Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, announced today that Cascades Tissue Group has implemented KEPServerEX and LinkMaster to improve connectivity across its diverse and sprawling infrastructure. Since adopting Kepware's communication solutions, Cascades Tissue Group has improved connectivity between modern and legacy machines, and increased operational efficiency by more than 5 percent.
Upholding a fifty-year commitment to environmentally-friendly practices, Cascades regularly repurposes or reuses aging machinery. To ensure that its recycled architecture operates efficiently, Cascades relies on a modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to facilitate the delivery of the right information to the right place at the right time. This sophisticated MES requires a flexible and reliable communication solution.
After experimenting with a number of well-known disparate communication solutions, Cascades found Kepware's KEPServerEX communications platform and LinkMaster bridging tool. Using KEPServerEX enables Cascades to support communications across all of its seventeen plants, seventeen paper machines, and nearly ninety converting lines with just one piece of software. With its support of the OPC standard and more than 150 protocols, KEPServerEX allows Cascades to communicate with virtually any machine on its plant floor. By implementing the communications platform, Cascades has eliminated numerous disparate devices and is now polling more than 11,000 tags from nearly 500 PLCs using a single server.
"Kepware allows us to easily and effectively facilitate the communications that drive our MES initiative," said Benoit Lapensée, Engineer and MES Coordinator, Cascades. "After expending time and resources trying to cobble together different communications solutions, finding one piece of highly intuitive software that could get all of our machines talking was just what the doctor ordered."
When its manufacturing facilities are operating more efficiently, Cascades is operating more responsibly. According to Lapensée, "Kepware is truly at the heart of a wildly successful MES program, helping us in our ongoing mission to develop great paper products in a responsible way."
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