Technology that makes a difference!

Several factories at HCCB use ErgoBloc-a small idea that has made a big change at our factories. This technology has helped save electricity and water, while increasing speed and maximising output.

Earlier, the process required the blown PET bottles to be conveyed through long air rails which involved consumption of electricity. Also, the filled bottles were warmed with hot water spray thus consuming a good amount of water.

But with ErgoBloc technology, the bottles do not have to be passed through the air conveying rails, and within a block, they reach the filling machine. Subsequently, the filling happens at a much higher temperature (15-17 degrees Celsius) than the earlier process. Thus the product warming process has been eliminated, which saves a good amount of water.

At Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, we understand the importance of saving our resources today and consider ourselves responsible for shaping tomorrow. After all, a stitch in time saves nine!

The Perfect Bottles for Your Favourite Beverages

Ever wondered about the stringent processes behind the making of the PET bottles that contain your favourite drinks? It is actually a very intriguing journey and a thorough procedure.

A series of processes, which have been perfected across decades, go into the making of every PET bottle at the HCCB factories, which is then filled with different beverages like Maaza, Sprite, Minute Maid and others. Here is how it happens:

Resin Drying: At first, the PET resin is properly dried to attain the optimum utility and appearance of the bottle. Then the PET pellets are heated to the optimum drying temperature, which is a prerequisite for good drying. This is due to the PET polymer's’ high propensity to absorb moisture from the environment. Higher the drying temperature, the more quickly and thoroughly the PET dries. Efficient drying thus prepares the PET pellets to achieve the characteristics required for use.

Injection Moulding Process: Next, the pellets undergo a plastic injection moulding process, which produces countless high quality parts with great accuracy and high speed. Plastic material in the form of granules is then melted until soft enough to be injected under pressure to fill a mould. As a result, the bottle shape is replicated in every unit. Material for the part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed and forced into a mould cavity, where it cools and hardens to the configuration of the cavity. After this, the pre-form comes to the Hindustan Coca-Cola factory.

PET Blowing Process: The final step of the process involves the use of the blow-moulding machine. In this machine, the pre-forms are initially heated to make them malleable and are then blown with high-pressure air in a mould to give them the desired shape.

After the completion of this process, the bottles come and are filled with various beverages after various quality checks.

The process of manufacturing happiness

HCCB’s factories are the source of the consistent great taste you have been enjoying for decades now. These factories ensure the quality and consistency in the beverages you consume. And because this is a huge responsibility, the factories are set up with the utmost care and precaution with a lot of planning put behind the setting up.

The factories are planned and set up keeping an end-to-end balance in mind. It begins right from the demand, transportation and distribution to the procurement, storage, manufacturing and supply.

Before a factory is set up, thorough research and assessment of the area is done. This involves checking the availability of resources like land, water, labour among other factors.

The Planning Process:

Planning is done in order to ensure there is minimum disruption and maximum optimisation of resources. The factories are set up with complete adherence to government laws to protect the resources and the people in the vicinity.

The process of setting up factories is uniform everywhere and meets certain key criteria:

Infrastructure Optimisation:

Utilising the existing assets and resources to the best possible ability

Common Infrastructure Planning:

Increasing the capacity by using the best and most advanced scientific tools and technology

Optimum Cost:

To do all this while leveraging the scale at the best possible cost.

The Execution Process

It is not just the setting up of the factory that is done in a sustainable manner. The operations at the manufacturing plant too, are carried out in a way to ensure sustainability. There are constant innovations at the factories to save and utilise resources better.

Some of the best examples of these sustainable innovations are such:

Lightweighting:

One of the most prominent and recognised initiatives by HCCB, lightweighting is an effort to reduce the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) content used in the packages.

ErgoBloc:

Everything from the cleaning of the preform, to its shaping into the bottle, and finally the filling of the beverage, happens in the ErgoBloc. As a result, the technology helped save a lot of time, energy and resources.

Solar-Powered factories:

Several of Hindustan Coca-Cola’s factories are solar powered. The setting up of such factories reduces the use of fossil fuels and increases the use of sustainable sources of energy.

