HMI & SCADA Design & Development
Contract HMI and SCADA delivery specialising in WinCC Unified, WinCC Classic (Professional), FactoryTalk Machine Edition, and Aveva InTouch — across marine, energy, steel, and manufacturing sectors.
Screen design follows ISA-101 High Performance HMI principles throughout. Development includes reusable faceplates, structured alarm frameworks, virtualised test environments, and full commissioning support.
HMI Screen Design
HMI screens are designed to ISA-101 High Performance HMI standards — structured for operator clarity, abnormal situation management, and long-term maintainability.
Design approach covers the full development lifecycle:
Screen Architecture
- Tag list preparation and screen hierarchy planning before any graphical work begins
- Navigation structure design across overview, group, and detail levels
- Consistent layout templates applied across all screens in the project
- Legend, status indicator, and colour scheme aligned to ISA-101 — grey base, colour-on-deviation only
Screen Content
- Faceplates and UDT-linked objects for all repeating equipment types
- Process mimic screens derived from P&ID, civic, and mechanical drawings
- Alarm summary, alarm history, and active alarm displays with severity banding
- Trend displays and historical data logging screens
- Pre-run checklists, recipe management, and parameter set screens where required
Advanced Screen Features
- JavaScript and VB scripting for complex HMI functions (data export, automatic screenshots, safe parameter passing)
- Plausibility check modules for non-safety to F-CPU data paths (SIL-conscious design)
- USB export triggers and file/folder naming input from operator interface
- Pop-up detail panels and drill-down navigation for equipment diagnostics
Acteon — Seabed Drilling System (2024)
Led HMI delivery for a multi-engineer offshore drilling control system running on ESXi-hosted TIA Portal. Produced 80+ ISA-101 screens using 700+ tags and every available High Performance HMI feature. Created over 100 UDT-linked faceplates and maintained the shared library across 4 months of daily changes by 8 engineers. Implemented a 1,000-line VB plausibility module to safely pass non-safety operator inputs to an F-CPU in compliance with SIL requirements. HMI scope was the most complete on the day of FAT.
Platform Expertise
Primary development platforms are Siemens WinCC Unified and WinCC Classic (Professional), with additional delivery capability in FactoryTalk Machine Edition and Aveva InTouch.
Siemens WinCC Unified (TIA Portal)
Siemens WinCC Classic (Professional)
FactoryTalk Machine Edition
Aveva InTouch & System Platform
ISA-101 & Design Standards
All HMI and SCADA screens are designed to the ISA-101 Human-Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems standard, applied consistently from tag list through to commissioning handover.
ISA-101 Design Principles Applied
- Grey-based colour scheme — colour is used only to indicate deviation or alarm state, not for decoration
- Three-level alarm severity banding — warning, alarm, and critical states are consistently differentiated across all screens
- Situational awareness first — operator navigation is task-led; the hierarchy prioritises abnormal situation detection at overview level
- Suppression of non-essential graphics — no animated backgrounds, decorative fills, or distracting visual elements
- Consistent object behaviour — UDT-driven faceplates ensure every valve, pump, and drive responds identically across all screens
Alarm Management
- Alarm lists structured from electrical schematics, FDS, and P&ID inputs
- Severity classification applied at PLC/HMI level before screen display
- Alarm suppression and shelving logic for planned maintenance states
- 100-alarm structures delivered for multi-mode systems (e.g. CEMEX 10-mode energy system)
- Alarm history and acknowledgement audit trail screens included as standard
Faceplate & UDT Library Development
- Reusable faceplates created for all repeating equipment types — valves, pumps, motors, drives, meters
- UDTs maintained in sync across multi-engineer TIA Portal Server projects
- Object library built once, applied across all screens — ensuring consistent behaviour and reducing test scope
- Over 100 UDT-linked faceplates delivered on the Acteon seabed drilling project alone
Knauf Insulation — LD Line HMI Upgrade (2024)
Delivered five PanelView Plus 7 HMIs (17 screens each) to ISA-101 standard, replacing an outdated and inconsistent Rockwell interface. Tag structures and alarm logic were reverse-engineered from Studio 5000 to rebuild a clean, ISA-101-compliant HMI framework from the ground up. Participated in FAT and supported on-site commissioning. Delivered a 25-page operator user manual as part of the handover package.
SCADA Systems
SCADA delivery covers system modifications, new screen development, multi-client deployment, and virtualised engineering environments for development and test.
SCADA Development Scope
- New SCADA screen development from P&ID, civic, and electrical drawings
- Integration of updated PLC logic and tag structures into live SCADA projects
- Multi-client deployment across redundant server architectures (main + standby)
- Certificate generation and publishing for secure OPC UA and SCADA communication paths
- Remote access configuration via RDP and VNC for development and commissioning support
Virtualised SCADA Environments
SCADA development and testing can be executed in fully virtualised environments to decouple engineering work from live production systems:
- VM-based SCADA server setup for Aveva, WinCC, and FactoryTalk platforms
- Redundant alarm server configuration with failover testing
- Windows Server hardening — including update isolation methods for long-term stability
- ESXi server environment experience from multi-engineer TIA Portal collaboration (Acteon)
- PLCSIM Advanced virtual PLC integration with SCADA clients for full offline testing
Data Logging & Historian Integration
Tata Steel — BOS Desulphurisation SCADA (2023)
Carried out post-FAT SCADA modifications across an Aveva System Platform 2020 and InTouch environment with two alarm servers (including redundancy) and three IO server clients. Updated tag structures, alarm configuration, and certificate setup. Developed three Allen Bradley HMI panels as de-scoped versions of the SCADA client and configured VNC access via Remote Desktop Manager for remote testing and development support.
Project Examples
HMI and SCADA delivery across marine offshore, energy, steel, and manufacturing sectors.
HMI and SCADA projects delivered for clients including Acteon, CEMEX, Sulzer, Knauf Insulation, Tata Steel, Global Marine, and PD&MS Group — across offshore, energy, steel, and manufacturing environments.
Deliverables
HMI & SCADA Development Scope
- Tag list preparation and screen hierarchy planning from project documentation
- Full screen development to ISA-101 standard across all required levels (overview, group, detail)
- Faceplate and UDT library development for repeating equipment types
- Alarm structure implementation with severity classification and acknowledgement logic
- Trend, data log, and historical display screens
- Scripting (JavaScript / VB) for advanced functions — data export, safe parameter passing, automatic reporting
- SCADA client deployment across redundant server pairs
Documentation
- Tag lists with PLC addresses, HMI object names, and descriptions
- Screen navigation maps and hierarchy diagrams
- Alarm lists with severity, response requirements, and PLC source references
- User manuals for operators and maintenance engineers (up to 40 pages on recent projects)
- Faceplate reference sheets describing object behaviour and configuration parameters
Testing & Commissioning Support
- Virtualised test environment setup with PLCSIM Advanced and SCADA client simulation
- FAT support — resolving snagging items and applying live changes during witnessed testing
- On-site commissioning — signal testing, display verification, and alarm validation
- Remote access configuration and testing (SCALANCE, RDP, VNC)
- Post-commissioning HMI modifications and operator feedback incorporation
Handover
- Backed-up project archives with revision notes
- Documented UDT and faceplate library with version records
- Alarm list export and cross-reference to PLC program
- Operator and maintenance user manuals accepted by client
- Knowledge transfer support for site engineering and maintenance teams