Danone SA, part of the Danone group, entrusted the implementation of its manufacturing execution system (MES) to Siemens. The focus of the project is the management of the filling lines and the ERP integration of two of its plants in Spain. The Siemens MES solution Simatic IT automates and integrates production processes. Themis, the SAP version designed for Danone, can now achieve overall integration through a single interface.
The Danone group is widely recognised for the dynamism and strength of its brands. It was among the first to recognise the need for a wider variety of healthy, easy to consume any time, anywhere foods. The Group is number one worldwide in fresh dairy products and packaged water and number two worldwide in biscuits and cereal snacks.
The solution that was initially implemented to cover plant information and key performance indicator (KPI) management of the filling lines was so successful that Danone Spain decided to turn to Siemens and Simatic IT once more for help. It needed a seamless integration of Themis, the Danone worldwide ERP system, with the different plant systems of the plant in Parets del Vallès and the plant in Aldaia.
The IT challenge
The plants in Parets and Aldaia required an MES system for the filling lines that would end the paper-based maintenance and distribution of plant data that was causing waste, errors and delays and resulted in poor KPIs. A tighter integration between different processes and systems was needed to avoid the same information having to be manually introduced and processed within different plant systems.
MES solution with Simatic IT
In the first phase, Simatic IT was introduced to address the need for a management system in the filling lines. This required monitoring of the plant area, data acquisition and KPIs, production order management, batch management, operator management, maintenance operations management and quality data acquisition among others. In the second phase, Simatic IT was implemented as the data integration platform between Themis (SAP) and the three main plant areas: processing, filling and packaging, and incubation. The production data flow from the entire production line to SAP is now handled by Simatic IT.
The interaction basically consists of four interfaces. Once a day all product related Master Data, such as product data, BOM, and Production data, is downloaded from ERP to MES, which then distributes this data to the rest of the plant systems. Production Orders are also downloaded from ERP to all the plant systems through Simatic IT once a day. The Order Status is uploaded in realtime from MES to SAP. Every time the status of an order changes in the filling lines, ERP receives a message from MES with information about performance and order times. An Inbound Order Confirmation takes place for every pallet that is produced. This consists of an online message from MES to SAP with relevant information about this pallet.
Standardised approach
The Simatic IT implementation at Danone is a clear demonstration that the new approach of MES resulted in savings and better integration of earlier IT investments. Simatic IT follows the ISA-95 international standard, guaranteeing future proof technology. It combines a stable, standard product with the capability to adapt it to specific manufacturing processes at other Danone plants. This is due in part to the use of libraries that allow storing of functionality and plant models for later deployment.
Simatic IT thus combines the advantages of a standard product with those of a tailored solution, capable of addressing all of Danone's particular quality and production issues. Simatic IT now serves as the platform coordinating and modelling the production processes of the different Danone plants. Its integration capabilities cover the entire plant, from the automation level up to the ERP level, delivering the functionality required for optimised production management and control.
Starting from the automation level of the plant, Simatic IT will collect the relevant field data in realtime and archive it for later analysis. Continuous monitoring of KPIs increases responsiveness to any event, resulting in improved overall process management. The integration with the ERP level, which was realised through Simatic IT Server, allows continuous and transparent information flow between the different plant systems and SAP.
Simatic IT covers the MES level at Danone Spain, acting as the single interface communicator between the enterprise-wide business system SAP where high-level decisions on production are taken and the production process. Simatic IT also offers the functionality to provide flawless collection, management and presentation of appropriate data, all according to Danone specifications. Simatic IT offers top-down visibility within Danone plants and production process, allowing the full configuration of tracking and tracing functions with its built-in capability for upstream or downstream product genealogy. This function allows tracking of which batches were used for a specific product and which end products result from a specific batch. In case of a product recall, the product genealogy helps to identify risks and reach timely decisions on appropriate actions to limit damage and liability.
Multiple benefits
The automation of the information flow results in an optimised availability of production information, from production management to plant systems and vice versa. The results and KPIs from production data collection are now available online. The automatic realtime data integration between the plant systems ensures top-down plant visibility. The automatic quality data acquisition and maintenance management puts Danone in a particularly strong position in terms of regulatory compliance requirements. The Simatic IT solution proved to be so flexible that the redesigned and modified concepts and data flows from the existing plants can be implemented in new production lines as well. Simatic IT has armed Danone Spain with the capabilities it needs to face future challenges, consumer requirements and changing regulatory standards.
For more information contact Keshin Govender, Siemens Southern Africa, +27 (0)11 652 2412, [email protected], www.siemens.co.za
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