Management System for Order Administration and Pallet Tracking in Milk Powder Drying

Objective

To ensure sustainable paperless documentation and thus the highest transparency and traceability through the digitalization of production and storage, Eckelmann was commissioned to implement a complex order management and pallet tracking system for the milk powder drying bagging lines at Ammerland Dairy in Wiefelstede-Dringenburg.

In 2015, a production control system for filling, palletizing, and storing fresh milk was installed as part of an initial joint project with Ammerland Dairy. This was followed by the order for the milk powder drying control system in 2019. A follow-up project was also implemented: a control system for the butter section in 2021.

The Customer

In 1885, seven farmers from Ammerland formed one of the first dairy cooperatives in northern Germany. Today, the portfolio of Ammerland Dairy eG includes the production of sliced cheese, butter, milk and whey powder, concentrates, fresh milk, buttermilk, and UHT milk. Fifty percent of the dairy products produced at the sites in Wiefelstede-Dringenburg and Oldenburg are exported – to trade and industry in 60 countries worldwide.

Performance by Eckelmann

Software development MES and HMI
Project management
Specification of interfaces

The control system for the butter division is already the Eckelmann team's third project for the Ammerland dairy: it controls all processes reliably and transparently — from recording the raw material stock to bagging and storage.

Machine / Application

From recording raw material inventory to bagging and storage — Eckelmann’s control system reliably and transparently manages all processes.
To ensure product traceability, the raw materials coming from the drying process are automatically assigned unique batch numbers via the control system.

The milk powder is bagged, stacked on pallets, and transported to either the truck pick-up point or the warehouse as per order requirements.

Eckelmann’s control system is connected to Ammerland Dairy’s ERP system, receives production orders from it, and reports the produced inventories with order references back. The production manager uses the control system to fine-tune the orders and determines which silos the raw materials for a production order should be sourced from and on which bagging line an order should be produced.

Once the facility operator starts an assigned production order, the source and destination information are transferred to the silo system control, and the bagging system and palletizer are configured based on the production order data.

Fresh Milk Sector

1600000 Pallets

Powder Bagging

250000 Pallets

Butter Creamery

80000 Pallets

Overall guidance system

Eckelmann's agile software process, which responds quickly and flexibly to customer requirements, led to the long-term collaboration with Ammerland Dairy.

Special Features

The satisfaction from the first project led to a long-term collaboration between Ammerland Dairy and Eckelmann.

Agile software process: Close collaboration with the customer and quick response to changing, new requirements.

Dominik Grotelüschen, Deputy IT Manager, Ammerland Dairy eG

“Eckelmann impresses with short, time- and cost-saving paths, agile software processes, and direct communication with the developer!”

Do you have any questions?

Henrik Hubschneider
Head of Sales
Production I Logistics I Digital Solutions
Email: h.hubschneider@eckelmann.de

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Case Study (882.95 KB)