from dough to data: Poppies Bakeries' journey to OEE excellence

About

Company
Poppies Bakeries
Location
Zonnebeke, Belgium
Competences

OEE

production excellence

productie optimalisatie

data analytics

industrie 4.0

industriële IoT

HMI

interact

industry 4.0 - bakery industry

1. The Big Picture

  • Clear question:
    • Poppies Bakeries, a leading industrial bakery specialising in delicious macarons, cookies, doughnuts, and desserts, was faced with the challenge of fully understanding and improving their production process. With only basic monitoring available, they were missing crucial information about what was happening between the start and finish of the production process, including downtime, performance and the efficiency of each shift.
  • Why Vintecc:
    • Faced with these challenges, Poppies Bakeries contacted Vintecc, with the clear request to help them set up the start of an Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) story to optimise their entire production process. Challenge accepted!

"The OEE integration met all predefined objectives. Moreover, Capture reports real-time all production data and we can gain detailed insight into optimisation opportunities."

Antony Popelier

Antony Popelier

CEO - Poppies Bakeries

2. The challenge - bringing craftsmanship and technology together

  • Basic monitoring:
    • While Poppies Bakeries had its own basic monitoring, it had little detailed knowledge of what went on between the start and finish of the production process.
  • Comprehensive requirements:
    • The challenge required not only OEE-monitoring but also combining uptime and waste monitoring, including gaining insight into any over/under-weight of individual products.
  • Stability and scalability:
    • Poppies Bakeries was looking for a stable and robust IoT-platform that could scale easily and integrate seamlessly with their growing production lines spread across eight countries in Europe. The IoT solution also needed to have the flexibility to integrate other data in the future if necessary.

3. The solution - Data precision

  • Holistic visibility with an industrial IoT-platform:
    • Vintecc introduced Capture - its own industrial IoT-platform - as a solution to centralise and consolidate data. With Capture as the IoT-platform, the multiple data sources (uptime, waste and weight) were integrated into one powerful platform so intuitive and insightful dashboards could be built. This gave Poppies Bakeries a holistic insight into their production processes.
  • Sensors and data integration:
    • Simple, effective and cost-efficient sensors were strategically placed to measure product flow and to map uptime. This smart addition provided additional insight and efficiency. In addition, data from existing computer vision sensors was integrated, giving Poppies Bakeries a detailed understanding of its production processes.
  • Customisable HMI's for operators:
    • With Interact, Vintecc's web-based HMI platform, customised interfaces were created that could be quickly adapted per production lines or production run. Operators could contribute directly and add actively the reasons for e.g. downtime straight into Capture.
  • Active and engaged operators:
    • By recording downtime reasons such as cleaning or a product switch directly and digitally via the HMI at the machine, operators became very valuable in the pursuit of continuous optimisation. These analyses also increase line performance, which is also more pleasant for the operators.

4. The results

  • International monitoring:
    • Now 25 production lines in 14 plants across Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium, can be effectively monitored and compared.
  • Rapid scale-up:
    • Thanks to the stable and robust IoT-platforms Capture and Interact, the project was scaled up quickly and the lead time was greatly reduced. Also due to hardware standardisation and proven performance in previous projects.
  • Success through collaboration:
    • Through close and strong cooperation - in which Poppies' competences and Vintecc's technological know-how came together - a positive Proof-of-Concept quickly resulted in a concrete project with expansion to the other European production lines.
  • Pin-pointing targeted optimisation opportunities
    • By digitally connecting and monitoring production machines, extra sensors fitted, operator feedback ... etc, Poppies Bakeries gained very detailed insight into where there were opportunities to optimise. This allows for much more targeted work on efficiency, downtime reduction, cost reduction, but also potential hardware investments.

5. What's next

  • Refinement of OEE:
    • The aim is to expand and refine this OEE story by integrating even more data such as waste, overweight, and linking with existing systems such as ERP-software.
  • Deeper reporting:
    • A thorough collaboration with operators is being established to aim for even more dynamic reporting and stronger insight of optimisation opportunities across the entire group.
  • Strategic considerations:
    • The success of the project has spurred Poppies Bakeries to consider group-wide standardisation, enabling independent reporting across all plants. This opens doors to even more comprehensive analysis and optimisation initiatives.
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