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It is easiest to get a thin client system up and going when it is put in as part of an entire new system. Most plants, however, already have at least some level of computer monitoring, control, or data collection, and cannot afford to stop production, rip out all of the old equipment, and install thin clients. For them, the real answer is most often to phase in the new computers. We present a five-step plan that has worked well for companies in the past.
While everyone talks about the clients, the server is really the heart of any thin client system. Since all of the software runs on the server, a thin client computer is useless without it. A really good reason to get this piece first is that while it may be difficult to get approval for a full thin client system, it is usually very easy to get approval for a new server. There is really nothing special about a thin client server, and it can be used for other things even while it is hosting clients. But if your plan is to start adding thin clients a few at a time, make sure that it is ordered with thin clients in mind.
First, size the hardware correctly. You can get a good idea of what size server that you need by the type of software that you run and the number of clients that you plan to have. We have found that one of the most used resources on the server is the memory. Today's HMI and SCADA packages can use up memory quickly, and they just won't run well without enough. For packages like Wonderware or Intellution, we normally like to have about 50 megabytes of RAM on the server for each client that will be running. Don't think that you need to host all of your clients from a single PC - it is easy to spread clients across multiple servers, and if you are planning on more than about 30 clients that is the way that you will probably go. This also means that your sever selection won't limit you forever to a given number of clients, because you can either expand the server or add another one.
Second, choose the operating system. Right now, there are really two major ones that are being used - Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 TSE and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. If the software that you already have is running on NT 4.0 machines, then it might be a good idea to stick with NT. The idea behind this plan is not to move to the latest software, just to get a system that looks exactly like the one that you have now but with thin clients instead of individual PCs.
Third, set up a few users and load up your software. This needs to be done right, so check with your system administrator or call the company that is supplying the clients. If the software is not installed on the server correctly, the users may not all have access. Don't worry about setting up all of the users that you will need right now - just create enough to get started. They are easy to add later.
Once the server is up and running, it should be easy to plug into the network that is running your current computers. From there, you should be able to bring up any network available data that you want to see. Take some screens from a running line and get them up and going on the server. Once you have a screen looking like it does on the floor, all of the hard work has been done.
If you were able to get approval for a server, a few clients should be really easy. And once the server has been set up correctly, they are absolutely trivial to install. This is where your planning with the server pays off, and within a few minutes you should have a Windows screen displayed on the client, and be able to launch your software. Bring it up and make sure that you can do the things that you need to do, and that all of the screens function like you expected. When you see data from your production equipment (like you did on the server) you know that you have succeeded in setting up your thin client system.
Pick a line that you can work on, and simply take a client out there and plug it into an Ethernet cable. Power it on, and within a few minutes you will be able to see the exact same screens that you are displaying on the local computer. At this point, you can run them in parallel for a while or, if you are pretty confident in the client's operation, just do the replacement. Leave the old PC there if you like, so if you do see anything unexpected you can simply put the line right back the way that it was.
Once you have proved the thin client concept on the first line, start swapping lines out as they become available. Within a week or so, you will have a full thin client system up and going. Impress your co-workers by going up to a line and turning off the "PC". Turn it back on and show them that it is right back where it was when you killed power. Or do something really useful like upgrade your HMI or SCADA package - you only have to do it now on the server, one time, and all of the clients are updated. And just wait until you get to install a new line, and all you have to do is walk out with a thin client and plug it in! Then you will be well on your way to realizing the total cost of ownership savings made possible by a thin client system.
For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com
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