A method for operating a facility (1) for handling articles (2), the method comprising:
- detecting, via control unit (41), an incident slowing a normal production rate of the facility (1), wherein the control unit (41) is programmed to control a plurality of processing units (5, 6, 7, 8, 9), wherein each processing unit is equipped with one or more sensors,
- wherein the detecting comprises one or more of the sensors communicating to the control unit (41) a fault in a component (16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 28, 27) of a processing unit of the plurality of processing units, wherein the processing unit is selected from a thermal conditioning unit (4), a forming unit (5), a filling unit (6), and a labeling unit (7), and wherein each processing unit is linked to a downstream processing unit by one or more transfer units (8,9), wherein each processing unit and each transfer unit has a first speed setpoint during normal facility operations, and wherein the first speed set point can be the same or different for each processing unit and transfer unit such that the control unit (41) can control the first speed setpoint independently of any other processing unit or transfer unit;
- calculating, by the control unit (41), a reduction of the rate of production of the processing unit induced by the fault;
- reducing, by the control unit (41), a speed of one or more of the processing units or transfer units to a second speed set point such that the reduction of speed is proportional to the slowed production rate,
- wherein each processing unit and each transfer unit comprises a respective motorization (13,18, 22, 26, 38A, 38b) coupled to a respective mobile support (11, 12, 14, 19, 23, 33),
- wherein the control unit (41) controls the second speed setpoint by reducing a motorization speed;
- and
- accelerating the second setpoint speed at an inverse rate to the reduction when the incident is corrected, such that the production rate returns to normal.