Wien Energie – operator of all incinerators in Vienna – has long put its trust in the logistics solutions of Rudolf Berthhold Ges.m.b.H. As reported earlier in the year, Wien Energie decided on an upgrade of the current VAS-II logistics solution to the new and innovative BLS logistics control system in spring 2014.
BLS in operation since November 2014
Following a swift engineering phase together with Wien Energie, Rudolf Berthold Ges.m.b.H began to undertake the necessary restructuring of the hardware.
An already-planned inspection period in every plant was used to successively change the hardware components and integrate them into the existing systems.
As part of the upgrade, all of the components such as operator stations, printers, identification systems, cameras and many more were in turn integrated into the internal, cross-plant network.
The restructuring work became particularly apparent with the upgrade of the old local control panels at plant entry and exit to new self-service terminals. This new technology provided by the BLS system was clearly visible to both operators and visitors from this moment onwards.
The plant entry control systems, which had grown to different sizes over the years, were also standardised as part of the upgrade: all entry control processes can now be controlled via touchscreen control panels, with clear visualisations to provide an optimum overview of all monitoring processes.
The video surveillance system was also given a complete new lease of life and upgraded by Rudolf Berthold Ges.m.b.H to the state-of-the-art Seetec video management system. In addition to many other features, this system now enables video streams to be created during dynamic weighing. These streams can then be attributed to their respective business cases.
Unique: tests and training sessions with real data
Preparations for start-up were already well underway at Rudolf Berthold Ges.m.b.H during the hardware upgrade. BLS logistics control system software was quickly configured and the required BLS modules were prepared and comprehensively tested.
Numerous tests were also carried out by Wien-Energie in advance in order to enable the quickest-possible switchover to live operation on site.
These tests not only included functionality and process checks but also endurance tests.
In addition, the fully-configured system was able to be checked and tested in house using real data before installation and start-up at Wien Energie.
Switch to live operation with start-up support
The moment finally arrived on 27th October, 2014: the switch from VAS-II to BLS went completely according to plan, simultaneously in all four incinerators and was done within one weekend only.
Each plant started work the following Monday as normal, completely equipped with the new BLS logistics control system.
During this start-up phase, our BLS support technicians worked together with Wien Energie staff to be able to provide swift support where necessary.
Within a short period of time, the switch to the fully-integrated BLS system was completed without any additional downtime for the incinerators.
The decision to implement the turnkey, web-based BLS system has provided Wien Energie with what is undoubtedly the most-advanced system on the market. And the results are the best-possible flexibility and highest-possible handling capacities, legally compliant documentation which can be adapted at any time, as well as further cost savings for business operations in all four Vienna incinerators.
