By Roy Green, MD, Harford Control
Working with the Scottish spirit industry over several decades has been a long and very educational experience.
By working very closely with spirit bottlers from the largest to the smaller entities we have learnt a huge amount which has enabled us to create a uniquely configurable system to meet their exacting and diverse needs without special software programmes.
Diageo, Morrison Bowmore (Beam Suntory), Edrington Group, Loch Lomond Distillers, Edradour Distillery, and others have been unparalleled mentors in coaching us to provide even more comprehensive factory floor systems to meet their requirements through configuration, without creating even a line of special code.
Diageo, the largest alcoholic drinks manufacturer in the world, have helped us take our standard toolkit to a new level by rolling out the system to plants in Ireland, Australia, USA, Italy, Ghana and Kenya and have now begun to deploy our unified solution within beer manufacturing plants, distilleries and laboratories.
So, what makes this unified toolkit unique or even special?
Companies such as those mentioned above, and many others, even outside the spirits, bottling and brewing industries have told us that they all have the same problems. Whether bottling spirit, milk, fruit juice, beer or packing yogurts, fish products, vegetable produce or dips, they all have to convert raw materials into finished product with total quality consistency, minimal wastage and as efficiently as possible, without the use of paper or disparate computer systems. They want to see, in real time, on their laptops, mobile phones, tablets and factory screens, precisely where they are at any one time. They want to know that they have the maximum protection from manufacturing risks with instant access to real time actionable information that could improve performance and reduce wastage.
So, over more than three decades, working closely with the food and drink industries, that is precisely what we have produced to date: a single fully integrated solution to combine the benefits of the very latest technological advances with existing legacy systems, thereby combining optimal protection from risk with optimal efficiency.
But how?
Ask any manufacturing company what they want to achieve and it will always be “perfection” i.e. total compliance, total quality consistency, with no wastage and all products manufactured at lowest possible cost. As many have found, there are no shortage of unscheduled events and random factors to ensure that perfection remains elusive but that shouldn’t mean that, in the interim, we can’t be pleased with excellence through continuous improvement. Through the use of our comprehensive toolkit, shared objectives and highly-focused Harford training, we were able to help these companies achieve results that hitherto had proven elusive, increasing efficiency/OEE in some cases by as much as 30%
So what is this Harford toolkit?
A fully integrated, real time, paperless information management system which doesn’t just collect data and archive it as many systems do, but also analyses, prioritises and distributes this instantly actionable information in real time to those who can make best use of it. Using the Top Loss programme for example, individuals and companies are encouraged to tackle the biggest/most costly losses first and, in so doing, show greatest improvement for least effort.
In terms of risk management, we have developed an Automated Coding and Labelling Verification System, a Right First Time Paperless Quality Management System and a unique Content Control System to mug the best from the law, without breaking it.
From an efficiency standpoint, Automated OEE and Short Interval Control work harmoniously together to drive performance improvement through heightened visibility of analysed and actionable information.
Our vision systems provide even more opportunities to improve quality consistency through, for example, Optical Character Verification, Component Matching and more.
Most programmes can run as stand-alone or as a fully integrated paperless solution, feeding directly into ERP systems.
