As one of two Automation Business Directors at Rockbrook my responsibilites are:Ensure a constant stream of opportunities to our automation teams operating in the industrial and commercial building sector wth specific focus on solutions for infrastructure in Ireland and Europe.Ensure project execution teams are supported in all aspects of project delivery.Specific focus on business development, commercial managment, business optimisation, strategy, quality systems and standard operating procedures.Specific focus on establishing Rockbrook as a leading automation resurce and project delivery partner to the Pharmaceutical, Biologics and Biotech industry.

Below is a summary of tasks and projects undertaken that were required to build and establish Rockbrook Engineering as a major supplier of electrical, mechanical and automation solutions to both the large commercial and state infrastructure industry.Feb ‘07 to Jan ’08 – Establishment of Rockbrook BTA Division. Assessment of the market, its needs and opportunities for market entry. Amalgamation of Rockbrook’s extensive electrical, mechanical, process and automation experience into this new venture. First large scale Building Management System completed at Guinness Storehouse.Feb ’08 to Dec ’09 – Extensive system development for systems requiring automation within buildings. These included Lighting Control, Energy Management, Building Management, Security, Power Management and Quality Systems. All systems were developed and built using open protocol globally certified technologies such as KNX, Modbus and TCP. A lack of an integrated approach to building automation was identified and development focused on this. Finished System branded as iFMS (integrated Facility Management System).Jan ’10 to Nov ’10 – First major roll out of our building automation solutions to major commercial and infrastructure projects including AVIVA Stadium (Lighting Control and Power Management System), Convention Centre Dublin (Lighting Control and Building Automation System Integration).Jan ’11 to Aug '17 – Established market position as integrated building automation systems turnkey provider and built highly competent design, engineering and commissioning team. Key projects include Microsoft Data Centres DUB 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 (Grangecastle), Paypal Phase 1, 2 & 3 (Dundalk), Dublin Port Tunnel, Waterford Regional Hospital, Wexford Regional Hospital, Curraheen Hospital, Waterford Museum, Dell, BSkyB (Ireland & UK), Apple, Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Siemens MedDx, Siemens Ireland HQ, St. Mels Cathedral Redevelopment, Kingspan, Kerry Foods Global Innovation Centre.

Working with the Central Utilities Team at Wyeth Grangecastle the requirements for this project were to re-automate and optimize the operation of the entire chilled water distribution system that provides water for production to all site manufacturing and storage buildings. Chilled water was generated for the site through a vast and complex set of water cooling towers, chilled water generators and various pumping and pressure control sets. An extensive survey of the operation of the existing system was first undertaken followed by rectification of the operational issues experienced by the client. When the system was established as operating to its original design intent without previous stablity issues the task of optimization began. Through redesign and implementation of software control strategies and assessment of actual site requirements the process of reducing the over utilization of highly energy intensive chilled water production equipment was completed. The end client assessed that energy savings of €130,000 per annum on distribution and €3000 per day on generation were achieved by implementation of this project.

Following a request for expertise in Siemens Automation Systems I provided engineering skills and expertise for Simatic S7 and Simatic WinCC SCADA including audit trailing modules. The main objective of the project was to provide a full turnkey automation solution which included automation design, engineering, validation and commissioning.

Automation Lead Engineer for Siemens Germany during the Guinness Brewery, St. James Gate Dublin “P7” brewery upgrade project. The main focus of this project was to increase the production capacity of the Diageo St. James Gate brewing facility from 4 million to 6.5 million hectoliters per annum. This was achieved by addition of site wide process improvements, decreasing vessel turn around times, implementation of four independent wort streams for the Brewhouse Plant and the addition of 2 new dual purpose maturation/fermentation vessels to the Fermentation and Blending plant. Also the entire Brewhouse CIP regime was redesigned to allow for more rigorous production demands and decrease in CIP time. Key responsibilities were addition of a new Ziemann mash vessel for the Brewhouse and its integration into the existing control system and implementation of new CIP regimes for the entire Brewhouse Plant. In addition to the automation tasks required I was heavily involved in the electrical, mechanical and process flow design for this project.

Working as an Automation Lead within the Integrated Commissioning & Validation (ICV) group my key responsibilities for this project were to direct automation commissioning and validation of all Vendor Package Equipment (VPE) in the Drug Substance and Drug Product Buildings. Assigning team members to equipment and scheduling work packages to meet the site schedule was a critical part of my role. Also commissioning, debugging and writing software solutions to problems encountered with the VPE was required as well as source code reviews and protocol generation and execution during validation activities. Outside of management activities my direct equipment work related to commissioning water and clean steam utility systems (WIFI) as well as ultrafiltration, diafiltration and chromatography systems for the final purification and fill stages of production.

Working with Siemens on the Schering Plough Avondale site my main repsonsibilities were validation of legacy Automated Systems. Key responsibilities included reverse engineering of automated centrifuge systems in order to produce documentation to GAMP and cGMP regulatory standard and satisfy Schering Plough World Wide Quality Standards. This involved detailed code walk throughs of the existing software, operational analysis and interfacing with production reactors for the manufacture of an anti-histamine drug. A full document suite to the standards specified was required followed by execution of Installation and Operational Qualification Protocols generated through application of the updated validation system for this equipment.

Automation Applications Engineer for the production control system installation at St. James Gate for the Brewhouse and FBP (Fermentation & Blending Plant). During the Brewhouse phase of the GIANT project my initial responsibilities were to aid in the development of a software standard for the brewing batch control system. This standard was implemented for all vessel, additive addition and product transfer programs by each specific area development team that in total comprised of sixty-three automation engineers. On completion of the software standard my key responsibility was Automation Lead for the Yeast Production, Recovery and Fermentation Suites of the Fermentation and Blending Plant. My team of six engineers undertook development of all user interface, batch system, batch-recording configuration and integration with Guinness Business and Quality Systems for these suites. Yeast Production and Recovery encompassed many different processes with primary focus on generation of viable Yeast Cell structures to maintain Guinness Quality Standards during the Fermentation Process. The Fermentation Suite encompassed a series of Cylindroconical Fermentors where control of Wort and Yeast Dosing, Gravity Adjustment, Co2 Recovery from Fermentation, Pressure and Temperature Control and Fermentor FOB Control were central to production. Commissioning was executed while the plant was in full production and a requirement of zero downtime and no loss of production was within the remit of this project.