Matching the Benefits of Automation with Brewery Growth |
Written by AIA |
DefinitionsAutomation: The electronic control of brewing, fermenting, and packaging equipment, including mechanical interlocks and permissives, to execute the brewing process independent of or facilitated by the Brewer. Corporate Lifecycles DefinitionsCourtship: Brewing business concept is born. Is the process of building and defining, the vision, commitment, and energy to sustain the origination of a business. Founder must be committed to the beer, not the profit. PremiseMany craft or microbrewers view automation of the brewing process as something for the larger corporate brewers and opt for mostly manual breweries. The larger corporate brewers see automation and manufacturing execution systems (MES) of the enterprise as infrastructure critical to their core business success in producing beer. As a smaller brewer expands their production, there comes a point in time where automation provides a solid Return on Investment (ROI) and brings value to the brewer and their beer. This study analyzes the growth cycles of breweries, which are similar to any corporate entity, and defines the point along their growth curve where automating the brewing process provides value. Different trigger points are identified associated with production schedule, labor utilization, and product consistency requirements. Several craft and regional brewers provide input to this study and share their specific experiences and outlook. Developing an Information InfrastructureAs the organization approaches its Adolescent lifecycle, the challenges of the business are changing. The Master Plan(Plan Globally, Implement Slowly)Setting up an information infrastructure doesn’t mean it needs to be done all at one time. The purpose of a Master Plan is to set a vision so that all of the decisions made are intended to get you step by step closer to the vision of where you want to be. Provision needs to be made for growth in capacity and performance when purchasing decisions are made. There are guiding standards and organizations which define what ideal will be; this just helps to establish the vision and it may never be achieved in its true form, but all the while cost and labor savings are provided each step of the way. This vision should be reviewed on a periodic basis and treated as a living document.
Instrumentation: As the brewery makes investments in incremental brewing, fermentation, or packaging capacity, equipment should be specified with full instrumentation using industrial quality instruments. Flow and temperature measurements may have local readouts and valving may be manual, but make decisions so that instruments can be integrated and controls can be automated in the future. For example, leave room for an actuator on a valve in the piping layout, even though there is not an actuator initially. Consider the use of digital bus technologies and how they can impact operational and maintenance costs, especially if there is a new facility involved. This technology increases the amount of information that is available to the brewery for activities beyond simple automation and reduces wiring costs.
Eliminate Manual Processes and Steps: All efforts should be made to eliminate manual steps in the brewing process like swing panels and manual sampling for quality measurements, where possible, as these may inhibit future automation of the process. Automate in a Stepwise FashionContinuous or Basic Controls: Start by automating the continuous measurements on a platform that can grow over time, but still can handle just a few measurements now. This would include interlocking monitoring, and exception handling as examples. Set up the system infrastructure, get people trained, organize the maintenance processes, but start small with WHAT is controlled. Procedural Controls: Batch oriented processes can be efficiently controlled following the guidance of the ISA/ANSI S88.01 standard. Many batch control systems on the market follow these guidelines. This standard defines the use of Procedural control layered on top of Basic Controls. Procedural control directs equipment-oriented actions to take place in an ordered sequence in order to carry out a process-oriented task. This approach establishes the business model from the very lowest level of the operation in a manner consistent with how a brewery is operated – per brew/batch. Recipe Management: Once you had the ability to control the process automatically, the next phase is the abstraction and management of the recipes. Using the S88 standard facilitates management of the recipes since the recipes themselves are managed separately from the controls that operate the equipment. Recipes can be implemented throughout the process. This helps eliminate scrap and waste and drives down changeover times. Data CollectionOnce fully automated control of the brewing is achieved, the next step should be capturing the brewing and organizational data in a data collection system. This type of system captures data from the brews and retains them in a time series database using special data compression algorithms, with a relational database to provide batch context. The data historian, integrated with batch logging and analysis tools, allows rapid optimization of production flows, process improvements, and in-line quality analysis. For example, this creates the ability to compare one brew to another brew and more detailed process optimization. Brew reports are captured and stored for current and future reference and refinement. This provides a platform for integration with the business system. — Rajesh Shah |