In this case study, we’ll walk you through the story of Kalnapilis Brewery’s adoption of Evocon’s automated production monitoring system. We’ll also show how this helped the brewery manage its workload during a pandemic while ensuring their worker’s safety.
The Company Background
Kalnapilis is a hundred years old Lithuanian brewery, a producer of award-winning beer. It is currently a part of Royal Unibrew, a leading beverage provider in Western Europe and countries around the Baltic Sea.
Strong culture, flexible working arrangements, and a bonus system for everyone are standard operating procedures in all Royal Unibrew factories.
While talking about the company’s main challenges, Kalnapilis is on a never-ending journey to increase efficiency in order to be fast, productive, and have less environmental impact. As part of this effort, Kalnapilis implemented Evocon in their brewery.
What is Evocon?
Evocon is a visual and user-friendly OEE software that automates the data collection from machines and provides real-time information about production performance. It offers manufacturing companies like Kalnapilis a chance to monitor their production and improve OEE.
Some of the most common OEE software solution benefits are removing necessary paperwork, automating production reports, data visualization, understanding machine downtime and identifying bottlenecks and improvement areas.
Introduction of Evocon to the Staff
The introduction of Evocon in the brewery was systematic and gradual. At first, management installed Evocon on one production line and tested for the best configuration.
Then they introduced Evocon to the shift managers who got a tablet with Evocon each. During the next few months, they introduced Evocon to a wider and wider circle, starting with more experienced employees and ending with the least experienced ones.
At every step, Kalnapilis took time to train their staff. They organized regular meetings and explained not only how to use Evocon but also why. As a result of this consistent approach, they experienced almost no bumps along the road.
Operators who thought that the introduction of Evocon means more work, quickly realized that it wasn’t that much work after all. In the end, the usage of Evocon became a norm and even a source of comfort.
Benefits of Automated Production Monitoring During COVID-19
Among the usual benefits, such as an increase in OEE, or maintenance effectiveness, Kalnapilis also highlighted two perks – eliminated calls and meetings.
During the time with limited contacts are necessary, Kalnapilis highlighted that Evocon helped them eliminate calls and meetings that used to be the primary means of planning and organizing work.
Eliminated calls
Kalnapilis brewery works 24/7, in four shifts, and their production is very dynamic, focus changes from one product to another depending on the situation.
So, whenever management comes to the office after a weekend, or when shift managers come back to the shop floor after their 4-day break, they need to know:
- what has been happening during previous shifts,
- what has been produced,
- which lines were working, and
- which products are next.
This information is useful to plan maintenance and production, and to organize people on the lines.
Before Evocon, shift managers called each other for updates on the situation. Then they held meetings with their staff to arrange work. Today managers simply log in to Evocon and find out everything they need.
Eliminated meetings
As the pandemic brought the need for social distancing, shift managers also started using Evocon to look up who was working on which lines.
They did this remotely before coming to work, and as they came in, they wrote down the schedule in the entrance hall.
So, every operator just needed to check this schedule and go straight to her line. Thus, eliminating the need to have meetings to go over this information.
Summary
In addition to the usual benefits, such as an increase in OEE, or maintenance effectiveness, Evocon has also helped Kalnapilis to ensure safety during the pandemic. The new work practices, such as monitoring production remotely, have proved to be very useful and are definitely there to stay even after it.
To know more do visit – https://evocon.com/kb/what-is-oee-and-how-does-it-work/