This company is a world leader in the manufacture of beverage dispensing equipment and systems and serves a truly global market. The dispensing equipment they make is shipped throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. To serve the demands of their global customer base, the company needed a manufacturing system that was flexible, responsive, and highly efficient. A Hytrol Integration Partner helped with a new system that delivered on all counts.

A Flexible Solution

The new conveyor system was designed to be simple, flexible, and productive. It is the product of close teamwork between the plant and the Hytrol Integration Partner.

The 45,000 square foot facility has two U-shaped assembly lines–one for the refrigeration decks, the other for the lower housing. Live roller accumulating conveyors with EZ Logic are used here. When the units are ready to move from zone to zone, a warning alarm sounds, telling workers that the line will re-start in 30 seconds. The refrigeration decks and the lower housing units merge just before the final assembly line. After they are "married," the beverage-dispensing machines move to a live roller conveyor where the final assembly operations take place. The completed machines then move onto a belt conveyor, which indexes them through a banding station. They are then palletized for transport to the shipping area.

By leveraging the capabilities of EZ Logic, the Hytrol Integration Partner was able to engineer greater flexibility into the system. Both the refrigeration deck and the lower housing lines incorporate a series of five-foot work segments. This innovative approach allows management to start and stop the lines in pre-determined time periods based on customer needs or other production requirements. The conveyor system in effect becomes an integral part of the flexible manufacturing process.