Skip to main content
Food & Beverage, CPG

Visible Data Means Operations Excellence for Coca-Cola

Increase efficiency

Reduce downtime

Improve real-time decisions

Introduction

Company

Coca Cola

Industry

Food & Beverage, CPG

Products

iFIX

Product Categories

Proficy Historian, Proficy HMI / SCADA

This article first appeared in Control Magazine, by Jim Montague, Executive Editor. Reprinted with permission.

 

Coca-Cola Uses Proficy Software to Streamline Refreshment Production

 

Seeing is believing and bringing operational information into the light makes it usable by everyone in an enterprise—allowing them all to make faster, more productive decisions. 

 

Coca-Cola gained new insights to help further optimize production, while also taking advantage of cloud-based data gathering, analysis and protection. These experiences were described by Ioan Batran, automation engineering director at Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR), in their presentation, "Operational Excellence: Improve Data Visibility Across the Enterprise" at the GE User Summit in Orlando, Florida. 

 

GE Digital Proficy software helps F&B manufacturers in their line operations

Proficy software helps Food & Beverage manufacturers improve line operation efficiency.

Ioan Batran, Coca Cola

"We can compare the performance of plants, lines and even individual machines." Coca-Cola Refreshments' Ioan Batran on the company's 70-plant deployment of KPI dashboards based on GE technology.

 

 Refreshing Soda Pop Production 

 

Though it's been using Proficy software for many years, Batran reported that Coca-Cola revamped its application at 70 manufacturing facilities. "We focused on reducing complexity in our supply chain, pushed back against inefficient customization, did a lot of root cause analysis and concentrated on useful action," said Batran. "In our line information systems (LIS), we sought to better track line assets, increase efficiency, reduce equipment losses and downtime, and improve our decisions. Our LIS basically tells us if we're meeting our promises." 

 

Batran added that all levels at Coca-Cola's production facilities need data from their LIS, so simplifying their software and standardizing their control architectures makes them easier to deploy and support. This 70-plant renovation began by updating the LIS server at each facility with Proficy Historian, iFIX HMI SCADA and dashboard software. These solutions allow each LIS to deliver real-time and historical data, and then push reported KPIs to an SQL enterprise database via Sync Agent software and Microsoft Azure to Coca-Cola's cloud-based server. 

 

Now we can compare the performance of plants, lines and even individual machines.

Ioan Batran - Automation Engineering Director, Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR)

 "LIS management routines and practices measure and manage our manufacturing processes to maintain and improve performance," said Batran. "We're also implementing paperless guidance, so we can further un-cloud our crystal ball and focus our decisions more precisely on what we need to do." 

 

These improvements allow the LIS to generate tactical reviews that let users respond to specific operational events and produce strategic reviews that let them address continuous improvement efforts by identifying trends, patterns and root causes. "The reviews help us implement better management routines, which need to be backed up by appropriate levels of change management," added Batran. "You also have to secure leadership support and stakeholder buy-in." 

 

Views available on Coca-Cola's LIS-based system include plant overviews, production line layouts, historical machine status, short-interval control reports, enterprise-level displays and others. These displays can be presented on PCs, tablet PCs and smartphones. 

 

The enterprise LIS even lets us see selected KPIs on multiple lines, so we can compare the performance of different machines.

Ioan Batran - Automation Engineering Director, Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR)

 

 "Next steps include implementing more paperless capabilities and autopilot management routines, as well as improving overall management routines, coaching and auditing," Batran added.

 

Download a reprint of this customer story from Control Magazine.

Our customers tell it best

24 Results
Church & Dwight manufacturing plant
Food & Beverage, CPG

Church & Dwight Increases OEE by 6% with Proficy Smart Factory MES

Explore how Church & Dwight increased OEE by 6% with Proficy Smart Factory MES.

Dairy products
Proficy Smart Factory - MES Solutions

Leading American Dairy Sees 50% Decrease in Quality Control Audit Time

Learn how a leading American dairy achieves a 50% decrease in quality control audit time and drives a digital transformation culture change

Explore GE Digital's Software

Proficy Historian | Data Historian | GE Digital
Industrial Software

Proficy Historian

Powerful industrial time-series data collection for on-premise and cloud-based storage and analysis

HMI/SCADA software in use in industrial operations
Industrial Software

Proficy HMI / SCADA

Drive smarter operator decisions with model-based high performance HMI for faster response and development.

IIoT software engineer | GE Digital
Industrial Apps

Proficy Operations Hub

Modern, centralized environment for rapidly building industrial applications for Web-based intelligence

Let GE Digital show you how to improve your manufacturing line operations