INDUSTRY News
The clever way to stop milk losses in dairies
ABB COLUMN
TACKLING THE SKILLS SHORTAGES WITH ROBOTS
[Image: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgo for Unsplash]
Rising costs from infl ation and increased focus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions make product loss management more important than ever in dairy plants. One major reason these losses occur are due to incorrectly-set timings and other process parameters, causing valuable dairy product to be unnecessarily washed out with the wastewater. The scale of the problem is huge. Considering that the EU alone had over 12.000 milk processing and production sites handling over 161 million tons of raw milk in 2021, signifi cant volumes of milk could be saved, translating into greatly reduced carbon footprints for dairies. ColloidTek has developed a unique liquid fi ngerprint technology that addresses this problem by detecting any type of liquid in the pipes in real time, off ering an easy way to optimise production and cut product losses. “To be able to minimise wasting valuable milk products, it is essential to know where in the process the leak happens,” said Mikko Tielinen, Head of Sales at ColloidTek. “It is hard to meet that goal with conventional methods, often resulting in milk being unnecessarily fl ushed out with the wastewater. When a leakage then shows in the form of excess organic waste in the effl uent, it is extremely diffi cult to determine where it is coming from.” “Our solution off ers an easy and very accurate way to detect where exactly in the process the leakage is,” said Tielinen. “It measures the exact real-time liquid fi ngerprint at any desired point in the process with a single EMF sensor. Combined with machine learning, our solution ensures that the process stays optimised and easily monitored through our cloud solution.” In addition to improving the profitability of a dairy plant, reducing the milk waste also lowers the cost of wastewater treatment and helps dairies to achieve their environmental goals.
“Most of the carbon dioxide generated in a dairy
production originates from the stages before the milk even arrives at the dairy,” said Tielinen. “That is why it is essential not to waste valuable milk in the dairies’ processing operations. If milk-based products are lost there, a replacement amount of milk will have to be produced, further raising carbon dioxide emissions.”
1.19 million vacancies – that is the total number of unemployed people in the UK between September and November 2022, according to a skills and labour shortages report by the UK Parliament House of Commons Library. The industries hit the hardest are construction and food and accommodation services. The main problem is recruiting staff with the relevant skills.
It’s no secret that the global pandemic has been a key driver for the labour shortages we see today. Economic inactivity caused by government restrictions resulting in furlough schemes, isolations and strict social distancing measures meant the world stood still. Once the economy started to recover, labour demand started to grow faster than supply. Following the Brexit-related new immigration rules, the labour supply problem became even worse, resulting in a reduced pool of workers for businesses to choose from. These unprecedented issues highlight the need for both companies and their employees to work with robots. Conflicting with the narrative that robotic automation is bad for employment and taking over people’s jobs, there are plenty of examples where introducing robots has brought benefits to employers and workers alike. Flexibility: Flexibility and productivity improvements delivered by robots are enabling companies to transform their performance, opening new opportunities for growth that can help to generate new jobs in areas from administration and sales to logistics and production. Collaboration: The ability of the latest generation of collaborative robots to work alongside people on assembly lines is opening new opportunities for companies to make better use of the decision-making and problem-solving skills of its human workers by relieving them from handling dull and repetitive tasks. Toppling skills barriers: By making robots easier than ever to
program, operate and maintain, operators can learn the skills needed to work with robots in matter of days. With the ability to handle an expanding range of tasks from complex and customised manufacturing to picking and packing, robots are providing the solution for businesses looking for new ways to augment the performance of their existing workforce. Discover how ABB can help you tackle skills shortages with our free automation appraisal:
https://bit.ly/GrowWithRobotsAutomationColumn
Nigel Platt, LBL Manager, UK and Ireland, ABB Robotics
automationmagazine.co.uk
Automation | April 2023
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