The Social Impact

Since the factories are also a source of employment and opportunity for those living around them, their setting up additionally involves understanding the needs of the people in the surrounding area, eventually helping them live a better lifestyle. This setup has a strong positive impact on the society and communities in the areas close by as well.

HCCB understands the most pressing needs of the area and community as well as the issues hampering the quality of life. It then does an assessment and helps provide basic facilities like sanitation services, potable water, education, and skill building to help the community, especially women, earn a livelihood through different means.

HCCB factories employ thousands of people, complies completely with the government norms and social rights, and even tries to go beyond, to achieve more than what is promised. They contribute to several stakeholders across sectors like farming, supplying, manufacturing, retail, and transportation among others.

Process checks that ensure the quality for your drinks

From packaging and bottling to beverage-level quality checks, HCCB follows a comprehensive process that involves minimal human intervention through its production procedure.

Here are five key in-process quality checks across different lines that you as a consumer must know about.

• Bottle Inspectors- Online quality inspection processes include the scrutiny of cleaned glass bottles for any damage and foreign matter, which is done with Electronic Bottle Inspection technology. After the cleaning of the glass bottles, these instruments are placed to detect breakage or foreign matter in the bottles without human intervention. This electronic inspection technology rules out virtually any possibility of foreign matter, of any kind, being present in a bottle.
• Filled Bottle Inspection Technology- Filled Bottle Inspection technology measures and ensures the uniformity of net content (liquid) in all bottles through a liquid height parameter. Next, it checks for the closure condition –ensuring the cap is placed properly.
• COBRIX Analyser– The COBRIX analyser ensures the same quantity of solid (sugar) and CO2 level in all the thousands of bottles which are packaged every day, and also ensures that the quantity levels are maintained within specification limits. If you are sugar conscious, this process acts as the guarantor.
• Flow Diverter Valve- In case of juice production, the Flow Diverter Valve ensures that the hot fill product (juice) is pasteurised at a pre-set temperature. If the beverage happens to go below the desired temperature, it is not passed on to the filler and is sent for re-pasteurisation. Hence, nothing but the best quality is packaged for you.
• Interlocks– Several robust interlocks are placed in the processing and manufacturing line to ensure that the product quality criteria are met at every step. If at any stage the criteria are not met, the interlocks get applied so that the process is halted immediately. One critical interlock is placed in the date-coding machine, which pauses the process instantly on recording any aberrations in it. The interlock is applied to ensure the process halts immediately.

Clearly, multiple process checks ensure nothing can go wrong for your favourite drinks.

How does the door to happiness get unlocked?

A fridge in time serves nine may just be the most appropriate edit to the long-standing proverb, in HCCB's context.

A well-kept visicooler with products organised as per a defined plan, goes a long way in serving them chilled, to the consumers. In any case, a sparkling drink is best served at 4°C.

But have we ever wondered how these visicoolers get placed at the precise retailing / eating location, given that there are more than 20 lakh retailers who do business with HCCB.

Here is the backstory of how it all happens:

An internal knowledge-processing center and a team of Operations experts use the Lean Six Sigma-DMAIC methodology, to maintain service standards and pre-defined SLEs.

• Automated processes automatically allocates the request for placement of new coolers, with the nearest supplier / vendor of those visicoolers.
• In parallel, an automated outgoing phone call responds to the retailer's request within 1 working day, confirming / denying the request
• The automated software uses the first come-first serve basis, for addressing the retailer's requests to get a visicooler
• A query management system, developed through the Service Management Tool (Salesforce.com), addresses any customer queries in quick time, that may arise in the interim
• Retailers / owners submit the relevant documents including KYC – online, thereby making the process of verification, rapid
• CTS Authorization gets done on the basis of the uploaded scanned documents in the CTS tool, instead of hard copies
• Physical assets (visicoolers) are now ready to be shipped and installed at the consumption points

Digital is at the heart of a large size operation. But it can always be in the danger of becoming everything and at times nothing. We therefore try to break it down and get specific.

