Campari Group

Campari Group's bourbon distillery operations were constrained by aging legacy control systems that lacked the integration and visibility required for modern production demands. In Food & Beverage manufacturing, particularly spirits production, precise process control is non-negotiable — temperature, timing, and flow rates directly determine product consistency and regulatory compliance. Outdated programmable logic controllers and fragmented SCADA infrastructure made it difficult for operators to monitor distillation parameters in real time, increasing the risk of batch deviations and unplanned downtime. The inability to centralize production data across the facility created blind spots that slowed troubleshooting and complicated quality assurance workflows.

Campari Group partnered with Rockwell Automation to execute a comprehensive control system modernization across their bourbon distillery. The project involved replacing legacy PLCs and control hardware with Rockwell's modern automation platform, integrating updated HMI interfaces that give operators unified visibility into distillation, fermentation, and utilities from a single pane of glass. The modernized architecture was designed to align with Campari's existing production workflows, minimizing disruption during transition. Rockwell Automation's domain expertise in food and beverage process control guided the migration strategy, ensuring that critical production parameters — particularly those governing bourbon mash cooking, fermentation timing, and distillation cut points — were preserved and enhanced with improved monitoring and alarm management capabilities.

The control system modernization delivered measurable improvements in operational reliability and production visibility across the distillery. Key outcomes included:

• Improved production visibility: Operators gained real-time access to consolidated process data, reducing the time required to identify and respond to process deviations.
• Enhanced system reliability: Modern control hardware reduced exposure to parts obsolescence risk and unplanned downtime associated with legacy component failures.
• Stronger quality assurance: Tighter process monitoring supported more consistent batch outcomes, critical for maintaining bourbon product specifications.

The modernized infrastructure also established a foundation for future digital initiatives, positioning the facility for continued improvement.

• Obsolescence risk is a production risk: Legacy control systems create compounding exposure — spare parts dry up, expertise erodes, and a single failure can halt production lines that can't be restarted quickly.
• Preserve process knowledge during migration: Bourbon production relies on tightly defined parameters built over years; any control modernization must capture and replicate that institutional knowledge before cutover.
• Unified visibility pays dividends immediately: Consolidating fragmented data into a single operator view accelerates troubleshooting and reduces reliance on tribal knowledge.
• Choose vendors with industry vertical depth: Food & Beverage process control has regulatory and quality dimensions that general automation vendors may underserve — domain fit matters.