Mitsubishi goes for Citect to spearhead plant and factory information management

Mitsubishi Electric has moved away from its partnership with Intellution, bought by GE 12 months ago, for its SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and plant/factory management systems, and is wow working instead with Australian Citect for its new generation MX4 systems. Speaking at the launch of Citect’s latest developments, Mitsubishi UK automation projects software manager Jeremy Shinton said: “We’re still supporting the MX3 [Intellution] products, but we’re now partnering with Citect for SCADA, and using their technology and ours to bring together our MelSmart strategy.” MelSmart is Mitsubishi’s ‘best in class’ automation, monitoring and controls solution covering everything from HMIs (human machine interfaces), through SCADA to integrated information management systems and plant to business system integration. “It’s tightly integrated into the Mitsubishi automation range, and that includes our PLC diagnostics, and our simulation software for virtual engineering and project testing,” says Shinton. And that it will spearhead the firm’s ongoing drive into projects across the board in both manufacturing and process control, as well as buildings and factory management. It’s a considerable coup for Citect, given the scale of its opposition in the form particularly of GE’s Intellution and of Invensys’ Wonderware, agrees Citect managing diretor and CEO Wayne Morris. He points out that in Australia, Citect has around 70% market share and is continuing good growth in the Far East and Asia and particularly China, but he accepts there remains a job to do in both the US and Europe, including the UK. “We are very pleased to be working with Mitsubishi,” he says. “The business opportunities for both partners in the UK and throughout Europe are very promising.” And he adds that with the strong business need in the west to get costs down and improve competitiveness and productivity through better asset utilisation and information links into the business systems, Citect and Mitsubishi are now well placed. Citect’s latest product introductions include its latest SCADA system, now at v5.42 and with a tranche of new functionality, and its IIM (Industrial Information Management) system ‘Plant2Business’ integration suite – both of which radically expand the software and services footprint of the company. IIM is geared to aggregating data from manufacturers’ disparate systems at the plant/factory and business levels, with analytics provided to drive continuous improvement in terms of KPIs and overall equipment efficiencies (OEE). Plant2Business is part of the same aspiration – it’s Citect’s server platform designed to connect natively to a range of third party controllers and control systems as well as business system databases.