primary products

I gorażdże cement (heidelbergcement group)

’

zenon monitors Overall Equipment Effectiveness for the HeidelbergCement Group

Increased efficiency in
the palletizing process at
Górażdże Cement
As one of Poland’s largest manufacturers of cement, Górażdże Cement produces
several million tons of cement per year. Shipping this quantity of product requires very
efficient processes. Indeed, the palletizing and stretch hood machines in its packaging
area form two very important stages of its production process. Monitoring the
overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) on these processes is therefore of the utmost
importance to the Górażdże Cement team and requires managerial supervision. To
improve OEE here, Górażdże Cement implemented COPA-DATA’s zenon software and
has now seen its costs reduce as much as to 20%.

Go’rażdże Cement is part of the international HeidelbergCement norm in the communist state for industrial technology to be
Group, along with fellow Polish manufacturing sites Go’rażdże purchased from the Soviet Union, the team at Go’rażdże Cement
Beton and Go’rażdże Kruszywa. It is located in the Polish was sourcing technology from Western Europe in order to get
village of Chorula, near Opole, and has been in operation since its hands on the best technical solutions and ensure the most
1977. The site has always been something of a trailblazer in efficient operations.
technology solutions. As far back as the 1970s, when it was the

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primary products
I gorażdże cement (heidelbergcement group)
’

Monitoring key parameters: process steps, alarms OEE chart from the palletizing machine.
and current machine data.

Over the years, Go’rażdże Cement’s many development I needed a tool which would allow me to monitor the actual
and modernization investments in its high-end equipment and operation time of the equipment and thus the efficiency of its
production machinery, including its four cement mills, have use; the OEE coefficient.”
strengthened its position as one of the largest and most modern Marcin Reinert and his team had been introduced to
cement factories in Europe. The giant HeidelbergCement Group COPA-DATA’s zenon Analyzer during the evaluation process
acquired the Go’rażdże Group in the mid-1990s and by 2015, the to find suitable software for this project. They had been very
Go’rażdże Group employed about 1,200 staff and its consolidated impressed with the analytical capabilities of the program
turnover amounted to approximately 1,100 billion PLN. right from the start. The team began to develop an idea about
how to integrate zenon Analyzer into the existing production
From idea to realization infrastructure. First, zenon Analyzer would need to process
In 2015, Marcin Reinert, the Manager of the Electrical and analyze data from zenon projects which were already
Department at the Go’rażdże factory, began to look at ways to in place. Plus, it should enable further machines and devices
improve the performance of the palletizing and stretch hood to be connected so the whole production process could be
operations. supervised.
Marcin Reinert explains the situation: “The pallet pack
and stretch hood machines broke down unexpectedly many Scoping the project – key
times. In the demanding schedule of activities and production optimization factors
orders, it was hard to accurately analyze the causes of alarms The first step towards achieving the goals set by the Go’rażdże
or plan preventive measures which would reduce the number team was to determine the structure and scope of the new
of interventions by external service companies, which can be zenon project. This included defining the individual tasks and
really expensive. No statistics of alarms or failures were being assigning them to the right people, as well as sourcing all the
collected, archived or analyzed. Although this information was necessary equipment and devices. Because zenon is so intuitive
reported in the manufacturing documentation, it was hard to and easy to use, Marcin Reinert decided that the solution would
create a report detailing the failure statistics.” be implemented by an in-house team of automation engineers
Marcin Reinert continues: “The challenge for me was to from the Chorula plant.
monitor the effectiveness of these devices. I often observed that The next step was to supply data retrieved from the
during the manufacturing process these machines were idle. I palletizers to zenon by connecting them to the server. Because
asked myself ‘how much of the time are they actually being of the distance from the central control room to the palletizers,
used? How much energy do they consume? And how does this a fiber-optic cable connection was established.
relate to the costs incurred by the plant?’ I then realized that

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primary products
I gorażdże cement (heidelbergcement group)
’

RAPORT DZIENNY CZASU PRACY DATA: 13 . 9 . 2016

RAPORT TYGODNIOWY CZASU PRACY Od 12 . 9 . 2016 do 18 . 9 . 2016
P1N12 P1N22

Zmiana 1 P1N12
Czas pracy 6 godz 44 min 6 godz 33 min Dzien tygodnia PRACA POSTÓJ AWARIA

Czas postoju STANDBY 1 godz 0 min 1 godz 26 min

Poniedziałek 37.5% 52.4% 10.2%
Wtorek 76.4% 20.9% 2.7%
Czas postoju AWARIA 0 godz 14 min 0 godz 0 min
Środa 34.8% 63.8% 1.4%
Czwartek 49.1% 49.0% 2.0%
Piątek 26.0% 72.4% 1.6%
Zmiana 2 Sobota 0.0% 98.9% 1.1%
Czas pracy 6 godz 33 min 5 godz 55 min Niedziela 0.0% 99.8% 0.2%

