By introducing standardised automation, Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE) has ramped up the annual capacity of its production lines in Sidcup, UK by 20 million crates whilst simultaneously driving down costs. The project is part of a Europe-wide strategy involving Siemens.

The Kent site processes the largest range of packaging types of any CCE production plant anywhere in the UK, filling plastic and glass bottles as well as 150 and 330 milliliter cans, with plans to introduce 500 ml cans in the future. The new canning line with its capacity of 120,000 cans per hour will extend the plant’s capacity by a further 0 million cases per annum.

By implementing a standardization strategy based on the Optimized Packaging Line(OPL) concept, an industry initiative by Siemens, Coca Cola in Sidcup now relies on seamlessly automated and standardized production and packaging lines.

The Totally Integrated Automation engineering framework, a common automation and communication standard, along with drives, programmable logic controllers and communication products such as Ethernet switches work together to not only enhance the production efficiency of a plant but also to drive down maintenance, spare part management and personnel costs.

The new standardised automation solution will allow Coca Cola Enterprises to adapt its operations more quickly and simply in response to future market changes, according to Siemens.