Success Story ELOPAK

SAP PLM ECTR direct data integration to optimize filling equipment development

Composite beverage cartons have a leading role as pack-aging for beverages and liquid foods. According to the German trade association for liquid-food carton packaging [Fachverband Kartonverpackungen für flüssige Nahrungsmittel e. V. (FKN)], the share of composite beverage cartons for fresh milk in 2019 was just under 90%. This packaging can also be found on supermarket shelves for many other products, ranging from fruit juices and iced tea through to desserts, tomato paste and cooking oil.

Sophisticated filling equipment

ELOPAK is one of the world’s leading manufacturers supplying businesses in the food and beverage industry with complete packaging systems for liquid and paste-like food products. Printed, embossed and die-cut composite carton blanks, closures and required filling equipment all come from a single source, ensuring optimum compatibility between products, packaging and filling technology. More than 300 engineers and maintenance technicians are responsible for developing, installing and maintaining the filling systems.

ELOPAK’s latest E-PS120A aseptic filling platform is capable of processing up to 12,000 cartons per hour, while also having the flexibility to fill high or low viscosity liquids into cartons of different designs, sizes and closures. Around 70 development engineers at ELOPAK’s Monchengladbach site are using SOLIDWORKS for mechanical design and Eplan Electric P8, Eplan Fluid and Eplan Pro Panel for planning the electrical and fluid engineering components of the filling machines. Designers from all disciplines previously used a PLM system to store all product-relevant data.

Efficiency driven by ERP integration

ELOPAK was not fully utilizing the PLM functions of the replaced PLM system in all areas. Workflow mechanisms were only being used in mechanical design. EPLAN data was only stored in the system as completed plans. Linking the existing PLM system to the previous in-house ERP system was detrimental to efficiency and considerable effort was required to ensure cross-discipline data consistency. This led to dissatisfaction in both the business administration and design departments. Some there still recalled the difficulties encountered during the initial implementation of the software. “The Workgroup Manager in particular had significant system-related errors,” recalls René Wolters, Specialist CAD & PLM / Service and Knowledge Management at ELOPAK. “Despite a lot of overtime, we barely achieved any output for the first four months.”

Full switchover to SAP

While standardizing the ERP systems across the group to SAP, the question arose as to how engineering data should be integrated. “Transferring the design data into the SAP database is better than an interface between the existing PLM system and SAP,” says Peter Häberle, Project Manager at Cideon. “Only then can full data consistency be achieved throughout the company.” Shared data then serves as a single source of truth, ensuring that everyone in the organization, regardless of their roles, always has reliable access to up-to-date and valid information. A ‘digital common thread’ then runs through the various systems and processes.

Connecting these systems and processes enables the systematic, cross-disciplinary use of models and data throughout the entire product life cycle. Since this facilitates coordination between different departments, it was not just business administration that was in favor of this variant. The development department needed no further convincing of the benefits of replacing the previously used PLM system with the SAP PLM Engineering Control Center (ECTR). The system enables all design data used throughout the company to be merged into databases on the cloud-based S4/HANA platform. This ensures secure and easy access to all product development information, regardless of department.

Read more about the project between ELOPAK and Cideon in the reference report: