Herakles benefits from a 184% Return of Investment when using PLC Checker thanks to quicker commissioning and easier maintenance.

1. User Story
Improving
PLC
programs
quality
in
the
Aerospace
and
Defense
industries
-­‐
1/5
The context
Herakles is a world leader in the design,
development and manufacture of solid rocket
motors for missiles and space launchers. Its
products meet demanding requirements for
safety, performance, reliability and availability.
The challenge
The very demanding domain of activity of
Herakles requires advanced quality control of
the manufacturing process. However, the
company had no way to verify software quality
for its industrial control systems.
The solution
PLC Checker, automatic verification tool for
PLC programs is used systematically since
2010 on each and every new or significantly
modified program.
The result
Return on Investment estimated to 200% by
Herakles with significant improvements of
programs quality and more efficient
maintenance.
Improving the quality of PLC programs
in the Aerospace and Defense industries
How Herakles benefits from PLC Checker

2. User Story
Improving
PLC
programs
quality
in
the
Aerospace
and
Defense
industries
-­‐
2/5
Herakles has defined formal rules for the
development of its PLC programs.
THE CONTEXT
Herakles
is
a
world
leader
in
the
design,
development
and
manufacture
of
solid
rocket
motors
for
missiles
and
space
launchers.
Its
products
meet
demanding
requirements
for
safety,
performance,
reliability
and
availability.
Drawing
on
more
than
60
years
of
experience
and
on
unrivalled
know-­‐how
in
Europe
in
the
field
of
energetic
materials
and
thermostructural
composites,
developed
for
the
defense
and
space
sectors,
Herakles,
a
Safran
Group
subsidiary,
has
broadened
the
scope
of
its
technologies
and
diversified
the
application
of
its
expertise
into
a
wide
range
of
industrial
sectors.
Herakles
has
always
been
very
focused
on
the
quality
of
its
manufacturing
system
but
had
no
solution
to
measure
and
verify
the
quality
of
the
programs
embedded
in
its
Programmable
Logic
Controllers
(PLCs).
Software
quality
was
measured
by
sampling
and
this
approach
was
regarded
as
too
limited
to
meet
Herakles
strict
quality
requirements.
THE CHALLENGE
Itris
Automation
has
first
been
working
with
Herakles
to
define
the
process
of
how
to
follow
the
quality
of
the
PLC
programs
thanks
to
a
better
measurement
of
the
compliance
with
Herakles
rules
and
standards.
The
original
method
used
by
Herakles
consisted
in
manual
code
reviews
to
verify
compliance.
Unfortunately,
this
approach
had
many
drawbacks:
relevance
and
precision
of
the
review
was
highly
dependent
on
the
person
in
charge
and
exhaustive
review
was
basically
impossible
because
of
the
huge
volume
of
code.
The
cost
of
the
approach
was
also
a
strong
limit
when
reviewing
large
applications.
Finally,
the
return
on
investment
of
this
mandatory
activity
was
considered
as
very
low.
As
a
consequence,
the
development
teams
were
looking
for
a
solution
and
they
discovered
the
PLC
Checker
tool,
a
collaborative
cloud
based
solution
for
the
static
analysis
of
PLC
programs.
PLC
Checker
allows
detection
of
programming
mistakes,
computation
of
quality
metrics
and
verification
of
compliance
with
standards.
Herakles
was
also
very
interested
by

