Tetra Tech Digital Systems integrated a Heinkel centrifuge into an existing AVEVA Plant SCADA system at a current good manufacturing practices (CGMP)-compliant pharmaceutical facility in California, accelerating production timelines and enabling centralized control.
The client manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), using Allen-Bradley and AVEVA platforms. Since 2022, we have served as their automation consulting and system integration partner. When the client added a new Heinkel centrifuge to upgrade a critical process, a key challenge emerged: the centrifuge was designed to work only with Heinkel’s own control and visualization systems. Without integrating it into the facility’s AVEVA Plant SCADA system, the client would lose centralized control, remote operations, unified alarm management, and process-wide visibility, all essential for efficient, compliant pharmaceutical production.
We accelerated the integration by adopting a parallel, collaborative workflow with Heinkel, bypassing the conventional sequential approach of procurement, vendor commissioning, and integration. This approach compressed a timeline that might otherwise have exceeded a year, while frequent communication and Heinkel’s verification of all programming changes preserved quality throughout.
Our engineers compared the new centrifuge’s programmable logic controller (PLC) program against the existing one, then updated both Heinkel’s and the client site’s PLC code to enable PLC-to-PLC communication. Reusable code modules added valve logic into Heinkel’s program, and new SCADA screens and tags improved operational visibility and control.
The team maintained rigorous CGMP compliance and produced validation documentation, including an automation validation master plan, user requirement specification, system design description, validation trace matrix, and site acceptance test (SAT) checklist. Clear, ongoing communication with Heinkel kept the project on track and earned recognition from the client.
Benefits
- Enabled remote, automatic, and centralized centrifuge operations
- Parallel collaboration saved months over traditional sequencing
- Full CGMP validation documentation delivered at every stage
