Starting point: drawings that no longer matched the plant
The customer is a ceramic tile manufacturer in the province of Castellón, Spain's tile-making hub, with a complete process: body preparation, presses, dryer, glazing line, single-layer roller kiln and sorting. As in many plants in the sector, the electrical installation had grown in layers over more than twenty years: original equipment from ceramic machinery builders, extensions by different installers, drive and PLC replacements, and hundreds of small changes made on the fly to avoid stopping production.
The electrical documentation reflected that history. Paper schematics with handwritten notes sat alongside AutoCAD drawings from different periods, a few old Eplan 5 projects and each machine builder's own documentation, every one with its own naming conventions. Above all, none of those sources fully matched what was actually inside the cabinets.
The maintenance team felt the consequences every day:
- Slow fault-finding. When something failed, electricians ended up tracing wires by hand because the drawing could not be trusted, with the line stopped in the meantime.
- Risk with every change. Without knowing for certain what each protective device fed, every intervention needed extra checks and carried uncertainty.
- Dependence on individuals. Real knowledge of the installation lived in the heads of two or three veteran technicians, and onboarding new staff was very slow.
- No way to plan improvements. Any retrofit or PLC replacement started with weeks of investigation before it could even be quoted.
On top of that, standards such as EN 60204-1 on the electrical equipment of machines require technical documentation that matches the actual installation. Outdated drawings are not just an efficiency problem; they are a safety and compliance issue too.
The goal: reliable, living as-built schematics
The brief was clear: produce as-built electrical schematics for the plant's critical areas (presses, dryer, glazing line and kiln) in a single format, with a common structure and a procedure to stop them going out of date again. We chose Eplan Electric P8 as the platform because it does more than draw: it works with data, generates derived documentation automatically and keeps it consistent when something changes.
Field survey without stopping production
The big constraint in a ceramic plant is the kiln. A single-layer kiln runs continuously and is not stopped for a documentation task, so the survey had to coexist with production. We organised the work into three levels according to their impact on the plant:
- Live visual survey. Systematic photography of every cabinet, identification of devices, terminals and cable markers, and recording of manufacturer part numbers. Always under a work permit and accompanied by the customer's maintenance staff.
- Signal verification with the PLC online. Checking every input and output by watching the PLC program online, without changing anything, to confirm which terminal corresponds to which real signal.
- De-energised checks during planned stops. Anything that required opening a circuit or isolating a piece of equipment was grouped and carried out during planned shutdown windows and press format changes.
This approach let us make continuous progress without causing any additional stoppage, leaving for shutdowns only the work that genuinely needed one.
From paper and DWG to an intelligent Eplan Electric P8 project
With the field data validated, we built the Eplan projects to a single standard for the whole plant:
- Project structure based on IEC 81346. Identification by plant, location and equipment, so any device can be found unambiguously both on the drawing and in the cabinet.
- A real parts database. Every device is linked to its manufacturer part number with article data instead of generic symbols. That turns the bill of materials into a useful tool for purchasing and spares.
- Macros for repetitive circuits. Motor starters, drives, solenoid valves and I/O cards are drawn once as macros and reused, ensuring consistency across machines.
- Automatically generated documentation. Cross-references, terminal diagrams, cable lists, the bill of materials and the PLC I/O overview come straight from the project instead of being maintained by hand.
The existing Eplan 5 projects were imported into Eplan Electric P8 as a starting point and reviewed one by one against the field survey. The paper and AutoCAD drawings were redrawn completely: inserting a DWG or a scan as an image inside Eplan brings none of its benefits, because it generates no reports and no references.
Schematics and PLC program speaking the same language
One of the most valuable parts of the job was aligning the electrical schematics with the PLC program. Signal verification turned up the discrepancies typical of installations with a long history: inputs declared in the program that were no longer wired, signals moved to another terminal without updating the PLC comment, and spare points that were in fact in use.
We documented each one, unified naming between the Eplan I/O overview and the PLC tag table, and gave the customer a list of differences so the program comments could be corrected. With Siemens PLCs, this work also lays the foundation for an integrated workflow in the future, as we explain in how to integrate Eplan with TIA Portal using AML.
Handover, revision control and living documentation
An updated schematic is only valuable if it is still up to date a year later. That is why the handover included a way of working as well as the Eplan projects:
- A navigable PDF per cabinet, with bookmarks and linked cross-references, designed to be read on a tablet in front of the cabinet.
- A QR code on every cabinet door that opens its up-to-date schematic directly, in addition to the usual printed copy in the drawing pocket.
- Revision control in Eplan, with an index and description for each change, so it is clear what was modified, when and why.
- A change procedure: the technician marks up the change on the PDF, and that markup is incorporated into the Eplan project as a formal revision. Nothing is left as a handwritten note.
Results
After handover, the customer reported clear improvements in day-to-day maintenance:
- Faster fault-finding. Electricians locate a protective device, a terminal or a signal from the drawing instead of tracing wires by hand.
- Safer modifications. Every intervention starts from a reliable schematic, reducing checks and risk.
- A smarter spares policy. The real bill of materials made it possible to review the store and spot critical components with no spare, something we cover in the importance of spare parts in industrial automation.
- A basis for future projects. The plant can now plan and budget improvements, such as a migration from S7-300 to S7-1500, from reliable data.
- Less dependence on individuals. Knowledge of the installation now lives in the documentation, not just in the memory of a few technicians.
Lessons learned
This project confirms something we see often in the ceramic sector: documentation debt builds up silently. Each small change not reflected on the drawing seems harmless, but over the years the schematic stops being a tool and becomes a risk. Updating it methodically, with a common standard and a revision procedure, is an investment that pays for itself at the first serious breakdown.
It also reinforces one recommendation: if you are planning a retrofit, start with the documentation. That is exactly what we did at another plant in the sector during the complete rewrite of a ceramic extrusion line, where updating the Eplan schematics was the first step before touching the program.
Frequently asked questions
Can electrical schematics be updated without stopping production?
For the most part, yes. The visual survey, identification of terminals, cables and devices, and signal checks with the PLC online are carried out with the plant running and under the supervision of maintenance staff. Only checks that require de-energising a circuit are grouped into planned shutdowns.
What happens to paper or AutoCAD drawings?
They are redrawn in Eplan Electric P8 as an intelligent project, with real devices, terminals, cables and cross-references. Inserting a DWG or a scan as an image brings none of Eplan's benefits, because it generates no automatic reports or references.
Can old Eplan 5 projects be reused?
Yes. Eplan Electric P8 can import Eplan 5 projects, which speeds up the work. Even so, the result must be reviewed, adapted to the current project structure and parts database, and always checked against what is actually inside the cabinet.
Why Eplan rather than a generic CAD program?
Because Eplan works with data, not just drawings. It automatically generates cross-references, terminal diagrams, cable lists, bills of materials and the PLC I/O overview, and keeps everything consistent whenever a change is made. If you also need the physical cabinet layout, we explain it in Eplan Pro Panel 3D.
Do your schematics match what is in your cabinets?
If the answer is "not quite", you are not alone. At Bluemation we work as an Eplan engineering company for industrial plants across Spain, with a regular presence in the Castellón ceramic cluster. Through our Eplan electrical design service we update, digitise and maintain your plant's electrical documentation, and if you need it we also build the control cabinets.
Tell us about your plant and we will propose a work plan that fits around your production shutdowns.