• Premier Nutrition was founded in 1991 and is a producer and supplier of animal nutrition supplements and premixes to the worlds largest producers of livestock feeds and pet foods.

• Premier Nutrition has three manufacturing sites in Rugeley (Staffordshire), and the company is owned by AB Agri Ltd, the Agriculture Group of Associated British Foods plc.

• Premier Nutrition are committed to delivering wholesome, safe, effective products that meet the animal’s productive needs whilst maintaining its health and welfare needs.

• The key principles adopted by Premier Nutrition in order to achieve optimum food safety are control, traceability and freedom from residues.

• A completely new production line (R4P) was created to replace previous paper-based manual processes.

• One of the key requirements was to use a company who had the capability to provide a fully integrated systems integration and turn-key control system solution for a new production line - from automation devices, automation process controls, manufacturing operations (MES) to business logistics systems (ERP).

• The control system was required to provide increased throughput, traceability, capacity and to be fully integrated with their existing ERP System.

• Complex products and multiple recipe changeovers meant that it was paramount that the new system eliminated the risk of cross-contamination between batches and ensured complete accuracy.

• It was also vital that the system provided full materials management capability including material genealogy, traceability and receipt and batch management.

The Perfect Blend of Solutions:

“The aim of the new R4P production line was to create optimum traceability and food safety to

eliminate the chance of cross-contamination. In order to achieve this we needed to look at replacing our existing

paper-based processes with electronic processes.

We chose Cimlogic as they had the experience and capability of full systems integration and provided us with

a detailed and comprehensive turn-key solution covering all areas. We also required a control system that would

fully integrate with our existing ERP system, now and in the future – Cimlogic were able to do this.”

CASE STUDY

How Cimlogic helped Premier Nutrition to the top of the pecking order

Company Profile

The Business Requirements

Randall Warin – Project Manager, Premier Nutrition

Cimlogic Ltd, Salts Mill, Victoria Road, Saltaire, West Yorkshire BD18 3LFe: enquiries@cimlogic.co.uk t: 01274 599 955 f: 0870 762 5559

www.cimlogic.co.uk

• Cimlogic consulted, designed and implemented a fully comprehensive turn-key manufacturing solution comprising of:- TrakSYS™ Manufacturing Execution System - for track and trace, fill and weigh, optimised planning, task management and importantly ERP integration. Cimplicity SCADA System - for tight control and diagnostic monitoring of the plant. Rockwell ControlLogix PLC Architecture - for accurate and responsive plant control, tightly integrated into a range of technologies such as RFID, bar-coding and labelling, and protocols such as Profibus, DeviceNet, EthernetIP. Pics Pro Simulation - to emulate the plant and test the links between the ERP, MES and Automation Layer.

• The solution was seamlessly integrated into the clients current ERP system. The interface was designed with the future in mind as the plan is to re-integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX in the near future.

• Both RFID and Barcode Technology were fully integrated with TrakSYS™ Task Management, thereby enabling  ‘Mix Up Prevention’ techniques to be adopted.

• Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) was implemented using TrakSYS™. Based on plant performance and business rules regarding contamination, the planning system was able to take a required input plan, shuffle the order of production to meet the criteria of both optimised performance and avoidance of product contamination. In addition, planning took into account the availability of raw materials, also monitored by TrakSYS™. This is a complex algorithm, and the solution continually re-works the plan as the day progresses.

• Cimlogic utilised the Electronic Batch Record (EBR) functionality within TrakSYS™ to monitor and record usage of raw materials (amounts and lot numbers), and provided complete traceability of the final product.

• Increased traceability and inventory control which has improved product safety and genealogy.

• Improved throughput , capacity utilisation, product quality and productivity.

• Operator knowledge and experience was encapsulated and put into the fabric of the solution, thereby improving plant performance, eliminating human error, and reducing waste. Which importantly provides a leaner and more consistent delivery of service and products to the clients customers.

• Improved data management using electronic batch records (EBR) and conforming to regulatory compliance.

• Premier Nutrition now has complete real-time visibility of their entire operations in order to put further improvement initiatives in place.

“The project was delivered with absolute precision and expertise.

Our processes are complex and we have variable products for multiple customers, and so the new system

has helped us to manage these complex operations better, whilst improving product quality, overall productivity and

reducing costs.

Cimlogic’s comprehensive turn-key solution has created complete transparency within our factory and improved

our data accuracy and management processes.”

Randall Warin – Project Manager, Premier Nutrition

The Cimlogic Solution

The Benefits

Outstanding manufacturing solutions