Productivity Improvement Project for Prinovis

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, April 25, 2010 --(PR.com)-- What makes this all the more special is that the software, installed on Siemens S7 300 PLCs and TP270 Control Panels was not originally supplied by Harland Simon but by the OEM. Prinovis had identified that the cycle time for delivery of paper reels to their four KBA Gravure Presses was restricting performance and with the OEM’s reluctance to modify their standard software approached Harland Simon for assistance.

With Harland Simon’s wide experience of the printing industry and extensive experience with the Siemens product range and software application it was possible to analyse the existing process, assess which elements were not being utilised most efficiently and rewrite the software to optimize the system performance. The target was to improve the delivery cycle time from 18 to 15 minutes and this was easily achieved together with a number of improvements to simplify the overall process and provide more flexibility in the mode of operation.

The first stage of the project was to translate the existing software code from Italian into English to enable the rewrite and ease future maintenance work. The modifications to the software were carried out in such a way that it would be easy to revert to the original system should there be a problem during the limited access windows available for commissioning the modifications.

On completion Frank Rae, Engineering Manager for Prinovis commented “We have been pleased that all the required elements of the project have been delivered in a professional manner and the teamwork with the Prinovis Engineering & Production personnel has produced a workable and useful system” and Andy McCulloch, Pressroom Manager added “I was pleased with Harland Simon’s flexibility and willingness to work with the Production and engineering staff to cope with our additional requests which deviated from the original scope of the job but they were very professional in making the last minute changes. As I had previous good experience with Harland Simon with my last company it was an easy decision to ask them to assist Prinovis in our improvement project and hope we can work again in the future.”

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