“We’ve got more to do. Because there’s no way we can aspire to help engage with our consumers and help our customers if we ourselves can’t be at least on the front-edge in terms of how things work digitally. So we’ve made a lot of investment and we’re doing a lot of work to bring that up to speed internally. And, we are working with our bottling partners to do that,” said Quincey.

Digital everywhere … even in procuring display racks

Every time one walks into a store or a supermarket and sees HCCB beverages, there is always a consistency - a familiar sight of our products neatly placed on PVC racks or inside coolers, waiting to be consumed. Ever thought of the journey that these display racks would undertake before being placed for product displays? It can be quite a lengthy cycle from production to procurement and finally the display stage.

HCCB uses the power of digital to effectively and efficiently procure the racks, through an E-Auction process on the Ariba platform.

In the traditional process, obtaining details of suppliers and their quotes can be a long process. Instead, HCCB uses the E-Auction platform, where after identifying the potential suppliers and through standardizing material specifications, the suppliers are asked to bid.

Since the E-auction platform allows suppliers with their unique ID, it becomes quick and easy to evaluate the bids and finalize the lowest bidder. The entire process of evaluation can get over in an hour where in traditional processes; it would take three or more days to just evaluate the bids.

Also, the E-auction process is transparent and real-time, which further facilitates negotiations and discussions. “The E-bidding provides equal opportunities to the suppliers for participation in bidding and receiving the order. Earlier, 20 bids meant 20 interactions with the supplier, which is physically impossible. With E-auction, this is as real as it get. This is the edge that digital provides,” says Sharad Kumar, AVP, HCCB at the Procurement team.

Digital... Selling

Market Growth Representatives (sales team) of HCCB follow a standard protocol. Visit the retailers as outlined in their journey plan for the day, take orders, get a first-hand understanding of the demand, merchandise the outlets and ensure that company products are arranged and showcased properly.

But before they get to the market, MGRs are given a two-week training to enhance their familiarity with the digital ecosystem. They are also trained on the use of mobile tablets and the Sales Force Automation (SFA) tool, therein.

With a connected mobile tablet in hand, blessed with the SFA tool, MGRs are able to offer the best deals to their customers (retailers). Also, if there is any customer about who he needs to know more, it is just a click away on his always-connected tablet.

HCCB’s customers find it a great way of working too. Because when MGRs have completed taking an inventory of all the products that are needed by the retailer, the final spend and margin for the customer is displayed on their tablet screen.

HCCB spent 18 months to map the entire process of sales automation and in customisation of the software that is being used on the tab.

HCCB’s new, digital way of working is also in sync with the Digital India and Skill India plans announced by the NDA government. Skill India mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to train 400 million people in various skills by 2022. Digital India, also launched in July 2015, aims to improve digital literacy in India and connect rural India with high-speed Internet.

With upskilled teams like those of MGRs, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages is preparing for the launch of more products, for which the always-connected tablets are critical.

Digital starts with digital payments

HCCB in partnership with State Bank of India (SBI) has been working to make the retailers’ transition to digital transactions smoothly, thereby encouraging digital payments and transparent financial transactions across the country.

It is training the retailers on methods and know-how for easy-to-use and convenient modes of transaction. The partners are also helping these merchants and their customers ready themselves for larger financial transactions.

In the long run, this will help the retailers take their offline services online, where they can better showcase their products/services, thereby increasing their customer base and bringing in greater profits. The project provides customers easy-to-use and convenient modes of transaction. While reducing dependence on cash, the project also aims to train and educate the retailers and distributors on handling digital payments, and its benefits.

The Government of India’s focus to include as many people and transactions into the formal economy is being aided by its focus on building a digital economy. Several small Indian retailers, who have been reliant on cash and liquid money for major transactions for decades, suddenly find themselves in alien territory. As with most game-changing decisions, some of the retailers think that digitisation is a threat to their business.

With the help of this programme, the retailers will not only be on par with their counterparts in the cities, but will also give them stiff competition with their products and services. They will also be able to expand their businesses manifold in the coming years and contribute in a better way to the country’s economic growth.