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Pepsi co-op is first to employ 'Radar'

Southeast Canners improves efficiency on a can line with a newly developed computer hardware/software system that allows 24-hr/day access to production data via a secured Web site.

Southeast Canners uses the machine (above) to open a paperboard carrier, load 12-oz cans into it, then seal it shut.
Southeast Canners uses the machine (above) to open a paperboard carrier, load 12-oz cans into it, then seal it shut.

Late last summer, Pepsi cooperative Southeast Canners began using a computer hardware/software system to monitor the performance of a machine that erects paperboard cartons, fills them with 12 or 24 12-oz aluminum cans, and then seals the cartons closed. Called Radar IISM, the system has helped SC improve efficiency on its can line by 8% by pinpointing where and when problems occur so that they can be corrected.

The Columbus, GA-based co-op is the first company to use Radar II, which was developed by Riverwood Intl. (Atlanta, GA). The Radar (Remote Automatic Data Acquisition and Reporting) system includes hardware and software that was installed by Riverwood last year on an older Riverwood Twin-Stack® can packaging system. The machine functions on a line that fills 1곚 cans/min, with annual volume exceeding eight million 202-end-sized cans.

The Radar system is equipped with an Uptimer™ production monitoring system from Uptime Technology (Newberg, OR). Installed in the Twin-Stack’s electrical cabinet, the Uptimer monitors numerous machine functions second by second, determining when the machine is running and when it’s down. The Twin-Stack is equipped with an Allen-Bradley programmable logic controller from Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee, WI).

The Uptimer “uses a software system that’s hooked into some of the photoeyes of the machine. Every time the machine stops, it’s recorded on a timer, and all that information is downloaded,” explains SC general manager Don Hambrick.

The system is connected to a modem, and so once a day it dials up a local Internet Service Provider and sends an encrypted e-mail reporting the Twin-Stack’s activities to a designated e-mail address at Riverwood.

Riverwood uses a database software system from Oracle (Redwood Shores, CA) that imports the information from the e-mail into a Web-accessible database. Southeast Canners gains access to the information by logging on to a secured Web site provided by Riverwood.

How it’s used

At SC’s 230ꯠ sq’ facility, three employees have online access to the information: Hambrick, a plant manager, and a production manager. With the correct password, each person can view the data from separate personal computers in the plant. The information is also printed out as hard copy.

“We run the machine about 21 hours a day, on two shifts,” says Hambrick, adding that the plant operates nearly around the clock during its busy season, April through September. “The system compiles all the machine data, and we usually access it after 9 a.m. the next day,” he notes.

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