3. User Story
Improving
PLC
programs
quality
in
the
Aerospace
and
Defense
industries
-­‐
3/5
PLC Checker improves the maintainability and readability
of PLC programs thanks to more consistent programming
style.
the
fact
that
industry
leaders
such
as
Schneider
Electric,
EDF,
Areva,
PSA
Peugeot
Citroën
or
GDF
Suez
were
already
using
the
solution.
After
a
first
pilot
project,
Herakles
concluded
that
PLC
Checker
was
the
right
solution
to
control
automatically
and
systematically
software
quality
as
requested
by
its
internal
standards
and
with
an
independent
third
party
approach.
Pascal
POTHIER,
Automation
Project
Manager
at
Herakles,
explains:
“We
decided
to
leverage
PLC
Checker
for
two
different
usages.
First
we
wanted
to
do
some
one-­‐shot
audits
at
the
end
of
the
development,
thus
making
a
«
picture
»
of
the
quality.
Then,
we
decided
to
deploy
PLC
Checker
during
the
whole
development,
thus
making
a
«
movie
»
to
see
how
quality
was
evolving
and
allowing
bug
fixing
as
early
as
possible.
All
system
integrators
working
on
our
programs
are
trained
and
granted
a
license
of
PLC
Checker
for
the
duration
of
the
project.
They
can
make
as
many
«
pictures
»
as
they
want
to
build
the
«
movie
»
and
we
are
very
satisfied
with
such
a
continuous
improvement
approach.”
THE SOLUTION
Herakles
and
Itris
Automation
teams
have
collaborated
to
deploy
PLC
Checker
step
by
step.
First,
Itris
Automation
engineers
have
created
a
set
of
coding
rules
inspired
by
Herakles
existing
standards
and
practices
and
leveraging
Itris
experience
in
several
activity
sectors.
Then,
at
the
end
of
2009
and
beginning
of
2010,
several
tests
have
been
conducted
on
three
programs
and
quality
reports
have
been
issued.
All
three
programs
had
originally
been
written
by
three
different
system
integrators
and
the
PLC
Checker
audit
showed
a
serious
diversity
in
coding
practices.
A
couple
of
months
later,
Herakles
decided
to
use
PLC
Checker
systematically
on
each
and
every
new,
migrated
or
significantly
modified
PLC
program.
Feedback
from
developers
and
users
of
PLC
Checker
has
been
taken
into
account
to
improve
the
rules
and,
since
2010,
26
programs
from
10
different
projects
have
been
verified
with
PLC
Checker.

4. User Story
Improving
PLC
programs
quality
in
the
Aerospace
and
Defense
industries
-­‐
4/5
Pascal
POTHIER
further
explains:
“Between
2010
and
2012,
we
have
improved
our
compliance
ratio
from
63%
to
85%
and
have
thus
improved
significantly
the
maintainability
of
our
programs.
This
was
made
possible
by
the
formalization
and
standardization
of
the
development.
“
THE RESULT
After
these
first
use
cases,
Herakles
has
now
decided
to
use
PLC
Checker
more
widely
and
beyond
the
scope
of
its
factory
at
Le
Haillan.
“After
a
couple
of
years
using
it,
we
can
consider
that
the
deployment
of
PLC
Checker
is
a
success
»,
adds
Pascal
POTHIER.
«
Of
course,
at
the
beginning,
system
integrators
were
reluctant
but
they
have
been
convinced
by
the
tool
itself
and
now
agree
that
this
is
necessary
in
our
industry.
Since
we
began
using
PLC
Checker,
our
Factory
Acceptance
Tests
have
been
quicker
and
more
efficient.
Plus,
the
maintenance
of
the
programs
is
easier.
We
estimate
the
return
on
investment
of
the
usage
of
PLC
Checker
to
roughly
200%
just
by
counting
the
savings
in
the
test
and
commissioning
phases.
The
programs
are
easier
to
read
and
thus
to
modify
and
correct
in
the
factory.
Also,
thanks
to
a
better
consistency,
the
training
of
our
maintenance
team
is
faster.”
PLC Checker is available for
o Schneider
Electric
Unity
Pro
et
PL7
Pro
o Siemens
Step
5
et
Step
7
o CoDeSys
v2.3,
v3.2,
v3.5
o Rockwell
Automation
RSLogix
5000
o Mitsubishi
GXWorks
2
o Omron
Sysmac
Studio
o PLCopen
XML
Easier maintenance and optimized troubleshooting are
a significant source of return on investment when using
PLC Checker.

5. User Story
Le
contrôle
qualité
des
automates
avec
PLC
Checker
dans
l’Aérospatial,
la
Défense,
la
Sécurité
-­‐
5/5
About Itris Automation
Based
in
Grenoble,
France,
Itris
Automation
is
a
software
engineering
company
that
provides
development
tools
for
the
verification,
conversion
and
documentation
of
codes
in
programmable
logic
controllers.
Due
to
its
advanced
technologies,
Itris
Automation
supports
its
clients
in
improving
their
development
processes
and
therefore
in
delivering
higher
quality
programs
in
shorter
timeframes.
Put
on
the
market
in
form
of
Software-­‐as-­‐a-­‐Service,
these
tools
are
based
on
innovative
technologies
and
on
a
team
that
is
known
for
its
expertise
and
vast
experience
in
computer
science.
Schneider
Electric,
EDF,
Ferrero,
Det
Norske
Veritas,
Sanofi,
Manz,
IMA
Pharma,
GDF
Suez,
Renault
and
Herakles
(Safran
group)
are
among
Itris
Automation’s
main
customers.
For
more
information,
please
visit
our
website
www.itris-­‐automation.com