Modernization without production stoppages

Hartwall, a beverage producer with a long history in Finland

Oy Hartwall Ab is one of Finland’s largest beverage producers. The Lahti facility, which houses the company’s brewery and soft drink factory, is the heart of Hartwall’s operations. The company is part of the Danish Royal Unibrew group and a licensed producer and distributor of PepsiCo and Heineken beverages in Finland.

The future of warehouse management is built on collaboration and innovation

The modernization project for Hartwall’s warehouse management system was launched when the old system was approaching its end of life. The aim of the renewal was to ensure that the new system meets today’s needs, such as energy efficiency and effectiveness, and allows for future development.

Since the warehouse management software was replaced, the intralogistics equipment required new interfaces to enable the software to control the equip­ment.

A new control room solution was also needed to provide logistics personnel with a real-time view of the warehouse’s logistics operations. The logistics system is extensive, comprising more than 400 conveyor positions, around 160 monorail trolleys with more than 90 nodes, a high-bay warehouse, and 7 conveyor systems.

The main challenge for the project was that Hartwall’s production was running throughout and there couldn’t be any interruptions in beverage deliveries. Therefore, all changes had to be implemented and tested on weekends.

Seamless integration

In addition to the new SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Manage­ment) system supplier, several suppliers of smaller entities took part in the project. Hartwall chose Makron to develop interfaces and the control room solution because it had good experience of cooperation in several projects since 1999.

“Based on previous projects, we knew Makron was a reliable supplier,” says Technical Development Manager Marko Rajaniemi.

To ensure that the existing conveyor systems and the higher-lever system could work together seamlessly, Makron designed and implemented seven PLC interfaces. The operation of the conveyor systems was tested on weekends, when production was paused.

Makron also created a control room solution that aggregates the status information of the intralogistics equipment between the production lines, warehouse, and dispatch department. Siemens WinCC SCADA was selected as the technical solution.

Keys to project success

Project manager Torsten Blossey emphasizes Makron’s role in the success of the system replacement. “The technical team was young, dynamic, and clever,” says Blossey. The collaboration went well from the start.

Hartwall values in particular Makron’s ability to offer new perspectives and development ideas. “Makron was able to offer its expertise and react quickly to changing situations,” notes Marko Rajaniemi.

As a result, Hartwall now has a modern, flexible, and scalable warehouse management system, the development of which is ongoing. All of this was done without production stoppages.

“When we need support, Makron will provide it to us efficiently in the future as well.” Rajaniemi says.