Digital Revitalization of a Cocoa Bean Roasting Plant

A customer from the chocolate industry wanted a continuous system to automatically transmit production orders from the ERP to production.

Challenge and Objective

The customer’s original problem was an outdated control system at the entire site. The service from the previous provider was very slow in case of errors. Only a small interface existed between the ERP and the control system. Our customer therefore wanted to map order-based production data in the ERP and also have extensive reporting options. It was also important to the customer to have a reliable partner who is reachable and, above all, acts quickly when a problem occurs.

The objective for integrating the last missing production area into the control system was to keep plant operation as simple as possible. The most important thing is to maintain process functionality and incorporate the customer’s improvement requests, gained from years of operating the plant, into the programming. Close coordination with the operating personnel is essential for the acceptance of new operating software.

Solution

During a multi-day on-site survey, the plant’s process flows were documented, and experiences and improvement suggestions were also gathered from the operating personnel. Afterward, a requirements specification was created with the customer, thus ensuring the required functionality.

During the subsequent creation of the software, visualization, and preparation of the electrical documentation, the current status of the programming was assessed weekly and aligned with the schedule. Any ambiguities in the program flow were clarified directly with the customer.

After the electrical adaptation to the plant, which was necessary for the new control system, commissioning could begin. This consists of several 2-day blocks. The operating personnel support us, which has significant advantages:

Quick access to plant know-how, e.g., where to find which valves.
The customer’s employees immediately come into contact with the new visualization and actively participate. This ensures higher acceptance of new technologies, even among personnel who have been with our customer for over 30 years.

Particularly clever: Between the implementation of the individual work steps, the customer can continue to operate the plant with the old system. This keeps production downtime to a minimum and reduces pressure on the commissioning team.

After the last commissioning block, the plant then remains on the new ProLeiT process control system, and we start production together with the customer. After an optimization and correction period, acceptance takes place.

Benefits

In the future, the customer will be able to automatically transmit production orders from the ERP to production. Starting from the weighing processes of individual components across all production sites to the molding plant, a continuous system is used. In addition to time savings, seamless recording of all relevant production data for the order is possible to ensure impeccable reporting. Through concluded service contracts with our partner company SPIE ESCAD Austria, the customer’s investment in the new process control system is secured long-term.

In addition to the other production areas, cocoa bean production can now also be controlled from the entire site (via remote maintenance from anywhere). This allows for much faster reaction to production abnormalities.

About our customer
Our customer is a large Austrian chocolate producer who wants to modernize and digitize their cocoa bean roasting plant.

Industry
Food Production

ProLeiT as a cross-industry process control system bundles all important factors of a production site to control, log, and optimize quality and quantity. Due to the extensive nature of this software, other programs and their interfaces can be saved.

Stefan Wimmer
Project Manager Control Technology
SPIE ESCAD Austria GmbH

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