Chivas Brothers, part of the Pernod Ricard group, employs 1,500 staff across 31 sites in the UK, with its headquarters in Paisley, Scotland. It has 12 operating malt distilleries, a grain distillery, two gin distilleries and over 300 bonded warehouses, containing an extensive aged inventory of more than six million casks

Many of its products are well-known brands and are sold all over the world. They include whiskies such as Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s and The Glenlivet and the ever-popular Beefeater Gin. The company has a reputation for quality and continually wins prestigious awards; including being named 'Distiller of the Year' by the International Wine and Spirits Competition and the International Spirits Competition eight times since 2002.

Although the art of distilling goes back thousands of years, modern-day distilleries and distribution hubs in the beverage industry are some of the biggest users of contemporary automation and software technology. Chivas Brothers' Kilmalid plant in Dumbarton, Scotland is a shining example of technology in action, thanks to its use of Rockwell Automation technology. In fact, when the plant was first constructed 30 years ago, it claimed to be the most automated plant in the industry.

The Kilmalid plant fulfils many roles, including cask filling, blending, bottling, distribution, packaging development, quality and inventory planning and, as such, is a huge user of a wide range of automation hardware and software services. Over the years these have fulfilled their roles, but, like many established operations, have slowly become obsolete and, in the case of hardware, tough to find spares for. Following the purchase of Allied Domecq by Pernod Ricard in 2005, funds were made available to update and modernise the Kimalid facility, turning it once again into one of the most impressive examples of contemporary MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and automation in the industry.

According to Stephen Trainor, Senior Electrical Engineer at Chivas Brothers: "The modernisation  included eight new high-speed palletisers, the refurbishment and replacement of control gear on the high-bay cranes and the replacement of all conveyors used for case and pallet handling. It also included the installation of an automatic pallet exchange system."

The upgrade also encompassed replacement of the legacy MES suite that is used to coordinate blending, vatting and bottling operations. Chivas replaced the old system with new-generation hardware including ControlLogix and FactoryTalk View (HMI SCADA).

What is really impressive from an automation perspective is that the whole automation infrastructure is controlled by Allen-Bradley ControlLogix Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs), which operate in conjunction with CompactLogix units on the palletisers over an EtherNet/IP network. Indeed much of the third-party equipment was chosen because of its ability to work over EtherNet/IP. Other Allen-Bradley hardware includes PanelView Plus 1000 HMIs and PowerFlex 40 & 700S drives. "Since the upgrade," Trainor explains, "I think it is more than likely that we have reclaimed our position as the industry's most automated whisky plant.

"We were one of the early adopters of a ControlLogix-based infrastructure, when Rockwell Automation released the platform replacing our old PLC3 systems," explains Trainor, "and ever since, all the new equipment we specify is based on the Logix platform.

"The Kilmalid facility is an interesting example of evolution in the industry," explains Grant Coffin, account manager at Rockwell Automation. "It has grown from a small number of ControlLogix PLCs running on ControlNet, via an RSView SCADA implementation to a much bigger server/client ControlLogix PAC-based, process control architecture running on EtherNet/IP. As the technology has evolved so has the plant because of the continuous upgrade programme in place.

"The decision to go with Rockwell Automation was driven by our Project Engineering Team," Trainor elaborates. "In all honesty it was an easy decision to make; we have been using Rockwell Automation's Allen-Bradley products for many years and our familiarity with them, combined with its ease of use means it is a very powerful solution for our needs. What’s more, the introduction of EtherNet/IP and PanelView makes our lives immeasurably easier, especially when it comes to fault finding, it simply removes a lot of the pressure from our technicians. We have also implemented FactoryTalk AssetCenter, which includes disaster-recovery backups and change logs.”

Trainor tells us: "The quality levels we have received from Rockwell Automation have always been really good, I cannot fault the equipment and it does exactly what we need it to do and does it reliably. The service is also superb; the auto despatch system took three years to design, install and commission and it was all achieved on time, on budget and without any major problems. We often used phased installations, replacing the older Allen-Bradley units with newer equipment, with little or no impact on production."

Trainor concludes: "I think it would be fair to say that the Kilmalid plant is one of the most integrated plants in the industry, thanks to EtherNet/IP and all the hardware that uses it as a communications infrastructure. Plant upgrades here are continuous as we seek to employ the very best the industry has to offer. The latest upgrade using Rockwell Automation wasn't the first, and I am sure it won't be the last."