Success Stories / Beverage Packaging
Unit Optimization Service · Beverage Packaging
Retuning the Filler Level control loop on a high-speed canning line reduced the production reject rate from 1.0% to 0.07%, a 93% cut, lifting the Quality component of PlantESP's Overall Controller Effectiveness score. That improvement was validated at over $1.8 million annualized; reconciled against the line's true 24/7/365 operating hours, the underlying value likely runs $1.9 million to $5.9 million a year.
$330K–$450K
Estimated value of a 10-point OCE gain, one filler line
The challenge
A canning line's Filler Level process sits directly upstream of every case a brewery ships. The bowl must hold level within a narrow band: flood the upper constraint and cans can't be flushed of air and pressurized with CO2; miss the lower constraint and cans go out under-filled. Non-dedicated beer loops feeding multiple bowls compound the problem, since engaging and disengaging loops disturbs feed pressure and destabilizes flow control loop by loop.
Reject rate alone puts a hard number on that erosion. Cascading beer level control to the flow loop, so the level controller corrects for drift before the faster-reacting flow controller reacts to pressure disturbances, cut waste from 1.0% to 0.07%: a documented $1.8 million a year, likely higher once continuous operation is priced in. Lift a filler line's overall OCE score by 10 points (spread across Availability, Performance, and Quality) and the combined value can reach $330,000 to $450,000 a year.
Where the losses originate
Boilers
A flooded bowl, a Quality-leg failure, prevents proper CO2 pressurization and rejects the can.
Under-filled cans
Missing the lower level constraint is a Quality-leg miss the moment fill falls short of spec.
Capacity shutdowns
Breaching a beer loop's pressure limit is a Performance-leg failure. The line saturates and stops.
Startup/shutdown waste
Violent starts and stops strain the bowl, an Availability and Quality issue during every changeover.
Line changeover strain
Shared, non-dedicated beer loops disturb pressure, degrading Performance the instant loops engage.
Reject-rate and annualized value derived from a canning line evaluation, validated against four months of production data; 1.0% to 0.07% reduction in reject rate. Reconciled range and OCE-point estimate reflect the customer's stated line speed and 24/7/365 operation; actual results vary with line speed, utilization, and product economics.
Overall Controller Effectiveness · A Universal Performance Measure
The connection between PID performance and canning line economics is not theoretical. It's calculable, loop by loop. PlantESPâ„¢ is the leading control loop performance monitoring (CLPM) solution, actively scoring PID performance on a plant-wide basis, and it has been successfully deployed across food and beverage packaging lines.
Among its metrics, PlantESP scores every loop using Overall Controller Effectiveness (OCE). Like OEE, OCE is a composite KPI that assesses three operating attributes (Availability, Performance, Quality) and facilitates the benchmarking of individual PID loops, unit operations, and entire facilities.
≥ 95%
Availability
Time in Normal (auto/cascade)
≥ 90%
Performance
Time Not Saturated (off limits)
≥ 85%
Quality
% Good Error within tolerance
Overall Controller Effectiveness =
Time in Normal × Time Not Saturated × % Good Error
A loop meeting all three thresholds scores 72.7%, the threshold for world-class control. Because the terms multiply, a loop running only 80/80/80 falls to 51.2%. OCE highlights weakness in any one dimension, which is why it gauges control quality and financial exposure alike. Try the OCE calculator
Framing poor performance as lost profit
93%
Reject rate reduction, 1.0% to 0.07% (OCE Quality)
$1.8M
Annualized value, validated against four months of data
$1.9M–$5.9M
Reconciled value at true 24/7/365 line operation
$330K–$450K
Estimated annual value of a 10-point OCE gain, one filler line
A project-based, control-strategy-improvement offering purpose-built for interactive, multi-loop unit operations like a high-speed canning line. Engage to find and fix the losses, then sustain the gains. Explore the service →
Engage · 01–04
01 Kick-off
Prioritize by Strategy
Rank loops, units, and areas against the plant's own goals: spec, energy, throughput.
02 Monthly
Identify Bad Actors
Control Station engineers pinpoint that scope's lowest-OCE loops, its top 10 bad actors, every month.
03 Monthly
Tune the Loops
Four hours per month of direct, hands-on tuning support to resolve those loops.
04 As needed
Strategy Change
When tuning cannot close the gap, escalate to a more strategic assessment and action plan.
Sustain · Ongoing
Quarterly
Assess the Value
Financial impact of the 10–20% typical Percent Good Error (PGE) gain from resolved bad-actor tuning.
Monthly
Track OCE Live
Availability, Performance, and Quality trends in PlantESP keep each loop's OCE score visible.
Quarterly
Report to Stakeholders
Benchmark against industry peers for sponsors and non-technical stakeholders.
Annual
Plan the Roadmap
Update a one-to-three year plan for closing whatever performance gap remains.
Keep reading
Decades of domain expertise
Control Station is the process industry's leading provider of controller performance monitoring and analytics. PlantESPâ„¢ supports hundreds of facilities worldwide, backed by an engineering team focused solely on process control.
Contact us for a no-obligation loop performance assessment and a line-specific OCE estimate of the opportunity hidden in your Filler Level control.
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