FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY FOCUS
SIMPLICITY IS KEY TO REMOTE MANAGEMENT
Remote Management Software, which has been designed with simplicity in mind, is helping users monitor their Fortress Technology metal detectors effectively. MD, Phil Brown, explains more...
A
lthough widely embraced by consumers, deployment of digital
technologies in industrial settings, particularly multi-site food factories has been slower to materialise. Yet things are shifting with metal detector specialist Fortress Technology entering cyberspace with a tool that aims to transform production Quality Assurance for food manufacturers, wherever they are located in the world. “I think it’s fair to say that many food
plants, even in westernised economies, still make do with manually monitoring machine performance which can be extremely labour intensive and impact productivity,” said Phil Brown, MD of Fortress Technology Europe. “Even those that have upgraded legacy systems continue to gather data on a machine-by- machine basis rather than integrating and analysing information side-by-side and building up a performance picture.” For many IT departments, upgrading
equipment and selecting which Internet of Things (IoT) technology will add the greatest value can be a bit of a minefield and create a sense of burden. There’s a perception that moving towards Industry 4.0 will require extensive investment, a dedicated team of developers and slow or limited return on investment. Brown said: “Although many of our customers express a strong interest in innovation and harnessing the power of data capture, they have been reticent to
take the leap of faith. There is an underlying belief that they will not be able to connect new applications with existing legacy inspection machines. To achieve end-to-end production visibility and enhanced due diligence, integration across an entire fleet of machines is critical to achieving connectivity.” Brown says that when it comes to
Industry 4.0, we are often paralysed by technology options, which can delay or prevent the adoption of data integration projects. With that in mind, when Fortress set about developing a solution that would enable production managers to monitor the performance of their entire fleet of food metal detectors through a single web-based gateway, the company’s software developers intentionally kept it simple. Remote Management Software (RMS)
allows food factories to manage operations from anywhere in the world from smart phones, tablets and laptops. Believed to be the first-of-its kind web- based inspection machine browser, RMS connects multiple Fortress metal detectors by utilising wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. “Another benefit is it reduces the expense of sending a team member out a plant to collect data manually,” said Brown. Rather than creating an App, which
would have to be hosted, refined and updated on Android and IOS operating systems, RMS gives customers secure
With RMS, comparable performance data is now readily available and this provides production decision makers with a benchmark to drive efficiency improvements. Taking this to the next level, predictive models may then be applied in order to anticipate equipment failure and enable predictive maintenance
access to a web-based browser that connects to each metal detector with the software. Once the software is installed, which can
be performed by Fortress as part of a scheduled machine upgrade, authorised users simply log into the RMS browser and can troubleshoot a performance issue without having to be physically in front of the metal detector. The fully traceable Quality Assurance information details what and when an event occurred on a specific unit. To comply with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety management systems and principles, each event is automatically time stamped. This level of monitoring is especially
From a QA perspective, the level of surveillance RMS provides offers food factories valuable peace of mind. And from an operational viewpoint, production efficiency is enhanced. Most importantly, implementation of the software is quick and doesn’t divert a
company’s in-house IT resources away from other projects
helpful to support flexible production. It means one operative or production manager can monitor all their company’s metal detectors, analysing comparative data for different inspection zones, side- by-side. An unlimited number of Fortress metal detectors can be connected wirelessly using a back-end SQL to monitor activity and generate reports in either PDF or Excel format. Reports can be selected for a specific production line and/or time period. For record keeping, information is stored securely and remotely for a minimum of 10 years, with an option to extend this to 20+ years. Aside from monitoring local machine assets, having software that connects metal detectors wherever they are located in the world means that multinational organisations can stay in touch with operations in remote manufacturing hubs or politically volatile regions. RMS is available as an option on all
Fortress Stealth metal detectors. It is installed on the Interceptor range as standard. In keeping with Fortress’s ‘Never Obsolete’ commitment, existing Stealth metal detectors in the field can also be upgraded.
Fortress Technology
www.fortresstechnology.co.uk
PROCESS & CONTROL | DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019 27
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