Plummer Forest Products (PFP), a premiere particleboard manufacturer, suffered an extensive fire on March 24, 2019 which consumed a significant part of the building and destroyed much of the control system. The owner chose to rebuild the facility, and the final decision was made in May to hire Advanced Electrical Technologies (AET) to replace the decimated proprietary control system with the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx® DCS platform. AET immediately contracted Global Process Automation (GPA) to partner in the rebuilding effort; AET provided seven people, including four engineers and GPA provided seven people, including six engineers. Programming began in early June, and thanks to the extremely focused efforts of all involved, the plant was able to start production the first week in September.
The breadwinners of approximately 70 families would have become unemployed had Todd Brinkmeyer, the owner of PFP decided to shut down the plant after the fire. The five engineers at GPA who participated in the rebuilding of the control system played a critical role in getting the plant up and running within the aggressive three-month schedule, and thankfully, no Plummer employee was laid off for the duration.
Rockwell Automation requested AET and GPA present the Plummer fire reconstruction success story at the 2020 virtual Process Solutions Users Group (PSUG). Steve Andrews, GPA's Northwest Region Account Manager, moderated the pre-recorded PSUG session on Friday, October 30th. Check out the video above to watch everyone talk about this amazing project.