Bühler makes Kägi factory smart
Lichtensteig/Uzwil - In the canton of St. Gallen, Bühler is supporting Kägi Söhne AG with technical solutions to create a smart factory. Bühler’s process and machine data will help improve the overall equipment effectiveness of the confectionery manufacturer by between 5 percent and 8 percent. Environmental impacts will also be measured in future.
Kägi is realizing its Smart Factory 2024 project with the support of Bühler AG. By 2024, Kägi plans to have its entire machine park digitally networked and all process data visualized. It is utilizing Bühler’s Insights Platform for this project. The digital tool connects devices, operational metrics and analytics.
According to a press release from Bühler AG based in Uzwil, its experts first identified areas for improvement. and defined plans to address them going forward. Kägi also invested in more efficient machinery. The quality of Kägi’s products has always been high, explained Kägi’s Chief Operating Officer Pascal Grin. However, the goal was to ensure a high level of quality without interruption and with fewer rejections.
By linking and visualizing the data in Bühler Insights, Kägi expects to see an overall equipment effectiveness increase of between 5 percent and 8 percent. “We are already using the data in real time,” explained Grin, adding “our employees can react immediately to fluctuations in quality, thus preventing unplanned downtime. For us, this leads to cost savings and an uncomplicated overview of the process”.
This data can also be used to measure environmental impacts. Kägi adopted this Environmental Quantification Service for measuring their environmental footprint according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for its entire factory. With this, Kägi now understands its carbon emissions and can prioritize actions to reduce its footprint along the whole value chain.
“We have enough ideas,” said Franziska Babst, Head of Quality & Development at Kägi. “With this plant and Bühler at our side, we are now ready to scale up new products to high quality and large volumes.”