Production facilities should have up-to-date access systems
Radnor Hills, a drinks manufacturer in Powys, has opened its eighth production line.
The company invested £6m in the new German technology, which enables plastic preforms to be blown into bottles, filled, capped, wrapped and palletised in one fully automated production line. The new line can fill 33,000 bottles in an hour, and has the capacity to produce 200 million bottles in a year.
This technology reduces the amount of PET packaging used, making it more environmentally friendly. The company is working with suppliers, government bodies and trade associations to increase their levels of recycled plastic, and in July this year they introduced 51% of recycled plastic into their bottles. Their bottles are 100% recyclable as they can be remanufactured into different products.
The factory is based on a family farm which is owned by William Watkins. His family have farmed in the area since the start of the 20th century.
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Installing a new production line is a prime time to have a look at your security systems.
If you are still using an old-fashioned system, it is likely to need updating. Some production facilities we’ve encountered don’t even have a fully-fledged access control system, only a lock on the main doors.
There are many reasons to have physical access control on entrances and exits to your factory. Obviously the most important is to make the factory a more difficult target for burglars.
With a contactless smartcard-activated door lock, there are no chains or wire to cut and nothing to pick. Without the correct smart-card, would-be thieves would have to try to brute-force the door open, which is likely to trigger an alarm.
We even have a function to account for the chance of someone forcing an employee to open the door for them: an entry under duress code which triggers a silent alarm sent to system administrators.
All this and much more can be organised using the WinAC.NET flagship software from Access Control Wales.