Industries - ANT - Industrial Software Solutions

Packaging

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The automatic packing lines require a high level of input and service from well-trained operators. This is especially important today where companies face growing complexity due to the growing complexity of market mix and larger portfolios causing an increase in SKUs meaning more changeovers and more administrative burden.

The less time the operator needs to spend on records keeping, the more he can be focused on machine operation, which simply results in higher OEE.

The ANT system supports the operator throughout the entire packaging process. From production order selection, through changeover, cleaning, tooling assembly, primary and secondary packaging, to batch documentation. The production is automatically registered, and collected data helps in the analysis during interactive shift meetings.

Taking some of the best lean practices from FMCG and adapting them for the GMP regulated pharma environment can allow companies to maintain higher and stable efficiencies with the help of ANT Pharma Suite.

pain points & solutions from ANT

PAIN: Production record-keeping consumes too many operators' time making the process inefficient.

SOLUTION: All production data are available on the operator panel and the operator's activity is limited to confirming at the click of a button.
PAIN: Packaging process KPIs, like OEE, Waste, or Delay are available in post-production reports, without possibility to impact on them.

SOLUTION: The Target, Production progress, OEE, Waste, and Breakdown Reasons are transparently real-time displayed to operators. The system notifies operators in advance, to take corrective actions to prevent losses.
PAIN: Production stops because of unpredicted exceptions.

SOLUTION: The system enforces SOP ( Standard Operating Procedures), making the production operations are repeatable and the exception occurrences are highly reduced.

PAIN: Wrong packaging, box, or leaflet used.

SOLUTION: Raw material validation with full traceability ensures that packaging materials are as defined in the BOM, correct to selected product presentation.
PAIN: The reasons for breakdowns, delays and rejects are not measured and are not clear.

SOLUTION: The system ensures the real-time visibility and control of the entire packaging line with visual tools and drill-down reporting. Data obtained directly from machines and sensors are reliable and show the real picture of the production, which is an entry point to Continuous Improvement.
PAIN: Changeovers, format parts installation and line cleaning take longer time, making the production start delayed.

SOLUTION: The system acts like the "time-keeper", enforces the following activities related to the work of the packaging line, including machines setup, cleanings, raw materials collection, autonomous maintenance by indicating the following steps in clear visual form, and notifying about delays or incorrectnesses.

Supported operations in Packaging:

Ampul packers
Bag fillers
Bottle fillers
Blister packers
Bottle cappers
Bundling machines
Cartoning machines
Case packing machines
Labeling Equipment
Liquid Fillers

Overwrapping Machines
Palletizing and Depalletizing Equipment
Powder Fillers
Tablet Counting Machines
Unit Dosing Machines
Vial Filling Equipment
Weighing Equipment
Wrapping Machines

Manufacturing

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Manufacturing is a discrete process that consists of subsequent operations, like manufacturing of the tableting blend – dosing and mixing, granulation, hot-melt extrusion, granule lubrication, and finally tablets pressing and coating.

Digitalization of the entire solids manufacturing process, including automated batch recording as well as real-time progress monitoring, ensures the highest efficiency and time predictability of the production of tablets.

ANT Pharma Suite digitalizes the entire bulk manufacturing process.

Pain points & solutions from ANT:

PAIN: Companies rely on manual, paper-based systems to maintain their batch records for compliance purposes, which results in inefficient processes, poor data tracking, inaccurate or missing information, shipment delays, product quality issues, recalls, warning letters, or even consent decrees.

SOLUTION: Electronic batch record (EBR) solution included in ANT Pharma Suite, solves all of the listed pains, making the process efficient and robust. Most data are collected in real-time directly from machines eliminating scribal error, missing values, or illegal values. Correcting documents in 1 step, 100% RFT (Right First Time) rate, instant collecting of audit documents. EBR combine the ingredient information, like Certificate of Analysis (CoA), test method procedures and yields, source of the ingredients, the quantity used, and any notes from the original manufacturer with the observed values, like the measurements, weights and properties, machine settings, environment parameters.
PAIN: Disconnected Systems in Manufacturing

SOLUTION: ANT System is able to interface with existing systems, machines, or equipment collecting data without the need for manual rewriting. It ensures reliable data, acquired automatically in real-time.

PAIN: Poor Collaboration Among Users and Quality/Manufacturing Departments

SOLUTION: ANT System is able to interface with existing systems, machines, or equipment collecting data without the need for manual rewriting. It ensures reliable data, acquired automatically in real-time. ANT System ensures transparent insight into the entire manufacturing process for all authorized users from all company departments. The system acts as a communication platform fed by reliable data, bringing the inter-division connections throughout the company.
PAIN: Difficulty in handle the high variability and dynamic nature of pharma manufacturing

SOLUTION: The pharma manufacturing process is distributed into several processes that are executed in separate rooms. ANT System visualizes the progress of each current operation, enabling real-time scheduling, and taking the right decisions that impact productivity.

