Abbott Nutrition

The problem for operations managers at Abbott’s production facility in Granada was not a lack of data. “We had a lot of data and information, but in the end, we weren’t using that data and information to make decisions,” Julio López Ortega, Senior Engineer, Process Monitoring & Control at Abbott said during his PI World 2018 presentation in Barcelona. As part of their process monitoring initiative, engineers at the Granada facility decided to launch a pilot project around their pouch filling process. The project had several clear goals in mind: • Improve real-time process monitoring and control • Increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) • Increase yield by reducing scrap and taking control of filling machine leaks and overfilling • Reduce product variability and increase batch cycle times