Case Study: Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, announced today that its flagship product, KEPServerEX, has been integrated with Molex Incorporated's SIS shop floor program to significantly increase operational efficiencies and interoperability across numerous locations. By using KEPServerEX, Molex can now support multiple PLCs, process monitors, and controllers from a variety of vendors using a single communications platform.

While expanding the SIS shop floor program, Molex found that varying machine ages and protocols made communications across each of its forty-five facilities challenging. The company also needed to find a solution that could scale to fit into any industrial environment that may be encountered in the future. With its support of the OPC standard and over 150 different protocols, KEPServerEX enabled the efficient global expansion of the program across the 17 countries in which Molex operates.

Kepware's KEPServerEX is specifically engineered to connect, manage, monitor, and control disparate automation devices and software applications across diverse architectures. Its robust platform supports an array of open standards, proprietary communication protocols, APIs, and automation systems' interfaces. Its single user interface provides consistent and reliable data throughout the enterprise and reduces training, support, and maintenance.

By using KEPServerEX, Molex experienced an average 37 percent reduction in equipment downtime. The company was able to decrease costs by providing reliable access to accurate and complete shop floor data, and is now poised to adapt to the needs of any future manufacturing environments it comes across.

"The smarter and more nimble our business decision-making, the better products and cost savings we can deliver to our customers," said Steve Behlen, Controls Engineering Manager, Molex. "Kepware is instrumental to our interoperability across forty-five locations and happy customers across the globe."

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, has helped New Belgium Brewing Company dramatically increase production using its Wonderware MES Performance software.  Based in Fort Collins, Co., New Belgium Brewing emphasizes eco-friendly production practices, continuous improvement and metrics measurement. Just as it is vigilant about the products that go into its premium beers, the brewer also believes it is vital to have and maintain production processes that are as accurate, green and lean as possible.

After a closer look at its bottling lines, the brewer’s operations management team realized they were producing 150,000 cases of beer each week on lines that were capable of producing 294,000. Scheduled and unscheduled downtime was causing valuable packaging time to be lost.

“After ramping up our bottling line to meet growing customer demand, we were disappointed to find the brewery was producing only about half of what it was truly capable of producing,” said Joe Herrick, packaging systems manager, New Belgium Brewing. “Our brewery’s existing manual systems generated a huge amount of data but we had no way of presenting it in context.”

To address these issues and to otherwise improve performance, New Belgium Brewing, with technical assistance from Apex Manufacturing Solutions, implemented a solution using Wonderware manufacturing execution system software from Schneider Electric. Not only does the Wonderware MES software track and record the bottling process automatically, it transforms raw data into user-friendly presentations that drive improvement. For example, the software facilitates shift changes by providing new workers with data on the performance of the previous shift. The system also integrates with the brewery’s existing Wonderware System Platform and Wonderware HMI software. The combined solutions improved operators’ ability to maintain precise packaging production schedules and effectively manage the materials supply chain during the brewing process.

“The ability to customize the graphics provided by the Wonderware MES software solution enabled us to develop a system that could effectively communicate the line status and production capacities of the bottling and packaging lines, while at the same time illustrate New Belgium’s unique company culture with engaging graphics,” said Sam Vail, chief strategy officer at Apex. “Screen data shows what order is being worked on, what is coming next and how the current rate compares to their standard. This is a great example of how Wonderware software changed the game for New Belgium Brewing, effectively enabling them to increase capacity, expand production and improve quality without investing in new equipment.”

“With Wonderware MES Performance software coupled with our continuous improvement strategy, we have increased the efficiency of our packaging line by 30 percent, which allowed us to extend our packaging capacity to about 1.3 million barrels each year,” Herrick said. “Improved manufacturing efficiencies plus increased line production means we’ve saved more than $400,000 in previously planned labor costs and decreased downtime by 50 percent. At this point, our approach to higher volumes is ‘bring it on.’

Case Study:  NEP Solar developed, manufactures, and supplies the PolyTrough, a patented parabolic trough solar collector. NEP Solar also provides consulting services and delivers projects from conceptual design through to turnkey supply of solar thermal systems. Industrial heating is NEP Solar's key market where heat, normally generated by burning fossil fuels, is replaced with heat captured from the sun. The typical temperature is up to 250° C, although higher temperatures are possible.

The Urban Power Station, as NEP Solar and EnergyAE have dubbed it, is a first-of-its-kind solar thermal tri-generation system which has been installed in a new building for the Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The system comprises four PolyTrough 1200 parabolic trough solar collectors, a thermal storage tank, a 10 kWe organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbine and a 19 kWr absorption chiller, heat exchangers, pumps, instruments, and a control system. The system can deliver electrical power, chilled water, lower temperature hot water (from the chiller and ORC condenser, for use in household hot water tanks), and higher temperature hot water.

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Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, announced today that Cascades Tissue Group has implemented KEPServerEX and LinkMaster to improve connectivity across its diverse and sprawling infrastructure. Since adopting Kepware's communication solutions, Cascades Tissue Group has improved connectivity between modern and legacy machines, and increased operational efficiency by more than 5 percent.

Upholding a fifty-year commitment to environmentally-friendly practices, Cascades regularly repurposes or reuses aging machinery. To ensure that its recycled architecture operates efficiently, Cascades relies on a modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to facilitate the delivery of the right information to the right place at the right time. This sophisticated MES requires a flexible and reliable communication solution.

After experimenting with a number of well-known disparate communication solutions, Cascades found Kepware's KEPServerEX communications platform and LinkMaster bridging tool. Using KEPServerEX enables Cascades to support communications across all of its seventeen plants, seventeen paper machines, and nearly ninety converting lines with just one piece of software. With its support of the OPC standard and more than 150 protocols, KEPServerEX allows Cascades to communicate with virtually any machine on its plant floor. By implementing the communications platform, Cascades has eliminated numerous disparate devices and is now polling more than 11,000 tags from nearly 500 PLCs using a single server.

"Kepware allows us to easily and effectively facilitate the communications that drive our MES initiative," said Benoit Lapensée, Engineer and MES Coordinator, Cascades. "After expending time and resources trying to cobble together different communications solutions, finding one piece of highly intuitive software that could get all of our machines talking was just what the doctor ordered."

When its manufacturing facilities are operating more efficiently, Cascades is operating more responsibly. According to Lapensée, "Kepware is truly at the heart of a wildly successful MES program, helping us in our ongoing mission to develop great paper products in a responsible way."