MPREIS is a grocer in Tyrol, Austria. The company has envisioned its bakery, Therese Mölk, to streamline every activity within its walls under a single control system, from production lines to conveying, handling products, and even including the building’s heating and cooling system.
The bakery, founded in 1925 by Therese Mölk, may soon be 100 years old, but its production is anything but old: the new Therese Mölk bakery in Völs had a complete makeover in 2013. After two years of planning and construction, it became not only the largest bakery in the area, but also one of the most modern bakeries in Austria. To bring together all the latest-generation equipment in the new headquarters, MPREIS worked with automation specialist AutomationX. The comprehensive project began one year before the new building was ready to begin production and it covered everything from production planning, recipe administration, batch traceability, silo management, to the building’s control system, and the control of the refrigeration unit – all brought together under one management system. The goal of this unified control system was to monitor and manage as many technical systems as possible using a single platform, developed by AutomationX.
In the first step of the project, the automation specialist brought together under the management of one software system the silo facilities, dosing materials, the central control system of the bakery production facilities, the warehouse administration system and quality assurance. As MPREIS prides itself on its organic product range, in which it is a market leader, special attention was given to traceability. The entire process was rendered continuously traceable, from the moment the materials are received, up to product delivery: raw materials are saved into the system upon arrival at the facility; the total inventory is then registered in the MPREIS inventory control system. The AutomationX warehouse administration module monitors the shelf life of the materials and the status of the storage. Stock transfers and commissioning are also handled with this module. Materials are assigned in advance for the lines in RFID-coded containers, down to the exact batch. Any manual additions are displayed and added via the respective container numbers in the mixing area.
The systems MPREIS operates on the AutomationX platform:
+ Control technology for the silo facility
+ Recipe management system
+ Warehouse administration
+ Kneading machines synchronization
+ Production planning software
+ Quality assurance
+ Central control system via all the technical facilities in the
bakery
+ Building the control system and energy data collection
system for the bakery and the adjacent meat factory
+ Conveyor systems management
+ Automated oil system
+ Refrigeration systems control for the bakery, the meat
factory and the deep-freeze warehouse
+ Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system integration into
the AutomationX control system
As the materials do through dosing according to the recipes being produced, the AutomationX system transfers the information required for kneading to the automated kneaders. As the bowls are manually fed to the kneader, the software follows the progress as the RFID tags on the bowls are read. The process is further monitored at the measurement station and in the kneading machine itself. Real-time visualization of the production is available on touch panels located at several points along production lines. Weights and temperatures are recorded via connected scales and temperature sensors. The process is monitored along the line to optimize each step as needed – timing when dough should enter the line, and streamlining its processing stages.
All the production machines are connected to the AutomationX central control system. Technical status data and error and operation messages are displayed. Conveyor systems in the bakery are also connected to the system. Belt speeds are automatically adjusted to maintain a continuous flow synchronize with the oven and the packaging station.
The software receives regular updates for performance improvements. The newest version is the AutomationX 5, which brings security benefits as all data is stored in a database on a Windows server, same as SCADA.
Measurement, control and regulation technology
In addition to the bakery, AutomationX software also controls the entire building. The goal was clear from the start, in line with the importance MPREIS places on sustainability: operating in an energy-save mode. To maximize savings, several waste heat recovery circuits are installed in the building, to capture residual heat from the ovens and the refrigeration systems into a buffer tank. The AutomationX system can record the energy consumption via its direct interfaces or through measurements of flow and temperatures. “The freely-programmable, item-
oriented AutomationX control system proved particularly capable when required to deal with complex regulations relating to the entire system,” explains Thomas Mühlehner, Managing Director, AutomationX. Freely-programmable control is also the solution applied to the refrigeration system, so that it, too, saves energy while operating.
Using a single software system for all tasks simplifies operation, servicing and maintenance at MPREIS. “It is not the people who have to work for the machines, it is the automated machines that have to work for people,” Daniel Plattner, our guide from the technical department of MPREIS, emphasized the importance of the systems to make the staff’s work easier. The detailed information gathered from all areas of production and all sections of the entire facility allows for adjustments to be made to optimize energy consumption.
