ABB, the pioneering technology leader, offers turnkey solutions to customers in Turkey for nearly 20 years. Within the scope of Industry 4.0, we talked with Ilten Karadag, Cement&Mining Sector Sales Manager of Process Industries Local Business Unit, about the different solutions for the different sectors and applications of the company that established a platform called ABB Ability™ in the recent years.
Will you inform us about the structure of ABB?
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. It also serves under these four main divisions in Turkey.
As Industrial Automation Process Industries LBU where I work for, we offer turn-key solutions for cement, mining, pulp&paper and metals industries by using products of other units.
What is ABB Turkey’s position in the global ABB?
ABB Turkey has a significant share in the global in terms of the production of power and distribution transformers, low voltage (MNS MNS-IS, MNS Digital) and medium voltage (ZS1, ZS2, Unigear Digital) panels. Our factories serve not only to Turkey, but also to many countries.
What are the solutions of Process Industries for the cement industry? How do these specific solutions for the sector provide you with an advantage?
ABB Turkey Process Industries team continues to serve its clients locally in nearly 20 years. In some non-cement projects we can provide support from our COE centers abroad for specific applications, but we are able to serve locally to all customers in the cement sector. This not only covers automation, but also includes sizing of grids, medium voltage and low voltage systems, MCC and main distribution panels, selection of motors, drives, field instruments, project management and site installation, and even site installation materials. For this reason, I would like to emphasize one more time that we provide turn-key solutions.
As of 2014, we have come to position to follow the cement projects in the 15-16 countries around Turkey from ABB Turkey. In this regard, our greatest power is local knowhow. The factories commissioned by Turkish engineers are really worthy of engineering, and the world prefers our engineers. Although ABB is a global company, it provides serious foreign exchange inflow to the country as a company exporting abroad in the electricity market in Turkey.
To be more specific about the automation systems, I can say that the importance of the active role of automation has been understood more clearly from the point of rawmaterial entry to the sales and supply. At the same time it is important that the control systems on the lower level include the management and optimization algorithms of the production process. We are specializing in the sector with our BMI (Building Material, Mining & Mineral Industries) library, which ABB has developed specifically for the cement sector. This means: If a cement factory software is built by using this library, no matter where it is, a Japanese, Turkish or American engineer can come in and provide engineering service to this cement plant. This library has object-based software control modules that enable you to design process control and energy management applications efficiently and extensively. In this way, customers are able to operate and maintain production process and asset management in the most efficient way. The BMI library is used in over 500 cement and mining factories in the world. In addition to the instrumentation, the equipments can be monitored and intervened via Asset Management systems via DCS.
It is a great advantage to integrate these automation islands and control them from a single center instead of controlling the independent equipment and systems provided by different suppliers via separate control systems. ABB integrates all these processes and adds value to the companies they work with. These processes, which we have included in ABB Ability™; energy efficiency with Level 3 software, production increase and optimization, reduction of downtime, work and asset management can be evaluated as full integration with ERP systems at the plants. ABB also has a cloud platform support that you can integrate easily all over the world by collaboration with Microsoft Azure.
I would like to talk about CPM (Collaborative Production Management) softwares which we call as Knowledge Manager and Expert Optimizer. They are the most important innovations we offer to the industry: These are the tools that will increase energy and managerial efficiency for the cement industry. Knowledge Manager is the software that allows managers to instantly access KPI (Key Performance Indi-cators) values for many cement plants. With this software, you can see how much energy your factory consumes instantly, how much production you make instantly, what alternative fuels or which alternative mines you use, and your current profitability. Today, competition is really intense, every field has a serious competition environment. The cement industry has approximately one-dollar profit per ton. It is very important to act knowing your instantaneous cost and the efficiency of your factory. With Knowledge Manager software, it is clear where the factory is and where it is going. This software is currently being used in many factories in Turkey.
Another function of our Knowledge Manager software is the quality control system which we call Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). In this way, the laboratory and production work in an integrated manner, enabling you to produce the most efficient products.
The other sector specific software is Expert Optimizer. It is the software that affects directly on the energy efficiency of a cement factory. It is a special software that can handle the entire process from mine to crusher, from crusher to raw mill, from furnace and crusher mill, even to cooling, from cooling to cement mills. There are some other softwares like this in the world, but other supplier companies are looking at the cement process partially, while our software covers the entire factory from beginning to the end.
The other software specially designed for cement industry is our Raw Mix Preparation (RMP) software. The function of this software is to decide how the raw materials that will affect the quality of the cement should come from the weighing machines.
For you, what are the features that differentiate ABB from other companies?
