Expertise
March has been trusted by key UK industries for decades. We understand the challenges that business faces in terms of productivity, competition, cost control, safety, security and compliance.
March has been providing our client, the largest food and beverage company in North America and the second-largest in the world, with Systems Integration and Automation turnkey projects for over 15 years.
History
As one of our client’s European approved Systems Integrator, March delivers a broad range of services and is active at every site in the UK and several plants in Europe. Demonstrable expertise in automation, IT, OT (operational technology) and integration, coupled with deep domain knowledge and an ability and willingness to adapt to meet our clients’ rigorous standards has seen the relationship flourish.
Solution
Delivering a turnkey project:
The Anaerobic Digester at our client’s Snack Foods plant converts waste products into gas which is used to generate electricity that supplies the factory or can feed into the grid. The plant had been out of service for over a year whilst the site team investigated and defined several process improvements. Downtime at the plant had significant financial implications and getting the plant up and running was a priority.
Working together, March delivered the implementation of the required improvements, including overall design, project management, controls design and development, instrument design, procurement, build and installation and electrical panel and site installation.
Increasing production volumes
When our client wanted to make modifications to its fried snack foods plant, it engaged March to manage the project. The multiphase project, running over 14 months, was designed to deliver a 30% lift in production volumes.
March worked closely with the team to deliver new PLC’s, modifications to existing PLC code, PanelView and SCADA applications and a new data concentrator using Modbus over Ethernet to communicate with the equipment (process and packaging). March managed the project and worked with the client’s approved electrical supplier to ensure that all required cables, signals, and interfaces were delivered.
Modernisation to deliver enhanced security
The March team supported our client in delivering enhanced security for the OT manufacturing infrastructure at their Cupar food manufacturing site, which operates 24/7, 365 days of the year.
The project involved the retirement of a number of PCS and servers, the upgrade of the multiple Wonderware applications and the removal of multiple securities, support and obsolescence risks. Legacy applications, networks and hardware were replaced by a modern virtual server environment. PCs were replaced for modern, reliable Thin Clients, and all applications, software and operating systems were
Results
Our client’s European Approved Systems Integrator saw a 30% uplift in production volumes.
Over the last 15 years, the range and reach of projects have grown and as a result, our client is now benefiting from the broad, complementary asset engineering capabilities that March can offer. March is supporting our client with a complete turnkey solution – getting plants up and running and ensuring facilities are fully compliant and can operate efficiently.