Winstone Wallboards Improves OEE 0.3% and Gains 24 Additional Production Hours with Smart Safety Solution

Winstone Wallboards needed to design, install, and commission a smart safety solution to grow capacity and reliability at its plaster mill. The existing safety system caused downtime through failures, limiting production capacity and making fault-finding difficult.

Allen-Bradley GuardLogix, Guardshield POC Safety Light Curtains, Guardmaster 442G Multifunctional Access Box, and Studio 5000 Logix Designer were deployed with integrated safety control over EtherNet/IP to create zone separation and access control.

Fault-finding improved significantly. Downtime due to safety system failure was reduced, resulting in an OEE improvement of 0.3%. Equipment availability increased to produce for an additional 24 hours per year. The solution meets AS/NZ Standard 4024.

• Integrated safety systems with EtherNet/IP connectivity reduce fault-finding time by providing diagnostic data directly to the control system
• Even a 0.3% OEE improvement at a plaster mill translates to 24 additional production hours per year
• Replacing legacy safety systems with intelligent access control and light curtains improves both safety compliance and uptime