Product category:
Vision and scanning systems
News Release from: BarcoVision | Subject: Plantmaster
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 September 2005
Software monitors production and
scheduling
Portola Packaging has ordered a software system to provide production monitoring and scheduling for their Doncaster plant, which manufactures caps and closures.
Portola Packaging has ordered a software system to provide production monitoring and scheduling for their Doncaster plant, which manufactures caps and closures "The time had come to replace a manual system with proven real-time technology, which would give us accurate production output figures by machine to drive improved plant efficiency and reduction in scrap," said Richard Kirkland, regional finance director Europe
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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"When we first set up with 15 injection moulding machines, all running similar size tools and products, a manual system gave us adequate historical information.
However times have changed and we have now become the most complex packaging unit within the Group.
As our production became more varied and complex, so did the manual forms that the operators had to complete.
Consequently, we could not rely on them because they weren't accurate," Kirkland pointed out.
"It was particularly difficult to monitor the secondary equipment, where we had more breakdowns.
We knew that our Overall Equipment Effectiveness - OEE could definitely be improved by having the information in real-time and being able to redirect the labour.
Although we looked at other manufacturers' solutions, our plant manager (Stuart Barber), who is managing this project, had previous first hand experience of using the Barco system and regarded it as the number one brand," he maintained.
Kirkland continued: "Added to this, we wanted the convenience of a proven wireless system that was easy to install.
The Barco system will initially monitor 48 machines, which cover a mix of injection moulding machines ranging from 1600 to 4000kN, producing a wide variety of caps and closures, plus secondary operating machines including foil inserting, mechanical assembly and labelling equipment.
The Plantmaster scheduling module will also be linked in to Portola's existing ERP system.".
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