Global Brewing Company

Challenge

Production teams are pushed to find efficiencies.

High amounts of glass bottle breakage and aesthetic can damage were hampering the output of the world’s largest brewing company.

While aesthetic scuff and denting on aluminum cans and bottles reduced quality control performance and glass breakage was causing high downtime reducing output, there was no concrete data to confirm the suspected areas of pressure and impact. Trial and error solutions to fix problem areas on bottling and canning lines were generating limited results.

The breakage, damage and downtime were adding up and subtracting from the bottom line.

Solution

Sensors are deployed for proactive maintenance and faster recovery after downtime events.

The world’s leading beer bottling company deployed both ShockQC and PressureQC in multiple countries to improve glass breakage, reduce downtime and reduce damage to cans due to high pressure in the filling line. After initial issues are solved at each site, the sensors continue to be used as a proactive maintenance tool for ongoing glass breakage prevention, can damage reduction and optimal line efficiency. But even on a high-efficiency line, occasional glass breakage will happen without warning and operators will need to quickly identify the root cause using ShockQC and PressureQC. In one such instance, glass breakage and a shutdown on an overnight shift in one facility had the engineering group powering up ShockQC to immediately figure out where the problem originated. They were able to fix it quickly and efficiently to get the line running. ShockQC is a smart replica of glass containers, cans or other fragile containers to measure IPS and G-Force to identify the root cause of damage with 99% repeatability. Location tracking with wireless Bluetooth beacons pinpoint the origin of damage and opportunities for improvement. Outfitted with pressure sensitive film, PressureQC smart sensor replicas are placed on the line to measure scuffing and squeeze load for glass, PET and canning industries. Location beacons identify where to take immediate corrective actions and prioritize maintenance tasks to minimize rejects and extend bottle life.