We have over 30 years of experience working with major whisky producing companies to help them operate each distillery effectively and with minimal staff. The common challenges our customers face, fall into 3 broad areas; connectivity, staff protection and monitoring & alerting. We provide solutions to all of these issues, which helps keep the plant running smoothly and efficiently.
Whisky production today is a highly automated process with many sites operating into the evening and throughout the night. Operators need to keep the distilleries running smoothly and are constantly required to manage events anywhere throughout the distillery. Furthermore, employees across every industry have the right to work under safe conditions, but there are certain workers that are at increased risk due to the environments that they operate in, such as those working in potentially explosive atmospheres.
Connectivity today is far easier with mobile 2G, 3G and 4G technology, although not all businesses can rely on it. Many distilleries are situated in remote areas with little coverage or have building structures that mobile reception can’t penetrate. Some companies simply don’t want to give their employees a mobile or smartphone.
There’s good news - there are a number of different communication platforms to choose from including; IP DECT, Digital Radio, VoWiFi and PMN, which means you can deploy the right technology to meet your users, environment and infrastructure needs. However, working out which platform is best for you can take time and be frustrating, unless you have help.
There is also the additional challenge of having intrinsically safe zones that restricts the use of standard non-ATEX approved technology such as mobile communication equipment. Therefore, we also provide a range of handsets that are certified by ATEX and are safe to use in specific zones that contain explosive atmospheres. This allows your staff to safely continue to use their ATEX communication handsets throughout the plant.
Lone working is common in distilleries with employees working alone during the day, evening, night or at weekends. Workers face a number of risks each day including; movement of casks, climbing on tankers, working around water and with chemicals. Due to distilling, workers are also subject to high temperatures.
If you have staff working alone in your distillery, we can help you to provide the right level of protection. We offer a range of lone working solutions and can work with you to assess your employees needs and determine which technology would be best suited should an incident occur. You may also be able to use existing equipment, which would help keep costs down and means your workers don’t need to carry multiple devices.
We help our customers manage and respond better to critical alarms. We know production efficiency is important and that any delays due faulty machinery slows output and increases cost due to unnecessary wastage unless managed effectively.
Distributing critical alarms directly to teams that need to deal with on-site emergencies dramatically reduces machine downtime. Furthermore, reacting early to machine failure warnings means any potential issue can be rectified without affecting output and causing unnecessary wastage's and costs. We can also provide an audit trail which can be reviewed to help improve the way alarms are manage in the future. For further information get in touch with our team of experts or review our case studies to see how we have helped our customers in this sector.
