Finding the Solution for Success.

With operations all over the world, the company was looking to transition some production from Cincinnati to its Kentucky location but knew this move required increased automation efficiency to maintain quality.

“The plant needed a more sophisticated batching program,” said Matt Yarrison, Ph.D., process engineer for Beam Suntory, the parent company for Jim Beam.

“To call it a project is really not accurate. It’s a whole bunch of projects all in one,” says Ryan Williams, project manager, Gray Solutions, a Gray company, for Beam Suntory.

The sophistication of the batching process at the plant provided a challenge for the Gray team. A variety of products are produced at the Kentucky location, which differs from day-to-day. Each recipe has 8-10 ingredients with each ingredient being pulled from a separate delivery system. It was vital that the integrity of the recipe was upheld at all costs while still maintaining a safe environment.

“There are four trains we can produce on, and one of those trains can be pulled from 15 base streams of liquids,” says Yarrison. “If there’s a hiccup, the system parks everything in a safe state so we don’t risk injuring anyone.”

Through the process, Gray uploaded the recipes for nearly the entire facility to the InBatch control system software, upgraded the existing PLCs, and moved the batch orders to upgraded operating systems.