Supported operations in Manufacturing:

Blending
Capsule Filling
Capsule Manufacturing
Coating
Compresion
Drying
Granulation
Grinding

Homogenization
Milling
Mixing
Washing
Wet granulation

“Grade A zone” manufacturing

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The high standards in sterility required in injectable manufacturing can limit the operator interaction e.g. limited movement, contact, communication.

The system must be as automated as possible, acquiring the most data from machine PLCs or external sensors. A large panel and camera with gesture recognition may be an example of the interaction solution with an operator.

ANT systems enable improvements while meeting tough requirements.

paperless mes rfid logging production plan data from machines production goal operator panel digitalization on factory production monitoring tablets blisters tubes eye drops pills drugs vials liquids

Operator is guided by system with no paper. After logging with RFID card, operator selects production order and monitor progress in real-time. Data from production machines is gathered in one platform and current production goal can be tracked.

get data from machines siemens plc opc check measurements real-time compare to quality limits quality plans BOM validation

System is connected to machines and its equipment - in this case to scale on Siemens PLC over OPC. Based on the planned tasks and activities, system is checking process parameters (weight) in real-time and make sure it is in quality limits.

production reports and analysis oee kpi stoppage reasons micro stops failures changeover time

Aggregated data are used to display automated reports. Choose any date period, machine or any production area (factory, department) to get OEE, KPI, stoppage reasons and their impact on production.

production planning pharma pharmacy optimization less changeover produce on time just-in-time real cycle time plan based on history machine cycles

Using optimization algorithms and production history data like real cycle time, downtimes, defects and OEE, Real-time Scheduler calculates most real, fastest, cheapest and on time schedule.

mes pharmacy compliance FDA GAMP5 GMP FDA traceability components batches operators quantity changeover time machine uptime downtime failures speed loss waste

Traceability and batch record for pharmacy and cosmetics industry with production data like components batches, operators, quantity, weight, changeover time, uptime, downtime, failures, speed loss and waste.

15% run at full speed time increase

24% microstops time reduction

35% batch release time reduction

25% set up time reduction

ANT IN PHARMA

10 bln tablets produced and packed yearly

4 bln ampoules and eye drops filled yearly

1,3 bln tubes of creams and toothpaste filled every year

90 packing lines with ANT System

Our Customers

Beverages, brewing, water, juice, dairy, wines & spirits

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ANT FMCG Suite ensures uninterrupted operation of the bottling line and timely execution of orders, changeovers, CIP and maintenance.

The system monitors the entire filling process on an ongoing basis and informs in advance about potential interruptions, enforcing preventive actions, such as delivering of empty bottles or cans, carton caps, and labels, unblocking of bottle jams, switching the tank due to low product levels or requesting urgent collection of ready pallets.

Operators confirm every task and operation in the system, which guarantees repeatability and compliance with procedures.

ANT System ensures that every production order is completed due to schedule.

Pain points & solutions from ANT:

PAIN: Planned Downtimes becoming longer

SOLUTION: ANT system schedules all bottling line operations, including Maintenance, Cleanings, Training, Start-up, Run-out, Meals, Test runs. The plan is realistic, is based on history, and what is the most important, the plan is tracked in real-time, by enforcing the confirmation of finishing off the planned steps, interactive visualization of time schedule, notifying delays and escalating longer deviations from original plan.
PAIN: Changeovers take a longer time.

SOLUTION: Line Set-up and Equipment Adjustments, as well as Raw Material Collection, can be also tracked in ANT System. The system displays step by step the changeover instructions related to specific products change by changeover matrix. Recipes and machine settings can be dispatched to machines remotely - on-the-fly. Clear visualization of the progress of changeover encourages operators to be effective and to finish on time.
PAIN: External Stops and Breakdowns

SOLUTION: The bottling line can stop for a longer time because of some external stop reasons, like no beer, no utility, or breakdowns that could be predicted in advance and simply avoided. ANT System checks defined conditions on parameters acquired from the process to predict potential disruptions, and notify operators about the need to perform some actions to prevent them.

PAIN: Speed losses, micro-stops

SOLUTION: ANT System measures the overall speed of bottling as well as speeds on each part of the line, including buffers capacities - "V" diagram. Thanks to that the system can indicate and report the speed losses and its reasons as a separate factor in OEE Loss Tree.
PAIN: Not clear root reasons for breakdowns, micro-stops, and waste.

