Royal Cosun Partners with I-care to Reduce Risks,
Extend Machine Health and Realize Cost Savings

Global Electrical Safety Challenges

With five subsidiaries operating around the world, Royal Cosun needed to know the electrical safety risk of its businesses – right down to the thousands of electrical cabinets operating across its global operations. When Royal Cosun talked with its business group leaders to find out what they were doing to assure electrical safety and prevent fires in their electrical cabinets, they discovered many well-intentioned programs but few universal techniques for identifying differing electrical frequency and current quality. There was no standard testing protocol for electrical safety.

No one knew what was working and what was not – let alone why. That’s why Royal Cosun turned to I-care for a one-site pilot that evolved into a consistently applied preventive maintenance effort that encompassed the entire global operation. In addition to assessing and managing the electrical safety risk, the comprehensive preventive maintenance program would identify and resolve leaks, increasing each facility’s up time and extending the life of expensive industrial assets.

Inconsistent RM approach, documentation causes frustration

The corporate risk management (RM) team was frustrated by the lack of consistency in its physical plants’ electrical fire safety programs and condition reporting. Some locations were opening and documenting the condition of cabinets annually, others were conducting visual inspections periodically and still others addressed electrical safety only when safety sensors were replaced. Reports’ content and frequency varied as well, making plant-to-plant comparisons impossible.

The RM team also wanted plant-specific condition information available on demand to its five operating companies’ in-facility maintenance organizations that were ultimately responsible for fire safety. Royal Cosun was clear in its goals: to establish its own standards and procedures to increase facility uptime and assure a consistently safe environment for employees. The program Royal Cosun envisioned would be proactive and predictive. Along with the electrical safety focus, the program would include a comprehensive leak detection and resolution effort that could improve up time, help assure employee safety, and lower its insurance and operational expenses.

Driving Proactive Risk Management

Proactive, Preventive Risk Approach Favored

In the beginning of their partnership, Ron de Bruijn of Riskonet, Royal Cosun’s RM partner, lead the team that set up an overarching operating structure to gain a global overview of Royal Cosun’s corporate risk. Royal Cosun’s standards and guidance notes governed the process by which Gap Assessment Asset Safety (GAAS) inspections were conducted and the resultant analysis safety reports produced. These reports, which are critical to long-term RM planning, provide detailed operational overviews of each subsidiary’s environment from four critical perspectives: legislation, fire, safety and business continuity. Royal Cosun then creates three- to four-year resolution plans which balance corporate priorities with risk tolerance and local regulations.

Riskonet’s de Bruijn recommended I-care, a global leader in predictive prescriptive maintenance to assist Royal Cosun in addressing electrical issues and leakage problems in its production facilities. This recommendation, which placed I-care’s Chris Kramer as the head of the project’s deployment, assured continuity over time as Kramer remains the project’s oversight manager today. Tight collaboration between Riskonet and I-care was critical to the implementation of Royal Cosun’s resolution plan.

Royal Cosun Chooses I-care for Proactive Assessment Pilot

Royal Cosun opted to pilot I-care’s pressured air leak identification and resolution program at Duynie and Novidon, two of the company’s smaller operating companies. Chris Kramer of I-care headed the project’s deployment and remains its oversight manager. During inspections, which included two to three levels of each of the company’s electrical cabinets, notes and visual images of the cabinets’ condition documented overall function and leaks, if any.

The pilot focused on leaks first because leaks can compromise compressors’ capacity by as much as 20%, increasing harmful wear and tear expenses and maintenance costs. Eventually, unresolved leaks shorten the life of even the most robust compressors. Stopping the leakage allows compressors to cycle more normally and at a slower pace, which lowers energy use and extends compressors’ lifespans.

Based on the success of the early pilot with two of the company’s subsidiaries – Duynie and Novidon – Royal Cosun instructed I-care to expand its electrical cabinet inspection and leak detection/resolution effort to its other two smaller business units, SVZ and Senus. That expansion validated the effectiveness of the I-care electrical risk management solution across three Royal Cosun business units, which prompted the company to direct I-care to broaden its focus to include the company’s two large subsidiaries, Aviko and Cosun Beet Company.

That expansion is underway now. By 2023, I-care’s subsidiary-specific leak detection efforts will become a comprehensive thermographic inspection and electrical safety program for all Royal Cosun operating companies. As part of that effort, I-care will inspect and resolve issues related to electrical fire potential as well as auditing the efficiency of steam systems and compressed air systems.

Measurable Results & Business Impact

Comparative Applications Add Global Value

Two specialized risk management applications add value to Royal Cosun pilot. First, I-care utilized its I-thermo application to store the images and data from each electrical cabinet inspection. Additionally, I-care shared all of Royal Cosun’s data via its I-see platform to allow the corporate risk management team to view data across the global operation. The corporate staff can compare facility-specific inspections and monitor improvements in search of best practices that can be applied globally. Additionally, each production location in each operating subsidiary has access to its facility data on demand.

In addition to lowering operational and safety costs, the I-care program will help subsidiary companies gain local certifications designating a safe work environment. These country-specific safety certifications, such as NEN 3140 in the Netherlands and Section Q19 in France, are required to resume production operations after an industrial accident.

Quantifiable Results Achieved

The electrical safety program, which increased facilities’ uptime, lengthened industrial assets’ cycle times and extended equipment lifespans, helped cut Royal Cosun’s safety and financial expenses. Employees across the global operation are now working in a consistently safer environment as well. The program’s detailed inspection records and documentation of issue resolution helped streamline each operating unit’s compliance with local safety mandates. Additionally, Royal Cosun reduced its energy bill by stopping ongoing leaks of steam and compressed air.

Finally, Royal Cosun has found I-care’s detailed inspection reports to be invaluable. The company expects the comprehensive electrical fire safety program to pay for itself by lowering production facilities’ operational expenses and extending the lifespan of critical equipment.

I-care reports are critically important when Royal Cosun presents its electrical safety action plan to its insurers, which place electrical systems fires as a high priority for risk management efforts. The current insurance market for the food industry is extremely difficult, which makes it hard to find reasonably priced coverage. Royal Cosun has already used the I-care reports twice to negotiate favorable rates with its carriers around the world.