Part I discussed the international success had by South African Breweries and the vital importance of consistent product quality – with beer consumers being arguably amongst the most fickle of customers. SAB chose Rockwell Automation based on their ability to work together to develop a methodology that the producer could transport to its different breweries, helping SAB to reduce engineering time.
A partnership by design
Rockwell Automation applied its standard methodology to SAB's processes by developing a full requirements document and a full process-oriented functional specification. Its engineers spent 16 weeks onsite at the pilot site for the Brewhouse upgrade, working with SAB to research and gather information that was then developed into a process definition document. Rockwell Automation and SAB continued to work closely with one another, even throughout the design phase, which both parties say helped reduce surprises and set project expectations. During the design process, Rockwell Automation employed the S88 principle, using a high degree of modularity, standard application modules and templates, which SAB worked with RA to develop using some of the standards they already had in place.
Rockwell Automation replaced the central processing units (CPU) of the existing older generation Allen-Bradley system with modern Allen-Bradley ControlLogix controllers and installed Rockwell Software RSBizWare Batch with RSBizWare MaterialTrack to manage the brewing process.
Based on the international batch control standard ISA S88, RSBizWare Batch software allows users to define process control equipment and manufacturing procedures separately. RSBizWare MaterialTrack provides realtime material management and traceability, and logs lot and sublot information on a per batch basis. When used with the RSBizWare Batch, MaterialTrack can create material-based recipes, significantly reducing the number of recipes to manage. It can also provide a single point of connectivity for managing, storing, and distributing material information throughout the enterprise, allowing for optimisation of inventory.
A successful mission
For SAB, the benefits of storing recipes electronically include better product consistency, faster start up times when switching plants to a different brand, a more accurate record of the ingredients and processing that produced a particular batch and the ability to predict with more certainty which plants will be able to successfully produce a particular brand.
"We had reached the older PLC's programming capacity limits and could not achieve improved quality of the product or more flexible production output while we were constrained by the old control system," said Lötz. "By upgrading the CPUs and moving the master recipes to a more flexible and user friendly PC environment, the agility of the plant has been increased with no loss of productivity or product quality."
In addition to automating and optimising as much of the process as possible, the new system records a wealth of valuable product and production information, including precise tracking of the materials and process parameters that went into the production of a particular batch.
"Visibility of capacity utilisation plays a huge role in increasing the business value of individual components in the brewing process," said Lötz. "Materials tracking forms the basis of this visualisation and the fact that this was integrated with batch processing made implementation far easier."
In what Lötz describes as a 'mutual-learning process', Rockwell Automation personnel gained an in-depth understanding of the brewing process, while transferring their knowledge of S88 system implementation to SAB's engineers.
"The major factor in going with Rockwell Automation was its skilled people who combined knowledge of the software and hardware with an understanding of our business principles," said Lötz. "We were looking for a business solution, not just a software package, and they supported us through the critical project specification development and implementation phases."
The successful implementation of S88 at its Alrode and other facilities has given SAB confidence to consider the next stage - the introduction of a higher-level management system based on S95. This system will cover discrete operations such as packaging as well as the batch control system, and provide better information back to management as well as enabling the plant to respond in a more agile way to production schedule changes.
"Rockwell Automation understood our requirements, the project plan was well prepared and the project execution met all our deadlines," said Lötz. "I believe Rockwell Automation is committed to our relationship and that it can be grown into the future."
Jeff Sandison, Rockwell Automation
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