Cussons opts for clean start in UK
31 Jul 2009
Built on the site of the former coal mine, the facility features a high-speed Liquids Manufacturing unit for product ranges, such as Carex and Imperial Leather. The operation has "significantly more" production capacity than was available at the previous production sites in Kersal Vale and Ellesmere Port, said PZ Cussons.
PZ Cussons said it chose to remain in the region despite opportunities to relocate to one of several European locations. However, while opting to build the facility in the UK, it realised that much of its existing process equipment was unable to deliver the necessary production volumes or economies of scale and required operator intervention at many stages of manufacturing - leading to product variability.
In operation, the factory receives bulk raw materials, combines them with smaller, precisely dosed quantities of perfumes and additives, using a set list of recipes, and then mixes and packages them in accordance with production volume needs. Although simple in theory, the entire process requires extremely high levels of measurement and control so that batches fall within the company's stringent quality standards.
Starting from a 'clean slate', PZ Cussons recognised many areas where savings could be made and unnecessary costs removed. It also wanted to adopt leaner manufacturing procedures making further savings in stock holding and deliveries.
"We had a very clear view of what we wanted – a distributed control system which runs off a set of servers integrated into our general IT infrastructure," said Andy Ellams, process development manager at PZ Cussons. "These servers are connected to the PLCs on a fibre optic network which is shared with our office systems traffic.”
Rockwell Automation and its alliance partner Endress+Hauser were chosen to supply new production technology based on the ISA S-88 standard. The equipment included networked instrumentation and routing valves, while Rockwell's Integrated Architecture was selected as a common software platform to facilitate installation and cross-line migration. An entirely new processing and production operation was developed, along with instruments and fieldbus networks engineered by Endress+Hauser.
By measuring and automating virtually every step of the recipe creation, mixing, processing and packaging lines, the control system has provided the required production volumes and enabled quality targets to be met. The savings have been such that the company is vindicated in its decision not to move manufacturing to alternative locations outside of the UK.
The process automation system at the Salford site provides overall line control via a number of cabinet-encased, line-side Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PACs. As well as providing the core control for Allen-Bradley Intelligent Motor Control Centres, the controllers also link to FactoryTalk Batch and supply data for FactoryTalk Historian. The FactoryTalk AssetCentre tool provides plant-wide asset management support.
PZ Cussons has effectively been able to de-skill some processes that took operators many years to learn. Labour in one area has been reduced from 16 people on a four-shift pattern to just one person who only needs to visit the section once a day. Some of these roles have been redeployed elsewhere in the factory.
With the old approach, all of the recipes were hard-coded into the PLCs, so there was no easy way to test new recipes and mixes without significant re-coding. This work had to be carried out by specialist operators. With the new system, PZ Cussons can pilot test new recipes on a small scale prior to mass production, while the scalability and portability of the software means any operator can now run any line.
"First-time passes are now becoming the norm, while the quality standards we are seeing are very high with little or no tweaking required," Ellams reported. "We often go weeks without any production issues, and the plant is experiencing reduced downtime, greater accuracy and shorter batch times, which, in turn, is also saving energy and shortening time to market."
