On February 23, 2024, the Feed4ward engineering team had the opportunity to participate in the “Unifying Industry – WinCC Unified Workshop” hosted by Underwoods Electrical Distributors in Fareham, UK. This workshop focused on system integrators currently using Siemens Simatic Comfort Panels in their engineering solutions. Highlights included the transition to the newer Simatic WinCC Unified Panel range.

We are well known at Feed4ward for integrating the Siemens KTP900F Mobile Panel into our pharmaceutical industry automation designs. We leverage its integrated safety features and compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Always looking for advanced solutions for our future projects, the introduction of the Unified Panels immediately therefore piqued our interest.

Modernsation Checker tool

A standout feature from the workshop was the Modernisation Checker tool. This innovative tool facilitates the transition from current projects to the Simatic WinCC Unified system by providing a comprehensive report. This report details how each feature of a Simatic Comfort Panel application can be adapted to the Unified Panel and categorises features into three sections:

1. Features that are available in the Unified Panel with a new concept.
2. Features that are available with a workaround, including technical solutions in the report.
3. Features not yet supported by the Unified Panel.

This tool promises to streamline the modernisation process, helping engineers evaluate the feasibility and required effort to upgrade to WinCC Unified Panels. This will eventually replace the KTP900F in our applications.

View of Things

Another exciting topic was the View of Things (VoT). VoT is a web application embedded in the Simatic S7 1500 PLC’s memory made accessible through the PLC’s web server. Configured web pages in the TIA Portal mirror the physical WinCC Unified Panel screens, offering enhanced display capabilities for PLC system data. This feature is particularly relevant for our numerous applications within the pharmaceutical sector. Presenting an opportunity to enhance our offerings.

The workshop also delved into the latest enhancements of the WinCC Unified Comfort Panels. Notably, as of TIA Portal V18 Update 1, the WinCC Comfort Panels are 21CFR11 certified, meeting critical requirements for pharmaceutical applications. Topics such as creating audit trails, generating audit reports for GMP-compliant projects and the new user management system using a User Management Component (UMC) server for centralised credential checks, were particularly insightful. This replaces the conventional Simatic Logon, aligning with the requests of many of our clients for centralized user management through an open industry standard.

We extend our gratitude to Underwoods for an informative workshop filled with practical demonstrations of the latest WinCC technology. All of us at Feed4ward are now excited to integrate these innovations into our upcoming projects to further enhance our automation solutions in the pharmaceutical industry.

Adriane Bestic – Project Engineer, Feed4ward Control