Bilfinger Greylogix operates internationally, specialising in automation solutions for energy and utility plants, and in the chemical, food and beverage industries. In its capacity as a Siemens Solution Partner, Bilfinger Greylogix is one of the biggest PCS 7 systems integrators. Since the firm's founding in 2000 it has developed rapidly to become a medium-sized enterprise with some 600 staff at eight locations in Germany and two overseas. At the headquarters in Flensburg there is even an in-house production line for switchgear. Since 2013 Greylogix has been a part of the Bilfinger engineering and service company.
In a process engineering plant, a great many suppliers from widely differing sectors and trades are represented, each with their own challenges for engineering documentation. "We wanted a central system that captures documents from all suppliers in a consistent way and combines them within a common structure," explains Stephan Gaerisch, Sales Director at Bilfinger Greylogix.
Seamless: Process and electrical engineering
The choice thus fell on Engineering Base (EB), whose object-oriented working concept reduces the time burden of the overall project engineering to a minimum: "For instance, different teams such as in the areas of instrumentation engineering, software and hardware can work together using the same database, eliminating the duplication of work," according to Gaerisch. A second important reason for the decision: EB has both the process and electrical engineering components covered. "That is a considerable benefit," he says, "both technical disciplines can interact seamlessly."
© Bilfinger GreyLogix GmbHIn addition, Stephan Gaerisch is enthusiastic about the interface that was developed by AUCOTEC for exchange between EB and the Greylogix data management system: "Through this system we can also directly access manufacturers' documents that were not created within EB, for example approval documents." According to Gaerisch, overall, access to the documents and content of every discipline is significantly accelerated, thanks to EB's object-oriented, central storage.
Changes: Just once for every location
For the same reason, data changes can also be managed using lists without the need for the user to modify a diagram. "That not only makes us faster, it also boosts the quality of the documentation," says the plant expert. Changes appear automatically in every other graphical representation of the object, without the transmission errors that can arise so easily during manual processing. "The very first plant builder and operator to whom we showed EB was highly impressed," says Stephan Gaerisch. "Now all our customers can profit from the benefits of the solution."