SOLUTION: ANT System uses an advanced algorithm that determines the root reason of the line stop. The stops are divided into limiting and not limiting and are being analyzed separately.
PAIN: Rejects and reworks

SOLUTION: ANT System counts the number of bottles incoming and outcoming and reads from, some more advanced machines and bottle inspectors, the reasons of the bottle rejecting. If the ratio of the rejects, especially full bottles, exceeds the limit, the system may advise stopping bottling. Finally, all the rejects statistics are available in detailed reports that help in continuous process improvement.

Supported operations in Bottling:

Bottle washer
Conveyors
CPLs/Labelers
Crate washer
Crate cover
De-packing machine (Decrater)
Depalletizer
Empty Bottle Inspector (EBI)

Fillers (or Filling machines)
Full Bottle Inspector (FBI)
Packer(Crater)
Palletizer
Pasteurizer
Sorter
Sticker

Packaged food, baked goods, confectionery, sugar, oil, grains, cereals, ingredients

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Waste elimination is a key strategy to improve efficiency in the food industry.

A simple ROI example:

The cookie baking line generates losses when the waste exceeds the level of a few percent only. Blocking of the packaging machine may result in the rejection of baked cookies, and even worse, in the rejection of the cookies enriched with chocolate. The baking process cannot be stopped, but monitoring of the buffers between machines allows the system to return the dough before the oven, and even before enrichment.

At the same time, the monitoring of overweighting allows the system to adjust enrichment settings. Only these two example solutions bring significant savings during the year.

ANT FMCG Suite allows you to limit the losses.

Pain points & solutions from ANT:

PAIN: Waste is the biggest pain in food production.

SOLUTION: ANT system brings the real-time waste reporting based on reliable process data automatically acquired from machines, conveyors, weighers helps in the identification of its amounts and types, eg. drought, cakes outcoming from the oven , enriched cakes, packed cakes. Scrap is a part of the waste that can be returned to process or can be sold eg. as an ingredient for animal feed. Thanks to ANT system operators can quickly react to reduce or even prevent the ongoing waste as well as managers can make some process improvements according to analytic reports.
PAIN: Inefficient Energy Consumption impacts on production cost.

SOLUTION: Food processing consumes energy for heating, cooling, freezing, and often uses large amounts of water. The easiest way to improve energy efficiency is to improve OEE. Eg. the oven consumes the same volume of gas, regardless of whether the cookies are baked or not. ANT FMCG Suite maximizes the utilization of machines and processes what impacts the increase in energy efficiency, lowering the cost of energy per product. ANT Smart Energy Suite enables companies to contract the optimal power from the utility providers, monitor consumption according to ISO50001, and prevent failures that can lead to production stop.
PAIN: Overproduction and overweighting generates losses.

SOLUTION: Long production lines buffer a huge volume of products. Thanks to real-time data, ANT system detects the right time to stop adding raw materials to the first process when the buffered amount of products is enough to finish the current production order. Real-time overweighting control allows the calibrating of the process and avoiding the losses.

PAIN: formalities, HACCP reporting

SOLUTION: The automatic recording of process parameters ensures the right temperature and food processing time. ANT FMCG Suite records parameters of cooking, frying, cooling, freezing, storage, and buffering between the operations. Measurements can be easily reported for auditors.
PAIN: Employee turnover ant the seasonal production

SOLUTION: The turnover of production workers is a general problem for the industry. It is particularly strong in the food industry due to the frequent seasonality and the related diverse demand for labor. ANT FMCG Suite enforces the manufacturing standard operating procedures (SOP) by displaying necessary steps of the changeover, cleaning, or machine setup, supporting the lower experienced workers. Electronic instructions, visualizations, dashboards, and forms help operators and make their work easier.
PAIN: Raw material inventory leakage

SOLUTION: ANT FMCG Suite ensures full traceability of raw materials. The use of each material is registered and assigned to a specific batch. The goal of the system is to ensure a total "0" balance of materials, products, and waste. Even more difficult, but it is possible to calculate such a balance that includes evaporation or adding water to the product. This way the costs of production are under control and the margin is transparently and reliably calculated.

Cosmetics, household chemicals, hygiene

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Production of cosmetics, as well as the production of household chemicals and hygiene products, becomes more and more similar to pharma. The list of products manufactured in accordance with GMP regulations grows permanently.

The companies implement ANT FMCG Suite to meet the regulations and to keep the highest efficiency as well as the expected margin.

