Broadband and Beer
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000001421 |
| Published date | 01 January 1990 |
| Pages | 20-22 |
| Date | 01 January 1990 |
| Author | Laura Newton |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Broadband
and Beer
Laura Newton Interviews Jim Wrigley
20 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT & DATA SYSTEMS 90,1
T
he effects of introducing a networking
system at Ind Coope's Burton-on-Trent
Brewery are described.
ocessing operations used to be simple. The Ind Coope,
lrton-on-Trent Brewery (see front cover) produced only
few
different beers; each one to a well established routine
ocess. Each product made its way gradually through the
ewery, starting with rough beer, which is kept cold for
lumber of
days
and is then filtered and again moved into
e bright beer tanks ready for packaging.
each stage skilled operators, who knew the process
broughly,
monitored the activity, watched the condition
the beer, and checked its temperature. As each stage
is
complete and the beer was ready to move on from
e stage to the next, it was simply a matter of
communicating
to the person in charge of the next process
it you were ready, opening the valves and pumping it
ough. If the person was nearby, you shouted; if he was
it further on, you phoned!
complex network of pipes and process machines was
eded to link all the different stages, to make sure the
er arrived in the right tank at the right time. "The
ewery
was designed for long runs of two or three major
products",
says Jim Wrigley, Automation Engineer at Ind
lope's vast brewery at Burton-on-Trent.
However,
things have changed in the world of beer. For
start, the big breweries make a lot more brands of
beer.
condly, market demands are changing rapidly and
swedes have to be able to adapt, with flexibility, to supply
stomer needs.
is impractical for there to be a completely separate plant
each product, run by its own dedicated team of
erators. At any given time the brewery may be producing
n-label bitter for a supermarket chain, one of many of
own famous brands for its pubs or, indeed, Australian
lager made under licence at the same plant. For each the
manufacturing conditions are totally different; and for each
the production has to be controlled with precision.
"The plant was designed with large brewing vessels for
long runs", says Wrigley. "But the marketplace has
changed. Now we brew a greater range of beers and lagers
here including Draft Burton Ale and lager including
Castlemaine XXXX."
It has meant precise process control, which has finally
evolved into fully networked and integrated operator
workstations monitoring the many stages of processing,
packaging and distribution, 24 hours around the clock.
"We've had Allen-Bradley equipment for five or six years",
says
Wrigley.
"It was a natural progression to continue with
their communications equipment when it came to
networking the brewery. We started with PCs on the cold
tanks,
on valve routing which replaced the manually
changeable network of hoses used to route the beer around
the brewery, the cleaning processes and on the bright beer
tanks,
all linked to computerised workstations at each
operator's control panel."
That was a great step forward; assisting the operators to
control the process. "Logistically each production area can
be quite some distance apart", says Wrigley. "They may
be half a mile away, but they all need to know how each
stage is progressing."
The initial answer was to double up on workstations. Each
production area needed to monitor progress at any of the
other workstations so they could analyse production during
any stage. "It got even more complicated when we
increased the levels of automation. It meant everyone had
to keep an eye on more than one screen. In the filter room,
for example, an operator would have had to watch six
separate screens at once."
After months of deliberation and competency assessment
the solution evolved with the introduction of an Allen-
Bradley broadband network into the brewery, linked into
the two DEC Microvax computers, one as the main
processor, with the second on standby.
The Allen-Bradley broadband system uses technology well
established in the cable TV industry, based on coaxial cable
— like that used to connect a domestic TV aerial, only
strengthened for industrial conditions. Equipment hooked
into the cable can communicate by transmitting data at
different VHF frequencies.
"So far, we're only using one channel out of 30 to
communicate, though we've bought equipment for five
channels," says Wrigley.
The big advantage is that the workstations — essentially
personal computers — on each operator's desk
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