News
ECS Continues to Grow!
We are so excited to welcome Rich Crow, Systems Technician II, to the ECS family!
With over 40 years of experience in the engineering and technical fields, Rich’s extensive background will prove to be an asset to ECS and to our clients. After graduating from ITT with an AS in Electronics Engineering, he spent the first part of his career in the power generation industry at local Vectren and Alcoa power plants. He then worked for 13 years at PCI/Skanska doing controls work as a systems integrator where he performed project work in a variety of process industries.
ECS is thrilled to have him on board!
ECS Solutions named on of Indiana’s “Best Places to Work” for a third year in a row!
ECS Solutions was recently named as one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana. This 17th annual program was created by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
The statewide survey and awards program is designed to evaluate participating organizations and honor those with the highest levels of employee satisfaction and engagement in the workplace. This year’s list is made up of 125 companies.
“We have many tremendous employers in the state, so it’s great to see more and more companies take part in this effort to evaluate their workplace cultures and gain the recognition they deserve,” says Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar. “These companies consistently demonstrate to their employees how much they value their contributions.”
To be considered for participation, companies had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:
- Be a for-profit, not-for-profit business or government organization
- Be a publicly or privately held organization
- Have a physical operation in Indiana
- Have at least 15 full- or part-time permanent employees working in Indiana
- Have been in business for at least one year, at the program registration deadline
The final rankings will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, May 12, 2022, and then published in the Indiana Chamber’s BizVoice® magazine after the event.
For more information on the Best Places to Work in Indiana program, visit www.BestPlacestoWorkIndiana.com.
Flexible and Modular CIP and SIP Automation Enables Continuous Improvements
The ISA-88 and ISA-95 approach allow you to combine automated and manual operator activities required to perform consistent Clean-in-Place and Steam-in-Place processes in a procedural model, while also verifying required activities were performed.
Clean-in-Place (CIP) and Steam-in-Place (SIP) constitute critical aspects of the bottom line of a manufacturing process—just as important as the products manufactured with the assets. CIP and SIP play a very important role in the product quality, as well as the overall availability of the equipment to manufacture these products. Being able to consistently execute the required cleaning step regardless of the equipment level of automation is paramount—and being able to clearly specify and enforce the steps required are critical regardless of how these tasks are executed. Operators and equipment should seamlessly perform their task to ensure the desired cleaning procedures are executed in an optimum manner.
Read the article, written by ECS Solutions CEO Randy Otto, on Automation World now!
ECS Solutions Acquires the Assets of LPR Automation
Evansville, IN (October 1, 2021) – ECS Solutions, Inc. founded in 1977, and dedicated to performance improvement and innovation in batch manufacturing, has acquired the assets of LPR Automation, LLC of Bowling Green, KY. LPR Automation, founded in 2003, specialized in a wide range of control engineering and automation services.
“ECS is very excited about this partnership with LPR. We have long since looked at the Bowling Green, KY area as a vibrant, growing industrial market. With LPR’s established local presence, ECS can augment LPR’s existing skills with increased capacity and a specialized skillset in batch process automation. Together we can better serve this market.” said Randy Otto, ECS Solutions CEO.
About ECS Solutions, Inc.
ECS is a CSIA Certified control system integrator dedicated to performance improvement and innovation in batch manufacturing. After more than three decades of developing batch process control systems using a total process automation approach, we have the experience and expertise it takes to build powerful, high-performing plants that produce high-quality yields. Because we are dedicated to batch manufacturing the approaches that we have developed over 40 years are all designed to BOOST production performance and quality.
ECS operates under the guiding principles of excellence in all projects undertaken, measured internally by profitability and externally by satisfying requirements, and trust earned by demonstrating integrity and technical prowess. ECS’ core values are instilled in every employee to communicate candidly, build trusting relationships, serve others well by being responsive, lead with the courage to take risks, continuously improve in response to changing markets and technologies, disarm conflict by handling it one on one, seek excellence rather than perfection to meet the objective, and make ECS a better place to work.
ECS Solutions Named One of the Best Places to Work in Indiana for 2021
ECS Solutions was once again named as one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana. This 16th annual program was created by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Best Companies Group.
This statewide survey and awards program is designed to identify, recognize and honor the participating employers in Indiana with the leading workplace cultures. The list is made up of 125 companies.
“We have many tremendous employers in the state, so it’s great to see more and more companies take part in this effort to evaluate their workplace cultures and gain the recognition they deserve,” says Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar. “These companies consistently demonstrate to their employees how much they value their contributions.”
Case Study: Product Life Expiration Automation
All the production processes carried out in a particular process cell within a large, national food manufacturing company, must adhere to certain time guidelines, a consequence of the relatively short shelf lives of some of the ingredients.
A batch process is monitored manually with operators following the batch through the stages and vessels involved. The production times are recorded on paper by an operator and tracked to ensure the time guidelines are maintained. The batching process at the various stages should not exceed the specified maximum time. Failure to meet these criteria will result in the product being scrapped. It is both difficult and cumbersome to reliably record and track the batch process creating the possibility for errors to occur. The food company sought a more reliable way to track the product life of the batches as well as providing information for quality control and regulatory purposes. The company requested ECS Solutions evaluate the possible automation of the time guidelines. ECS proposed a solution for the automation but limited it to the guidelines on the “in process batching” vessels. Automation of other vessels and guidelines could be carried out, but due to information available and a desire to minimize the scope, the project was limited to the in-process batching vessels. (more…)
Read More | Posted In: Case Studies, Food Industry, News
From Our Batch to Yours
We did not want to “Zoom” through the Holidays without wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous Holiday Season!
In lieu of corporate gifts this year, ECS Solutions will make a donation on behalf of our clients to the Tri-State Food Bank in Evansville, Indiana in association with Feeding America.
Thank you for helping to end hunger this holiday season!
ECS Solutions & Swedish Match on Ignition Community Live
ECS President, Tim Matheny and Brad Logsdon, Business Analyst at Swedish Match joined Travis Cox, co-director of sales engineering for Inductive Automation for a recent interview about the journey to Ignition through business analysis.
Learn how Swedish Match North America arrived at using the Ignition platform to solve a real business need, and how their IT Department drove this initial investment at their Owensboro Factory, in this exciting video!
Read More | Posted In: Case Studies, News