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New Belgium Brewing Improves Performance and Meets Customer Demands
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Manufacturing System Automation
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
New Belgium Brewing, the third largest craft brewery and eighth largest overall brewery in the U.S., was facing challenges in meeting the growing demand for its products. The brewery lacked real-time information on unscheduled downtimes at various equipment areas, which caused production slowdowns. The production staff were continually reacting to unscheduled downtime at equipment areas. Management needed to address gaps in methods and processes to drive improvements. The bottling operation lacked the ability to predict capabilities to effectively commit brewery staff to specific production goals.
About The Customer
New Belgium Brewing Co. is a multi-million dollar success story in the American craft brewing industry. The company, which started as a beer brewing hobby, has grown to become the nation's third largest craft brewery and eighth largest overall brewery since 2012. The company produces some of the world's most popular craft brews, including Fat Tire and a multitude of other popular IPA, Pilsner, wheat beers and ales. The company is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
The Solution
New Belgium Brewing implemented a series of manufacturing automation initiatives over the last five years to streamline and improve its brewing and bottling facility. The company expanded its current Wonderware by AVEVA automation software capabilities to take advantage of its full Manufacturing Execution System capabilities. With the technical assistance of Apex Manufacturing Solutions, New Belgium achieved record levels of efficiencies in scheduled and non-scheduled downtime throughout its operations with the implementation of AVEVA’s Manufacturing Execution System software. The software provided greater visibility and a true understanding of actual production capacity for predictable order fulfillment. The brewery’s existing systems provided huge amounts of data, but with no context. The management team needed a way to effectively collect and analyse that data in order to turn it into actionable information.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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