Case Study: African Explosives Limited achieves accurate traceability and improved product quality with AVEVA (Wonderware Equipment Operations Module)

African Explosives Limited Gives Its Customers More Bang for the Buck with Help from Invensys

African Explosives Limited (AEL), a maker of detonators and blasting solutions for the mining industry, needed to eliminate variability and human error in its batch tracking of raw materials and finished products to preserve safety, quality and traceability. AEL engaged AVEVA and deployed Wonderware solutions — including the Wonderware Equipment Operations Module, Wonderware Historian, Wonderware System Platform and Industrial Application Server — to automate track-and-trace, integrate with PLCs/HMIs and interface with SAP.

AVEVA’s implementation, delivered with system integrator Advansys, captured real-time production events, created complete “as-built” traceability records, and drove production via PLC and operator touch panels while linking scanners and production databases. The result was an accurate, reliable tracking system that eliminated paperwork-related errors, sped commissioning, enabled rapid fault isolation and improved product consistency and competitive positioning — including a significant reduction in manual reporting errors and full batch traceability for recalls.

African Explosives Limited

Ronald Huggins

Control Systems Engineer