Complex Production Processes

The inherent complexity of food and beverage manufacturing, including variations in recipes, ingredient characteristics and packaging makes it difficult to clearly see the whole process end-to-end. Additionally, there can also be difficulties when it comes to automating tasks that involve intricate, non-repetitive motion.
Automation solutions address these challenges while providing transparency and affording manufacturers the ability to act responsively to problems or change.

The production process comes with a couple of considerations

How do you see what cannot be seen?

Grasping the operational "picture" in a single glance is one of the challenges of the production manager. To do this, greater utilization of data networks and SCADA systems is required, even direct integration with the Manufacturing Execution Systems becomes essential.

Integration with Legacy Systems

Many food and beverage manufacturers have existing manual or semi-automated systems in place which cannot easily be changed. There are many challenges to seamlessly integrating new automation technologies with legacy systems. Sometimes they are connectivity based involving networks and protocols, sometimes process based involving digital twins and analysis and even sometimes human based, requiring support and training.

Sustainable manufacturing

Manufacturing sustainability relies on two fundamental aspects. The first is the resilience of the manufacturing process, achieved through efficient maintenance scheduling, proactive monitoring, and streamlined processes, all crucial for optimizing production efficiency and minimizing downtime. The second pillar is energy consumption, which directly impacts operational efficiency and underpins environmental responsibility. Sustainable energy management entails integrating it into automation processes to utilize energy efficiently and judiciously.

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7 Quick wins for an agile manufacturing future

Many of the smart manufacturing ideas and strategies that are discussed assume a base level of automation and integration that are much easier to achieve in greenfield sites that have been built to be smart from the ground up.

However, there are a number of simple ideas that can be implemented with minimal time and cost that can have a big impact on addressing today’s manufacturing challenges.