Industry Insight
additional modules and process steps for new end products to be produced. Thus, a complete reconfiguration of an existing line can be accomplished within hours and on a regular basis. Please note that this kind of change used to take weeks and involved quite a high investment cost for the complex modification. So quite often our partners ended up failing to realise great ideas and business cases due to cost or time reasons. The breakthrough technology of the ChocoX provides an answer to this need and will become a gamechanger in the industry.
Q: What technologies or strategies does Bühler employ to adapt to changing customer demands and accommodate a wide range of end product variations? There is one interesting aspect that helps to explain how the ChocoX can support our customers with their changing demands. During the manufacturing of a ChocoX in our factory, new products came into consideration and others became obsolete. I would say that this is a very typical circumstance for a highly agile and diverse market. However, thanks to the modular design, we remained highly adaptable. Quite easily and without impacting the overall line, we were able to add additional process steps to cover the new requirements. The new module also had no impact in terms of lead time for the remaining line. This flexibility is absolutely crucial, especially considering that our customers often operate their systems for more than thirty years. Ultimately, it’s impossible to predict today all the products the system might need to produce over its entire lifecycle to meet market demands. With the ChocoX, customers remain fully flexible and are able to adapt to any market need to come.
Q: How does Bühler balance the need for product variety with efficiency and cost-effectiveness in its production processes? At Bühler we believe standardisation is the perfect answer to manage cost-effectiveness and still be able to provide our customers with a competitive advantage. Especially for the ChocoX, the standardisation of the modules enables us to offer this groundbreaking technology at prices very similar to those of traditional premium systems. From a purely monetary perspective, the CAPEX alone makes this technology highly attractive for our customers. Additionally, the concept provides our customers with a competitive edge over their market counterparts and certainly with operational costs significantly lower than those of a conventional system. Especially in flexible production processes with a wide range of different end products, there’s no way around the ChocoX when it comes to the final product price per chocolate article.
Q: Can you provide examples of how Bühler collaborates with customers to understand their unique end product requirements and tailor production accordingly? From our perspective, such complex and groundbreaking developments cannot be achieved alone. Behind our ChocoX lies a strong partnership with close and long-lasting customers, who have collectively enabled us to develop and prove initial lines in a real production environment. Many external partners and suppliers were also involved in the project, and without this fantastic and collaborative team, such a project would certainly not have been possible. Even
KennedysConfection.com
“We see it as our role to consult along the product development journey with respect to the meaningful combination and
grouping of the required process steps within one production line to produce a coherent range of products”
though the development and the long-term verification in a real production environment took some time, we are proud when we look at the result achieved together.
Q: In the context of end product variety, how does Bühler address sustainability and environmental concerns in its manufacturing practices? At Bühler we feel fully committed to sustainability and understand our contribution in making an impact. Here too, quantum leaps are only possible with fully committed partners helping us to really drive change. The measurable targets to which we are committed are 50% less waste, energy, and water. Only by looking at the entire value chain can we understand the full impact of our solutions. In this context, the new highly flexible and modular ChocoX also plays an important role in achieving these objectives. Here it is crucial to understand that a substantial portion of the CO2 footprint is generated through the raw material, and savings in this area can have a significant impact. In addition, our system allows for substantial savings on the process side through an innovative cooling method that reduces the required energy by up to 10–15%.
Q: What role do digitalisation and Industry 4.0 play in enabling Bühler to achieve greater flexibility in end product production? The new self-sufficient modular structure was made possible by an entirely new automation concept. It is essential to note that each module functions both as an individual machine and as part of a production line. The constantly changing configuration also means that modules are used differently. This variability must be automatically detected and implemented by the production line. Simplicity of operation plays a crucial role, especially with a wide range of products and diverse requirements. With the current concept, we have advanced to a point where system components can be fully parameterised and preset offline. This means that commissioning can be carried out by the customer independently, without requiring our presence, thanks to the customer’s ability to operate the system without extensive expertise.
Q: How does Bühler ensure quality and consistency across a Kennedy’s Confection November 2023 11
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