Jowa AG, Switzerland - Case Study: ERP and Process Control Solution for Networked Sites

Going Hand in Hand

Process control technology with batch functionality, real-time management capability for raw materials or automatic consumption notification from various production sites - all of this and much more is possible with the Plant iT process control system. The Jowa large-scale bakery, which produces a wide range of bakery goods across the whole of Switzerland, has demonstrated that these tasks can also be successfully realized by independent partners.

Around 40% of the demand for bread and bakery products in Switzerland is met by Jowa’s production operations at eight locations. Baking processes are controlled using Batch iT at the majority of these bakeries. Batch iT was developed especially for recipe-controlled batch processes as generally operated in all bakeries. It is a modular element of the Plant iT process control system, which has an open architectural structure, additionally comprising the further modules of the Plant Acquis iT production data management system, the parameterizable link to ERP software, such as SAP R/3 or Charisma and further MES functions. More than 20 years of software development experience have flowed into this process control system. All system modules have a central engineering environment with a joint database and an integrated parameterization interface.

Direct Contact and Security

A key aspect for Jowa is the link from the process control systems at the production sites to the SAP system at the headquarters in Volketswil. It is on precisely this basis that the production control for the bakeries situated across Switzerland is constructed.

This direct link between SAP and the process control systems means that the various production sites are centrally supplied with recipes. The same applies to the production jobs, which are also loaded by headquarters in Batch iT on-site and, if necessary, executed directly. The link between the process control system, materials management and SAP enables central management of a globally networked production web and optimized control of resources.In addition, it is possible to derive productivity ratios and therefore compare sites or analyze weak points. This system also allows production redundancy to be created, which enables headquarters to distribute tasks to other sites in the event of shortfalls or outages of baking plants, in order to always ensure the supply of bakery products to all sites.
As the same user interface is used at all production sites, differing only with regard to special language modules for German, French and Italian Swiss, operations and service personnel can be trained centrally and deployed at other sites where necessary. Such widely networked and complex solutions are, as the example of Jowa demonstrates, also realizable on-site by small and mid-level system partners.
Plant planners and operators therefore benefit from business flexibility and rapidness at close hand. In addition, they also have comprehensive support and investment security resulting from partnership with ProLeit. In this way, customer proximity, specific process knowledge of the system partner and the technological and commercial base of the manufacturer of the process control system can be combined with one another in the most highly effective way.
For the Jowa large-scale bakery, Müller & Waser based in Switzerland is the on-site mid-level partner. This company, specializing in the supply of complete solutions for bakeries, silo plants and mixed feed plants has a high degree of process competence and is always quickly reachable on-site for Jowa. Müller & Waser developed the concept for the production network of large-scale bakeries in cooperation with ProLeit.
Partnership between such mid-level system integrators and ProLeit mean that the plant operator enjoys security that the technology used will in future continue to be further developed and will remain available, thus securing investments. The pivotal advantage for plant operators is as in the example of Müller & Waser that such system integrators react flexibly and rapidly, provide tailored solutions via short routes and are generally also favorable as to costs, because overheads are minimized.
ProLeit supports these system partners in a targeted way and has aligned its service and consulting structure to such efficient and flexible partners. Together with the system partners, the company compiles the conception of the automation structure and provides active support for the initial project. In the course of project realization, system partners also utilize application-specific module solutions such as the SAP database link or voice-output for fault notifications.
Upon request, the system partners are provided with 24-hour support, in order to react quickly to all factors, particularly in the project start phase, and to be able to provide optimal services to customers. They generally cover first level support themselves, as this is reasonable because of the local proximity to the customer.

Networked production, including these
spicy nibbles, can be centrally planned using the Plant iT solution