Author
Tommy Kim
Metromotion Controls
Tommy Kim writes for Metromotion Controls, a Melbourne control systems integrator delivering PLC, SCADA, HMI and control panel engineering for food, beverage, dairy and FMCG manufacturers across Australia.
The articles below cover the parts of an automation project where the control design carries the most weight: PLC programming and migration, SCADA and HMI design, batch and recipe control, PID loop tuning, OT network security, and turning a P&ID into working control logic.
Articles by Tommy Kim
- Engineering Guides · May 2026Planning an Automation Upgrade for an Australian Manufacturing SiteA practical engineering guide to planning an automation upgrade on a live Australian plant: obsolescence and lifecycle assessment, risk ranking, phased versus big-bang cutover, brownfield constraints, spares, and standards continuity.
- Control Systems · May 2026Batch Control and ISA-88 for Australian Food and Beverage ManufacturersA practical ISA-88 batch control guide for Australian food and beverage manufacturers, covering when you need it, the physical, procedural and recipe models, phase states, FSANZ traceability, platform choice and brownfield migration.
- Process Control · June 2026Beverage Process Automation in Australia: Carbonation, Blending and Filling ControlBeverage process automation for Australian producers: syrup-room blending and brix ratio control, carbonation, flash pasteurisation, filling and CIP, with the control loops, interlocks and data that keep beverage quality and throughput steady.
- Control Systems · May 2026CIP Automation: Four Areas Where the Investment Actually Pays BackCIP is one of the largest controllable cost centres in a food or beverage plant. This article covers the four areas where CIP automation investment pays back: cycle optimisation for trade waste and chemical cost, digital audit records, queueing for equipment availability, and coverage verification to prevent silent failures.
- Control Panel Engineering · Apr 2026Control Panel Engineering in Australia: Compliance, Design and HandoverA practitioner guide to control panel and switchboard engineering in Australia, covering AS/NZS 61439 and AS/NZS 3000, form of separation, MCC design, short-circuit rating, thermal management, FAT and handover records.
- Control Systems · May 2026Automation for Australian Dairy Processing PlantsA practical guide to automation for Australian dairy processing plants: HTST pasteurisation and divert control, separation and standardisation, CIP, ISA-88 batch control for cultured products, 3-A hygienic design, thermal control and FSANZ traceability.
- Industrial Automation · Apr 2026Food and Beverage Automation in Australia: What Manufacturers Need to KnowA practical guide to food and beverage process and packaging automation in Australia, covering batch control to ISA-88, CIP, recipe management, hygienic design, pasteurisation control, traceability and OEE.
- Functional Safety · May 2026Functional Safety and SIL Assessment for Australian Industrial SitesA practical guide to functional safety and SIL assessment for Australian industrial sites: IEC 61508 and IEC 61511, SIL determination by risk graph and LOPA, the safety lifecycle, proof testing, and how machine safety differs.
- Control Systems · May 2026Ignition SCADA in Australia: A Practical Guide for Food and Beverage ManufacturersA practical Ignition SCADA guide for Australian food and beverage manufacturers, written from an integrator's delivery experience: when Ignition is and is not the right fit, Perspective vs Vision, architecture, CIP and batch, OT security, and buying and supporting Ignition in Australia.
- Industrial Data & IIoT · May 2026IIoT and Condition Monitoring for Australian Manufacturing SitesA practical guide to IIoT condition monitoring for Australian manufacturers, covering ISO 17359 and ISO 13374, the P-F curve, vibration, temperature and current sensing, MQTT and Sparkplug B, OPC UA, and how condition data ties into the historian and OEE.
- Industrial Automation · Apr 2026Industrial Automation in Melbourne: A Practical Guide for Australian ManufacturersA practitioner guide to scoping industrial automation for Melbourne and Victorian manufacturers: the PLC, SCADA, panel and network scope, greenfield versus brownfield upgrades, IEC 61131-3 languages, and how to choose a control systems integrator.
- PLC & Control Systems · Apr 2026Legacy PLC Migration in Australia: Planning an Upgrade Without Losing ProductionHow to plan a legacy PLC migration on a live Australian plant without losing production: when to start, how to scope the outage window, and how to stage the cutover.
- Functional Safety · May 2026Machine Safety Risk Assessment in Australian Manufacturing: What the Standard RequiresA practical guide to machine safety risk assessment in Australia: ISO 12100 methodology, hazard identification, the hierarchy of risk reduction, Performance Level to ISO 13849-1, SILcl to IEC 62061, the AS/NZS 4024 series, and Safe Work Australia plant duties.
- Control Systems · May 2026MES and SCADA in Food Plants: How They Work Together and Where the Lines AreHow MES and SCADA work together in Australian food plants: the ISA-95 functional levels, the MESA model, B2MML data exchange, the SCADA-to-MES boundary, OEE and genealogy, ERP integration, and an illustrative Level 2 to Level 3 data mapping.