The most important feature distinguishing ABB from other companies is our engineering power and our commitment to customer satisfaction, strictly adherence to quality and global ethical principles whatever the cost of our products and systems. As ABB, we have positioned ourselves to be different from our competitors by giving service and support to our projects and systems that we have been doing for many years. For example, we have the ability to upgrade our control systems that we established 25 years ago in a short period of time.
ABB Turkey, carrying out turnkey projects in the cement industry, is trying to properly serve all customers. This service runs from the beginning to the end of the project. If a new project is to be carried out, we describe the importance and scope of the engineering work to be done primarily for our customers. These studies, as I have already mentioned, include the design of all electrical systems and automation & instrumentation systems in the plant, the selection of the appropriate product and solution. This studies include, drawing of single lines, layout of electrical rooms, determination of cable routes and drawing, correct sizing of motors, drives etc. At this point, we transfer our know-how at the beginning of the project to our customers so that they can correctly size and choose and lead in the right way.
You have started a program called ABB Ability™. Will you give us some information about the details of this program?
ABB Ability™ is not a program, instead it is the name of the platform that ABB has developed under Industry 4.0. Under this platform, we have different solutions for different sectors and applications.
Specifically speaking of our main solutions for the cement industry, I can say that these solutions are combined under the name of CementOptimize.
The digital solutions we offer in the sector are summarized as;
– Our ABB Ability™ System 800xA is our DCS solution for cement and other industries. The System 800xA is a fully digitally integrated automation system that is not only a process control system, but also an electrical control system, a security system, a co-provider with optimized capacity, increases engineering efficiency, monitors operator performance and manages asset utilization.
– ABB Ability™ Ellipse® is a management solution that combines your facility’s first-class functionality for the connected asset lifecycle and is a fully integrated solution that you can control Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Workforce Management (WFM) and Asset Performance Management (APM).
– ABB Ability™ LV Switchgear – MNS® Digital provides realtime access to your digital switchgear. It provides data for Industry 4.0 and allows you to share this data on intelligent devices with IoT and cloud technology.
– Unigear Digital is our latest product range developed for medium voltage cubicles.
– Status monitoring for drives and Smart Sensor used for motors are again our other solutions developed under ABB Ability™ platform.
In addition to these, we also have different service solutions under ABB Ability™ platform, which help us to provide service support to our products and solutions.
One of the first companies in the world which uses ABB Ability™ is a Turkish cement producer. What advantages did it provide to the company?
One of ABB’s most recent innovations in intelligent, electronic, edge, computing and cloud technology, MNS® Digital, the low voltage switchgear solution, was preferred by Bati Soke Cement factory.
Our MNS® Digital solution provides real-time access and status monitoring to optimize operations. At the same time, it is possible to save up to 30% of operating costs.
In the Bati Soke plant, MNS® Digital has provided a new generation of LV switchgear solutions to manage operations proactively, but with real-time data that supports fast and accurate decision-making. With the modular design, this switchgear can be scaled to support future expansions. In addition, MNS® Digital, a fully protected system against arc faults, has increased the safety of plant personnel. With digital communication, the operator can take the necessary precautions to avoid potentially hazardous situations and equipment failures, as they are informed of faults that are happening.
Bati Soke Cement is also the first company in the world by implementing ABB Ability™ status monitoring for electrical systems in the MNS® Digital solution. This factory also is a project on a turnkey basis commissioned by ABB Turkey Process Industries team.
What are the privileged services you offer to the sector producers in scope of after-sales and aftercommissioning?
The service we provide to existing plants is also important after the establishment of a new plant. ABB, with its program called “CementCare”, provides spare parts, service agreements, 7/24 service, upgrade services etc. for both new and existing facilities. It provides service solutions for all ABB equipment in the field. Fast response, equipment lifecycle management and performance improvement help customers to improve operational efficiencies.
What are the difficulties of working in the cement sector in terms of implementation, project process and products? In addition, what kind of difficult demands do you get from end users?
In fact, our team, which we have been working for years in the cement sector, is our greatest advantage. Our site managers who we work together in site work, our project managers who manage all processes, our electrification and automation teams make a difference at site. In general, some of these points can change during the project in such big projects. Although these changes are the biggest difficulties, thanks to our experienced team, we are able to take action very quickly and produce solutions. In addition, despite the fact that electrification&automation systems are the final point during commissioning works, we can provide added value to our customers by trying to go one step ahead of the construction and mechanical works with the advantage of working with all the supplier companies and we can recognize the possible faults before they appear.
Would you talk about yourself? How many hours a day do you work? What are you doing out of work? How do your hobbies add value to your life?
I am married and have a daughter. My belief on life and business world is that “No pain no gain”.
Of course, the total time I work in a day mostly depends on the density of work load. I like to spend time with my family outside work, explore new places. As for my hobbies, I can say that I love skiing and reading the biographies of people who left their mark on the business world.