Casino Gaming Conveyor System Upgrades
Project Drive
A large casino gaming machine manufacturer had an aging conveyor control system and was experiencing an increasing amount of downtime. Their issues included productivity losses due to in-process machines getting sent to incorrect locations, and malfunctioning holding and re-work area. Corso Systems was brought in to bring the system up to industry standards, provide downtime tracking, production scheduling, real-time inventory consolidation, and to increase productivity to desired levels.
Solution
Our staff worked with the maintenance department to understand the systems' design methodology, along with current issues and needs. We familiarized ourselves with the existing code base and met with the system's stakeholders to formulate a project plan. The plan included resolving existing hardware issues, re-writing logic to ensure the system operated as required, and integrating production requests from the ERP system to generate a production schedule. We were also able to pull real-time inventory information to ensure machines coming down the line could be completed before being sent to technician workstations.
Over the course of a few evenings when the line was down, we began resolving issues with the FactoryTalk Transaction Manager configuration. It was passing incorrect data from the PLC to the SQL Server. This exposed several race conditions in the logic, which prevented some machines from being sent to technician workstations. Instead, the machines were being sent to the end of the line as if they were complete! We resolved the race conditions and implemented similar changes to a machine holding/re-work/re-entry area at the end of the line. During continued operation of the system, we noticed some pallets were consistently being sent to incorrect locations on the line. Further research indicated the RFID tags on the pallets were incorrectly installed. After resolving this issue, along with the logic changes, Corso Systems helped reduced runaway machines from 50+ per shift to less than one a day on average. After the logic issues on the line were resolved, we completed integration with the company's SAP ERP system to integrate scheduling and inventory data into the control system to better utilize the technicians on the line. This ensured raw cabinets from the warehouse could be completed before getting sent to machine technicians—as well as updating the ERP system as machines were assembled. Finally, we developed a real-time dashboard for displaying the tracking OEE, Actual vs. Target production counts, and added costs to time and resources due to re-work—now that everything could be accurately tracked in real-time.
Benefits
After upgrades, the system met industry standards for logic and safety.
The control system was fully-integrated into the company's ERP system, enabling real-time scheduling and inventory management.
Track and Trace data was made available for machines as they were assembled and tested.
The number of machines getting sent to incorrect locations was reduced from 50+ per shift to less than one per day on average.
The amount of time spent moving machines back to the front of the line and manually redirecting them went from full-time to zero.
System upgrades found that previously, 1/3 of the pallets used on the line had incorrectly installed RFID tags.
Modern system, with full ERP integration
Process upsets reduced to near zero
Overall increased productivity
Project Details
Industry Manufactured Goods
Location Reno, NV
Services SCADA, MES, Downtime Tracking, Scheduling, Track and Trace, Database Management, Process Analytics, Process Optimization
Updated - 6/9/2022
Technology
FactoryTalk View SE
FactoryTalk Transaction Manager
Allen Bradley CompactLogix PLCs
Allen Bradley PanelView Plus
SQL Server
SAP ERP
RFID tags and scanners
Focus
Bring system to modern standards, including MES functionality
Increase productivity and reduce inventory errors
Reduce process upsets and re-work
Develop system using cutting-edge hardware and software
Implement system and train personnel on its operation
Improve process efficiency
