Fonterra

Fonterra, responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and serving consumers in 140 countries, needed to commission its first wholly owned ingredients plant in Europe — a 25-hectare facility in Heerenveen, Netherlands designed to process up to 2.7 million litres of whey per day and produce 25,000 tonnes of lactose and 5,000 tonnes of protein products annually. The plant required a complete automation and process control infrastructure built from scratch. The critical constraint was time: first orders arrived in February 2014 with a hard go-live deadline before year-end — a 12-month window against an industry average of 18 to 24 months. Any delay risked compromising supply commitments across its global dairy network.

Fonterra, working with Rockwell Automation Recognised System Integrator Beenen B.V., deployed a wall-to-wall control infrastructure built entirely on Allen-Bradley hardware and FactoryTalk software. The core comprised multiple ControlLogix PACs paired with CENTERLINE 2500 Motor Control Centres arranged in 42 cabinet columns spanning 50 metres, equipped with E300 Electronic Overload Relays and more than 250 PowerFlex variable-speed drives. EtherNet/IP served as the unified communication backbone, enabling seamless connectivity from shop floor to enterprise systems. FactoryTalk View provided operator interfaces, FactoryTalk Historian captured production data, FactoryTalk VantagePoint delivered visualisation and reporting, and FactoryTalk AssetCentre managed version control and automated controller backups. Fonterra's existing global faceplate libraries and motor control standards were jointly re-engineered with Rockwell Automation's process library, preserving company-wide consistency while fully enabling Premier Integration diagnostics.

The plant was commissioned within the 12-month target — roughly half the typical industry timeline — and officially opened in July 2015. Fonterra consolidated from a multi-supplier configuration to a single-supplier architecture, simplifying maintenance, spare parts sourcing, and long-term support. A total-cost-of-ownership analysis over 10 years confirmed the Rockwell Automation approach as the preferred option against competing bids. Key outcomes included:

• Single-supplier control infrastructure across automation, motor control, and manufacturing intelligence
• Connected Enterprise capability enabling real-time production data sharing across operational and management disciplines
• Standardised global faceplates aligned with Fonterra's worldwide engineering libraries, jointly developed with Beenen and Rockwell Automation
• Remote motor management via IntelliCENTER, allowing engineers to perform restarts from the control room HMI without physical MCC access

• Evaluate suppliers on 10-year lifecycle TCO, not CAPEX alone — in this case, a single-supplier approach delivered better long-term economics than a split-supplier configuration.
• Tight greenfield timelines (12 months vs. the 18-to-24-month industry norm) are achievable when the system integrator and technology vendor operate as a unified delivery team from day one.
• Standardising on EtherNet/IP at the outset positions a new plant for Connected Enterprise evolution without costly future retrofits.
• Adapting proprietary control standards to a new platform requires explicit joint engineering scope — treat faceplate and library migration as a project workstream, not an afterthought.
• Premier Integration diagnostic capability reduces reliance on physical floor access to MCCs, improving both uptime and workforce efficiency in high-volume dairy processing.