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Superior Controls Implements Ocean Spray Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) Project
January 21, 2009
Packaging Digest details how Superior Controls helped Ocean Spray optimize their new packaging line:
"To optimize the packaging line's operation, Ocean Spray brought in systems integrator Superior Controls, Inc., which
installed a manufacturing execution system (MES) that will allow Ocean Spray's team to continually monitor and improve the packaging line's operation."
Packaging Digest, January 1, 2009
The MES system installed is Proficy Plant Applications from GE Fanuc Automation, Inc. Superior
Controls project manager Sean
Hoffman led the systems integrator's efforts for the project, which took the off-the-shelf MES product and optimized it for the Craisins® 100-calorie
pack line.
The customized software monitors and reports overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). As a key performance
indicator in lean-manufacturing efforts, OEE
offers a quantifiable way to report overall utilization of facilities, time and material. Critical information collected by the MES includes reporting
downtime and runtime as well as the reasons for downtime.
Designed to digitize and collect information generated throughout a production facility, Proficy Plant
Applications creates what GE Fanuc describes as
a "virtual plant". A packaging-line manager or operator can access the information on-demand, then use the data to measure performance in real time.
"The software will help as Ocean Spray ramps the line up, and they can see exactly where the problems
occur," Superior Controls president Rick Pierro
explains.
The information collected by Ocean Spray can be used to continually improve the Craisins® 100-calorie pack
line, and, potentially, enable Ocean Spray
to
create better SDC packaging lines in the future.
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