Specialty Sugar Producer Retains Cost-Competitive Edge with AVEVA
Customer Company Size
Mid-size Company
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- InTouch HMI
- Historian
- Historian Clients
Tech Stack
- Wonderware
- System Platform
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Process Manufacturing
Use Cases
- Process Control & Optimization
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) is a sugar producer based in Puunene, Maui. The company operates a 37,000-acre plantation and adjacent factory where it grows and processes sugarcane. HC&S has been in business since the late 19th century and has grown into Hawaii's largest provider of raw sugar, producing about 200,000 tons annually. Despite its significant production, HC&S competes with much larger mainland sugar companies and makers of artificial sweeteners. To maintain its market share, HC&S offers its own specialty sugar brands, which cost more to produce. Therefore, efficiency is crucial for HC&S to remain cost-competitive. In addition to sugar, HC&S also produces a by-product called bagasse, a fibrous residue used as fuel to generate steam and electricity. This electricity is used in the sugar-production process and any excess is sold to the local electric utility.
The Challenge
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) is a major provider of raw sugar in Hawaii, producing about 200,000 tons annually. However, the company faces stiff competition from larger mainland sugar companies and makers of artificial sweeteners, which have been taking large bites out of the mature sugar market in recent years. To maintain its share of that market, HC&S offers its own specialty sugar brands, which cost more to produce. Therefore, efficiency becomes doubly important to achieve HC&S’s necessary cost-competitiveness. HC&S also makes something else, a “product” that it not only sells, but also uses to increase its efficiency. A fibrous residue called bagasse is used at HC&S as fuel to generate steam and electricity. Most of the steam is used to generate electricity, while the exhaust steam is funneled back into the sugar-production process. Electricity produced at the plant is also recycled back into sugar processing, with the excess power being sold to the local electric utility.
The Solution
Looking for a way to further optimise its operations, HC&S implemented InTouch HMI powered by Wonderware for its ease of use, flexibility and ability to integrate with the Puunene plant’s DCS system and electrical relays. HC&S’ plant intelligence system started out with three separate InTouch HMI client applications – feeding their Historian powered by Wonderware for sugar-plant operations, steam-plant operations and power monitoring - with access to a combined 17,000 tags in a two-tier client/server topology. The company then integrated all of its InTouch HMI client applications into one large system that could be used to gain plant intelligence information. The plant intelligence system has grown from two tiers into a three-tier topology; the single InTouch HMI client application has access to 30,000 tags, enabling employees to access data from throughout the production process from any workstation in the plant or any remote workstation around the world. Several plant operators who are frequent, day-today users of the InTouch HMI have the application installed at their workstations. Other staff, such as upper management, who use InTouch software less often log onto Historian Clients real-time plant portal software to launch InTouch HMI for Terminal Services when they need to access the HMI.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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