Digital revitalization of a cocoa bean roasting plant

A customer in the chocolate industry wanted to automatically transfer production orders from the ERP system to production using an end-to-end system.

Challenge and Objective

The customer’s original issue was an outdated control system across the entire site. In the event of a fault, the previous provider’s service was very slow. There was only a small interface between the ERP system and the control system. The customer therefore wanted to map order-based production data in the ERP system and also have extensive reporting capabilities. It was also important to the customer to have a reliable partner who is available and, above all, acts quickly when a problem occurs.

The goal for integrating the last remaining production area into the control system was to keep plant operation as simple as possible. The most important thing is to retain the process functionality and incorporate the customer’s improvement requests—gained through years of operating the plant—into the programming. Close coordination with the operating staff is essential for acceptance of new operating software.

Solution

During a multi-day on-site assessment, the plant’s process sequences were documented, and the operating staff were also asked for their experience and suggestions for improvement. A functional specification was then created with the customer, ensuring the required functionality.

During the subsequent development of the software, visualization, and preparation of the electrical documentation, the current programming status was reviewed weekly and aligned with the schedule. Any uncertainties in the program sequence were clarified directly with the customer.

After the electrical modifications to the plant required for the new control system, commissioning could begin. This consists of several 2-day blocks. The operating staff support us in this, which has key advantages:

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

Especially 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 within limits and reduces the pressure on the commissioning team.

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

Benefits

In the future, the customer will be able to automatically transfer production orders from the ERP system to production. Starting with the weighing processes for individual components, across all production areas through to the chocolate bar line, work will be carried out with an end-to-end system. In addition to saving time, it will be possible to record all relevant production data for each order without gaps, ensuring flawless reporting. With service contracts in place with our partner company SPIE ESCAD Austria, the customer’s investment in the new process control system is secured for the long term.

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

About our customer
Our customer is a major Austrian chocolate producer that wants to modernize and digitize its cocoa bean roasting plant.

Industry
Food production

As an industry-independent process control system, ProLeiT brings together all the key factors of a production site to monitor, log, and optimize quality and quantity. Thanks to the breadth of this software, other programs and their interfaces can be eliminated.

Stefan Wimmer
Project Manager, Control Engineering
SPIE ESCAD Austria GmbH

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