Pepsi Bottling Ventures of Idaho

 

 

Nampa, Idaho – In the consumer marketplace, constantly changing tastes drive innovation. This principle plays out – literally – in the beverage business, where offering a multitude of soft drink choices is a mainstay of growth and success.

Pepsi Bottling Ventures (PBV) manufactures and distributes more than 100 different flavors and brands. In 2009, Beverage Industry magazine named PBV its Bottler of the Year. The company has become the third largest manufacturer and distributor of Pepsi-Cola products in North America, operating 27 bottling and distribution facilities in six states.

In Idaho, PBV runs a state-of-the-art manufacturing and sales distribution plant in Nampa as well as three other distribution centers throughout the state. And even as a new member of the PBV family, joining in early 2009, this division has contributed to the company’s award-winning operations with impressive performance and results.

 

 

 

Integrating the Present with the Future

 

The Nampa facility was built in 2005 and was equipped with a combination of new and legacy machinery. Blending these assets proved possible, but issues of waste and downtime were apparent.

Additionally, a homegrown data collection system that had been in place for the legacy assets did not take full advantage of the capabilities of the new equipment. Operators tracked downtime and recorded it manually during their shifts. Relying on these clipboard notes sometimes led to inconsistent decision making and an inability to track trends accurately over time. But PBV didn’t accept this situation for long. They knew that better solutions were available. Their vision included a performance management and downtime tracking system that would connect all of the equipment, and that would also help them quantify return on investment and justify future plant upgrades. Wonderware Certifi ed Systems Integrator Apex Manufacturing Solutions worked with Wonderware PacWest to assist PVB in evaluating the possibilities. It became clear that Wonderware software was the preferred solution when Apex Senior Project Manager Erik Phillips recommended it, and Chris Bacon, PBV Production Manager, confi rmed prior positive experiences with the Wonderware solution. The solution – featuring the Wonderware System Platform, Wonderware Performance software, Wonderware InTouch HMI, Wonderware ActiveFactory and Historian software – was installed  in September 2008, and commissioned and validated just one month later.

 

Concentrating on Changeovers

 

With such a wide variety of products, making smooth switches between formulations is central to the plant’s productivity. Before the Wonderware software solution was installed, engineers estimated that changeovers took 60 minutes. With the new system in place, the data showed actual time to switch between fl avors averaged 90 minutes. Realizing that this degree of downtime was putting a damper on profi tability, PBV used the Wonderware software to identify the chief constraints and their root causes. Armed with this data, they determined that the most critical bottleneck was in the fi ller process. Correcting this issue improved changeovers by up to 45 minutes and resulted in additional savings in raw materials and packaging. Effi ciency on the fi ller line increased by 10%.

 

Teamwork for Continuous Improvement

 

Just as importantly, the Wonderware Historian provides reports and trending tools that enable cross-functional teams to analyze plant operations consistently. Maintenance, operations and engineering staff members can depend on accurate, reliable data, which takes guesswork and assumptions out of the process. PVB personnel share an overall view of operations with the Wonderware InTouch Human Machine Interface (HMI) software. A graphical visualization of the plant makes operational tasks intuitive and facilitates clear communications. It also makes the system easy for new operators to learn. Like most manufacturing businesses, PBV maintains a lean headcount. So Wonderware software’s object-based programming enables more work to be done by fewer engineers, speeding the development process and making it as efficient as possible. When a new asset or line is added, existing processes can be quickly and easily replicated thanks to Wonderware software’s standardization.

 

 

 

Calculating Payback

 

Understanding return on investment is important for PBV on a day-to-day basis, but even more valuable when it comes to planning for investments that will ensure the operation’s continued success. Especially now, capital expenditures are scrutinized closely and those that cannot be justifi ed for true ROI are in danger.

PBV will use this experience to sustain their Continuous Improvement process as well as to identify future opportunities to invest in capital improvements that can be justifi ed based on ROI.

 

The Best Solution

 

Just like consumers selecting a soft drink, PBV had a number of choices to consider for its new manufacturing performance system. Appealing qualities such as superior data collection and analysis capabilities, easy-to-understand HMI visualization and effi cient programming helped the bottler choose Wonderware software. And like a refreshing Pepsi, adding Wonderware software to the PBV Nampa operation provided immediate positive results. But it will also contribute to longlasting performance improvements and verifi able returns on investment.