Cough Medicine Batch Production

While I cannot mention the brand or product per customer request, I am proud to say that the only place this particular cough medicine is manufactured is on the control system that I did all of the PLC programming and HMI development for. It really brings me joy to see it on the shelves and know that I had a large part in getting it there. That sort of thing is what makes my career so rewarding.

Unfortunately I am also not allowed to share any HMI screenshots which is a shame because I’m really proud of that design.

The system uses Rockwell Automation’s Plant PAx library for the HMI design and LBSM (Logix Batch Sequence Manager) for all of the sequencing and batch control. There are several different equipment module sequencers configured that can be loaded on the HMI and executed to make one of several product recipes or clean the system.

FactoryTalk View SE runs on a Windows PC with 4 monitors which serves as the operator control station. In addition to all the sequencer and recipe configuration, and all the expected device control and monitoring, there is a trend screen used for monitoring system variables during production.

This system started out making one flavor of the medicine and had one large storage tank for the base ingredient of the product’s recipe. At that time, there was only one recipe and only sequencers to make that product or clean the system.

From there, demand grew and so did this system. A second storage tank was added for the base ingredient to allow for more production. Later on, equipment was added for a new flavor and for a substitute ingredient that both recipes contain. The benefit is that far less volume of the substitute ingredient could be used per batch and that resulted in significant cost savings.

I’m proud to have been the controls resource for every one of these upgrades and look forward to delivering more automation solutions with this customer.