Today Bryan added emphasis to the plan, stating that Nestlé is fully committed to the PackML strategy and are moving toward specifying it as a required standard of all of their packaging machine vendors around the world.
OMAC's PackML was identified as the vehicle that will help Nestlé realize their vision for packaging automation. This vision is: to support sustainable financial performance through reduced total cost of ownership and increased automation; to enhance manufacturing competitiveness by improving OEE; to optimize the control of packaging equipment through implementation of international standards, realization of horizontal line integration and providing links to vertical MES and ERP systems; and to improve operational safety of packaging equipment.
As one who helped to develop the original OMAC guidelines as a representative of a Nestlé's competitor, The Hershey Company, it is intriguing to see that Nestlé has made such a significant commitment to PackML while Hershey appears to have walked away. Snack food companies Mars and Pepsico, also present at PAF, have partially or fully adopted PackML and at last year's event, we heard of other large adopters. Just how long is the list of companies that are on board?
The pilot project which Nestlé has undertaken is presently a software simulation of a packaging line using controllers provided by Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric (ELAU), Siemens, and B&R. Small portable hardware from FESTO is about to be added to validate that real-time synchronization is possible. Controllers are interconnected on vanilla Ethernet using the Weihenstephan Protocol developed for the bottling industry.
The next planned steps are to implement an openSAFETY standard across the four platforms and to vertically integrate the machines into the MES level.
The concept of openSAFETY is a very interesting one as safety systems have become a complicating issue in machine design and maintenance. I hope to write more on this in the future.
My hunch is that Nestlé, Mars, Pepsico, P&G, South African Brewers, and other packagers that have endorsed PackML collectively purchase a lot of packaging machinery. It is probably time for OEM's to really take notice! And it remains an interesting question as to what approach other CPG's are expecting to take to get the benefits of ease of integration, vendor neutrality and common look and feel.
