Summary: A high-output commercial bakery faced critical equipment failures on its oven line—not once, but twice. DSI Innovations restored operations rapidly each time, thanks to a proactive backup strategy that transformed a reactive situation into a model of resilient planning.
Client Challenge
At a major commercial baking facility, the oven line serves as the heart of production, responsible for pushing out thousands of baked goods each day on a tight schedule. Any downtime on this line isn’t just inconvenient; it’s costly, with product waste, lost labor hours, and missed delivery windows piling up quickly.
The first failure occurred when a DeviceNet remote I/O module unexpectedly went offline. The failure wasn’t uncommon, but the plant had no stored configuration backups for the module. With no way to simply reload settings or redeploy a known working file, the plant’s engineering team faced the daunting task of reconstructing the configuration from scratch, threatening production schedules.
Several months later, the oven line suffered an even more dramatic setback. A lightning strike during a severe storm took out four of the ten variable frequency drives (VFDs) that controlled the oven’s conveyors and thermal zones. Without stored VFD parameters, the plant had no immediate way to ensure replacement drives would behave exactly like the originals. Programming each VFD manually, while technically possible, could take a full day or more, especially under pressure and without complete records.
In both situations, the potential for extended downtime loomed large, with thousands of dollars in potential losses hanging in the balance.
Our Solution
Our Field Services team was brought in during the initial DeviceNet failure. We were able to diagnose the issue and, working from experience, rebuild the remote I/O configuration by hand to get the system back online in under 24 hours.
But rather than treat it as a one-time fix, we recognized the deeper vulnerability: a lack of comprehensive backups across the system. Taking initiative, our team created full backups of:
- All active VFD parameters
- Remote I/O module configurations
- PLC logic files and ladder programs
We securely stored those backups and provided the client with a secondary copy, ensuring redundancy and readiness for future issues.
That foresight proved invaluable when the lightning strike occurred months later. The client called us immediately. Within hours, our field services team was on site, armed with exact VFD parameter backups. We reloaded all four replacement drives using the archived configurations.
Instead of manually reprogramming each unit, we executed a fast and accurate restoration process. The drives picked up exactly where the originals left off—no testing loops, no unexpected performance issues, and no unnecessary delays.
The Results
- Rapid Restoration: What could have been several days of manual VFD configuration was resolved in under an hour.
- Two Major Downtime Events, Zero Production Loss: With DSI’s support, the client avoided product spoilage, missed shipments, and overtime labor costs.
- Trust-Based Partnership: The client now contracts DSI Innovations for routine backup services across the facility, ensuring the same level of preparedness company-wide.
- Built-In Resiliency: The plant’s oven line now has a tested recovery process in place—transforming a once-vulnerable operation into a model of industrial reliability.
- Cost Avoidance: Downtime avoided in both cases amounted to thousands in saved costs, preserving revenue and reinforcing DSI’s role as a trusted partner in mission-critical environments.
Technology Used
- Allen-Bradley DeviceNet Remote I/O
- Allen-Bradley Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs)
- PLC and HMI programming tools
- Configuration backup and restore software
- On-site diagnostics and deployment services
