CLOETTA, founded in 1862, is a leading confectionery company in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands. It manufactures and markets candy, chocolate products, nuts, hard candies, chewing gum, and the “pick & mix” concept. Overall, its products are sold in more than 50 markets worldwide. Cloetta owns some of the strongest brands on the market, such as Läkerol, Cloetta, Candyking, Jenkki, Kexchoklad, Malaco, Sportlife, Red Band, and Nutisal, most of which have a long-standing cultural tradition.
Customer Request
CLOETTA used standard office computers at its production facility in Levice in conjunction with an application for monitoring production and warehouse operations. Due to the high level of dust in the production areas, these devices required frequent maintenance, particularly regular cleaning. This task not only kept the IT department—which was responsible for the functionality of IT equipment—busy but also, not least, increased production costs.
Industrial tablets as a replacement for traditional PCs
Therefore, when considering the replacement of traditional, desktop PCs in the manufacturing facility, one of the main criteria was resistance to dusty environments. Any fans or openings in the devices were undesirable. BARTECH SLOVAKIA proposed the use of rugged ZEBRA ET55 tablets, which, in addition to being dust-tight, also featured a sufficiently large touchscreen for displaying the necessary information. These industrial tablets running the Android operating system, paired with ZEBRA LI2208 handheld scanners, created a powerful tool that met all of the customer’s requirements.
For mobile data entry during the manufacturing process, rugged ZEBRA TC56 terminals—also running the Android operating system—were designed. These terminals provide operators with a display large enough to show all important information without the need to scroll, and their light weight ensures they do not burden the operator.
Industrial tablets, even on carts
A similar situation arose in the logistics department, where it was necessary to replace aging PDA terminals running Windows CE with new devices running Android. After a brief trial period with several types of terminals, the warehouse workers ultimately preferred the same ZEBRA TC56 terminals that had already been selected for production workers.
The remaining challenge was to equip the forklifts with devices featuring larger displays, since forklift operators need to see more information during the picking process. This customer requirement was ultimately met by the durable ZEBRA ET5x tablets, combined with a rugged frame for mounting on the forklift and including direct charging of the tablets from the forklift. For fast, reliable barcode scanning, these tablets were supplemented with ZEBRA DS3678 scanners, which can withstand rougher handling by operators and accidental drops from the forklift cab onto the floor.
During the implementation of the project itself, following initial positive experiences with production and logistics, additional requirements arose for using tablets to monitor OEE and machine maintenance in production. The fact that the OEE monitoring software runs only on the Windows operating system was not a complication. ZEBRA offers the same tablets with the Windows 10 operating system, which were ultimately deployed at these workstations.
A Word from a Customer
When asked whether the customer is satisfied with the current solution, Ing. Peter Mikula —an IT specialist at Cloetta—answered us
Why choose devices from ZEBRA Technologies?
“We have used ZEBRA equipment in the past as well. Its durability, functionality, and reliability have been proven to us over the long term in practice.”
Why BARTECH SLOVAKIA spol.s.r.o.?
“For this project, we weren’t just looking for a hardware supplier. We knew that BARTECH SLOVAKIA could handle the entire solution—from needs analysis and expert consulting to final deployment, including after-sales service. Both in-warranty and post-warranty service for the printers is performed to a high standard without disrupting our production activities. BARTECH SLOVAKIA is a Premier Business Partner of ZEBRA Technologies—and deservedly so.”