Marmon Foodservice Technologies
Download Case Study PDF- Implemented By:
- Sewio
- Implemented In:
- 2024
- Industry:
- Food/Beverages
- Country:
- Czech Republic
- Customer Website:
- marmonfoodservice.com
- Use Cases:
- digital twin production flow quality management
Indoor Locating Is the Cornerstone of a Smart Factory
Background
“Just like AI, a real-time tracking system is a game-changing tool, but it doesn't generate value on its own; the value comes from how effectively you use it.” That’s what Automation Manager and Smart Manufacturing Leader Dušan Tešlár said when asked about the role of a real-time locating system (RTLS) in the recent digital transformation of Marmon Foodservice Technologies. The company utilized our RTLS and Digital Twin technology to create a smart factory that adapts swiftly to changing market demands. Marmon Foodservice Technologies, a part of Berkshire Hathaway, is a global leader in foodservice equipment, such as beverage dispensers, cooling systems, and warming devices. Their factory in Czechia focuses on assembling cooling equipment for soft drinks, and water dispensers—the kind you might use to get a chilled drink in a self-service restaurant.Goals
In 2021, Marmon moved its production to a new location in Czechia. And it was clear from the start that the new factory had to be modern, innovative, and agile to stay competitive. It produces a wide range of products—around 100 product variants on about twelve production lines. This high variability makes automation challenging, so the company decided to focus on digitalization first. “We have started to digitalize to increase the utilization of our production lines, to be more flexible, and to boost continuous improvement. Automation will follow at a later stage, and it will be integrated with the location tracking through Digital Twin.” said Dušan Tešlár. The main goals of the project were:- Increase productivity of production lines and operators
- Improve quality control
- Base decision-making on real-place data
Challenges
To achieve these goals, Tešlár and his team needed to monitor the current production processes to identify all kinds of waste as defined by the lean methodology. They needed to collect reliable data right from the shop floor. And for that, they needed a tool that would provide real-time visibility into what was happening on the shop floor at any given moment. Sewio’s real-time locating system (RTLS) alongside Digital Twin from Asseco CEIT was perfect for that job. However, since this is a new technology requiring a significant upfront investment, Tešlár needed to present strong arguments to justify the budget.@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-title.fusion-title-13{margin-top:0px!important; margin-right:0px!important;margin-bottom:16px!important;margin-left:0px!important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-title.fusion-title-13{margin-top:10px!important; margin-right:0px!important;margin-bottom:10px!important; margin-left:0px!important;}}
.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-37{width:50% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;}.fusion-builder-column-37 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 48 !important;padding-right : 0px !important;margin-right : 3.84%;padding-bottom : 48 !important;padding-left : 48 !important;margin-left : 3.84%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-37{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-37 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-37{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-37 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}Sustainable Manufacturing: How to Reduce Waste
Download our ebook and learn how to identify and tackle hidden waste.
.fusion-button.button-1 .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1 i {color:#059b39;}.fusion-button.button-1 .fusion-button-icon-divider{border-color:#059b39;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:hover i,.fusion-button.button-1:focus .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:focus i,.fusion-button.button-1:active .fusion-button-text, .fusion-button.button-1:active{color:#ffffff;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-1:hover .fusion-button-icon-divider, .fusion-button.button-1:active .fusion-button-icon-divider{border-color:#ffffff;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover, .fusion-button.button-1:focus, .fusion-button.button-1:active{border-color:#ffffff;border-width:1px;}.fusion-button.button-1 {border-color:#059b39;border-width:1px;border-radius:3px;}.fusion-button.button-1{background: #fafafa;}.fusion-button.button-1:hover,.button-1:focus,.fusion-button.button-1:active{background: #059b39;}
Solution
Tešlár is a committed advocate for innovation who knows how to introduce new ideas even to the most skeptical stakeholders. He started small with a proof-of-concept project, showing the potential before making a significant investment. This laid the foundation for his long-term plan to use RTLS to modernize the factory. The key to improving Marmon’s production is tracking three things: Products: Tracking products throughout the entire production process made it possible to eliminate manual records. Instead of workers writing down the product status—a time-consuming and error-prone task—the RTLS system automatically records it as the product moves through each workstation. Operators: Each worker gets a tag that helps monitor their position and interaction with products. This ensures each product is handled by an authorized person and at the right time, creating a complete, reliable record of who did what and when. Material deliveries: Tracking milk runs ensures that the materials are where they need to be at the right time, minimizing delays.Internal communication
A key part of making RTLS effective was ensuring that everyone understood its value and how to use it properly. Tešlár knew that technology is only as good as the people using it. To bring the smart factory concept to life, Marmon focused on clear and effective communication. They organized training sessions, created informative brochures, and put up motivational posters to ensure everyone understood how to handle the tags and what the changes meant for their jobs. The result? A win-win solution boosting both efficiency and employee satisfaction. Thanks to the increased productivity the company could retain shorter work hours, benefiting employees directly. Explore how employee visibility enables safer, more accountable workflows.
Results
Productivity increase: Thanks to the new tracking system, productivity increased by 15%. Moving to paperless production saved time, resources and reduced errors allowing workers to focus on more valuable tasks instead of manual data entry.
Quality control improvement: Marmon integrated Sewio RTLS with Digital Twin from CEIT and quality tester, so they can track the production end-to-end and ensure only high-quality products leave the line. Workers can now also see if there’s any issue and they can quickly solve it.
Data-driven decisions: With real-time data on hand, Tešlár and his colleagues could identify inefficiencies very quickly. The data collection process that would have taken up to two months with traditional lean tools took just 10 minutes with the RTLS. Based on that data, Marmon merged two production lines into one and saved 2,700 sq ft (250 m²) of production space. The unused production line is being modified for another purpose and the workers have been allocated elsewhere.
Now, thanks to RTLS and Digital Twin, Tešlár can analyze the production process even from the other side of the world. He can monitor production and immediately see the impact of any change. And instead of spending twelve hours with paper and pencil on the shop floor, he can see the production line usage in five minutes.
The success of this pilot project helped Marmon secure a budget to expand the smart factory. The team has already extended the RTLS across the entire shop floor and integrated it with other tools to create a connected digital ecosystem that enables modeling changes, evaluating impact, and automatically suggesting improvements.
By implementing RTLS and Digital Twin, Marmon gained full visibility into their operations, leading to major improvements in productivity, quality, and efficiency.
As Tešlár’s favorite quote says, “The future is already here, it's just poorly distributed.” At Marmon, they have brought the future to their factory floor, proving that with the right approach, innovation is achievable for everyone.
15% / increase in productivity
2 / production lines merged into one
2,700 sq ft / space saved
Key criteria for choosing Sewio
- Real-time tracking with top accuracy
- Full operations visibility through Digital Twin from CEIT
- Reliable performance, even in metal-heavy environments
- One infrastructure supporting multiple use cases
- Scalable solution, proven with a successful pilot project
Sewio's real-time location tracking system with Digital Twin provides information that is extremely difficult to obtain in any other way. Dušan Tešlár Automation Manager at Marmon Foodservice Technologies