Author: Kelly Ye

Boosting Batch Performance at a Salad Dressing Plant

A well-known line of salad dressings was recently acquired by a major food manufacturer with the plan to establish a fully automated, paperless manufacturing process for the production. To do this efficiently and cost-effectively represented a significant challenge.

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Large Consumer Goods Case Study

THE CHALLENGE ECS was hired to upgrade and replace a CIP control system in one of the manufacturing areas for a large consumer goods company. The scope of work included a new control enclosure containing an upgrade from a SLC5 controller to a ControlLogix controller. The upgrade also consisted of all IO and connections within Full Story

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Bardstown Bourbon Company Case Study

The Challenge Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBC) is a Bourbon Distillery located in Bardstown Kentucky. Utilizing two mash cookers, 32 fermenters, two distillation stills, and nine cistern holding tanks, BBC produces a wide variety of high-quality whiskeys and bourbons.

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Manufacturing Digitalization That Works

Though digitalization is a process that is often seen as great, the benefits are not the same for everyone. Asking how digitalization is going to benefit your organization may be important to your digital future. Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), connected enterprise, and smart manufacturing, among others, are all descriptive of applying digital Full Story

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Documenting Your Manufacturing Ecosystem

Understanding your manufacturing ecosystem is one thing, but documenting it is just as important. Having extensive documentation of the manufacturing ecosystem, helps those who aren’t involved in daily, plant-floor operations make informed decisions. Your manufacturing ecosystem is the system you use for making your product(s), and fully documenting and understanding this ecosystem will help the Full Story

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The Benefits of Off-The-Shelf SOP Management Software

Being able to keep track of every step and every bit of data is a major necessity for every organization. An off-the-shelf standard operating procedure software is one way to implement new processes and keep track of business operating standards. Tracking manual operations in discrete, batch, and continuous manufacturing processes can greatly benefit from off-the-shelf Full Story

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The Importance of Material Tracing

Traceability on a processing or production line is incredibly important, especially when it comes to food products, where having the ability to track every ingredient down to the source is crucial to the health and safety of the consumers. As parts of the country begin to move out of COVID-19 shutdowns, we have been hearing Full Story

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Leveraging ISA-88 Standards for Discrete Manufacturing

Tracking manual discrete manufacturing processes can greatly benefit from off-the-shelf products. Often, discrete manufacturing processes requiring a high level of manual operator activities that rely on paper-based Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to specify how to manufacture their products. Operators are responsible to perform the tasks as specified by the SOP as well as capturing the Full Story

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Material Dosing Geneology

The Food industry uses batch manufacturing extensively and therefore requires traceability for material ingredients, i.e. the ability to follow the movement of a food product and its’ constituents all through the production process. This capability not only largely prevents unsafe foods from reaching the consumer but also improves product quality and efficiency in the event Full Story

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Flexible and Modular CIP and SIP Automation Enables Continuous Improvements

Clean In Place (CIP) and Steam in Place (SIP) constitute critical aspects of the bottom line of a manufacturing process, just as important as the products manufactured with the assets, CIP and SIP play a very important role in the product quality as well as the overall availability of the equipment to manufacture these products. Full Story

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