The packaging process in cosmetics is usually a little bit more complicated. The lines consist of a higher number of machines, performing advanced operations to pack the products into elegant boxes.

ANT FMCG Suite is a proven solution in toothpaste, creams, shampoos, gels and wet wipes manufacturing.

Tobacco

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Stop the stops!

Every minute, the cigarette making machine produces 10,000 cigarettes. The one-minute stop is equal to 500 packages less.

ANT Tobacco Suite with the MicroStops Collection Subsystem was implemented on 500+ SMD and FMD, OTPs, SNUS and pouches lines.

The phenomenal, double-digit increase in efficiency, results in rapid growth of the ANT systems in the tobacco factories around the world.

Plastics & alu packagings - flexible, foils, films, flexible & cans

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ANT FMCG Suite in the flexible packaging industry covers the entire process, from the production of the basic semi-finished product in reels, cutting, longitudinal cutting, rewinding, punching, printing, surface treatment, to forming of finished packaging.

Production volume is calculated in meters or square meters and is assigned to reels of different widths, which requires flexible conversion options.

A different approach is required for injection molding, can pressing, and glass bottle production. Production is quantified per piece, but many pieces can be made in one cycle, depending on the type of form and availability of nests.

High-volume production, high speed, continuous and stops-sensitive processes, quality control on-the-fly and a large number of custom end-product presentations (SKUs) are the example challenges we are overcoming.

Glass packagings - bottles, jars, jugs, vials

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“Glass manufacturing is a high-temperature, energy-using activity which constitutes a constant economic and environmental challenge for the glass industries to keep energy use to a minimum.
It provides a natural incentive towards finding the best innovative energy-efficient manufacturing processes as energy accounts for a significant share of production costs.”

source: glassallianceeurope.eu

The production of glass containers can be optimized thanks to the ANT FMCG Suite system, which oversees operations, starting from forming to cold end processing.

The goal of the system is to ensure the highest OEE for bottle production to maximize the utilization of energy consumed in the glass melting process.

Pain points & solutions from ANT:

PAIN: High energy consumption ratio per finished product.

SOLUTION: The glassworks combat against energy costs, continuously improving the entire production process. ANT FMCG Suite helps maximize forming process efficiency and subsequent processing of glass containers due to Real-Time OEE measurement, calculation of Energy Effectiveness KPIs - kWh/1000 bottles or kWh/ton of glass in bottles, SOPs enforcement during the changeovers or monitoring of quantities and reasons of wasting bottles and glass. All it brings is a tangible increase in the plant capacity lowering the energy ratio of products.
PAIN: Low OEE of Forming and Cold End.

SOLUTION: ANT FMCG Suite ensures the real-time monitoring of bottle manufacturing, including production volumes, waste and breakdowns with reason’s criteria, changeover steps and progress, the new item (bottle) startup period till First Good Serie, and maintenance activities. Line performance data is acquired from PLCs, sensors installed on conveyors, and bottle inspectors. Operators are informed about current and even potential disruptions, confirm recorded events and provide detailed information using industrial heavy-duty touch panels.

PAIN: High costs of purchasing energy and CO2 emission allowances.

SOLUTION: ANT Smart Energy System monitors the consumption of gas and electrical power, providing a detailed breakdown through production and not production purposes, through melting furnaces and their sections to forming and cold end treatment and air compressors. This breakdown enables our customers to qualify energy costs for excise duty refund purposes. Accurate prognosis of energy consumption generated in ANT software enables to set the optimal level of power contracted with a utility vendor. The Power Guard Functionality protects our customers against exceeding the contract limits and related fines. High energy consumption by the air compressors. Monitoring of electrical energy consumption and airflow and calculation of the individual compressor's KPI, defined as kWh/Nm3 allows continuously checking the condition of the machines, optimal switching, and taking condition-based-decisions regarding overhauls. The monitoring of compressed air distribution pipelines allows for leakage detection and fixing them to stop expensive losses.

Processes in Glass packagings:

Annealing
Coatings
Cold end
Forming

Inspection equipment
Internal treatment
Packaging
Secondary processing - labeling, screen-printing or painting

mes OEE current health real-time availability performance quality improvement best and worst machine equipment type

Monitor current health of your production in real-time. Analyse OEE (availability, performance, quality) to see where is the place for improvement. Identify best and worst machine, equipment type.

mes monitor machine state work idle changeovers micro-stops stoppages failures production counters cycles time defects compare goal communication siemens allen-bradley beckhoff B&R fanuc opc

Monitor detailed machine's states: work, idle, changeovers, micro-stops, stoppages and failures. Track current OEE and compare current production volume with set goals.

