Iceland’s Nói Síríus reports success with Rockwell Automation production line software
pic: Noi Sirius
Icelandic chocolatier Nói Síríus has made an innovative move in teaming up with Rockwell Automation, using digital management techniques to enhance its production line’s efficiency, reports Neill Barston.
The projected also involved improving the company’s maintenance operations, after the business identified core areas that could benefit from streamlining to drive manufacturing gains.
As the business explained, after exploring several options, it decided to use Rockwell’s Fiix CMMS computerised maintenance management system, which has enabled it to capture key real-time data relating to its assembly-line machinery.
Notably, the company has enjoyed a strong heritage of more than a century in Iceland, beginning in 1920 from a basement in Reykjavik. Down the decades it has evolved, using high quality ingredients, and is now reportedly regarded as the largest confectionary manufacturer in the island nation, gaining over 30% market share.
According to the business, within just four months, the maintenance team went from working mainly on reactive maintenance to spending most of their time on preventative work, designed to avoid downtime before it occurred.
Its team was able to minimise interruptions caused by the need for quick fixes to unforeseen problems using the Fiix intelligent queue-management features. The new CMMS platform enabled the team to work collaboratively with operations staff on prioritising the job queue.
In addition, six months on from the initial installation, Rockwell and Nói Síríus have continued the collaboration, with the confectionery business anticipated to move towards a data-driven, predictive model of maintenance, helping it to further maximise uptime, as well as cutting costs and improving productivity.
“Since adopting Fiix software, our maintenance staff are much happier,” said Guðmundur Ingi Einarsson, technical manager, Nói Siríus. “Now, they concentrate on preventing downtime rather than reacting to it. We have the data we need to prioritise our work intelligently and arrive at solutions faster. Furthermore, the predictive-maintenance project promises further improvements in the future.”
Asa Arvidsson, regional vice president sales, north region, Rockwell Automation believed the venture had been a notable success in delivering a quick series of results.
“This has been a highly collaborative and successful project. Together with Nói Síríus, our consultants helped design new and streamlined maintenance workflows using the Fiix platform. It’s been highly gratifying to see the improvements this has made in such a short time. We very much appreciate the partnership with Nói Síríus and look forward to seeing the results of the predictive-maintenance project.”
