Jumbo Supermarkten

Jumbo Supermarkten is part of the Van Eerd Food Group, a Dutch retailer in the Netherlands. In their Amert distribution center, Jumbo utilizes an OAenterprise solution for conveyor control and for sorting returned packaging materials.

Trucks arrive at distribution center loading docks where pallets containing crates with empty bottles are unloaded. Pallet IDs are scanned to indicate the retail store of origin, then the crates are placed on a conveyor where OAenterprise works with a Vision System to determine bottle type, crate content, store payback amounts, and the crate’s distribution center storage location. The crate is then transported to this location via the conveyor where they are stored by supplier for return shipment.

Boerenbond Deurne

Boerenbond Deurne, a large feed producer in the Netherlands, has extended its production site in Helmond (NL) with a new system for inline dosing and mixing of fine components. Variations in customer specifications and demands of regulatory compliance require them to produce in a more flexible way. Automating the system with OA2batch, OAenterprise’s batch control solution, has provided the needed flexibility.

KSE

KSE has developed a range of animal feed and gypsum processing equipment systems upon OAenterprise software.

NU3

NU3  is part of Hydro Agri, a global plant nutrition company supporting sustainable food production throughout the world. In 2003, NU3, which produces liquid manure matched to customer specifications, automated its truck loading operations. The automated process uses OAenterprise to enable drivers to load trucks without operator intervention, to save information about delivered products for tracking and tracing, and to supply drivers with transport documents when they leave the site. NU3 can now respond more rapidly to customer demands, as a direct result of its faster, more efficient truck loading process.

Pre-Mervo

Pre-Mervo, a manufacturer of raw materials and additives for animal feed, develops and produces premixes, mineral mixes, and intermediates for industrial companies throughout Europe. At their modern factory in Utrecht (the Netherlands), where production is done according to ISO-9002 and GMP, Pre-Mervo chose to automate a premix line with a solution based on OAenterprise and OA2batch. The solution automates and manages bulk intake of materials from ships and trucks; storage of products in silos; production of a wide range of custom premixes through weighing, charging, and mixing of materials; and loading of trucks. Because Pre-Mervo produces so many different products, they require a level of flexibility that only OAenterprise solutions provide.

Nylex Polymer Products

Nylex Polymer Products upgraded an existing custom PLC based batching system to OA Enterprise.

In the original system, customer orders were loaded into a dBase III application which performed basic batching calculations on the order. The result of these calculations were printed out for operator use and sent to a PLC for display and monitoring purposes.

The upgrade project consisted of 3 stages:

1. Replace the SAP and batch calculation system with OA, retaining the PLC and existing equipment.
2. Replace the PLC with an OA based control system, retaining lower level IO on PLC
3. Replacement for Batch Mixer and upgrade/optimise the batching system

The upgraded system provided significant improvements in quality, efficiency and maintainability. Immediate performance gains include:

1. Optimisation of the production flow reducing waiting time between each process stage
2. Reduced inter-batch preparation time by identifying similar batches with equivalent bin materials. Also results in reduced wastage since manual additions are in units of 50Kg bags.
3. Reduced bulk material waste through combining equivalent orders into a single batch – the beginning and end sections of each batch are typically discarded
4. Improved quality and reduced dye waste – feedback of colour corrections are applied to subsequent batches of a similar type
5. Increased maintainability through the use of standard languages and interfaces allowing staged upgrade to production equipment.