Communication Center, basics

The Communication Center in WinCC OA stands for a modern alarm management/remote alerting and communication with current standards and using different media. The increased need of security in the field of automation and process control requires a guarantee of the high quality and availability of the personnel at a plant. A remote alerting system is used at plants also for several other reasons:

• Falling budgets for the personnel expenses

• High costs for night and weekend times in case of 24 hour shifts

• Transition to stand-by duty models in many industry sectors

• Increasing number of unoccupied or partly occupied plants

• The wish of many operators to get location independent information

The use of the Communication Center in WinCC OA guarantees an easy use and integration at already existing or new plants. The personnel resources directly on the spot can be decreased considerably and lead to a prevention of hard and physiological unpleasant working times for the personnel. The Communication Center creates synergies by using different interfaces for the remote alerting via the control system.

The media SMS and e-mail are covered by the Communication Center.

Essential in conjunction with the Communication Center are above all the time and event controlled alarms that have to be interpreted by the personnel at the main computer and thus lead to the necessary steps for the trouble shooting. The communication via the Communication Center can be bidirectional. This means that not only the control system is active in case of a disturbance and informs specific persons about the pending alarms but the on-call duty can get information about the process state at all times.

The classification who is informed about a problem via the Communication Center can be made via static call lists (this means the system tries to reach the persons according to the order defined in the list) or via shifts (this means that the system tries to reach a person responsible at a particular time). In both cases further persons who should be informed if the list or a person cannot be reached at a particular time can be defined. For more information on the configuration see chapter Configuration of the communication center.

The general process in case of a disturbance and forwarding to the user looks as follows (for detailed information on the process see chapter Functionality of the Communication Center):

1. A disturbance occurs at the plant and is detected

2. Control system establishes contact to the employee

3. Alarm information is transferred

4. User (employee) verifies the receipt

5. The employee decides depending on the complexity of the disturbance (also in case of a greater distance to the plant concrete measures can be taken in order to avert possible dangers):

   • Temporarily no measure necessary (await further development)

   • Obtain further information via a mobile end device

   • Measures via remote maintenance access

   • Prompt on the spot duty at the plant

Advantages of the communication center in WinCC OA:

• Rapid information via fault reports of a plant round the clock

• Comprehensive recording/quality proof of the states at the plant

• Location independence during the notification

• Transition to partly unoccupied plants

• Easy handling and integration into already existing plants

• Preparation of cost-effective communication media /end devices (Telephone, Cell phone)

• Bidirectional communication with the control system - either the control system informs the user in case of a disturbance or a user gets the information of the current process states at the control system

• Possibility to acknowledge occurred alarms via the communication center

The following pages of this documentation are divided into two parts. Firstly the explanation of the Communication Center functionality and the explanation of the panels and associated functions that are used by a normal user without configuration rights (see Functionality of the Communication Center or Overview of the Communication Center).

Secondly, the description of the panels and the associated functions for the configuration of the Communication Center used by a user with configuration rights (see Configuration of the Communication Center).