Smithfield’s two paper machines, VP3 (which opened in 1986) and VP 6 (which opened in 1988) have a mix of ABB legacy controllers, I/O, and HMIs, as well as competitor controllers and I/O. This project aims to complete the migration of the HMI to ABB’s flagship 800xA v 6 and controllers to the latest AC800M models. Additionally our engineering teams will upgrade the operating software and firmware of the ABB QCS (Quality Control Systems) and ABB paper machine drive systems.
Paper machine control systems specialist, Ian Whitelaw, who delivers field services at all of Visy’s plants, worked with sales and operations management to deliver a scope of work and a matrix of responsibility that was acceptable to both the customer and to ABB. The delivered scope of work document was workshopped by Ian, Simona, and Subramani, with Visy technical representatives over a two year period.
In order to formulate a financially competitive offer that met Visy’s tight capital expenditure requirements, negotiations were held with Visy’s procurement arm and required decisions to be taken by Stuart Cowie (PA Primus Inter Pares) and Chris Glass (LBU Sales Manager) with a view to being competitive and maintaining profitability.
Assistance was also provided in the form of pricing support by Hub BU Control Technologies (CT) and Hub BU Pulp & Paper, Metals and Cement (PMC) who are keen to maintain their installed base in the region.
The order is a follow up to a small scale upgrade project to the controllers in the Stock Preparation Area and VP6 Wet-End controllers where a solution was deployed in a very tight shutdown window, and quicker than promised, despite encountering some very challenging technical issues.
"Relating this to ABB’s value pairs, many people collaborated internally and an enormous amount of work resulted in a value based solution that was accepted by the customer," concluded Brad. "Our ongoing customer relationship and delivery of services across all of Visy’s recycled paper plants, coupled with ABB’s demonstrated ability to deliver on-time, in-full, turn-key projects, meant the customer could trust ABB absolutely to deliver the goods."
The Pursuit Team
Stuart Cowie (PA Primus Inter Pares)
Chris Glass (LBU Sales Manager)
Aaron Lum (Operations Manager)
Ian Whitelaw (Senior Service Engineer)
Sam Chuc (Project Manager)
SR Subramani (BDM Paper Metals Cement)
Simona Ciobanu (Service Sales Engineer)
The Process Industries Service team in Melbourne delivers specialist control system, quality control system, and paper machine drives systems services to all of Visy’s recycled paper machine sites, and to other paper customers in Australia.