Industry

Water treatment / Municipal infrastructure

Country

Germany

Software

Siemens WinCC · OPC-UA · S7-300/400 · VPN

Duration

Cutover in one planned window

WinCC SCADA upgrade — 4 legacy PLCs unified without code modification

The situation

A water treatment operator was replacing a 15-year-old control room. Four PLCs from different hardware generations were running critical infrastructure processes and could not be taken offline for code modifications. The new WinCC SCADA had to connect to all four controllers, provide a unified operator interface, implement structured alarm management, and include remote access for the maintenance team — without any changes to the running PLC programs.

What GFE did

GFE connected all four controllers via OPC-UA, pulling live process data without modifications to any of the existing PLC programs. A new WinCC operator interface was built providing a unified view of all four systems, with alarm management structured to ISA-18.2 standards. Remote maintenance access was implemented via VPN and was operational from the first day after cutover. The previous system had accumulated over 400 standing alarms that operators had stopped monitoring. The new system launched with 12.

Results

4 PLCs

connected via OPC-UA

Zero changes

to existing code

400 → 12

alarms at launch

Remote

live from day 1

The previous system had over 400 standing alarms. The new one started with 12.

Why GFE for PLC programming

Each project is staffed with engineers experienced on the relevant platform — TIA Portal, TwinCAT, Pilz, or Rockwell.

Practical experience with EN ISO 13849, SISTEMA calculations, and SRP/CS documentation for CE marking and TÜV review.

Support can be engaged for a single project or structured as a long-term team extension — without permanent hiring.

All team members are fluent in English, with additional language skills in German, Italian, Spanish, and more.

Have a PLC migration, new machine, or safety certification project?

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Contact us

Tell us about your project

Head office

30, Estrady, Warsaw, Poland 01-932

Phone: +48 798 763 604

For general enquiries: info@gfe-solutions.com

For sales enquiries: inquiry@gfe-solutions.com

Back office

201/203, Kharkivske shose,Kyiv, Ukraine 02121

Email: info@gfe-solutions.com

Phone: +38 098 237 0047

Our customers

Our company produces safety-relevant welding assemblies for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

Due to the fact that it has become increasingly difficult to find good engineers and designers for our design department at our location in rural Münsterland, we set out at the end of 2018 to look for new external solutions in the service market.

 

Christian Menke

CEO V. KRANZ GmbH, Dülmen

I really appreciate GFE’s flexibility and openness for new challenges. They are not afraid to start a new journey.
If I think about the external circumstances of the project we started together, we reached a learning curve and relating results that I did personally not expect.

Daniel Ilge

Head of Technology & Product Management at WALDRICH COBURG GmbH

We required additional capacity and professional support for our R&D Team especially for a new product development.

And GFE Solutions offers capable support by very well-educated engineers. High professionalism. On time delivery and great communication (native German speakers).

Frank Pfister

CEO of CVS engineering GmbH

We are the company in constant need for plants for research or pilot projects of our clients. Last year we were working over the order in the field of medical technologies, which we succeeded to realize, including thanks to efforts of GFE Solutions team.

Dr. Thomas Bauer

Chief operating officer and member of the Board of DIENES Apparatebau GmbH

We were in need of help with our design department ressources and we had to move fast, internal ressources were not available and GFE was able to help quickly and competent. GFE works with dedication to the very needs of its customers, has a variety of specialists and has offered a fair price on a transparent basis.

Sebastian Schuelke

Managing Director at SICON GmbH

We were looking for additional engineers to expand our construction capacity. You seemed to be a young, motivated Team and except your professional expertise, your personal commitment made me confident to work with you. The cooperation has been seamless and very productive from the start. We are happy with the results.

Lukas Jochimek

Technical Manager at Schauenburg Maschinen- und Anlagen-Bau GmbH

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