The two types of control system described in this article were quite unique when they were completed and we are pleased to report that the results were better than the client had expected as this testimonial indicates:
"I have recently reviewed each project that was done and compared it to the original objectives. The results are beyond those originally planned and ahead of our Vision timeline. With your help we have taken a very labour intensive, non tracking, high variance system and turned it into a state-of-the-art process."
Frank Cipparrone, January 17, 1997.
The application of these control systems to the production and distribution processes have resulted in a significant increase in productivity and improved quality. Each system has successfully met the specific requirements set out by the customer.
The stated results of these control systems have been:
A 50% increase in production capacity, without adding new equipment.
A reduction in product variance to less than 1%.
The mixing stages are no longer the bottlenecks in the system.
Operator error and system downtime have been virtually eliminated.
Operators and managers have a greater access to important production data.
The chocolate production facility now has a control network ready for future expansion.
The QNX operating system coupled with the specialized programming software we used on these projects proved to be one of the main reasons why these systems were implemented so successfully. Cadbury now runs with sophisticated control strategies embedded into stable QNX based control programs that are protected from the mishaps of operators and the instability of the MS-Windows platform running the user interface.
Using Cogent software specially designed for QNX and knowledge of the process we able to retrofit earlier control applications and provide a platform for future expansion.