CIOInsider India Magazine
CTC Manufacturing Process: Live Monitoring From Anywhere
Owning 31 tea gardens spread over Darjeeling, the Dooars and Assam, Goodricke is one of the largest tea producers in India. Goodricke is a Camellia PLC group company, an international group, employing over 73,000 people worldwide.
Yes, it’s true! A system (IOT) has been developed wherein we can remotely monitor –
a) The withering fans – how many hours ON and how many hours OFF.
b) The current being consumed in the withering fans (in amperes).
c) The humidity of the rolling room.
d) The dry and wet bulb temperature in the rolling room.
e) How hard the CTC cutting has been adjusted.
f) The current being consumed in each cut (in amperes).
g) Whether the CTC machines are being constantly fed with withered leaf.
h) What are the temperatures in the CTC cuts
i) Temperature of fermented ‘mal’ at the feeding end and the discharge end and also temperatures monitored at 3 different zones between feeding end and discharge end.
At the above parameters can be monitored from your smart phone or PC sitting in your office or bungalow. This is an extremely ‘intelligent’ technology using sensors placed at strategic places, network connectivity, mobility and cloud connectivity enabling a person to observe the tea manufacturing process real time, from anywhere in the world.
Since the manufacturing parameters are being monitored real time, any adjustment, corrective action can be initiated almost immediately
In picture A above, one can see how the sensors communicate the data to a Central Aggregator over the Factory Wi-Fi network. This in turn pushes the data to a server in H.O. where the data is stored in a data base. This data can be accessed on a PC or a smart phone using the Group’s internal network or any Internet service of the mobile operator anywhere in the world.
This system has numerous advantages:-
1. Since the manufacturing parameters are being monitored real time, any adjustment, corrective action can be initiated almost immediately.
2. Alarms/Notifications can be configured to detect anomalies so that the concerned personnel can initiate corrective action immediately.
3. Scope for human error is greatly reduced.
4. Overall Factory Supervision becomes more efficient in all respects.
This can be successfully monitored and fine-tuned the monitoring process in the withering and rolling stages during the first six months. In the second phase this can be extended to the drying and sorting process also. Full cooperation from all concerned is essential in smooth implementation of the process.
.jpg "Education In Technology ERA")