Challenge
Co-packing allows consumer packaged goods manufacturers faster turnaround times, greater flexibility, and often significant cost savings over doing it themselves. Successful co-packing relationships are based on good communication and the ability to measure, benchmark, and validate performance. When the largest independent beverage co-packer was facing data acquisition challenges from their manual performance monitoring system, the company needed to find an automated solution that could monitor real-time operations across its manufacturing sites.
Solution
The customer had been shopping around for this project. Others had quoted new “out of the box” options that included additional sensors & equipment, extended implementation times, and very lofty price tags. After building confidence and rapport through our Emergency Service Support visits, E Tech Group was asked to submit a proposal to deploy a robust data acquisition strategy that delivered an automated real-time performance monitoring system.
The customer was already using the Ignition industrial application platform from Inductive Automation. Ignition is developer-friendly and designed to be maintained at the customer level. The customer owns the data, and it is exportable in multiple formats. There are no subscription fees, so the ongoing maintenance costs are very low. Instead of adding another system like others had proposed, the E Tech Group team innovated the solution to expand on Ignition’s unlimited and fully customizable system that could efficiently provide real-time data to monitor performance.
Results
E Tech Group’s Senior Controls Engineer certified in Ignition designed an automated downtime performance monitoring and reporting system that would give the beverage co-packer visibility to metrics across multiple locations. Aiming to utilize existing sensors to save on hardware costs, several programmable logic controllers would need reprogramming. Remote development enabled E Tech Group to accomplish this without site visits, increasing their efficiency and the implementation time. Effectively employing this agile system resulted in significant cost savings for the beverage co-packer and provided the necessary tools to take their business to the next level.
Increasing Throughput Capacity at a Global Parcel Hub
A global parcel service reached out to E Tech Group when they were asked to increase their throughput. Our engineers helped them meet peak-season demand through our turnkey material handing controls systems to improve the capacity of one of their more dated hubs.
The Project: End-to-End Automation System Upgrades
A global parcel service reached out to E Tech Group after being tasked with increasing throughput capacity in one of their older hubs prior to the peak season for shipping. The turnkey project involved upgrades to 70% of the site’s control systems, along with expansion of the control room and package handling systems.
E Tech Group was responsible for every aspect of this building-wide automation upgrade, including:
- Engineering design
- Software design
- Procurement and installation of all electrical hardware
- Start-up and validation of the updated control systems
Once the new systems were implemented, integrated facility-wide and validated, our automation team provided ongoing support through the course of their peak period.
Challenges
- The project start date was delayed condensing the original schedule down from 9 months to 5 months
- The scope of work had to be planned sequentially because each upgrade was dependent on the previous one
- The mechanical upgrades had to be completed prior to control system completion, further limiting installation and start-up windows
- All installation and start-up work had to be completed during weekly downtime windows that started Saturday mornings and ended at 11:00 AM on Monday
- Both mechanical and electrical equipment deliveries were “just in time” and sometimes late, requiring a very agile installation and start-up team
- While the customer had very detailed specifications, many exceptions were allowed so that the new installations would match the existing operation. This required more rigor during definition to review prior precedents set at the hub.
Solution
A dedicated E Tech Group project team was deployed to the site to complete definition through both audits and reviews. The project team produced a highly-detailed report with a list of exceptions to the customer’s specifications. These exceptions were submitted to the customer for approval prior to the start of the design.
Our automation engineers worked with the customer’s mechanical consultants to develop and then continuously refine plans to sequentially install the control system upgrades in scope blocks that could fit into short downtime windows. In several instances, multiple E Tech Group teams were deployed to the site simultaneously to work in different areas.
Our engineering design team also worked to standardize new electrical panel designs so they could easily be adjusted from one area to another with minimal notice, if required. The automation software was also standardized across the facility to make it more easily supportable during deployment and ongoing.
Once installation began, our engineers deployed full site management to the hub to oversee all deliveries and installation activities. E Tech Group’s site manager was also the single point of contact for the hub manager and the mechanical consultant, creating a seamless communication channel from the customer to the E Tech Group project team.
There were several challenges associated with the successful completion of this project, ranging from tightly-scheduled downtime to dealing with delayed equipment deliveries. Our engineers closely managed the project and evolved the highly-detailed schedule to accommodate the customer’s needs.
The Results: Exceeding the Client’s Automation Expectations
This turnkey systems upgrade required rigorous planning and constant communication, making thorough and collaborative project management essential. After completing this project on time and on budget despite all the obstacles, E Tech Group has been awarded several other projects with this customer at the same facility.
For manufacturers with multiple locations, finding an automation company you can rely on for projects across facilities is key to operational integrity and consistency in each plant. E Tech Group cultivates these symbiotic long-term relationships through a unique brand of project management, focused on close collaboration with the client and strategic control system design that allows the facility to improve, adapt and scale.