Schneider Electric to Name Winners of Software OPEN Contest | Automation World

The winners of the Schneider Electric Software OPEN contest will be announced tomorrow in a special awarding ceremony at the Global Customer User Conference.

“We’ve had a fairly good number of quality entries from some of our best customers,” said Jay David, Global Software marketing specialist and manager of the contest. “Winners are selected based on the impact the solution has on product quality, productivity, ROI, energy savings, customer responsiveness and faster time to market. Entries were judged by a team made up of industry experts, trade magazine editors, industry analysts and Schneider Electric executives.”

Read the full posting at the Automation World website.

F&N Dairies Thailand manufactures 2,500 cans a minute = 3 million cans a day = 24 million cases a year

F&N Dairies Thailand, the largest canned milk manufacturer in the world, achieves significant savings in production, logistics and inventory costs with Wonderware MES software

Results:

• The plant achieved its production goal of 2,500 cans a minute = 3 million cans a day = 24 million cases a year

• It reduced quality traceability time from 4 hours to only 1 minute

• The manufacturing facility achieved its return on investment within one year

• The plant achieved “100% First-Time Quality,” a lean metric that indicates what parts are manufactured correctly the first time without need for inspection, rework or replacement.

The plant achieved its production goal of 2,500 cans a minute = 3 million cans a day = 24 million cases a year

Schneider Electric Software OPEN contest attracts key customers

We’ve had a fairly good number of quality entries from some of our best customers like Shell, New Belgium Brewing, Accenture, Campbell Soup, Barcelona Airport, Carpenter Technology, F&N Dairies, Network Rail and Chevron.

Who is going to win the individual categories? Who is going to win the grand pinnacle prize?

Attend the user conference in Orlando and find out.

The Barcelona El Prat Airport is entered in the Schneider Electric Software OPEN Contest

Join the Schneider Electric Software OPEN Contest!

We've extended the Schneider Electric Software OPEN Contest deadline to September 23, 2014.

This is really a great opportunity for you and your team to be recognized as world class game changers.

OPEN Categories 

We are looking for applications built with Schneider Electric Software offerings in the following categories:

• HMI and Supervisory Control Excellence
• Manufacturing Operations Management Excellence
• Production Information Management Excellence
• Asset Excellence
• Planning and Scheduling Excellence
• Optimization/Simulation Excellence

Wonderware Teacups

When I was still working in Asia-Pacific, we gave out custom made, limited edition teacups to customers, partners and friends. They are priceless now.

Reusable engineering at New Belgium Brewing

The flexibility and scalability of the Wonderware MES software has enabled New Belgium to customize its product packaging systems to meet its unique requirements for the efficient flow of captured production management data from the plant floor systems.

“The model-driven approach of Wonderware System Platform gives us the ultimate platform for expansion when the customer wants to extend their MES system up, down, or sideways,” said Sam Vail, chief strategy officer at Apex Manufacturing Solutions. “With this unique scalability, we can start small without having to worry about switching to a different technology when the solution heads into uncharted territory. Application Server allows the Apex team to have a ‘can do’ attitude, regardless of the situation or industry.” 

The Wonderware software solution at New Belgium Brewing can now quickly and easily replicate these automation processes at other areas of the company with its reusable engineering application. This provides for the customization of the same approach and design to align with New Belgium’s unique look and feel across multiple locations. Reusable engineering in regards to objects and graphics allow Apex to provide a scalable solution that’s economical in scale for the customer as new areas of the plant are introduced into the reporting and graphics infrastructure concerning Performance.

“The ability to customize the graphics provided by the Wonderware MES enabled Apex to develop a system that could effectively communicate the line status and production capacities in the New Belgium bottling and packaging lines, while at the same time illustrate the company’s unique company culture with engaging graphics,” Vail said. “Screen data shows what order is being worked on, what is coming next, and how the current rate compares to their standard.” 

“New Belgium gave us a lot of leeway with development of the graphics to make the system engaging and fun to work with. We wanted to make sure the User Interface Experience (UIX) of this system was aligned with New Belgium’s culture, which made it very unique! Operator support is critical in any Continuous Improvement project, so the terminology and workflow needed to match their expectations, and because a real-time version of the display is seen on the public tour, we created unique InTouch graphics that were consistent with all the cool things the visitors had already seen along the way.”

More information

Please visit the following links if you want to know more about the Wonderware solution at New Belgium Brewing:

1. The Wonderware Food and Beverage page
2. The Wonderware Supervisory and Control page
3. Wonderware InTouch
4. New Belgium Brewing Homepage
5. New Belgium Brewing Sustainability 

New Belgium Brewing: Improved Visibility Brings Increased Production Capacity

Before the implementation of the MES solution at New Belgium Brewing, the existing system provided huge amounts of data, but with no context. New Belgium’s management team needed a way to effectively collect and analyze that data in order to turn it into actionable information.

“At one point our filler was experiencing a significant amount of micro stops (30 sec., 20 sec., etc.) due to some bottles coming down the line that were falling down, or getting hung up on rails”, Herrick said. “The Wonderware software was able to provide us specific information related to these downtimes, so we had our team complete a Kaizan evaluation to figure out what we needed to do to improve it. “After three weeks into the process and seeing the results, we decreased our downtime by more than 50%. That is very significant for our business.”

By identifying the sources and the quantity of scheduled downtime as well as unscheduled downtime events, New Belgium could accurately track, record and address bottling performance.

In addition, the operators can maintain accurate packaging production schedules, and effectively manage the supply chain of materials needed during the packaging process such as bottle and can sizes, labels coinciding with each type of brew, as well as specific order requirements.

The software also provided for smoother transitions between shift changes by enabling the new shift to easily view what went on during the previous shifts, which help them identify potential issues that need to be addressed by the staff.

“Wonderware MES Performance Software coupled with New Belgium’s continuous improvement strategy, has increased our packaging line efficiency by 30%, saving us more than $400,000 annually in previously planned labor expenditures,” Herrick said. “It also has extended our packaging area capacity to about 1.3 million barrels each year. At this point, our approach to higher volumes is ‘bring it on.’”

More information

Please visit the following links if you want to know more about the Wonderware solution at New Belgium Brewing:

1. The Wonderware Food and Beverage page
2. The Wonderware Supervisory and Control page
3. Wonderware InTouch
4. New Belgium Brewing Homepage
5. New Belgium Brewing Sustainability