Food and beverage companies can now set a post COVID-19-course using automation to boost competitiveness and productivity. Omron Solution Partners Daniela Moles, from LCS Group and Alberto Giordani from Alfacod, explain.
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The corona pandemic has posed immense challenges to companies of all sizes across all industries. According to Deloitte Global, food and beverage (F&B) companies are facing significantly reduced consumption as well as disrupted supply chains.
But how can manufacturers adapt their business strategies and production processes, factories and machinery to the new circumstances – both in terms of the pandemic and in the longer term? The current crisis offers a chance to rethink outdated procedures and to use automation to boost productivity, efficiency and quality. F&B companies that want to prepare for the future should be appraising the opportunities and possibilities that innovative robotics, sensor technology and holistic automation approaches provide. This project should consider four key market drivers and perspectives: workforce, product and packaging quality, production flexibility and sustainability.
Automation in this context does not only mean robotics or artificial intelligence, but a well-thought-out overall structure of fixed, collaborative and mobile robotics; monitoring and control technology; sensors; and vision technology tailored to the respective production requirements. The various stakeholders and market drivers should not be considered in isolation, but as a whole and integrated into the future production strategy.
Collaboration and factory harmony
There are millions of people employed in F&B sectors. This has an enormous impact on producers in terms of costs, but also primarily in terms of the health and safety of human resources.
The pandemic has led to developments such as social distancing and tighter safety regulations. Automation can help in overcoming this challenge while also improving security and efficiency in the longer term. An example is a cobot or mobile robot solution that can relieve employees from challenging and repetitive tasks so they can focus on more value-added and fulfilling roles.
Daniela Moles explains it as follows: “We carried out a project where we implemented a fully automatic system for the handling of heavy rolls of fabric that weigh up to
30 kg. These rolls were previously handled by humans. Automating this exhausting task meant the company could support its employees while also boosting efficiency and productivity.”
The value of automation is in the mix of humans plus machines, robots and artificial intelligence. Collaboration is key. “While robots show their advantages when it comes to speed and accuracy, human colleagues can take care of business-critical issues, customer communication and daily individual tasks. Regarding the important aspect of return on investment, companies should increasingly focus on releasing human labour to do value-added tasks, which is absolutely crucial for producers going forward.
Collaborative and mobile robots working alongside their human colleagues assisting in lifting or transporting goods, material and also fulfilling tasks employees can’t do because of distance or safety rules.
Product quality and traceability
Product and production quality, as well as traceability, are further aspects that are increasingly important for manufacturers and customers alike. Barcode quality is one example. Regulations from international organisations such as ISO or GS1 are widely adopted, but in addition there may be further project specific specifications driven by suppliers and customers.
This leads to a need for reliable systems and tools that ensure a bar code is correct and readable. Solutions can be adapted so they can also check pack design aspects and package integrity and completeness.
Alberto Giordani from Omron Solutions Partner Alfacod explains: Innovative solutions can be used to track food quality and when it is beginning to decrease, before it’s too late. Preventive maintenance actions can then be planned to avoid potentially costly errors. In the food industry, it is useful to check labels while they are printed with an integrated barcode verifier. Customers, especially large distribution companies, want to receive all products with the correct information, labelling and barcodes. If this information is wrong or incomplete, they may return the goods or levy a fine on the supplier.
Information taken from the packaging in the form of bar codes is also becoming increasingly useful for consumers at the point of purchase. When reading the code at a self-scanning system at a retailer, information about allergens or other specific ingredients such as gluten can be made available. Consumers are, to a greater extend, taking an interest in information such as country of origin. Manufacturers want to engage with consumers via the information provided on the item.
There is a close link between automation and traceability, ultimately protecting the brand reputation of the producer and reducing costs.
Another simple example is a verification solution using vision systems or RFID, which, if linked into the production management software, can help to reduce issues connected with false codes or labels.
Flexibility in future food manufacturing
Whereas in other industries, ‘Batch Size 1’ is a trending topic and goal for manufacturers, the food and beverage industries are still very closely connected to volumes. It remians a priority to be more flexible and agile, however, to fulfil growing customer demand and changing regulations.
Many solutions still rely on inflexible conveyor systems, whereas mobile robots provide the manufacturer with the flexibility to move stock and consumables to the required locations at the right time. Cobots are very easy to train, easy to deploy, and transportable, making them a useful companion in achieving more flexibility.
Daniela Moles describes an LCS customer producing coffee pods: “This customer receives requests for several different pod products and combinations: normal plastic or reusable, eco-friendly, different colours and different sizes. A fleet of Omron’s mobile robots helps manage fluctuating demand and combinations of different requests, assisting the customer to achieve a more flexible environment within the plant. This ability to adapt and evolve will become even more important in the future.”
Omron Mobile robots can change routes quickly, dynamically avoiding obstacles or working on different priorities. They can be customised with special add-ons and accessories that allow for even more flexibility. The latest solution from Omron combines cobot and mobile technology to offer a mobile manipulator or MoMa solution.
Sustainable food manufacturing
According to Price, Waterhouse and Cooper, three quarters of supermarket customers want to buy products with as little packaging as possible. Packaging also protects the item and informs the customer, so it is a balance between differing drivers. It will come as no surprise that flexible plastic or flexible packaging is still expected to grow in the future. For this reason, companies in the F&B industry must increasingly think about the materials they use for packaging their products.
Automation is closely connected with sustainability. Automation can control temperature and pressures, ensuring a product is correctly packaged, reducing waste and scrap, for example.
Producers must consider multiple variables, however, such as packaging thickness, ambient temperature and packaging film speeds. This approach requires a system to capture data in real-time, analyse it and make decisions. If we are able to process and read through this data, all the information needed to work better and implement a sustainable future is accessible.
An innovative example is Omron’s Sysmac AI Controller, a smart Artificial Intelligence solution that collects, analyses and utilises data on ‘Edge’ devices within a controller to prolong equipment longevity and detect abnormalities. It combines control functions of manufacturing lines and equipment with AI processing at manufacturing sites in real time.
Real-time insights driving the future food factory
In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies in the food industry are now called upon to look at systems and technologies that reduce the workload on employees, increase the quality of their processes and products, and act more flexibly and sustainably.
They need to look out for smart and connected systems, combining robotics, cobots, vision and sensor technology as well as strong data collection and analytical capabilities, human machine interaction and full traceability to provide them with real-time insights for a successful and customer-focused future.
