Quality, efficiency and ergonomics

A gantry robot system based on Cimcorp's MultiPick concept handles the buffer storage of products and feeds the bagging lines at Fazer Oy's Lappeenranta plant. The wide variations in the capacity of the lines and the high proportion of different confectionery mixes make buffer storage in plastic containers a highly important operation for the Lappeenranta factory.

"Now we receive constant information about the quantity, range and storage times of products. The confectionery is fed to the bagging lines on the FIFO principle based on this information. All this provides an extremely solid basis for production planning because now we know the exact status at any given moment," emphasizes Jorma Pesonen of Fazer Confectionery Ltd.

Chymos Oy was established in Tainionkoski in 1906 (the name 'Chymos' comes from the Greek word for 'drink'). The Lappeenranta plant moved to its present site in 1922. Fazer bought the factory in 1993, and since 1997 it has been a part of Fazer Confectionery Ltd. The Lappeenranta plant today employs some 200 people.


Sweets for Scandinavian tastes

"Our widest range is wine gums. Perhaps our best-known confectionery, though, is still the traditional Marianne, of which produce some 1.5 million kilos a year. At present we produce a total of about 9.5 million kilos of various sweets and confectionery at Lappeenranta," reports the plant's technical manager Jorma Pesonen.

The production volume of the Lappeenranta plant has grown steadily since the beginning of the 90s. Domestic sales account for some 60 per cent of production. Most of the exports are to other Scandinavian countries and for tax-free sales.

"Product development, of course, can focus on confectionery to suit Finnish tastes. Luckily, as far as confectionery is concerned, Scandinavian tastes are very much the same," Jorma Pesonen points out.

Generally speaking, tastes in confectionery change slowly but nowadays very strong and acidic tasting sweets, and imaginative mixes of them, are extremely popular. There are also definite seasonal variations in sales. Chocolate sells best in the winter while demand for bagged sweets is high in the summer.

Higher production and increased efficiency

Two of the strengths of Fazer's Lappeenranta plant are efficient in-house product development and confectionery brands that are well known. The factory's products are increasing their market share and production has become highly developed under Fazer Confectionery Ltd. Investment has increased and production per employee has almost doubled over the last four years.

"Development of the automated storage system was a strategic solution. We looked at a number of alternatives but it was easy to opt for Cimcorp's MultiPick concept. The system is flexible and efficient, it contains a minimum of fixed structures, cleaning is easy and the noise level is low. On top of that, we have been extremely pleased with a fairly large gantry robot palletizer that Cimcorp supplied us some years ago."

According to Jorma Pesonen, the basic structure of the system is technically the same as in other similar MultiPick solutions that he looked into. The horizontal motion of the robot is at a fixed height but a telescopic gripper is used to make effective use of low spaces.

"The buffer storage developed is of great importance. The computerized store seamlessly and swiftly provides us with information on the factors vital to production, such as what we have in the store and how much, what age the products are and when they will be removed from the store," stresses general manager Taisto Pitkänen.

"Our most important procedure is making different mixes of confectionery, for which we need varying amounts of components. Now we can exactly pre-mix the amount of confectionery we can pack in that cycle. The remainder can wait in the store until the next mixing operation. This is very different indeed to the old procedure. Previously mixing and packing were completed first in a different units so it was extremely difficult to optimize the mix quantities."

Now the entire production process is more streamlined and - above all - more efficient. A lot of intermediate stages have been eliminated and the manual transfer and lifting of containers are, to a large extent, history.

In Taisto Pitkänen's opinion, the benefits achieved can be summed up in three words: quality, efficiency and ergonomics.

Jorma Pesonen also praises the improved hygiene since containers now go through centralized washing after use.


Successful project

"The project schedule succeeded well. Before the event, it seemed a difficult task to deploy modernizations in the midst of production. The Christmas standstill was carefully used to overcome this, though. In February, training and fine adjustments continued to the very end, with production meanwhile in full swing. Overall, the project has been a positive surprise for me - it went well," emphasizes Taisto Pitkänen.

Installation of the system started at the end of 1998. Production started up in the second week of this year.
"We've been well on schedule the whole time - right to the day."

Jorma Pesonen points out that the plan in the near future is to link the automated storage control system to Fazer's SAP R3 production control system.


Juhani Lukka

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