EFESTO – EFficient Evolved System Tool for Operations is a project created to develop an advanced platform dedicated to industrial operations management, integrating a new generation of MES, real-time event processing systems, a pilot extrusion line, and a simulation and Digital Twin environment. The project involved complementary expertise: Code Architects, TESAR, Dott.Gallina, and CIM. The challenge was to address one of the most delicate steps in creating a new production line: the need to configure, integrate, and test the MES software while the physical plant is still under development. In the traditional approach, software testing depends on the availability of the actual line. CIM’s work explored a different approach, using virtualization and simulation to reproduce the plant’s behavior in advance and create an environment in which to test the MES before physical deployment.
CIM’s contribution was developed through three integrated activities. The first phase led to the construction, via Siemens Tecnomatix Plant Simulation, of a discrete event model of Dott.Gallina’s pilot extrusion line. The model reproduces the entire production flow, from the raw materials warehouse to the extrusion line, through to waste management and the finished product warehouse, also including AGV movement. The simulation was designed parametrically to allow for the analysis of layouts, material flows, machine utilization, and workforce requirements within the same virtual environment.
The simulation model was then evolved into a true operational Digital Twin, bi-directionally connected to the MES. We implemented a virtual PLC based on the OPC UA standard, along with a REST API and a web dashboard for data monitoring. In this way, the MES can send orders and production schedules to the simulator and receive real-time line statuses, parameters, and alarms generated by the virtual environment.
This architecture allowed for the application of Virtual Commissioning: the line’s behavior is digitally reproduced to test and validate the management software before the physical plant is available. During the tests, the MES was able to start production planning, the simulator executed the received orders, and the system correctly returned operational statuses and alarms, including line stoppages associated with specific reason codes.
To complete the work, we created a digital pilot line at our laboratory in which the MES, simulator, and virtual PLC coexist in the same environment and can also be used remotely through a secure connection. The platform was conceived both as a development and testing environment and as a demo-lab for demonstration and technology transfer activities.
The project demonstrated the possibility of anticipating activities relative to the availability of the physical line, reducing the sequential dependency between hardware installation and software testing. Furthermore, simulation allows for the virtual reproduction of operating conditions that are difficult to test on the real line, such as alarms, stoppages, or production peaks, and for the rapid analysis of layout and process alternatives without physical intervention on the plant. The tests conducted covered 100% of the modeled production flow, approximately 80 sensor zones, 368 alarms, and 6 different operational line states. Information exchange between the Digital Twin and the virtual PLC was managed with per-second updates, and the bidirectional integration with the MES yielded positive results in all tested scenarios. The architecture was also designed with a replicable approach for similar lines and is potentially transferable to other production sectors.
An integrated simulation, Digital Twin, and Virtual Commissioning environment to digitally replicate a production line, connect it bi-directionally to the MES, and anticipate configuration, integration, and testing activities before the physical plant is available.
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