Czas postoju STANDBY 1 godz 9 min 2 godz 4 min

Czas postoju AWARIA 0 godz 17 min 0 godz 0 min

P1N22
Dzien tygodnia PRACA POSTÓJ AWARIA
Poniedziałek 58.1% 41.9% 0.0%
Zmiana 3
Wtorek 80.9% 19.0% 0.0%
Czas pracy 5 godz 2 min 6 godz 56 min Środa 26.7% 73.3% 0.0%
Czas postoju STANDBY 2 godz 51 min 1 godz 3 min Czwartek 24.9% 75.1% 0.0%

Czas postoju AWARIA 0 godz 5 min 0 godz 0 min Piątek 55.6% 44.4% 0.0%
Sobota 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Niedziela 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Strona 1 z 2

Daily reports present the accurate duration of active operation A weekly report shows working time, standby time, and stand-
for the palletizing machines. by time because of alarms.

The responsibility for carrying out the project fell to “zenon’s transparent structure greatly facilitated our work,”
engineer Marek Hare˛cki, who began creating a zenon says Marek Hare˛cki. “zenon enables us to easily navigate
application to collect, archive and analyze data so that it could through all the variables, screens and other components. During
be presented in the form of clear reports. Once the connection the process of creating subsequent screens and functions,
was established, and data began to be collected and presented, zenon’s automatic help system facilitated and accelerated the
these reports were shared with the shift managers and the design process.”
director of production.
A 20% cost reduction
Automated engineering for rapid Following the completion of the project, the team at Go’rażdże
deployment Cement report that their objectives have been 100% achieved.
The scope of the zenon project included two BEUMER devices Currently, thanks to the zenon-based solution, the team at the
for palletizing bags of cement. These machines were equipped Go’rażdże Cement factory can thoroughly analyze each and
with programmable S7-300 controllers with digital input and every situation using the alarm archives and event descriptions
output cards and the OP 27 operator panel for operation. to determine the cause of alarms.
The project infrastructure was created on the server, and zenon is a smart solution that allows you to prepare
consists of a central processing unit, two client stations and an instructions for operators which detail the steps to follow when
engineering station where zenon is installed with the Historian, a failure occurs. Instant access to technical documentation
Message Control and Report Viewer modules. enables users to quickly define a problem and remedy the fault.
The newly created project was supplied with data collected In addition, the entire solution is intended to define preventive
directly from the S7-300 controller of the BEUMER palletizer. solutions, thereby eliminating costly equipment downtime
This concept was introduced by Marcin Reinert and then and the costs associated with using external maintenance
further developed by Marek Hare˛cki, who began the project companies.
by preparing the network infrastructure, selecting and Another benefit has undoubtedly been the analysis of the
implementing the communication processors and configuring palletizers and shrink wrapping machine operation, as well as
the palletizer’s controller. the effectiveness of their use (the OEE coefficient).
The next step was the creation of the computer network This has clearly translated into the optimization of the
and the installation of zenon, as well as the creation of the palletizing process and consequently resulted in significant
cement palletizing process visualization and manual and energy cost savings. After completion of the project, Marcin
automatic reports. Reinert says: “zenon aroused my curiosity from the very
beginning. Its operator capabilities and above all – the aspect

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I gorażdże cement (heidelbergcement group)
’

zenon aroused my curiosity from the very beginning.

Its operator capabilities and above all – the aspect
I’m most interested in – its diagnostic and analytical
capabilities exceeded my expectations.
marcin reinert, górażdże cement s.a.,
manager of the electrical department

I’m most interested in – its diagnostic and analytical capabilities

exceeded my expectations. The software’s vast number of main benefits:
functions, its versatility, and the graphics convinced me to
choose zenon. The excellent contact and support from COPA- `` Rapid implementation of the project
DATA Poland representatives has also been noteworthy. A high `` Full support from COPA-DATA during the
degree of competence, openness, understanding of our needs, implementation
good advice about the selection of appropriate modules, and `` Clear and timely reports
great customer care has given me confidence that I have made `` Analysis of OEE
the right choice.” `` Comprehensive alarm management
The Go’rażdże Group’s engineering team are continuing `` Impressive graphics
to develop their zenon project, and new modules and `` Optimization of the palletizing and shrink
functionalities are being added. The success of this project is wrapping process
already inspiring ideas about how to use zenon for the further `` Reduction of machine downtime
optimization of processes in the Go’rażdże Cement factory. `` A 20% reduction in costs
Paweł Zajd, Director of Production at the plant in Chorula, `` Ergonomics for the user
sums up their experience: “We recommend COPA-DATA; their
products are among the most advanced and innovative.”

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