BCS Group Launches World's First 3D SCADA Control System
05 February 2010
A world first in revolutionary 3D visualisation and control software for the materials handling industry, helping make better business decisions faster and reduce risk, is about to hit the market and dramatically change the way people view and control their businesses globally.
Its developers, freight logistics and baggage handling specialists BCS Group, have spun off a separate company for Sym3, and are already fielding enquiries from the materials handling and automation industry around the world for the world's first 3D SCADA control system.
Designed to be the world's most advanced visualisation package for automated processes, Sym3 was designed to address a market for the global automation and controls industry, particularly in the airport sector.
"It revolutionises the way operators interact and control any form of plant or process and means enormous productivity gains are possible, which is high on any manufacturer's agenda in the current recessionary environment," says Marc Michel of BCS.
"No-one has done what we have been able to do and the ramifications are huge, particularly as it is a unique piece of software that can work in any country and almost every industry.
Marc Michel of BCS and Sym3 said Sym3 will take simulation and commissioning of complex plants and processes to a new level of 3D presentation and understanding.
Getting it right when it is mission critical is something airports know only too well, and for the new Gold Coast Airport at Coolangatta and Melbourne International Airport, using the beta version of Sym3 was critical to their multi-million dollar terminal upgrades.
Melbourne was the first airport in the world to have been running 3D beta versions of Sym3 as part of the software development and testing process over the last 12 months as part of the special relationship BCS has with one of Australia's most innovative airports.
And, using Sym3's simulation and emulation software package, Queensland's Gold Coast Airport was able to develop and test their baggage handling systems in the design stages in order to optimise the best system design solution, with factory acceptance testing of the airport controls and automation for the new terminal baggage system taking place 1,800km away, in Auckland, and more than two months before the new building opened.
Marc Michel explains: "The project was two years in the development, and at over $1m was the largest R&D this company has undertaken. BCS is known globally for smart technology behind initiatives like the airport kiosks and bag drop as well as managing and reconciling millions of bags at airports around the world, so we weren't surprised when people started sniffing around when they heard of this big R&D project. After all, we're talking about taking a product that hasn't changed in 15 years — virtually the whole life of software — and turning it on its head.”
Sym3 grew from parent company BCS Group's expertise with Virtual Airport, an internationally acclaimed software package designed to fast-track the design, commissioning and simulation of complex baggage handling systems in international airports.
BCS Group's CEO, Patrick Teo, said the more often BCS used Virtual Airport in projects with engineers and consultants around the world, the more requests the company received for its use in other industry segments like food and beverage, automotive, freight and steel production.
"This made us realise that we had something hot and then we thought 'let's really do something revolutionary and disruptive that will really change the way people operate their business.' One example of what we have achieved is in the SCADA which all operators use to control their plant or process. This is essentially 'dumb' 2D software that has not changed in 15 years, and Sym3 basically makes it outmoded and obsolete. We use features like full contextual 3D and live product tracking that allow operators to really control, understand and maximise their processes in a far more visual, representative and lifelike way, which makes Sym3 a powerful tool for increased productivity."
Sym3's 3D virtual commissioning capability allows companies to develop, model and test a fully operational 3D virtual model of their plant even before it is built as if it were the real thing. This capability attracted CourierPost to become the world's first user of Sym3, as they planned and built their new operations centre at Highbrook which consolidated three of their existing Auckland sites into one highly automated site.
The project was the courier industry's largest-ever undertaken in New Zealand and used unique technology to enable New Zealand's first automated courier sortation centre to be capable of handling 18,000 parcels an hour — an increase of 600% on their previous manual handling capacity.
Steve Beaumont, GM of CourierPost, said CourierPost piloted Sym3 to communicate the plant design in a simple fashion with a 3D model, validate the design and operation using simulation scenarios and then perform factory acceptance tests on a virtual commissioning platform to cut down expensive commissioning time on site.
CourierPost is the first in the world to deploy a true 3D HMI/SCADA system to drive and monitor the new depot; its 3D visualisation allows staff to understand the operations instantly and an enhanced information display allows good decision-making to maintain the operation's efficiency in real time.
