Effective Integration for FMCG
Autocoding Systems delivers complete manufacturing systems to the demanding FMCG market. Autocoding Systems move products through various inspection and packaging stages and apply vital product date code marking. Incorrect or illegible product marking means that the product cannot be shipped and may have to be scrapped. Looking for a single point supplier of industrial computing and control hardware Autocoding has standardised upon products and services from SolutionsPT’s specialist division, HardwarePT.
Autocoding is a specialist designer and integrator of systems for marking and other functional machinery that is usually found at the end of FMCG production lines. The product is in its retail packaging, or it has its retail label. It now has to be marked for batch and “best by” date coding, go though various check weighing, detection and inspection machines and be trade packed and labelled, palletised and then stretch wrapped, ready for transfer to the outgoing warehouse.
The marking has to the accurate and legible. The specialist marking, detection, handling, inspection and labelling machinery is all manufactured by other OEM companies. AutoCoding undertakes the turnkey integration of these to produce effective and reliable manufacturing systems. This requires expertise in data handling, marking technology, material handling and their effective combination and integration, Autocoding Systems software is the solution for this.
Autocoding has a different architecture to competitive systems which tend to have a central unit to which all devices are directly connected. Given that a single failure in such as system can bring manufacturing to a halt with minutes then better consideration is needed to the consequential effects of equipment failure. Accordingly Autocoding system software runs on a server that is connected to line controllers (touch screens with local PC’s) this solution allows important data to be distributed to the production floor. If the server fails (for any reason) then production is not critically affected and all acquired data is stored and forwarded upon resumption of server services. In larger schemes the server acts as an integrator to ERP systems using S95 models, for scheduling and other enterprise tasks.
To make their system deliver uptime Autocoding needed cost effective and reliable IT and control equipment. In looking for a supplier Carsten Soerensen, Operations Director, said, “SolutionsPT is an Advantech Premier partner and has other vendor’s devices that are useful to us, and we can now get this from a single source that has comprehensive support.”
Carsten utilises Advantech compact single board PC’s with touch screens (allowing flexible application in many differing requirements), passive data acquisition from the ADAM range, and Ethernet networking products. A key use in this is the role of ADAM IO units. Instead of interfering with tested OEM PLC and machine controller’s software Carsten takes a zero risk approach by picking up equipment electrical voltage states which represent whether a machine is switched on or a motor is running etc. From this the all important “machine saturated or hungry” information can be synthesised
ADAM is ideal for this “piggy back” data acquisition as the range has many variants to allow for differing digital and analogue signals (outputs as well as inputs) and this simply puts all such data onto Ethernet via a Modbus protocol. As Carsten puts it, “There is always a bit of DIN rail in the cubicle to clip an ADAM on to.” Like many things, the elegance is the simplicity.
What Autocoding’s customers receive is a solution that allows fully integrated production without affecting critical machine cycle time, and with clear operator displays of machine status and controls. The key date coding is an area that is critical to FMCG success, the slightest error here having enormous consequential cost. AutoCoding system software with its reliable distributed architecture fully automates the task; a task which is at its most vulnerable during batch changeovers (which are typically every 20 minutes). Using AutoCoding the date coding information is supplied automatically – removing potential process operator errors.
AutoCoding manufacturing information software with a standardised set of configurable Advantech hardware solutions provides real and measurable production advantages for FMCG processors. This is with full data handling and report generation, using Advantech server technology that is also full supported through configuration, documentation and testing by SolutionsPT – a partnership with a marked advantage!
