Full speed ahead into the virtual world. Video conferences, remote service, webinars

3. The commissioning

 “Balter Brewing Company is an Australian craft brewery that has recently experienced tremendous growth. In order to meet the demand for its beer, Balter ordered a 50-hectoliter brewhouse from Krones for up to ten brews per day as well as a complete package of cellar equipment and a CIP system, which will also clean the Craftmate that has been in operation since 2018. Installation was handled by a local company. In April, the brewery was ready for commissioning. Under normal circumstances, we would always send a team from Europe to do the commissioning. But that wasn’t possible due to current entry restrictions.

First, we tried to get an exception for one of our European team members to be allowed to travel to Australia but were unsuccessful. We all knew this: if Balter was going to meet its production needs for this year, we had to act quickly. And so, together we decided to manage the commissioning remotely from Freising, Germany. Of course, we still needed help on site. And this is where the strength of the worldwide Krones family really came to shine. We were able to enlist the help of an Australian Krones service technician – an electrician whose specialty actually lies in bottling and packaging machinery. After completing a crash course on the Botec F1 control system, he was able to serve as an extended arm for his teammates in Freising. Balter also provided two experienced people: their own brewmaster and another brewmaster from within Australia’s CUB (Carlton & United Breweries) group, of which Balter is a member. The latter had already gained some good experience with Krones technology at the end of 2018, when a Steinecker CombiCube was commissioned in Adelaide. Together, the three formed the core team on site. They were guided online by two colleagues in Freising, who had initially intended to travel to Australia for the commissioning. One was a technology specialist, the other a software engineer.

And this motley crew did a fantastic job! They all took on the challenge readily – with no ifs, ands, or buts – and carried off the commissioning despite the unique circumstances. These extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Due to the 8-hour time difference, the team in Freising began their day in the middle of the night. But thanks to the videoconferencing function on Microsoft Teams, a VPN connection, and a lot of coffee, the remote commissioning went outstandingly well. The collaboration was so successful that the remote commissioning was completed ahead of schedule. The original target date was August, but it took less than four weeks from kickoff to the first brew! This accomplishment was possible thanks to the incredible flexibility and willingness of everyone involved to undertake this adventure. It was an excellent team effort on the part of Balter and Krones alike. As a result, we were able to overcome all obstacles and get the additional brewing capacity Balter so urgently needed up and running.”

4. Webinars

“Since we couldn’t travel to our customers or meet with them at trade fairs this year, we decided to use virtual means to share information with them about current topics in the world of digitalization at Krones. To this end, we launched a webinar series and invited our customers from around the world. Registration was simple, through the Syskron website – and demand was tremendous: more than 400 registrations demonstrated not only a high level of interest but also the great need for such solutions.

The first round kicked off in July, with the topic Share2Act Assistance. To accommodate the greatest number of participants, we offered five different dates: two for a presentation in German and three for English. Each hour-long webinar gave customers a look into the topic of digital maintenance and the Assistance System itself. The content was presented in part by either myself or one of my colleagues in Sales and in part by an expert from Syskron. Of course, participants had the opportunity to ask questions during the webinar or to schedule individual follow-up meetings to go deeper into the material.

The series continued in September, with webinars on preventing cyber attacks. The October webinar focused on line performance, and November was all about good production planning and how it can be used to optimize filling schedules, shorten changeover times, and ensure material availability. We intend to continue the webinar series in the future. Possible additional topics include effective order handling with Line Management or how Line Diagnostics can be used to analyze causes of disturbance and calculate performance indicators. We also plan to dedicate a webinar to explaining in detail how serialization solutions can be used to enable precise traceability of product batches.

I, personally, am excited about this format – as are our customers. There’s likely no easier, less complicated way to discuss specialized technical topics like this from the comfort of your desk and at the same time stay abreast of the latest new solutions and technology updates than through a one-hour webinar.”

5. Training

“We Krones Academy trainers are always busy. We train groups from around the world in Neutraubling or on site at our customers’ plants nearly every week. But the coronavirus and travel restrictions put the kibosh on that. So, the Academy team immediately set to work developing alternatives to in-person training. We began offering online training in June.

Two electrical engineers from Irish Distillers were among my first ‘online students’. They had originally planned to take a course on container orientation in the labeler in Neutraubling. Instead, they each took a seat in front of their laptops in Ireland for two days. Thanks to Microsoft Teams, they nevertheless got the experience of being there live. To show the containers and bottle plates from a number of different perspectives, I mounted cameras on the training machine. I also used an alignment trestle to enable them to practice setting up their company’s original containers.

After explaining the theory, I demonstrated setting up a container on the training machine. Then it was the participants’ turn to have a go at the machine – virtually, at least. I acted as their extended arm, doing exactly as they directed me. Because I could ‘hand over’ the touch-screen controls to them via Teams, they were able to do those settings themselves. In this way, we managed to conduct the two-day online training with as much practical experience as possible. Irish Distillers were also pleased with this solution – so much so that they sent three more of their team members for a second, identical training in our virtual Academy in July.

To be frank, conducting a training course online is more challenging for me since I have to describe each individual step or hand movement in detail. But, given the circumstances and with the tools available, it works quite well. Topics that involve a lot of touch-screen settings are especially easy to cover online. Of course, online training can’t truly replace in-person training at the machine. But, at the same time, we’re not going to let travel restrictions stop us from offering our customers the training options they need. So, as long as the material can be reasonably covered online, we have made such virtual courses a permanent fixture in our training catalog.”