Coca-Cola SCMC implements remote production line maintenance by using Ewon Flexy

Coca-Cola Bottlers Manufacturing Holdings Limited, or SCMC (Supply Chain Management Company), is mainly responsible for the supply chain management of still beverages under Coca-Cola, including the well-known drinks "Minute Maid", "Ready-to-Drink Nestle Coffee", and "Qoo Sports Drink". In addition to the diversified production lines, complicated processing, and multiple equipment suppliers and systems, SCMC has 17 production plants across the China mainland. Therefore, how to effectively maintain these plants and production lines to improve efficiency and quality and reduce costing has remained the focus of Coca-Cola SCMC in recent years.

Problems faced by Coca-Cola SCMC

Since the 17 plants of SCMC are located in different regions of the country, traditional on-site maintenance by electrical technicians from SCMC's engineering department has become inefficient and could not meet requirements; although SCMC's main suppliers also provide remote maintenance solutions, their prices are extremely high and are not open to SCMC, making it impossible for SCMC's electronic technicians to conduct remote maintenance.

We are going to further expand the application of the industrial IoT platform. Next, we will conduct deep analysis of the data from production lines by using the Ewon remote solution to improve our predictive maintenance!

Coca-Cola SCMC

SCMC needed to build its own remote maintenance systems, one for electronic technicians of the engineering department to conduct remote equipment maintenance of each plant and production line, mainly for PLC and HMI, and the other for SCMC to include all the suppliers into the system for integrated management and maintenance.

Coca-Cola SCMC’s requirements

• An easy-to-use and safe solution mainly for remote on-site maintenance of PLC and HMI
•  A universal (not bound to manufacturer) and user-friendly remote maintenance solution to optimize the productivity of the personnel from SCMC's engineering department for better operation efficiency
•  A supplier-friendly remote maintenance solution for authorizing and managing SCMC's  multiple suppliers in terms of plant and equipment maintenance
•  A remote solution that is cost effective and easily covers more plants and production lines
•  Professional and trustworthy remote solution partner to ensure effective services and long-term cooperation

Ewon remote solution

The customer finally chose the Ewon remote solution of HMS after discussions and rounds of tests. HMS helped the customer establish the combination of Ewon Flexy 205 industrial gateway + Talk2m pro account.

The Flexy 205 gateway is easy to use and safe, and can support USB ports, serial ports, MPIs, and other on-site PLCs and devices with different interfaces through the extension card. The strong management ability of Talk2m cloud service is convenient to manage, review, and track remote connections. As an IT-friendly solution, it can reduce the workload of customer's IT department with no need of VPN or a separate port.

Performance of solution

The solution substantially cut the response time of electronic engineers from 24-48hours to 1 hour. In extreme cases (such as the Covid-19 pandemic), problems can be solved through remote connection when it is impossible to travel, which greatly improves the business flexibility of the engineering service department. The strong management ability of Talk2m pro can enable the management staff of SCMS to conveniently distribute engineers and suppliers for equipment maintenance of different plants and production lines. It helps keep these work records traceable. Compared with remote solutions of SCMC's suppliers, the Ewon remote solution can operate at a cost less than 1/10 of previous spending!

Conclusion

Coca-Cola SCMC is determined to raise production line efficiency, lower manufacturing and maintenance costs, and improve product quality. The Ewon Flexy and Talk2m pro cloud service helped them achieve these goals with the advantages of industrial IoT. Just as what the customer expected: "We are going to further expand the application of the industrial IoT platform. Next, we will conduct deep analysis of the data from production lines by using the Ewon remote solution to improve our predictive maintenance!"