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CASE STUDY

SCADA Server & Software Upgrade

Centralizing Distributed HMI Systems into a Unified Ignition SCADA Platform

Background

This confidential client is a leading milling company operating multiple wheat flour, organic wheat flour, and corn milling production facilities across the United States. The project described here was performed at one of their plants — a dedicated wheat flour facility encompassing multiple interconnected production areas: grain elevator, cleaning house, milling, packaging, and loadout.

Over roughly a decade, this facility underwent a phased controls upgrade program. Budget and timeline constraints during that period led to the installation of standalone, independent HMI PCs for each production area rather than a centralized server architecture. At the time, a networked server was evaluated but deemed too expensive for the scope of the initial project. As additional areas were upgraded in subsequent years, each received its own standalone HMI — a practical decision in the moment, but one that accumulated significant technical debt over time.

The Challenge

With most facility upgrades now complete, the distributed HMI architecture had become a growing maintenance and financial burden. Each of the facility's production areas — elevator, cleaning house, mill, and loadout — ran its own standalone HMI PC, each with independent software, licensing, and programs:

• Two separate FTView SE licensed systems running different software versions — FTView SE Local v9 and v11 respectively.
• Over 87 HMI screens plus dozens of pop-up screens spread across four operational systems, all maintained independently.
• All maintenance tasks required taking systems offline, making changes locally, then downloading and testing during mill downtime — creating unnecessary production risk.
• Tracking multiple software versions, separate programs, and individual licenses across systems was inefficient and error-prone.
• Rockwell's software version policy required purchasing new licenses to upgrade to newer versions — creating recurring licensing costs for each server.

The cumulative effect was a system that was increasingly difficult and costly to maintain, with no path to improvement without a deliberate platform migration.

The Solution

Logic Control Systems proposed migrating the facility's entire HMI infrastructure to a centralized Ignition SCADA server architecture — consolidating all four operational systems onto a single platform the client already owned.

Leveraging the Existing Ignition License

The facility already had an active Ignition license in use for a separate system (Spartan Dynamics). Rather than purchasing new server software, LCS designed the migration to utilize that existing license and server infrastructure — immediately eliminating redundant licensing costs and reducing the scope of new investment required.

FTView SE to Ignition Conversion

With no automated conversion tool available between FTView SE and Ignition, LCS executed a ground-up rebuild of all HMI content within Ignition — building proper templates and structured projects rather than simply recreating screens visually. The scope of the conversion encompassed:

• Old System 1 (FTView SE Local v9): Elevator (26 screens + 13 pop-ups), Cleaning House (16 screens + 4 pop-ups), and Mill (22 screens + 11 pop-ups).
• Old System 2 (FTView SE Local v11): Loadout (10 screens + 13 pop-ups).
• Tag migration across all four operational systems — spanning Base, Alarm, HOA, Motor, Valve, VFD, Timer, Motion/Sensor, and Product tag categories.
• Three PLCs integrated: Mill PLC, Cleaning House/Elevator PLC, and Loadout PLC.

Two of the three operational systems from Old System 1 (Cleaning House and Mill) were combined into a single unified Ignition project — reducing the total number of programs to manage from four to three: Elevator, Cleaning House/Mill, and Loadout.

Built for Ignition — Not Just Converted

Rather than recreating the visual appearance of the old FTView screens and layering invisible action tools on top, LCS rebuilt every screen using proper Ignition templates and native platform capabilities. Key elements of the development approach included:

• A dedicated Global project created to house all shared templates — ensuring consistency across all three programs and simplifying future modifications.
• Tag architecture modernized: most HMI tags from the v9 system (Elevator, Cleaning House, Mill) were restructured to match the cleaner, more efficient approach already used in the v11 Loadout system.
• User roles, tag providers, PLC device connections, and screen folder structures set up on a dedicated development gateway before migrating to production.
• Navigation templates and screen framework built first, giving a structured foundation for all subsequent development.
• LCS provided full backups of all existing FTView SE programs and a complete export of tags from all three PLCs prior to any migration work.

Server Hardware Upgrade

The migration also included upgrading the server PC hardware. Because Ignition is significantly more lightweight than FTView SE — with the database being the most resource-intensive component rather than the HMI engine itself — the new server PC required less computing power than the legacy system, reducing hardware costs. The complete Ignition system and database were migrated from the existing PC to the new server.

Zero-Client Deployment

One of Ignition's key advantages is its browser-based client model: once the central server is running, operators open HMI screens directly on existing client PCs with no additional software installation required. This eliminated the need to load and license software on individual workstations throughout the facility.

The client already owned an active Ignition license. LCS built the entire centralized SCADA architecture on that existing investment — adding full multi-area supervisory capability without requiring new platform licensing.

Technology at a Glance

Results & Impact

The migration to a centralized Ignition SCADA architecture resolved the core operational and financial pain points the distributed HMI setup had created over the previous decade:

• All four production areas now operate under a single, centrally managed SCADA platform.
• HMI maintenance, updates, and modifications can be performed on the central server and pushed to all client workstations simultaneously — eliminating offline maintenance and mill downtime for software changes.
• A single Ignition license replaces multiple independent FTView SE licenses, with no per-upgrade licensing fees as software versions advance.
• Backups are faster, simpler, and more reliable on the centralized architecture.
• The consolidated tag architecture and native Ignition templates provide a cleaner, more maintainable codebase than the legacy FTView systems.
• New client workstations can be added anywhere on the network with no software installation — just a browser connection to the Ignition server.
• The total cost of ownership over the system's operational life is substantially lower than continuing with or upgrading the Rockwell FTView SE platform.

About Logic Control Systems

Logic Control Systems is a Texas-based industrial automation integrator specializing in PLC programming, SCADA/HMI development, process control, electrical panel fabrication, and remote automation maintenance. We serve manufacturing clients across the U.S. in industries including wheat flour milling, food processing, chemical, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and water/wastewater — most often modernizing legacy systems to extend equipment life and improve operational efficiency. Spartan Dynamics is an LCS proprietary production monitoring and control platform purpose-built for milling operations.

UL Certified • Ignition Certified Integrator • ISNetworld Member • Fortinet Partner