Founded in 1983 in Montecavolo in the hills of Reggio Emilia, where Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan cheese) originates, the Parmareggio company specializes in dairy products. In 2009, Parmareggio took over the company Fiordalba SRL and a cream dairy in Modena; since then, butter has also been produced, making the company a leader not only in the production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, but also in the production, packaging and marketing of butter. This positive result encouraged the company to rebuild and automate the cream dairy. The aim was to make production more efficient and obtain certification.

The production plant, which was already partially monitored with Movicon from Progea, was modernized and new systems were integrated. The monitoring itself now also has functions such as re-dundancy switching and quality certification. The design and installation was entrusted to Movicon system integrator I.T. Technologies SRL, a service provider specializing in design and electrical system solutions, PLC programming and SCADA/HMI design engineering.

The entire production plant consists mainly of pipelines and pumps, which are used to convey the product through the various machining processes. The processes are automatically controlled by three PLC systems housed in stainless steel consoles within the plant. The system must ensure maximum safety - both throughout the various operating phases and with regard to the operating parameters and chemical values specified by the organoleptic properties of the product. This is particularly important for maintaining quality and hygiene standards.

The SCADA PLC architecture

After the modernization, the staff manages the plant via a monitoring system from the control room, where two PC stations with Windows 7 and the Movicon 11 setup are located in a redundant configuration. The redundancy of the system guarantees the continuous operation of the production lines, which is crucial for plants that run 24 hours a day and need to be monitored correctly. Otherwise, the quality of the end product will suffer. Depending on the regulatory standard, this SCADA system must also be able to record and track all operating and temperature parameters.

All production data is stored in a database and can be used for quality certification of the production process via trends and protocols.

© Progea

To meet all these requirements, Movicon redundancy controls server availability (primary and secondary servers) transparently and fully automatically by managing the operational capability and availability of historical data synchronously at all times.

The user interface is designed in such a way that every operating status is always displayed in full. The graphical user interface is divided into two frames: One shows the operating status on various pages, the other contains the corresponding operating commands depending on the context. With the help of the redundancy system, the operators have two control panels with two screens for better visualization of the overall process and personnel deployment. For example, an employee can display a cream collection container on one screen at a control panel and simultaneously start a rinsing process in the pasteurizer via the command menu, while another employee controls the skimming production and simultaneously prints out a quality report from the chemical laboratory on the CIP rinsing processes.

Movicon is connected to three Siemens S7 PLCs in the network via Ethernet, which fulfill the following functions: One PLC manages the production control system, the other two PLCs manage the CIP system and the storage process. Communication takes place using the native Movicon S7 TCP communication drivers, which record and merge the data in the Movicon real-time database.

The process data is not only managed visually and via commands on the user interface, but is also recorded and stored in associated databases via the MS SQL server. This function is essential for quality assurance in production; it uses regular reports, trends and data analyses.

A fault reporting function immediately reports any malfunctions in the system and guides the plant operator and maintenance personnel step by step until the system is fully restored. All data is stored in databases for quick and easy fault analysis by providing the original context and the active user at that time.

Comply with guidelines

The customer also wanted the plant to comply with the FDA's 'CFR21 Part 11' directive. Normally, these regulations apply to the pharmaceutical industry, but for health reasons they can also apply to processes that manufacture products for consumption or use, such as in the food or cosmetics sector.

With Movicon's process images, employees always have an overview of the entire production process. This ensures the safe management of the entire plant.

© Progea

Parmareggio's butter production therefore applies security criteria based on the CFR21 Part 11 regulations so that only authorized personnel have access. The company achieves this through Movicon's effective user and operator management system. In addition to the various user privilege requirements (area and access level), the system manages the historical data of the electronic signatures so that those responsible can trace every action accordingly. Audits can be stored in the database with encrypted access and can be documented accordingly in reports.

The required hygiene is ensured by the automatic CIP cleaning and disinfection system. CIP stands for Clean-In-Place and is an automatic cleaning process in a closed circuit for cleaning the insides of all the various components of the production lines so that no systems or components need to be removed. Such a cleaning system has the following advantages:
■ Uniform treatment of all surfaces that come into direct contact with the product.
■ Prevention of mechanical damage by eliminating the need to remove parts.
■ Exclusion of contamination risks due to the openness of the systems and cleaning equipment.
■ Automatic sequence and repeatability as well as traceability of the individual phases by calling up the relevant information from the stored system data.

With CIP, the cleaning agents - i.e. the chemically and biologically active substances injected into the production system - are collected again, fed back into the CIP system cycle via pipes and collected in containers. This allows the liquid to be regenerated and reused when new rinsing solutions are added. In production plants with CIP, it is always ensured that cleaning is effective and fully complies with FDA standards as well as health and quality requirements.

The entire conversion process was carried out and completed within the planned schedule. Thanks to the experience of I.T. Technologies' technicians and the Movicon software platform, designs were converted quickly and without stopping production. With the Movicon platform, the previously installed version was also compatible with the latest version and could be restored. This meant that the company's previous investment remained secure.

Author: Markus Stadelhofer is Managing Director of Progea Germany.

Butter production

The raw material for the production of Parmareggio butter is fresh cream. This is collected, centrifuged and then immediately pasteurized. This crucial process step is continuously monitored and documented by the Movicon system. This ensures that the procedures and processes also comply with European regulations. After pasteurization, the cream is allowed to settle naturally in vats. During this phase, the temperatures are continuously regulated and monitored to ensure that the end product is perfectly spreadable.

The pasteurized cream is then whirled so that the fat globules in the cream clump together to form butter. Now the NIRS system (Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy) takes over the control. It continuously monitors all the chemical parameters of the product and constantly adds milk enzymes.

From the churning process to packaging, the butter production flow is fully automated and no operators are present at the facilities. Once all these production phases have been completed, the butter is stored in a cold room with controlled and documented temperatures before being dispatched.