Fault-tolerant systems support improvement at McVitie’s

United Biscuits McVitie’s recent plant rationalisation and improvement projects have harnessed fault tolerant server technology to provide secure support Key benefits Provided 99.999% off-the[shelf real-world availability Supports increased production efficiency and dramatically reduced wastage No additional reliability software, no modifications to the operating system No clusters required Keeps key production operational United Biscuits, the largest biscuit manufacturer in the UK and second largest in Western Europe, with sales of £1.3bn in 2003, produces a staggering 350,000 tons of biscuits and snack products per annum. To maintain that position, the company works hard to improve utilisation levels and operational efficiencies. This story concerns part of that drive, and involves two initiatives that support improved production processes, both of which have been implemented on Stratus ftServers fault-tolerant server technology to provides maximum uptime. The first concerns running a SCADA system that controls bulk handling. The system manages storage and weighing of ingredients for mixing dough, involving some 59 storage silos and 12 giant mixers, each delivering one metric ton of dough every 20 minutes to 19 production lines. “Getting the ingredients right while maintaining the supply of dough to the production lines is pivotal to our operation,” says Craig Martin, principal engineer at UB’s McVitie’s unit. “Encountering a server failure would halt our production, leaving 400 production staff idle. It’s not an option!” And hence the fault-tolerant server, which replaced an existing Dell PowerEdge server. These systems automatically defend against unplanned downtime, harnessing Stratus Continuous Processing features like lockstep hardware, failsafe system software, and ActiveService capabilities. Windows-based server applications benefit as soon as they are loaded, and the result is the computer industry’s top measure of availability – 99.999% in real-world installations. The second implementation was part of a strategic project. Acting as a central server, the Stratus system provided the processing to support four high-speed biscuit production lines. Working as part of a closed-loop process, the SCADA application there is responsible for automated management of every aspect of biscuit manufacture, including moisture, color, weight, and shape. “Since the introduction of this project, we have increased our production efficiency while dramatically reducing our wastage,” says John Sleight, process developments manager at UB’s McVitie’s unit. “We were able to do this by introducing new manufacturing techniques that caused us to run everything centrally. “To support this process, we had to be convinced of the robustness of the central server. These production lines deliver by far our largest volumes. If the server stops, everything else will stop. With the Stratus ftServer system, we got off-the-shelf fault tolerance. No additional reliability software, no modifications to the operating system and best of all, none of the complexity of clusters.” Industrial automation specialist Amber Programmable Design, based in south west Scotland, led the implementation of both projects. “As a one-stop shop, we were able to offer UB a complete solution: application software, fault-tolerant hardware, installation services,” says Jim Main, technical director. “Our goal has always been to help UB achieve their business objectives – no small feat when faced with the challenge of rationalising technology while increasing production capacity. “To achieve this without compromising the service level agreement to the business, we had to have the Straus ftServer system as the foundation for both solutions.” And that wasn’t an expensive decision: it’s worth noting that pricing is competitive with conventional two-node clusters that don’t offer the protection of built-in fault tolerance. “Stratus with their ftServer line has enabled us not only to rationalise, but also increase, our production capabilities,” says Sleight.