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Energizer selects Citect for MES solution

ControlGlobal.com
06/24/2005

ENERGIZER HOLDINGS has awarded Citect a contract to implement a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution in one of its alkaline battery plants with plans to add more plants within the year. After an extensive evaluation of six leading MES providers, Energizer determined the CitectIIM solution to have the best architecture and flexibility to meet its present needs and support future growth.

Energizer joins global manufacturers BHP Billiton, WMC Resources, Mitsubishi Motors and Consol Energy who have been using CitectIIM solutions to make significant savings through increased uptime, production and total capacity gains.

"Energizer eagerly anticipates the completion of the first phase. We have already begun receiving positive feedback from all the stakeholders, including operators, mechanics, supervisors and engineers. We see this solution accelerating our productivity improvements and cost competitiveness,” added Joe Tisone, Vice President Global Operations, Energizer Holdings.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with the Alkaline Battery Division and foresee a long-term partnership with Energizer. Energizer understands the benefits of continuous improvement strategies and CitectIIM will provide them easy, real-time access to the relevant data they need to achieve maximum efficiency,” said Darren Trumeter, President, Citect Americas.

The initial project consists of the CitectIIM Performance solution that provides visibility into plant processes to support the continuous improvement platform for Energizer’s Alkaline Battery Division. CitectIIM will allow Energizer to monitor each aspect of the production process, thus enabling the company to optimize Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). In order to increase OEE, massive amounts of data generated by each piece of equipment in a production line must be collected and analyzed to determine the factors that impact production and quality. The relevant data then must be filtered out and presented in a user-friendly format in order to discover the root cause disturbances that slow production or impact quality.

CitectIIM automates data acquisition so manufacturers can see how their plant is operating in real time. Manufacturers can quickly identify and remedy the root causes of production disturbances by obtaining real-time data and relevant information from each step of the production process instead of relying on manual data collection and analyzing the results hours or days later. This data is also used to improve yield, quality and asset utilization by spotting trends that signal bottlenecks and slowdowns. For example, remedying something as small as a two-second delay in a production line translates into an additional five production minutes per hour without any additional capital expense. 

Citect’s John Cavalenes, Director of MES Solutions, explains “Using CitectIIM, manufacturers can make proactive decisions based on what is going on in their production process right now, not what happened yesterday or last week. By gaining greater visibility into what is happening on the plant floor as it occurs, CitectIIM helps manufacturers correct disturbances before they become problems.”