Backward compatibility
Perhaps the biggest challenge involves the latest in industrial controls and data management systems. To identify costs that directly impact bottom line, many high-volume bakeries monitor production in real time to reduce downtime, minimize changeovers, eliminate waste and heighten product consistency. Some newer lines are so interconnected — and centrally monitored in real time — that they automatically adjust to production gaps, changeovers in product varieties and other brief forms of downtime.
However, even in less automated operations, bakers must determine whether the latest and greatest process controls on a recently purchased divider, moulder, proofer and oven are compatible with the existing equipment.
“They need to look upstream and downstream to make sure that new machine’s controls are talking to the others to ensure there is proper communication with the machine you are replacing,” noted Damian Morabito, president and CEO, Topos Mondial Corp.
More often than not, bakers need to determine if installing new equipment will result in upgrading or replacing the existing software, human-machine interfaces (HMI) and the alphabet soup of other electronic control systems typically supplied by Allen-Bradley in the US, as well as others like Siemens and Mitsubishi in Europe and elsewhere overseas. These costs should be added into the overall budget for capital spending.
“We often do retrofits on existing lines regarding new software, especially if the line should be modified or extended,” noted Patrick Nagel, technical project coordinator, Fritsch USA. “Usually, we extend the existing control system and add the new components with new software and integrate it in the existing PLC. For the retrofit of the electronic hardware, we do offer special packages to update the machines.”
Many vendors provide other solutions as well. “We have engineers and sales staff at our facilities whose main focus is to work on providing ‘modernization’ solutions to existing equipment,” Mr. Favors said. “For some of our equipment, we offer kits for several of the more standard upgrades that allow them to be installed without major modifications to the existing systems.”
In many cases, these user-friendly HMIs provide greater ability for operators to adjust production on the fly as conditions on the line change as well as provide supervisory control to prevent operator error. In some operations, bakers are even employing process controls in the elusive effort to seek a “lights out” operation with minimal amount of labor on the floor.
If a machine requires repairs, vendors remotely can provide real-time advice to engineers and maintenance personnel. Other times, bakers can exchange data with vendors to streamline the scaling up of products during test bakes or drive efficiencies on an ongoing basis to determine the optimal processing conditions on a line.
“Because of the increased amount of electronic equipment that is capable of communicating via Ethernet, PLC processor speeds and other capabilities are extremely important in designing the equipment control system,” Mr. Harrington said. “The HMIs of today have incredible graphics capabilities — so much so that it looks on the screen like you are actually viewing the process in operation.”
However, upgrading data management systems without enhancements in the actual equipment can often go only so far. “Upgrading the PLC and HMI controls provide better data and possibly control but do not have a great effect on production efficiency,” Mr. Favors said. “For example, you may be able to get better control of the burner circuit allowing you to more accurately regulate the temperature, but you are not really affecting the efficiency of the burner if mechanical upgrades do not coincide with the software/hardware upgrades.”
Additionally, bakers need to ensure they’re getting the greatest long-term return on investment (ROI) when it comes to switching out industrial controls that may have a much shorter lifecycle than the stainless-steel equipment that actually does the processing. In today’s bakery, evaluating reliability and risk are integral parts of the capital spending process.
“Every baker wants to get some sort of an ROI on capital monies that they spend,” Mr. Harrington said. “But not all upgrades can show the ROI. So, sometimes you have to look at potential cost avoidance for the baker. A PLC can be so old that there are no spare units or parts available. Then you have to determine if this PLC were to fail tomorrow, how long would the line be down? How will that downtime affect the baker’s production commitments? Will this line downtime result in a customer base loss?”
Learn more about integrating new equipment into existing lines in the next segment.
