West-Bake adopts Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform from Rockwell Automation

Based in Glenamaddy, Co. Galway, in the west of Ireland, West-Bake operates a state-of-the art, 4,088 m2 bakery, with a strong team dedicated to producing muffins, cookies and cakes for customers around Europe. The adoption of the Plex solution will allow the company to establish and maintain tighter inventory and quality control in a digital format as it scales up its manufacturing.

"Our Plex solution is ideal for companies with big digital aspirations looking to optimize and future proof their operations," said Asa Arvidsson, regional vice president central, east and north region, Rockwell Automation. "Our consultative approach at West-Bake helped identify operational improvements, and from there we were able to tailor and deliver a solution that offered the best possible control, management, insights and return on investment."

Initially looking for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, an in-depth, project-requirement capture and factory walkthrough by the Rockwell Automation team discovered that the Plex manufacturing execution system (MES) and quality management system (QMS) would have a positive business impact for West-Bake. Indeed, the return on investment savings realised by the MES would fund the ERP investment, which was subsequently bolstered by the QMS capability.

"By digitalising our inventory and quality records, we anticipate significant time, effort and cost savings," said PJ Shanks, IT manager at West-Bake. "As well as more accurate records and smoothing of supply chain and inventory fluctuations, the 'train the trainer' approach Plex offers means we can be self-sufficient in terms of configuring the system for future products, new recipes and additional manufacturing lines. And the tightly integrated offerings mean that all pertinent data generated across our operations is accessible in real time to all internal stakeholders."