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Automation Today

• Overview:
  Information helps to set targets

News and events

• Research reveals the pressure on beverage manufacturers
• Tire Technology exhibition
• The manufacturing event of the year
• Event diary

Feature story

• How staff at all levels can capture, manipulate, interpret and make use of data to create a competitive advantage

Case studies

• Schröter Technologie
• CSL Behring AG
• PepsiAmericas
• DFE Meincke

Using manufacturing as a competitive advantage

Beverage producers face unique pressures based on the type of products that they produce. Whether it’s soft drinks, beer, spirits, wine or water, each production run is its own chemistry lesson. Adding raw materials in a controlled fashion, extracting, blending or filtering with a high level of precision, or heating or cooling to drive a chemical reaction – all are critical steps toward producing a finished product that will fly off the shelves.

Industry leaders in the beverage sector are gaining their competitive advantage by optimising their manufacturing operations through the use of flexible manufacturing technologies. With integrated control and information infrastructures based on standard methodologies, they are delivering products that address shifting consumer preferences, reaching new markets and demographics, while minimising overall costs and – most importantly – ensuring consistent freshness and taste to protect and bolster the brand image.

There are a host of variables that can impact manufacturing processes, many of which can be managed and controlled through the use of flexible manufacturing technology. Lowering production costs can significantly increase a beverage manufacturer’s bottom line – there are several ways to streamline these costs. Automation systems that reduce variability, producing a product the same way, each and every time are both more productive and cost efficient.

Production and data management software systems that manage and track product recipes and production processes, and subsequently compare them with quality data, can help ensure product consistency and repeatability. With optimised production operations and repeatable processes, manufacturers can increase throughput, improve yield and achieve consistent product quality. If customers find their beverage of choice tastes different depending on when or where they buy it, they’ll likely move to another brand, making maintenance of beverage market share difficult if not impossible.

The increased adoption of manufacturing standards has greatly improved the integration of processes and equipment and has helped simplify the programming, configuration and communication between system components. This, in turn, has helped reduce production costs, assisted with regulatory compliance and enhanced the ability of manufacturers to respond quickly to market demands. Rockwell Automation is working with beverage producers to help them establish consistency through the use of global standards such as ISA S88/95 and the open environment of our Integrated Architecture.

Integrated architecture provides beverage manufacturers with a single information management and control platform that is capable of real-time control, communication and visualisation for seamless information exchange. It is scaleable and configurable to comply with OEM and machine builder standards for improved equipment performance, reduced commissioning and changeover time and faster delivery. The architecture is multi-disciplined, providing high-level control for discrete, process or batch operations, further reducing cost and improving uptime.

The integrated control platform offered by Integrated Architecture allows manufacturers to oscillate from one product to another with minimal operator involvement. With just a few touches of the human-machine interface (HMI) screen, the same line can produce a diet or flavoured version of a drink, for example, and operators can be confident that all batches will be produced in a consistent manner, because of the system’s integrated control architecture.

The beverage industry is so wide and diverse that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will rarely work. Successful beverage manufacturers partner with automation providers that understand the issues facing their industry and know how to implement solutions that work in their unique facilities. Automation providers need to know how to take advantage of the standardisation of codes and controls, such as ISA S88/95 mentioned above. Knowing how to integrate those standards into beverage production facilities is paramount. Experienced automation providers will know how to integrate and schedule beverage production systems, whether it is process or raw material control. More accurate production control can lead to greater yield, less waste and more profitable production.

Automation systems can be programmed to react immediately to a host of production variables, such as raw materials from a different supplier. When automation providers have specific experience in beverage production, the overall manufacturing system will be more responsive, effective and efficient.

Flexible and responsive production is crucial to meet fast-changing consumer demands and to quickly bring products to market. If consumers want flavoured, vitamin-enhanced water, producers must get it on the shelves. If they want low-carb beer, brewers must make it and get it on the shelves. In short, companies have to be capable of producing whatever is necessary to meet customer demand and in a timely manner.

To handle this business model, manufacturers must be extremely co-ordinated and responsive. Fortunately, the days of scheduling production runs on spreadsheets are rapidly disappearing. Today, advanced Manufacturing Execution Systems are helping beverage manufacturers be more agile and responsive by developing comprehensive inventory and order-tracking solutions and state-of-the-art scheduling technology. If a manufacturer receives a notice that it needs to boost its production of a diet drink can, with a quick check on plant floor resources and the touch a few buttons on HMI screens, quickly reschedule production to begin making the product.

How well you select and apply automation technology can have a huge impact on your bottom line – will you sell more and increase market share? Your chances are certainly better if you have a flexible manufacturing system that is responsive and can deliver what your customers want, when they want it. Moreover, with your ability to reduce process variation and ensure consistent product quality, you can lower your production costs and increase your bottom line even further.