Vivescia Group

Pomacle site – MESbox SILO module of the COOX platform: control of grain silos and truck reception management

VIVESCIA is a successful agricultural and agribusiness cooperative group, which is present in the sectors from the field to the consumer’s plate and from the consumer to the producer and meets the needs of both customers and companies.

This is the largest grain cooperative in France :

3.9 million tons collected

270 elevators

Presence in 25 countries on 4 continents

World leader in malt production

Largest miller in France, one of the European leaders in milling and bakery, pastry and confectionery products

2nd

largest European corn producer in Europe

100 researchers, a world-renowned research center (ARD)

Clients and employees:

11 443 clients, 8500 out of which are active ones

3000 clients-breeders

2500 clients in agriculture

8000 winegrowers

8119 employees

(cooperatives, agricultural and industrial subsidiaries).

Software application MESbox SILO was developed by ORDINAL Software on the initiative of the Vivescia group (called Champagne Céréales at that time) who wanted to have a standard solution for grain silos.

The group used all of its expertise to define it : a fully generic solution that includes automation equipment as well as supervision and enables installation of a silo by simple configuration, which makes it possible to considerably reduce the installation time, increase reliability and facilitate maintenance.

Today, the group has 70 sites.

General information - Vivescia group with its turnover of 4.2 billion euros is one of the largest regional players with:

- 16 plants in Champagne-Ardenne

- 100 researchers in Pomacle (Marne)

- 2500 directly created jobs in the region

- 50 million euros invested in the region every year

- 14 companies in the group whose head office is in the region

Project origin

An extended working group defined an Operations Management System for the Pomacle site, SGOP.

This system centralizes the management and supervision of reception and dispatch operations at the site. It enables communication with different proprietary systems: sorting units, identification, weighing and automatic handling thanks to the MESbox SILO module of the COOX software package.

Architecture

Software: COOX, SILO module, 20 PMT units, 5 client workstations Services: 15 days of consulting to assist with design and execution Training: MESbox SILO – 4 days, PMT module: 2 days

MESbox SILO module of COOX

The solution by ORDINAL Software makes it possible to manage handling, automatic bulk scales operation, truck loading as well as systematic sampling when preparing 1500 ton batches.

It includes all the tools required for everyday operation (material creation, reception, treatment, circuit launch, thermometry…) and ensures perfect traceability of inputs, storing and outputs with further transfer of the information to the Vivescia’s IT department via the intranet.

The MESbox SILO module was in this case connected to the run-time system (MESbox PMT of COOX):

An algorithm was used to define and pre-configure stages and their sequence (swipe card processing, sampling, weighing), functions, transition rules and different possible cases. These stages are modeled and directly recorded in the software and can be seen from the operator console.

Inspection system objectives

The requirement of adding a raw materials inspection system with truck recording to the supervision system serves several purposes:

Reduction of the time of truck reception processing

Elimination of data entry errors

Ease of processing by operators

Automatic data recording

Use of commercially available software

Operation description

Stage 1 : Recording

At the guard post (control post at the silo entry), a swipe card is given to the truck driver.

Stage 2: Quality control / Sampling

The driver places the truck under the sampling probe. The operator in the cabin receives instructions on the control console and launches the Foss humidity meter (Infratec).

Stage 3: Weighing of loaded trucks

The driver places the truck on the weighbridge and identifies himself with his card. The scales transfer the information to the console.

Stage 4: Quality control / confirmation

The silo operator automatically receives the readings of the humidity meter (humidity, protein level, parasites…). If the readings are positive and weighing is correct, the operator confirms the reception.

Stage 5: Unloading into the pit

Using the console the operator chooses the reception pit. The information is sent to the display panel above the pits. This allows the driver to move towards the right pit, he puts the truck in the right place and identifies himself with the card.

Card reading launches the circuit and the driver empties the truck. The circuit preset by the operator processes the grain according to the instructions (cleaning, treatment, purpose…).

Stage 6: Weighing of empty trucks

The driver places the truck on the weighbridge and identifies himself with his card. The scales transfer the information to the operator console.

Stage 7: The driver returns to the post and gives his card back.

Extract from the interview with

Aurélien Babel,

Automation and Industrial Computing Manager

Vivescia Group