Tracking Information System from Cheese Vats to Barrels to Shipping
A cheese manufacturing plant required tracking of cheese from vat to barrel in a reliable electronic information system.
Challenge
A dated labeling information system was in place that was overly complex, required too much manual interaction, and routinely caused downtime. Operators worked off of printed sheets of the day’s orders, not allowing for changes to schedules and often leading to incorrect orders being worked on. The software was running on a Windows 7 FAT Computer on the floor with limited visibility. The plant was at risk as the software utilized several software components that were no longer supported, not reliable, and not secure. The plant runs 24/7/365. Only planned downtime of less than four hours in each instance was allowed.
Solution
Cybertrol’s PalletWorks solution was implemented, including:
- Specification and supply of new labeling equipment, including 2D bar codes
- A labeling solution that centralized in a virtual server infrastructure, allowing for backups and high availability
- Direct integration with ERP software and plant floor PLCs for seamless operation
- A new scheduling web application that allowed supervisors to create orders, drag and drop the sequence, and have it automatically appear on the operator’s HMI
- Checks put in place to reduce operator errors
- Detailed logs made available to internal IT resources for report generation, giving supervisors more details
Results
The solution improved efficiency creating and changing order scheduling, greatly reduced operator error, increased visibility plantwide, and reduced maintenance overhead. The system was installed and validated during very short downtime windows of less than four hours, causing no unplanned downtime for the plant. In its first year, 400,000 barrels were created, 100,000 pallets were created, 200,000,000 pounds of cheese were tracked, operator errors were reduced by 90%, and time to fix operator error was reduced by 500%.
