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FOOD & BEVERAGE
PRACTICAL TIPS
FOR AUTOMATION DIGITALISATION
offer flexible ‘individualisation’ of products. Automation digitalisation also has some less
obvious benefits. It reduces waste, avoids recalls and maximises profits by allowing defects to be picked up and rectified early. It also offers the opportunity to upskill staff by freeing-up people’s time to learn more value- added tasks. This contributes to staff wellbeing and career satisfaction, as well as reducing exposure to injuries through repetitive movements, or inattention due to boredom. When is a good time to invest? You don’t need to build a new factory to start
investing in – and benefiting from - automation. Upgrading existing machinery is an affordable and manageable place to start. By automating one production line, you begin to collect data and insights on achieveable, tangible results: for instance identifying where process improvements can be made and replicated on other lines. Wherever you chose to start, be clear about
Andy Macpherson, Industry manager for Food & Beverage at Festo, offers advice to those wishing to implement a smart factory strategy
fluctuating, so deciding where and when to inject the cash is difficult. Within the food processing sector, two key drivers are the looming, skills shortage, particularly for manual tasks, and the pressure to produce high quality, reliable and healthy foods with total traceability. Smart factories that combine automation
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and digitalisation can provide solutions by creating data and actionable insights for higher productivity. Automation digitalisation does not just improve production and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), it also has numerous ways of giving you a good return on investment, such as: • Increasing uptime: digitalisation reduces
unplanned downtime by predicting device failures before they happen. This can save up to 20% in maintenance time as errors are identified faster. It also reduces consequential losses due to unplanned stoppages. Complex plant is easier to use and can be more easily networked with other equipment. • Improving reliability: digitalisation enables the monitoring of parameters such as
ny business needs regular investment to thrive and survive. But budgets are finite and trading conditions are always
vibration, noise, temperature and energy consumption, providing insights to make your plant more reliable and less costly to run. Production lines can therefore run effortlessly at higher performance levels for longer periods of time with less human interaction. • Optimising production: digitalisation
enables continuous improvements that enhance production cycle times, optimising daily output. More accurate and streamlined production results in less wastage, improving the bottom line. • Enhancing quality: automation
digitalisation reduces human error. Recipes and processes are pre-determined, and processes are monitored as they pass through each stage so that any deviation can be assessed and corrected immediately. Consistent, traceable product is key to success and will help secure future contracts. • Improving agility: automation digitalisation
keeps you ahead of your competitors and makes it easier to increase production efficiency, enabling the business to adapt to seasonal demand spikes without the need to buy more processing plant that sits idle out of season. It offers the potential to increase agility to reconfigure processes more quickly and
why you are implementing a more automated approach. Are you solving a particular problem, or making the most of new opportunities? And who is driving the project – is it a bottom-up or a top-down process? Start with proof of concepts, pilots, easily- understood projects that can be scaled up when proven. Phased adoption enables you to take your people with you: many an investment in technology can be negated by resistance from colleagues and employees who do not fully understand the benefits or the overall vision. With the team fully on board, ensure all
elements are in place before committing resources. Applying digital twin simulations to model production line changes ensures the changes will work before interrupting production. Increased automation has the potential to
remove inefficiencies and overheads by reducing human interventions - particularly where the work is repetitive and low-skilled - as well as significantly improving traceability and reducing waste. However, there are a number of factors to consider to ensure that investment is successful. These include having a clear vision and purpose, communicating that vision to the team, and sense-checking that the proposed investment will achieve the desired outcomes. By following these steps, decision-makers
can be assured that their automation strategy will be a lasting legacy, delivering all the benefits of a smart factory and giving their business a competitive advantage. Automation specialists such as Festo are on hand to offer expert advice and provide the support that business leaders require. For further steps on putting Industry 4.0 into
practice, download Festo’s whitepaper Practical Tips for Industry 4.0 implementation.
Festo
www.festo.co.uk/I4practicaltips
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