- Industrial Data & IIoT · May 2026Where OEE Misleads: The Limits of the Metric on Australian Food and Beverage LinesOEE is useful but routinely over-trusted. This guide covers what OEE leaves out by design, where it distorts on multi-SKU Australian food and beverage lines, why cross-line comparisons fail, and the one limitation that is actually fixable: the signal layer between the machine and the dashboard.
- Industrial Data & IIoT · May 2026OT Cybersecurity for Australian Food Manufacturers: What the Standards Actually RequireOT cybersecurity for Australian food and beverage manufacturers: ISA/IEC 62443, NIST SP 800-82, the ACSC Essential Eight in an OT context, FSANZ record integrity, recall exposure, ransomware impact and segmentation.
- Industrial Data & IIoT · May 2026OT Network Security for Australian Manufacturing SitesA practical OT network security guide for Australian manufacturers: IEC 62443 zones and conduits, the Purdue model, segmentation, secure remote access, OT patch constraints, and the ACSC Essential Eight applied to plant networks.
- Control Systems · June 2026From a P&ID to Control Logic: How an Experienced Team Programs a Process from the DrawingHow a controls engineer reads a P&ID and its ISA-5.1 symbology, then derives equipment modules, sequences, interlocks and control loops from the drawing plus a short conversation about how the plant runs.
- Control Systems · May 2026PackML on Australian Packaging Lines: What It Does and Why It MattersA practical PackML guide for Australian packaging lines, covering the OMAC state model, unit modes, PackTags, the ISA-TR88.00.02 publication, line coordination, and how PackML states feed accurate OEE.
- Process Control · June 2026Pet Food Automation in Australia: Batch, Extrusion and Process ControlA guide to pet food automation Australia: ISA-88 recipe and batch control, extrusion and rendering process control, CCP interlocks and AS 5812, OEE.
- Control Systems · June 2026PID Loop Tuning for Food and Dairy Processes: Temperature, Flow, Level and PressureHow to tune PID loops on food and dairy plant: why most flow, pressure and level loops run PI, why slow thermal loops justify full PID with anti-windup, and a structured lambda method over trial and error.
- Industrial Data & IIoT · May 2026Why Most Plants Collect Data but Can't Use ItMost Australian manufacturing sites have more data than they can act on. This guide explains where plant data silos form, how a unified namespace, MQTT Sparkplug B and OPC UA break them down, and what a single source of truth aligned to ISA-95 actually looks like.
- Automation Upgrades · May 2026PLC Cutover on a Live Plant: How to Execute a Migration Without Losing ProductionA practitioner guide to executing a PLC cutover on a live plant: pre-cutover testing, FAT and SAT, I/O verification, rollback planning, phased versus hot cutover, and go/no-go criteria.
- PLC Programming · June 2026PLC Platform Comparison for Australian Manufacturers: Rockwell, Siemens, Schneider, Beckhoff and OmronRockwell, Siemens, Schneider, Beckhoff and Omron PLCs compared for Australian manufacturers: programming, motion, installed base, spares and best fit.
- PLC & Control Systems · Apr 2026PLC Programming Services in Melbourne: What to Expect and How to ChooseA practitioner guide to PLC programming in Melbourne and Australia: the IEC 61131-3 languages and when each fits, structuring maintainable code, state-machine and PackML sequencing, Rockwell and Siemens differences, commissioning discipline and version control.
- Control Systems · June 2026Pump Control and Water Hammer on Hygienic Process LinesWater hammer cracks seals, fatigues instruments and damages hygienic lines. This article covers the control-system levers that prevent it: VFD ramps, valve-closure profiling, pump-valve sequencing and pump-type protection.
- Control Systems · June 2026SCADA Platform Comparison for Australian Manufacturers: Ignition, FactoryTalk and AVEVAA balanced SCADA platform comparison for Australian manufacturers: Ignition, Rockwell FactoryTalk and AVEVA (Wonderware, System Platform, Plant SCADA and Citect), covering licensing, architecture, IIoT, redundancy and where each platform fits.
- SCADA & HMI · Apr 2026SCADA System Design for Australian Food and Beverage PlantsAn engineer's guide to SCADA design for Australian food and beverage plants: ISA-95 architecture, ISA-101 HMI, ISA-18.2 and EEMUA 191 alarm management, historians, redundancy, OPC UA, edge and IIoT, and FSANZ recall record-keeping.
- PLC Programming · June 2026Siemens TIA Portal Automation in Australia: A Practical Guide for ManufacturersA practical guide to Siemens TIA Portal automation for Australian food, beverage and dairy manufacturers: the S7-1500 and S7-1200 platform, the programming model, WinCC, PROFINET and PROFIsafe, migrating from S5 and S7-300, and where Siemens fits against Rockwell.
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