Sleeman Breweries Increases Production Capacity 50% in Two Weeks with Virtualized Process Automation

Sleeman Breweries needed to increase production capacity to meet growing consumer demand for craft beer without the high expense of building a new greenfield facility or adding new production equipment.

Rockwell Automation deployed PlantPAx Distributed Control System with VMware virtualized servers for redundant data storage, enabling Sleeman to gain control over production with the in-house ability to easily make process and recipe changes.

Production levels increased by 50% within two weeks without adding production equipment. Improved process control was achieved with in-house ability to make process and recipe changes. The cost of building a new facility or adding equipment was avoided.

• Virtualized DCS delivers substantial capacity unlocks by optimizing existing assets rather than adding physical capacity • In-house process and recipe control gives brewers the agility to respond to market trends without depending on external engineers • A 50% capacity gain in two weeks demonstrates the significant hidden capacity in under-optimized manufacturing processes