Invaluable insights from data drive improved performance for the food and beverage sector
The global pandemic has shone the spotlight firmly on the food and beverage sector , with the fluctuating customer demands stretching the food supply chain to its limit . Paul Haimes , vice president of field engineering at PTC , explains how digital transformation can help the food and beverage sector thrive operating in this unpredictable market .
The crisis has forced many in the food and beverage sector to rethink the established processes and accelerated the transformation that was already taking place . Aside from the changing consumer patterns , there are also regulatory standards to meet , allergens to minimise , waste to manage , margins to increase and the need to be prepared for any unforeseeable circumstances .
Given this volatile landscape , it is no surprise that the food and beverage industry is under immense pressure . Managing the changing requirements while attempting to reduce costs , increase innovation , and improve quality is difficult for any business . However , the best way to overcome these challenges is to transform your business by digitising . It is a trend that has been around for some time , but the ability it provides for greater transparency into the process operations together with the business insights that can be gained from a consistent data strategy are more compelling than ever .
DIFFERENT OPERATING LANDSCAPE BUT THE SAME CHALLENGES When it comes to the food and beverage
8 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk sector ’ s top-level needs , not much has changed over recent years . The prime driver is still all about driving better overall equipment efficiency ( OEE ). This is a very traditional performance metric , but it can be a single company metric , and it is often measured in different ways . What is changing dramatically is how we are being asked to solve their issues . It is now all about Industry 4.0 and our industrial IoT and augmented reality platforms , ThingWorx and Vuforia .
An excellent example of the approach came from our recent work with Carlsberg , who have deployed ThingWorx Industrial Internet of Things ( IoT ) Solutions Platform , through Microsoft Azure , across 28 of its breweries in Europe , and Asia . The solution enables them to ensure transparency across its worldwide operations and track and document the transformation of raw materials into finished goods .
Production managers , both in the 28 breweries and those at headquarters , will now be able to analyse our operations in real time , on site , and remotely . The plan is to build an end-to-end digital value chain that will impact everything from forecasting to procurement to brewing , packaging , and logistics .
We call that strategy enterprise plant benchmarking . It has that singular roll-up of factory metrics that allows a company to carry out a factory-by-factory comparison . At its heart is the desire to standardise the data that is pushed up into the enterprise view , giving them the
ability to compare one factory with the next and become more agile in responding to market demands .
Moving down to the factory floor , one of the standard ways we are being asked to improve performances for process manufacturers is for line changeovers . One of the most compelling capabilities of Vuforia is the ability to capture some of that tacit knowledge through Vuforia Expert Capture Augmented Reality . We can capture the line changeover best practice to embed that knowledge and make that consumable to others , particularly within the younger generation of factory operative who want to be consuming information at the point of use .
Another growing area of importance is overlaying geometry to help guide the individual , which is a slightly different approach to the same challenge .