10 Years on the Floor: Controls Partnership at a Confectionery Plant
How CSI became the trusted controls partner for a major confectionery manufacturer — delivering PLC migrations, line automation upgrades, robotic cell integration, and production data systems across multiple packaging lines over more than a decade.
Industry
Food & Beverage
Service
Plant Support
Platform
Siemens S7 / Rockwell CompactLogix
Relationship
Trusted service partner
A major international confectionery manufacturer operates a high-volume production facility in southern Ontario, running multiple packaging lines for some of the world’s best-known candy brands. Over the years, the plant has faced the same challenges that every mature food manufacturing operation encounters: aging control systems reaching end of life, new production lines requiring integration with existing infrastructure, demand for better production data to drive OEE improvements, and the need to introduce robotic automation while keeping maintenance staff capable of supporting the new technology. Rather than engaging different contractors for each project, the plant needed a controls partner who could work across platforms, adapt to evolving requirements, and build on institutional knowledge of the facility.
CSI has delivered a range of controls projects at the facility over more than 10 years, each building on knowledge of the plant’s infrastructure and operations.
Early work included migrating legacy Siemens S5 PLCs to the S7 platform on candy processing lines — replacing outdated controllers, motor starters, and panels while preserving existing field wiring and operator workflows. CSI supplied new ESA-approved panels with air conditioning, converted PLC programs, updated HMI communications, added variable frequency drives on Profibus, and upgraded safety circuits to dual-channel relay architecture.
As the plant’s production data requirements grew, CSI integrated a production data acquisition system into one of the plant’s packaging lines — programming state-tracking logic across inclines, scales, baggers, metal detectors, and boxing equipment to feed real-time equipment status into the plant’s OEE reporting platform
On the packaging side, CSI delivered line interlock and sequencing improvements across multiple PLCs on a bulk packaging line — adding handshake logic between conveyors, metal detectors, and boxing equipment to reduce jams and improve flow control.
Most recently, CSI integrated robotic case packing cells on three high-speed packaging lines using Rockwell CompactLogix controllers — handling safety integration, robot interlocking, and line communication. Recognizing that the plant’s maintenance team was primarily trained on Siemens, CSI developed and delivered a comprehensive cross-platform training program covering Rockwell hardware, Studio 5000 programming, safety functions, and HMI development, with direct comparisons to the Siemens tools the team already knew.
Each project was delivered on-site at the plant, coordinated around production schedules to minimize disruption to candy manufacturing operations. CSI’s familiarity with the facility — built over years of repeat engagement — allowed each new project to move faster, with less ramp-up time and fewer surprises during commissioning. The cross-platform training program was designed specifically for this team, built around the actual robot cell code running on the production lines, so maintenance staff could troubleshoot real issues from day one rather than working through generic examples.
Beyond project-based work, CSI became the plant’s trusted service partner — the team they called in times of crisis when a line went down, even lines CSI hadn’t originally worked on. That level of trust was built over years of delivering results and knowing the facility’s infrastructure inside out.
Over the course of the partnership, CSI touched multiple production and packaging lines across the facility — delivering PLC migrations, production data systems, packaging line upgrades, and robotic cell integration. The plant relied on CSI not just for planned projects but as a go-to resource when unplanned downtime hit, regardless of which line was affected.
Years of partnership
Packaging lines upgraded
Platforms supported (Siemens + Rockwell)
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