A state-of-the-art, labor saving plant along with Kirin fresh in time system.

Nakatani, T. and Koide, K.

Abstract
The new Kirin Brewery at Yokohama, opened in May 1991, is described, with particular emphasis on the high degree of automation and flexibility of production. Descriptions of the design, construction and equipment of the brewery have already been published (Brauwelt, 23 Aug. 1990, 130(33/34), 1375-1378 and 19 Sept. 1991, 131(38), 1636-1640). The "Fresh in Time" production system uses consumer demand information, continuously collected from retail outlets, to regulate the production rates of the different brands, while automatic quality monitoring during the production process saves time by avoiding the need to perform quality control analyses on finished beer before distribution. A high speed automatic sorting and load assembly system is intended to ensure that all goods are delivered to the customer within 24 hours of the order being received, and to reduce the turnaround time of delivery vehicles below 30 minutes per vehicle.
Keywords : automatic brewery distribution production