Problem:
This brewerys bottling department production managers required a data display system that would allow any member of the management team to enter the bottling department and be able to determine the production status of all bottling lines and current SKUs within two minutes. Management felt that this would reduce the overall changeover time due to operators retrieving information from CRT kiosks. Management also wanted to reduce bottling line fault corrections, which were taking too long due to excessive fault detection time.
Solution:
Management elected to use three double-sided LED Displayed. They were placed in three separate strategic locations where they could be viewed from any area in the bottling department. Key data regarding job percent complete, production volume per line, and alarm status were presented real-time. An added benefit included the ability for all line workers to view data on all bottling lines so that they may assist line managers as production issues occur. This collaborative effort supported this brewerys focus on team building and increased their flexibility in the working environment.
Data Source:
All production data and batch information is being collected and managed by an SAP database software system. The LED Displays allowed an effortless query of the production database for specific information, without expending a great deal of development time. They used Microsoft Excel and were able to show production information in both tabular and graphical formats.
ROI:
The total system cost including installation, training, integration, and hardware was just under $100,000. Reduced production overruns (reduced inventory), quicker changeover times, and improved machine uptime due to quicker fault acknowledgments, produced enough savings to provide a 30-60 day return on investment.