Complete Carefree Package
Hansa-Heemann bottling plant in Trappenkamp profits from KHS full service contracts
Oliver Griesing* Maximum product quality coupled with guaranteed maximum line efficiency: this is what the beverage, food, and non-food industries expect from both filling and packaging technology today. It goes without saying that these demands can only be perfectly met when filling and packaging lines are not only operated correctly but also regularly inspected and maintained, providing them with optimum service. In order to offer the beverage, food, and non-food industries maximum support when it comes to service, KHS has developed a modular service contract concept. This concept distinguishes between inspection, maintenance, and full service contracts. However, organizing this concept into different categories of service should by no means be considered static. Each individual service contract is basically a service level agreement that has been tailored to suit the customer's exact requirements. What's more, each and every service contract can be expanded at any time in line with specific demands and ideas. If a company opts for a KHS inspection contract, for example, it can easily be upgraded later to a maintenance or full service contract. Just how comprehensive the range of benefits can be when a company decides to enter into a KHS service contract is illustrated by Hansa-Heemann AG, for example. In 2006, this mineral water company gave the green light for a KHS full service agreement for the InnoPET Blomax 12, InnoPET Blomax 16, and InnoPET Blomax 18 stretch blow molders in operation at its plant in Trappenkamp. Christian Schulte, plant manager at Hansa-Heemann in Trappenkamp, claims, "That was and is the right decision to make. Since we took advantage of KHS' full service package, the efficiency of our system technology has increased no end. Besides the many other benefits this has brought us, we have also profited from a cost transparency we didn't have before. All told, we are so pleased with KHS' performance that we have now extended our KHS full service contracts that were originally only valid for three years." *Product Manager, Service Contracts, KHS Corpoplast GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg. Tel: +49 (40) 67907-359 One of Germany's leading producers of non-alcoholic beverages Hansa-Heemann AG is one of Germany's leading producers of non-alcoholic beverages. The company is based in Rellingen near Hamburg. It also has sites in Trappenkamp (about 70 kilometers / 40 miles north of Hamburg), Löhne in North Rhine-Westphalia (approx. 30 kilometers / 18 miles southwest of Berlin), and Bruchsal (around 20 kilometers / 12 miles north of Karlsruhe). National presence With the above plants Hansa-Heemann is represented throughout Germany – which is a vast benefit to a company that places great emphasis on supplying retail chains across the nation. The range of non-alcoholic beverages produced by Hansa-Heemann is also extensive. Besides classic mineral water, near-water beverages, and soft drinks, such as spritzers, soda pops, and sports and energy drinks, the bottling company also sells fruit juice beverages. Wide range of own house and generic brands The company site in Trappenkamp clearly focuses on the production of its own hella brand mineral water. The share of own brands bottled at this plant is about 35%. Hansa-Heemann's own brands filled in Trappenkamp are chiefly distributed throughout northern Germany, although hella mineral water in particular is now also traveling as far as Baden-Württemberg and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. "In the future we will continue to expand our distribution area step by step," says Schulte. In Trappenkamp – as at other Hansa-Heemann sites – great importance is attached not only to the company's own brands but also to the bottling of generic products. Around 65% of the 250 million containers filled in Trappenkamp each year is ascribed to generics. "This percentage is by no means fixed," explains Schulte. "Thanks to the growing popularity of our own brands we are currently seeing a clear increase in brand name sales." PET only site At the Trappenkamp plant both generic and house brands have been filled solely in PET bottles since the middle of 2007, due to the considerable drop in sales of beverages filled in glass bottles and the fact that both trade and consumers wanted non-alcoholic beverages almost exclusively in lightweight plastic bottles. PET bottles holding 1.5 liters, 1.0 liter, and 0.75 liters are currently in circulation in Trappenkamp. Bottles & Shapes™ for beneficial PET bottle design Just recently, 0.5-liter PET bottles of hella brand mineral water were replaced by the 0.75-liter size. The new bottle was designed using the KHS Corpoplast Bottles & Shapes service package. According to Christian Schulte, "The outfit of the new PET bottle not only perfectly suits our hella line of mineral water; it also has optimum characteristics when it comes to filling and air conveying. Added to this is the significant reduction in costs for materials. This in turn has a knock-on effect on our energy costs as less energy is required than before." One-way PET and PETcycle bottles in use About 65% of all brand products bottled in Trappenkamp are now filled in 1-liter bottles, with 20% flowing into 1.5-liter containers and the remaining 15% into 0.75-liter PETs. One-way PET bottles and also PETcycle bottles are processed at the plant. The latter differ from the PET one-way container primarily in that they are sold to the consumer in returnable crates. The consumer returns empty PETcycle bottles to the company in returnable crates through the retail trade. The bottler empties the returnable crates and fills them with new PETcycle bottles. The old bottles are pressed and then recycled. KHS Corpoplast stretch blow molding technology part of the PET setup right from the start Trappenkamp may now be a big PET location but this wasn't always the case; in 2001 the plant was still only filling product into glass bottles. "Our first PET line went into operation in 2002," says Schulte. "So that we had both a perfect technical system and also benefited from the expertise of a PET specialist, we opted for Corpoplast stretch blow molding technology right from the very start." This decision, as Schulte see it, was partly made because Corpoplast's references were so convincing. In 2002 the Trappenkamp site thus put its first PET line into operation, consisting of an InnoPET Blomax 10 stretch blow molder with a capacity of 38,000 0.5-liter PET bottles per hour and 10 blow stations, later expanded to 12, and an InnoPET Blomax 16 with 16 blow stations. Completely satisfied with their two machines, at the end of 2006 the company again invested in KHS Corpoplast stretch blow molding technology when it acquired an InnoPET Blomax 18.KHS full service contracts are a complete carefree package Until mid 2006 the InnoPET Blomax 10/12 and InnoPET Blomax 16 were conventionally maintained. The reason for starting to think about concluding a service contract, according to