Better Brewery Performance
Shepherd Neame Ltd
About Shepherd Neame
Britain’s oldest brewer can be found in Faversham, Kent, where beer has been produced for over 850 years. Shepherd Neame has been making beer for more than 500 years, using traditional methods and local Kentish hops. The brewery produces a range of award-winning cask ales and filtered beers. Production is around 210,000 brewers’ barrels (35 million litres) a year. The company has a strong pub chain in the South East UK and exports to more than 35 countries including Sweden, Italy, Brazil and Canada.
Challenge
With paper recording of efficiencies and line performance restricting the identification of losses, the main area of focus was to implement a state-of-the-art line performance monitoring solution. Yield improvements and paperless quality management were viewed as great aids in wastage reduction and quality consistency improvements. Having experienced the capabilities of the Harford system during a reference visit to Beam Suntory, the following aims for a complete implementation were agreed upon:
- Improvement of quality consistency
- Minimisation of paper recording
- Use of Statistical Process Control to reduce materials wastage
- Visual display of real-time performance indicators, including issues and improvement opportunities
- Increased efficiency through better data accuracy and root cause analysis
Solution
Following the demonstration of what can be achieved by integrating several systems into a single solution, Harford was rolled out across Shepherd Neame’s bottling line. Now, performance data is captured from all production lines, including the keg and cask lines. Links to existing balances allow Harford to provide direct feedback to control the filling process by giving automated adjustment advice, based on Statistical Process Control, when necessary.
In addition, all quality checks are recorded in a paperless way, enabling operators and shift managers to work in a completely paperless production environment – whilst management benefits from real-time information about schedule adherence, production performance, quality issues, efficiency and much more. Live Short Interval Control screens above the production lines keep all operational and managerial personnel informed about the status of production KPIs and improvement opportunities.
Benefits
- Improved yield through reduction of giveaway by 0.5%
- Instant availability of accurate line efficiency data to drive continuous improvement
- Increase of OEE by 15%
Client Product Portfolio
