Capturing storage and delivery data is vital to operations at Amalgamated Beverage Industry (ABI) - local manufacturer of Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta.
"Electronic equipment is the lifeblood of ABI, without it, our operations would be greatly hampered. That is why we opted for installation of Meissner UPSs across the country, to ensure clean and backup power supply," says Kevin Munsami, facilities technician at ABI.
The company`s most recent purchase of UPSs includes two 40kVA Meissner machines, installed at Lino Park in Johannesburg, a non-manufacturing facility.
According to Munsami, the UPSs safeguard the power supply to the computer room that houses eight AS400s and six servers responsible for the functioning of the local area network (LAN), among other equipment.
Within the ABI plants, such as the one at Lino Park, incoming and outgoing loads have to be captured electronically, providing the company with an up-to-the-minute overview of stock availability and position. Should a power failure occur all data capture will be lost, input sales orders cannot be processed by the dispatch clerks until the power supply is restored.
"If ABI cannot meet the demands of the consumer, we lose money," adds Munsami. "Therefore backup power is critical in our line of business. We also have standby generators that kick in as soon as they detect that the main power supply has failed, however, the few transitory minutes between the mains failing and the generators becoming operational could harm our systems, thus a UPS is critical as a `bridge`."
Graham Beyleveld, sales director at Meissner, estimates that ABI uses approximately 15 to 20 UPSs nationwide. "Different departments within the plants often require their own UPSs, these are mostly 2.5 or 3kVA machines, used for administration purposes.
"It is important to note that ABI`s Mega plants are responsible for production and these have been sufficiently safeguarded not to be influenced by power outages. However, the electronic equipment used for the extended operation of the company also needs protection and this is provided by the UPSs."
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