Optimal production planning with Line Management System

Around 90 different products are produced and filled in 330-ml, 400-ml, 500-ml and 750-ml containers at Sachsenmilch in Leppersdorf, and, depending on the retail partners involved, packaged in 8-, 12- and 24-bottle trays in mono, 2-, 3- or 4-pack sorting patterns. A production schedule that demands optimised control of the production sequence.
The Krones line management system (LMS) controls the two lines (rated at 36,000 bph) as complete systems with production batches, obtaining all the production-relevant information from the SAP order booking system, plus all the requisite data for tracking, (e.g. sell-by date, filling time, filling valve assignment).  In order to provide maximised scope for flexibility in terms of planning and production, the orders can be altered in the machines until immediately before production begins, either automatically or by the shift manager.  For the operator at the lines, two orders at a time are visually displayed on the monitors of the individual machines: the current order and the next one, which enables the operator to perform forward planning at his/her machine. The information about the order includes order and article numbers, preform type, recipe name, label type, container type and volume, tray type, information on the palletising program, and the planned number of containers.
Once production has been enabled, the central “head PLC” of the entire line transmits the requisite order data in each case to each individual unit, thus ensuring that the vital information for the production or packaging step concerned is available directly at each machine involved, such as label type required, or size and type of tray.