Case study Blefa GmbH

MES gets the “barrel rolling

Beer and beer keg production continue to be attractive markets. In this segment, Blefa Beverage Systems, part of Artemis Holding, has held its own with flying colors over the decades as a leading manufacturer of kegs. The PROXIA MES-Software with machine and production data acquisition for monitoring two interlinked production lines makes a sustainable contribution to increasing the output quantity by more than 15 percent. This means that Blefa continues to be ideally equipped for growth.

“PROXIA MES provides cross-departmental, meaningful key figures in our production and enables us to optimize in control loops based on valid production data. PROXIA has made a significant contribution to the fact that we have been able to increase the output of our kegs by 15%.”

Jürgen Kromer
Technical Director of Blefa GmbH

Highlights and benefits at a glance:

Increase output by 15%
Precise MDE/BDE Data acquisition for output accurate to the piece count
Sustainable support of the strategic goal
Increase output by 25% – with existing resources
Valid data basis for quality improvements
Intuitive BDE input meets with high acceptance
Modern OPC-UA machine connection for MDE
Accurate data for detailed value stream mapping

Higher Output Through Precise Unit-Based Production with PROXIA MES at Blefa

Industry

As part of its digitalization strategy, Blefa Beverage Systems, a leading manufacturer of stainless steel kegs, chose the MES solution from PROXIA. The goal was to digitalize production processes, close data gaps, and enable transparent, unit-precise manufacturing. The results speak for themselves.

Problem

As part of the Blefa 2020+ project, it quickly became clear that the existing data infrastructure was insufficient for precise production control. The lack of real-time information, manual data collection, and limited transparency in the manufacturing process led to delays, inefficiencies, and made decision-making in shop floor management more difficult.

Solution

With the introduction of the PROXIA MES software, including modern machine and production data acquisition (MDA/PDA), Blefa was able to achieve end-to-end digitalization of its manufacturing processes. The OPC UA-based integration enabled automated, reliable, and unit-precise data collection—without media disruptions and with maximum transparency across the entire value stream.

Result

Output was increased by 15% with the same level of resource utilization. Thanks to reliable, quality-assured data, employees can make informed decisions in real time, downtimes are detected and resolved more quickly. Today, production is not only more transparent but also significantly more efficient and sustainable to manage.