reject monitoring fmcg industry water beer vodka food luquid defects counters from automation level PLC signals sensors

Monitor waste material on production lines in FMCG industry. Automatical identification faulty machines based on data from sensors on the line. Get notification in real-time with exceedences.

mes unplanned stops micro-stops stoppages reason mechanical electrical TPM stops

Get detailed analysis why the machines at the production line has stopped. How many and how long were the stoppages. Make a category to distinguish mechanical, electrical and TPM stops.

mes micro-stops stoppages reason the machine stopped bottlenecks discover most faulty machines error codes from PLC corrective action based on structure problem solving

Focus on micro-stops to squeeze even more from production lines. Find bottlenecks and most faulty machines. Get all error codes from PLC and plan corrective action based on structure problem solving.

20% operating time increase

15% defects quantity reduction

5% material consumption reduction

35% changeovers time reduction

ANT IN FMCG

2 bln cigarettes produced daily

100 mln bottles of spring water shipped monthly

360 mln bottles of spring water poured monthly

600 mln cookies baked monthly

500 cigarettes production lines with ANT System

Our Customers

Manual operations

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Interaction with the operator plays a key role in the monitoring of manual or semi-automatic operations.

In ANT’s system, the operator’s touch panel is always deeply customized to the specific machine, ensuring real-time monitoring of production progress while maintaining maximum operator performance.

Depending on the process, the operator scans the product barcode or RFID tag, confirms each operation (including POKA YOKE) or manually confirms only NOK. The system can also count the machine’s cycles automatically or ask the operator to confirm production progress, by displaying the expected quantities every 15 – 30 min.

The operator’s application clearly displays the production orders, machine parameters, and settings, as well as the instructions and product drawings.

ANT Automotive Suite enables the traceability of manual operations, making them really efficient and predictable.

Manual assembly

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ANT Paperless System is an ideal solution for manual assembly of complex products, such as car and aircraft seats, engines, mowers, gearboxes, electronic devices and so on.

The system displays on each assembly station, drawings, component lists (BOMS) and assembly instructions. The control sheets can be filled manually or with remote measuring devices.

Each assembly line cycle is triggered by the system. In case of difficulties or delays, the operator pushes the ANDON button to get the support of the leader.

The ANT Paperless System ensures the correctness and efficiency of the entire assembly process.

Automatic operations & assembly

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ANT Smart Machine Suite ensures uninterrupted operation of the assembly line and timely execution of orders, changeovers and maintenance. Best performance right after startup.

ANT Smart Machine is a software system for monitoring and production management of any type of assembly line that guarantees the highest OEE as well predictable lines work, every shift and every day.

The State of the art system was designed to ensure smooth operation, configuration, and maintenance of the line and to support operators in correct problem-solving. ANT Smart Machine is a complete line control system supporting all operations and operators activities.

Assembly machines and stations examples:

Cleaning Stations
Conveyors
EOL test units
Feeding stations
Laser marking units
Laser welding units
Leak test units
Loading and Unloading units

Measuring stations
Oven (Preheating) units
Packaging stations
Palletizers
Pressing units
Rework stations
Turning stations
Various types assembly units
Vision system test units
Other

Plastics components

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Metal components, laser cutting, welding, pressing, extrusion

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mes production monitor automotive aviation full traceability process parameters operational monitoring OEE loaded on line unloaded rejects rework paperless machine states

Guide operator through multi operational production on automatized line. Automotive and aviation business requires full traceability including process and operational monitoring.

mes stability poduction process SPC machine process parameters operator measurements planned quality limits high target low devices PLC equipment UCL LCL CL Cp Cpk histogram gauss chart control chart Shewhart charts

React on real-time alerts regarding stability of your process (SPC). Condition-based algorithms monitor if machine's process parameters and operator's measurements are within planned quality limits.

mes production monitor progress automotive aviation OEE availability performance quality signals mchines stoppages reasons efficiency category volume

Analyse OEE (availability, performance, quality), its produced volume and machine states. Make decision based on real data gather from machines. Find out what blocks production from maximum efficiency.

scheduler production plan optimization auto automotive aviation schedule real cycle time signals from machine plc opc algorithms based on history just-in-time

Reduce changeovers, produce just-in-time thanks to Real-Time Scheduler and its algorithms. Monitor current progress based on signals from machine, failures and replan automatically your production plan.

mes production monitor progress automotive aviation full traceability process parameters operational monitoring OEE rejects rework paperless machine states machine signals siemens allen-bradley beckhoff B&R fanuc opc

Monitor real cycle time and guide operator if the performance is at planned level. Report production automatically based on signals from machines. Identify micro-stops and failures.