Schulte, was when the InnoPET 10/12 broke down in the middle of the summer season. "I remember it well," Schulte recalls. We had to replace countless components in the machine trying to find the problem. Although the specialists from KHS Corpoplast gave us absolutely perfect support, it's always a huge problem when we can't run at full capacity." "After this," explains Schulte, "there was no longer any doubt in our minds that we had to find a solution to problems such as these that gave us security – both with regard to the efficiency of the machines and the running costs for maintaining the stretch blow molders." For Schulte, the only answer to the problem was the full service contract for the existing stretch blow molders and for the new stretch blow molding technology ordered in 2006. "Looking back," proclaims Schulte, "our full service contracts were the equivalent of buying a complete carefree package, giving us the security we expected." Stretch blow molder availability much higher Since signing the full service contracts the availability of the stretch blow molders and thus all of the PET lines has considerably improved and is now about 90%. And with the above contracts in force, KHS Corpoplast now guarantees an efficiency level of 95% for the stretch blow molders. Inspection, maintenance, or full service contract? KHS distinguishes between three types of service contract: inspection, maintenance, and full service. The scope of performance in the inspection contract covers regular machine inspections, testing of machine functions, fault analysis, and inventorying spare parts. Information is also provided on when maintenance measures are to be carried out. It's completely up to the company as to who performs the measures KHS suggests: the company's own operating personnel or KHS. All services covered by the inspection contract are also included in the maintenance contract. In addition, the contract incorporates preventive maintenance and the regular replacement of wear parts, both in accordance with the information given in the maintenance plan. A standard feature of the service contract is KHS' offer to monitor the maintenance activities, meaning that all the maintenance is carried out by the company's own staff but with a KHS engineer on hand to offer advice and support. It is also possible to arrange that expert KHS personnel take care of all preventive maintenance measures. If we were to compare KHS' inspection and maintenance contracts with the services offered by a car garage, the inspection contract would be the same as having your garage just check your car, giving recommendations as to which services and repairs were soon due. KHS' maintenance contract would be the equivalent of the garage then carrying out these services and repairs on site. The full service contract – to keep with the garage example – would guarantee you and your car mobility at all times. By way of supplement to the maintenance contract, the full service contract at Hansa-Heemann also includes the provision of all spare parts plus Remote Diagnostic Service (ReDiS). ReDiS stands for direct online assistance and, on request, technical support access to machine controls to help pinpoint the fault. KHS full service contract in practice at Hansa-Heemann in Trappenkamp In concrete terms, Hansa-Heemann's opting for a full service contract with KHS means having expert KHS personnel inspect all of the stretch blow molders in Trappenkamp once a month, with the explicit instruction that the operators at Hansa-Heemann join in. "Our staff are profiting enormously from this," says Schulte. "Besides the learning curve this type of inspection offers them, they also have the chance to discuss any unanswered questions with the experts from KHS." Schulte also finds it good that KHS carefully coordinates its monthly inspections with Hansa-Heemann's production plan. As requested, KHS engineers thus come to the plant after lunch on Fridays between October and March and on Saturday afternoons in the peak season between April and September. "We don't usually bottle during these periods, so that we don't lose any production time," explains Schulte. During the monthly inspections, components are tested, measurements made, and any incorrect adjustments corrected. The alarm logs are also reviewed. If certain faults repeatedly occur on the blow molders, a plan of action is drawn up so that these problems can be corrected in the following month. The spare parts stock set up for Hansa-Heemann within the scope of the full service contract is also checked and, if necessary, added to each month. "This stock of spare parts guarantees that parts are always available," states Schulte. "This is extremely comforting, as is the fact that we can reach a KHS phone hotline round the clock if we need any tips and advice or get direct online help in an emergency." As part of the full service contract, KHS carries out preventive maintenance for the stretch blow molders at Hansa-Heemann after every 3,500 hours of operation or approximately every half a year. Preventive maintenance always includes preventive replacement of spare and wear parts as stipulated in the maintenance schedule. As requested by Hansa-Heemann, specialized KHS engineers take care of all preventive maintenance while the machine operators watch, ask questions – and continue to learn. A feasible alternative would be for Hansa-Heemann employees to carry out preventive maintenance supervised by the experts from KHS. Schulte states, "Here, too, KHS has acted in full accordance with our wishes and is sometimes even quicker off the mark than our production plan stipulates." The bottom line: high availability, conservation of value, transparent operating costs ... To sum up, Hansa-Heemann not only profits from KHS' full service contract with regard to the high availability of its stretch blow molders; the contract also helps to conserve their value and generate transparent operating costs. "Unbudgeted costs for spare parts and work by KHS engineers are no longer an issue in Trappenkamp," Schulte declares. "We pay a fixed calculable amount and in return receive all imaginable services from KHS that contribute towards maintaining the effectiveness of our machine. It really couldn't be easier, more reliable, or simpler to calculate. Over time, we have come to realize that at the end of the day we save more money with the KHS full service contract than we did before we signed the agreement." … and thus lower unit costs create a win-win situation These savings amount to much more than simply cutting costs for unexpected spare parts and unplanned work by trained KHS engineers. The increased line availability at Hansa-Heemann also resulted in a marked reduction in unit costs per PET bottle. These reduced unit costs have in turn helped to narrow down expenditures for personnel and energy. Basically, higher line availability has reduced the entire chain of expense for the company's stretch blow molding technology. Schulte stresses, "I can strongly recommend KHS full service to any company, as I consider it to be an optimum and fair win-win situation."
