Alpla sets a mission to Industry 4.0

Packaging system and container producer Alpla Inc. is rolling out its Industry 4.0-related Mission Control concept and preparing in mid-2018 to add two more U.S. production sites.

"2018 will be a big year for us," said Philipp Lehner, general manager. Alpla's parent firm is based in Austria.

"We will fully implement Mission Control in all sites," starting with a rollout at Alpla's McDonough, Ga., North American headquarters plant near Atlanta, he said. Sequentially, Alpla is implementing the virtual-reality technology in five other facilities during October and November and ultimately will link with the remainder of its 14 plants in the U.S.

For additional capacity, Alpla is developing a 180,000-square-foot plant and hiring 80 people for a site near Allentown, Pa., for production of ​ food, household and cosmetic product containers.

At the same time, Alpla is establishing a 120,000-square-foot facility and hiring 40 people for an operation in Salt Lake City for multilayer and monolayer food packaging.

"Mission Control will be critical for the startup of our new production sites," Lehner noted in a telephone interview.

Alpla created a separate team in 2013 to develop the virtual-reality concept and, in September 2016, began trials monitoring process-relevant data. Jodok Schaeffler heads the team.

Now in McDonough, "we have six development people plus external experts and a partner with cutting-edge software," Lehner said.

The Alpla initiative links existing machine sensors with data transmission systems. It overlays a level of intelligent software to allow a Mission Control operator in McDonough to connect through virtual reality and troubleshoot an issue at a plant.

The process involves seeing reality and experiencing overlaying support combining human-led and computer-led guidance.

"We can collect continuous production data, turn it into information in a digestible format and feed it back to floor for specific action," Lehner said. "It's incredibly powerful. We can guide decision-making on the floor in the moment."

As needed around the clock, a person in Mission Control and a person in the plant put on VR headsets enabling a simultaneous evaluation of increasingly complex issues at the relevant machine. Remote tweaking is feasible.

The technology is needed to "manage a skill force losing old, experienced folks and recognizing the disinterest of young people," Lehner said. "We don't need a guy with 30 years' experience at 3 a.m."

Alpla may utilize Microsoft Corp.'s HoloLens VR headsets.

In June, Alpha acquired the West Bend, Wis., bottle manufacturing plant of Gehl Foods LLC from investment firm West Point Partners for $5.43 million.

"The integration of West Bend into our system went well," Lehner said.

Alpla utilizes continuous shuttle monolayer and coextrusion blow molding processes and also stretch blow molding for preform production.

Alpla Inc. employs 1,200, operates about 110 blow molding machines and has annual sales approaching $400 million in the U.S. and Canada. The firm's Alpla México SA de CV unit has 28 plants and is managed separately from the U.S. operations. The company ranks fifth on Plastics News' blow molders rankings.

Operations of parent company Alpla-Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co. KG of Hard, Austria, include blow molding, injection molding and recycling operations in 172 plants. The business generates total annual sales of about $4 billion.

Plastics News senior staff reporter Bill Bregar contributed to this story.