牛仔布北美制造了著名服装制造商使用的牛仔布，以制造世界上一些最受欢迎的服装。牛仔布是美国最大的牛仔布制造商之一，每天生产超过75,000码的牛仔布。为了帮助与新的全球经济保持同步，北美牛仔布需要在其机器上保持持续的生产，同时保持成本降低并保持产品质量。
总部位于乔治亚州哥伦布市的公司与密尔沃基的Rockwell Automation Inc.合作，在其流程，材料处理，包装和其他离散应用程序上设计和实施了集成控制系统。结果，牛仔布北美降低了产品可变性，最大程度地减少了停机时间，减少了维护，并提高了整个设施的总体生产率。
Denim North America had a legacy distributed control system that managed the entire production line from the beginning of the process where the yarn enters the ballwarper, to the dye range where it gets its characteristic denim color, to the weave room where it’s woven into bolts of cloth, to the finishing range where specific customer finishes are applied.
Frequent failures
As the company’s distributed control system (DCS) aged, it began to fail more frequently, taking the production line down for three or more hours, multiple times each week. Technical support was essential, but unfortunately, the closest technicians were at least a two-hour flight away. With no local support, the failures contributed to lengthy downtimes and significant expenses.
In addition, the company’s operators found the DCS’s batch features complicated and difficult to work with, causing the company’s line workers problems getting recipes to function correctly. This meant that sometimes, the process had to be managed by hand. Due to this, changes in color, materials or other product modifications often required manual adjustments to fill the gaps.
由于所需的手动控制水平，产品一致性不是北美牛仔布想要的，而且获得正确的颜色比线工人和工厂经理更喜欢的过程更加困难。质量水平和浪费的数量不足以达到北美牛仔布的世界一流标准，导致该公司寻找可以帮助该工厂提高这些标准的合作伙伴。
“事情的运作不佳，”北美牛仔工程师的技术支持工程师Elmer Rumsey说。“为了保持竞争力，我们需要成为世界上最现代，运作最顺利的牛仔布制造工厂，我们还没有。”
Rumsey and the Denim North America management team decided to migrate to an automated system that would deliver the production uptime, efficiency and product consistency the company needed, while securing local support that would help it maintain a dominant market position.
更改的时间
The team decided to get to the heart of the problem and replace the DCS system that was not living up to its promise. They conducted a comprehensive review and survey of its system, and catalogued its production needs. The team wanted an integrated system that would provide batching and recipe capabilities, solving the quality and consistency issues that had proven to be problematic on the last system. A key specification was that the new installation be user-friendly as well.
After evaluating several system design concepts, the team decided on a new automation system that came with a local support program. They went with a ControlLogix programmable automation controller (PAC) from Rockwell Automation. This platform leverages the same control engine, development tools, network and operator interface technologies and communications services across an entire line of controllers.
“Our engineers have been using controllers from Rockwell Automation on the discrete side of our operation for years,” says Rumsey. “By extending this platform to our motion, batch, process, safety and drive applications, we have a more connected enterprise that is much easier to operate and maintain.”
Controllogix PAC通过控制网连接到Allen-Bradley Flex输入/输出模块，PowerFlex 700驱动器和其他现场设备，以协调过程应用程序，包括混合，精加工和垂死阶段。他们与牛仔布的材料处理和包装应用程序中的可编程控制器进行通信，以进行完整的水平集成。控制器还通过以太网/IP与业务系统进行通信，以提供有关系统状态的详细数据以及有关植物经理趋势分析的报告。
To eliminate manual adjustments and improve batch-to-batch consistency, Rockwell’s FactoryTalk batch software—with the ability to build signature templates and enforce command verification policies—improves productivity, and the company’s security and regulatory compliance efforts.
“What Rockwell Automation offered us was the chance to bring our plant up to, and even beyond, the state of the art at an attractive price,” says Rumsey. “The system addressed all of our concerns, and the Rockwell Automation post-installation service and support is head and shoulders above any other supplier.”
Minimal disruption
Rockwell Automation’s engineering team worked with Denim North America’s plant management and engineers to integrate and deliver the new line with the existing plant architecture. Rockwell Automation’s Delivered Solutions group evaluated the existing infrastructure to develop a plan to install and integrate the new components and software with minimal disruption to plant operations. As a result, the execution of the project was completed in a matter of a few weeks.
Implementing a single control platform across the plant floor has provided Denim with a number of advantages, including reduced spare parts, more synchronized processes, and lower maintenance and training costs. It has also improved plantwide integration by enabling the transfer of real-time data from the plant floor to the front office for better decision making and increased manufacturing flexibility.
该产品线的报告每天都会供工厂管理审查和评估可能的变化，以提高效率，寻找可能需要故障排除的区域，并帮助确定即将到来的订单的能力。由于工程师利用用户友好的批量和食谱功能，生产较少的浪费，线条效率急剧提高，因为工程师利用了用户友好的批处理和食谱功能。
生产增长了21％，这在很大程度上是由于生产线失败的显着减少以及更容易获得的客户支持。以前，线路效率和停机时间不符合公司标准。现在，该公司每月仅经历一两次停机时间进行维护，而当地的Rockwell Automation Service技术人员正在现场，以在极少数情况下需要立即关注系统。
Rockwell Automation Inc.
www.rockwellautomation.com
