Nestlé pioneered the concept of soluble coffee, and sixty percent of their soluble coffee productioncomes from a single factory. At their Nescafé plant in Toluca, Mexico, one million jars of coffee roll off the production lines every day. The plant relies on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Asset Advisor to avoid production stoppages
The factory works 365 days a year, so an unplanned stoppage impacts on the reliability of the processes, which can affect what makes it to grocery shelves. With so much production relying on a single plant, ensuring reliability of the electrical systems is critical.
In 2013, Nestlé expanded this plant production by 40% and made it the largest soluble coffee facility in the world. At this scale, even modest gains to energy efficiency and service improvements translate to sizable cost savings. Improving the reliability of the facility’s electrical plant would deliver the productivity, efficiency, and maintenance benefits Nestlé sought. Together with Schneider Electric, engineers began a pilot project to evaluate the plant’s digital transformation using EcoStruxure.
EcoStruxure Asset Advisor
During this pilot phase, they implemented EcoStruxure Asset Advisor in some parts of the factory. Their aim was to show the difference between connected and non-connected assets. Then, a major service disruption occurred from a short circuit inside an unmonitored section of the main substation. It resulted in a 14-hour shutdown costing Nestlé an estimated $588,000. It was the catalyst in Nestlé’s decision to utilise Asset Advisor throughout the plant.
Implementing Asset Advisor gives Nestlé real-time visibility into its electrical equipment, allowing engineers to remotely monitor assets. Through EcoStruxure, Nestlé has moved to predictive maintenance where connected services predict problems and allow teams to resolve them before disruption occurs.
By relying on data analytics to direct service intervals, the electrical teams at the plant spend less time reacting to issues and the plant’s equipment works as expected. Moreover, besides avoiding unscheduled stoppages, EcoStruxure Asset Advisor allows them to move from annual to biannual maintenance programmes.
Since the EcoStruxure implementation, Schneider’s Connected Services Hub sent a dozen alerts to Nestlé about potential or imminent equipment issues. Because of these alerts, engineers were able to react and avoid three unplanned stoppages.
EcoStruxure Asset Advisor allows operators to visualise electrical equipment from anywhere. It offers connected products, edge control, and Apps, analytics and services from Schneider Electric’s IoT-enabled EcoStruxure architecture. Together, they help factories improve reliability, enhance efficiency, and reduce maintenance, thus improving productivity.
