Constellation Brands Inc. is a leading international producer of alcoholic beverages
and is the largest wine company in the world. Their wines are sold in very large
volume with extremely low profit margin. At the Mission Bell Winery, like many large
production facilities, Constellation has an enormous investment in each of their
bottling lines. On a single line, there are more than 20 separate automated systems
used to move the wine from the field storage tanks through the fillers and into
boxes on pallets in the warehouse.
In order to produce product, work-order information
such as the size and type of container, storage tank number, and other required
information from the JD Edwards MRP system was printed out prior to a production
run. The wine call system, packaging machinery and fillers for the line were then
set up by the operators to run the work order. During the shift, the production
information (gallons used, part counts, machine stoppages, etc.) was recorded by
the operators onto clipboards. At the end of the shift and at periodic intervals
during a production run, the information was manually collected by management and
later entered into their JD Edwards system. This information was then used to generate
daily reports on bottling line efficiency, downtime and wine loss.
CoreTech’s objective
was to streamline Constellation’s bottling line operations and the collection of
work order and production information required to produce Constellation’s daily
reports. CoreTech Systems was hired to automate the functions that Constellation
was looking for.
Click here to find out how we created the solution that Constellation
was looking for…
Kerkau Manufacturing is located in Bay City, Michigan. Kerkau uses a number of computer
based numerically controlled, lathes, mills, spindle chuckers and other machines
to produce single-point threaded pipe flanges. In addition, Kerkau has an automated
paint line where a servo-based spraying system paints the flanges.
The paint line
had become a serious production bottleneck for Kerkau. They were having control
component failures on the line that were causing lengthy disruptions in their production
process. And as if that wasn’t enough to deal with, overcoming system failures was
extremely difficult because the company that installed the paint line had gone out
of business.
Kerkau was referred to CoreTech Systems by Opto 22. When CoreTech engineer
Mike Korinko arrived on site to assess the situation, he was alarmed at the serious
predicament Kerkau was in. After determining what hardware Kerkau had installed,
Mike first corrected the intermittent failure by identifying a faulty part in the
aging system.
There were a number of reasons for Kerkau to be concerned. The most
critical was that there was no copy of the software running in the controller which
managed the entire paint system. The controller was old and obsolete. With the original
paint system vendor long gone, Kerkau was in a precarious position. If the controller
was to fail, their paint line would be unable to operate at all.
Click here to find out how we resolved Kerkau’s production predicament…
Check back soon to find out how CoreTech helped On Semiconductor improve their manufacturing process.