Protecting bakery manufacture with 24/7 automation support

Project summary

Sector: Feed, Food & Beverage
Customer: Leading bakery manufacturer
Location: UK
Expertise: 24/7 Automation Support

At a glance

• Ongoing 24/7 automation maintenance agreement with the client
• Customer call returned within approximately 30 minutes
• Engineer mobilised to site on Saturday morning and attended on Sunday and Monday until full production was restored
• Temporary solution restored approximately 50% of normal production capability on the day, with full capacity back on Monday
• Controls backups subsequently secured across three production lines supporting faster recoveries

The challenge: a controls failure threatening production continuity

This well-known manufacturer operates multiple bakery lines at its UK facility, with production running across day and night shifts.

Its internal maintenance team was capable of addressing mechanical issues as they arose, but relied on Actemium 24/7, part of Actemium UK, for specialist automation and software support.

During a planned deep clean, power to the equipment was switched off. A depleted PLC battery meant that when power was restored, the controller lost its programme completely. The PLC was a legacy Mitsubishi product that had become obsolete, adding another layer of complexity to the recovery. The result was a blank operator screen and the complete and unexpected halt of production.

With no usable PLC programme backup immediately available, conventional restoration was not possible.

For a high-volume food manufacturing operation, every hour of lost production meant reduced output and added pressure on production schedules.

The solution: rapid 24/7 automation support

The manufacturer’s existing support agreement gave it access to Actemium 24/7 automation specialists around the clock.

Following the Saturday morning call, the Actemium team responded within approximately 30 minutes and first checked existing records for a programme backup. When none was available, an engineer mobilised to site to diagnose the problem directly.

Connecting to the PLC confirmed that its programme had been completely lost.

Actemium then worked throughout the weekend with the bakery customer and the original installers’ engineering teams to locate the original control programme. A support specialist from the latter was subsequently mobilised from Germany with the programme required for full restoration.

Rather than simply wait for the original programme to become available, Actemium looked for a way to get production under way again.

Keeping production moving while a permanent solution was secured

Working alongside experienced production operators, Actemium developed a temporary control sequence for the affected line. The team used its controls expertise alongside the operators’ detailed knowledge of the production process to establish workable conveyor speeds and sequence timings.

While it was not intended as a replacement for the original control programme, it was a practical business continuity measure designed to safely recover as much productive capacity as possible while the permanent solution was being arranged.

The temporary solution enabled the bakery manufacturer to operate the line at approximately 50% of its normal capability rather than remaining completely stopped. The Actemium engineer also continued to attend site throughout the weekend until the installers’ representative arrival on Monday, when the PLC programme was restored, and the line returned to normal operation.

From reactive recovery to greater operational resilience

The incident highlighted a wider risk at this particular bakery customer. Critical automation programmes and parameters across the site were not fully backed up, creating the potential for similar equipment failures to cause extended production disruption in the future.

Actemium 24/7 and the customer therefore moved beyond resolving the immediate fault.

A planned programme was developed to capture and securely retain PLC and HMI backups across all three production lines. The work was carried out during lower-production overnight periods to minimise disruption to manufacturing.

Actemium subsequently returned to capture drive configurations and parameters, extending the backup strategy beyond the PLC and HMI systems.

As a result, Actemium now holds significantly more of the information required to quickly recover the site’s automation systems following a future failure.

Results and benefits

Actemium’s rapid response addressed the customer’s urgent production challenge while reducing the risk and impact of future controls failures.

The client’s key benefits were:

• Reduced production loss. The temporary solution restored half of normal capability on the affected line on the same day and supported full restoration within 3 working days.
• Faster future recovery. Critical PLC, HMI and drive information was backed up, so an Actemium engineer can now attend site with the right information for a faster production restart.
• Reduced operational risk. A single line failure led to site-wide protection, with backups secured across all three production lines.
• Support for legacy and obsolete automation. Actemium’s control expertise helped the customer manage ageing assets while long-term modernisation requirements were considered.
• Minimal disruption to production. Backups were captured during lower-production overnight periods, so future readiness improved without affecting output.

Engineering resilience into food and beverage production

This project demonstrates how Actemium UK utilises industrial automation to help food and beverage manufacturers improve reliability, reduce operational risk and strengthen critical assets. Our teams work across control systems, PLCs, HMIs, drives and electrical infrastructure, supporting legacy and obsolete equipment as well as modernisation when requirements change.

Actemium 24/7 extends this expertise through ongoing maintenance agreements, providing remote fault finding, emergency call-outs, on-site recovery and preventative backup strategies. Our engineers work across legacy and current technologies from Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Schneider Electric, AVEVA, Mitsubishi Electric, iFIX, Omron and more, covering entire systems or individual components and software, helping customers protect production continuity, manage obsolescence and recover faster when failures occur.