiently or easily as a purpose built software/hardware historian.

Regards, Mike

Former Member
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Hi Mike,

So should I take it this way PLC'S -->SCADA-->Historians and Capture data on MII and you were earlier mentioning OPC. I am bit confused here to use historians or OPC to integrate the PLC's or SCADA and then MII.

Thanks,

Prasad

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Hi Prasad,

We are getting in deep in the structures which I am not the kind of expert you need, but...

Historians log data on a regular basis and can provide some analytical tools.  When MII integrates with a historian, it now has access to historical data.  A historian does not typically act as a machine controller.  OPC (OLE for Process Control) is a standard for real time communications with automated equipment.  Many historians use their own standards for efficiency, but also use OPC as a fall back communications where their own connections have not been customized.  You may want to go to wikipedia for a more thorough explanation.

Regards, Mike

former_member196557
Active Contributor
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Prasad,

To connect MII to real-time shop floor data sources (PLC's, SCADA, etc.) you will use SAP Plant Connectivity (PCo) as the Data Source connector from MII to the Shop floor.  any PLC or SCADA that has data that you want to process in MII will need an OPC Server to connect the PCo OPC Source Agent to the shop floor. PCo Agents that use the OPC Source Agent can generate Notifications that can be configured to call MII transactions directly, or MII can execute Queries against the PCoConnector configured in MII to read/write Shop floor OPC data.

We have used both Kepware and Matrikon OPC Servers with PCo, as well as some others. Some SCADA systems have a way of exposing their data via an integrated OPC Server as well.

To connect MII to shop floor data stored in Historians, you will need SAP Plant Connectivity and either the dedicated Historian Source Agents (PI, IP21), or an OLEDB Source agent for historian data queries.  MII will then query the historian via the PCoConnectorfor historical data. 

Depending on the version of MII you are using, you will need to use either PCo 2.1 (for all MII 12.x) or PCo 2.2 (MII 12.2 only).  PCo, and the Kepware and Matrikon OPC Servers, are Microsoft Windows OS products and should be run on Windows Server machines.

here is the link for the help documentation for SAP Plant Connectivity:

http://help.sap.com/pco

Regards, Steve

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Hi Steve,

Good to get an expert in here. 

Thanks, Mike

Former Member
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Many Thanks Steve and Mike for making me understand, as I am not from the Manufacturing backgorund it's bit tough for me to understand the process but atleast I come to know what the various products do or perform in the landscape. My Customer were in the perception that MII can directly talk to PLC's or SFA systems and when they find out that there should be some middleware in place to talk to PLC's they feel to be doomed by buying MII this is what I come to know from my Managers.

But as a fact I am still trying to find out the process they have at the shop floor for my knowledge as a developer to build anything for them.

A question again, is it not possible to use OPC Servers instead of PCO to talk to PLC's? as I came across in most of the posts where some of peers suggested this architecture

PLC -> OPC Server -> OPC-UDS -> MII server but tried to understand where SCADA fits in the landscape?

Thanks,

Prasad

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Hi Prasad,

Steve is much more knowledgeable in this area, but for your PLC--> OPC Server--> OPC-UDS --> MII sequence, OPC-UDS is replaced by PCo.  UDS has been decremented (sortof) and replaced by PCo which has much more functionality.  OPC Servers can talk to the PLCs, but don't talk so well to MII as PCo.

SCADA, I would suggest that Steve again jump in, but SCADA are the control systems which typically monitor and direct the PLCs.  They can sit in place of OPC Server in your sequence.  Part of your problem in understanding is the terms can apply to several different types of objects or processes in the environment.  Like OPC is a communications standard.  An OPC server can refer to actual hardware, or could refer to its communications function in a network.

Regards, Mike

former_member196557
Active Contributor
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Prasad,

PCo is available for no cost if you already have MII and/or SAP ME.  If an OPC Server is needed to connect to PLC's, these are relatively inexpensive,  Some SCADA systems may have an extra-cost option to enable or activate the vendor's OPC Server support. 

Regards, Steve

Former Member
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Hi Steve,

Is PCo have ability to connect to SCADA's as i assume at my current shopfloor SCADA are pulling data from PLC's, if not do we need OPC Servers?

Thanks,

Prasad

former_member196557
Active Contributor
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Prasad,

If the SCADA system has an available OPC Server provided with it then PCo can connect to that OPC Server.  If the SCADA system does not offer OPC Server capability, then a separate OPC Server will be required to connect the PLC's to PCo. 

Can you tell mw which SCADA software and PLC brand and model to which you need to connect?

Regards, Steve

Former Member
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Hi Steve,

I got an opportunity to be at Shopfloor today along with my Manager to understand the process, i was thrilled to be at Shopfloor. 🙂 ...I see there are PLC's on the machine and I found they are Sysmac C200HS- OMRON and Allan-bradely PLC's and there are Sensors as well for the PLC's.

There are Sewtec Automation machines fitted with AllenBradley PLC's, if there are nothing on the line happening it captures and shows on the screen ( HMI ). They dont have any SCADA on the shopfloor, most of the information is captured by Sensors it seems, from my understanding the process goes this way MachinePlcs-sensors, It seems once Sensors captures the information about the processes the reaLtime data is getting stored in MS-Access database, I need to still understand this from the technical guy whom I am scheduled to meet in coming days.

Thanks,

Prasad

Former Member
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Hi Steve,

I got to know a lot from the shopfloor, we are planning to focus on one Line as Pilot and customer is interested to see what MII can do. In this phase we are not connecting to SAP ERP and there is no MES, they are interested to capture the information from PLC's and Sensors, there are about 4 machines on one line, 2 machines are fitted with PLC's and Sensors bu tother 2 machines dont have any PLC's instead they are fitted with some relay controllers with Sensors.

The PLC's are Allen-Bradley and Omron, I am just looking at how to capture data from Sensors if there are more sensors fitted on the line, where there are no PLC's fitted to machines other than Sensors.We are implementing ERP but as the pilot phase we are not integrating to ERP but keeping this mind what is the best architecture for long tem. It will definetly help me to collect my knowledge to build something as a developer in SAP MII.

Many Thanks,

Prasad

Answers (0)