Industry 4.0 is no longer a distant ambition, it’s the new reality for the Food & Beverage industry.
But operational expectations are also evolving. Challenging targets like 96% uptime and optimizing performance, quality, efficiency, and sustainability mean digital infrastructure must work seamlessly with your strategy to ensure the right decisions get made.
There have been some exciting breakthroughs for managing operational strategies, including tools like ABB Raise, which uses Augmented Reality technology to help remote ABB experts resolve problems even faster. Tools like our ROI Calulator can give you a clear idea of the business benefits and ABB can help to find the right solution to maximize your competitive advantage.
So, let’s look at three key digital takeaways, straight from our Food & Beverage customers.
Lesson #1 – Establish your vision
For a customer in Sardinia, optimizing their tomato facility meant identifying a key problem. Their constant production process produced 22 million bottles per annum and needed constant in-person supervision.
They developed a clear digital vision: gaining the capability to remotely monitor the factory 24/7. By removing the need for round-the-clock staff presence, they could swiftly optimize safety and maintenance.
Digital upgrades
ABB’s solution began with replacing obsolete equipment with two new System pro E Power switchboards, equipped with Tmax XT molded-case circuit-breakers. All electrical assets were connected to plug-and-play Ekip UP modules, transforming the low-voltage systems into digital microgrids, enabling 24/7 monitoring and rapid fault diagnostics.
Remote monitoring
Ekip UP units are gateways to the cloud. They send device status information to the ABB Ability™ Energy and Asset Manager cloud platform so operators can now access it anytime, anywhere.
Key takeaway – analyze your processes and identify key areas for improvement. This should tell you where you need more visibility and helps identify which solution you should work toward.
Lesson #2 – Start at your pace, but start now
One of our liquor production customers needed to improve energy efficiency to boost their cost savings. However, their brewing process required constantly circulating water, so downtime was to be avoided. As the facility did not have capacity for time-consuming renovations, ABB supported with the installation of a full suite of new and advanced electrical and digital solutions.
Prioritizing upgrades
The project focused on upgrading their existing assets to UniSec air-insulated switchgear and ABB AbilityTM Energy and Asset Manager. The installation of these new assets created immediate improvements in power reliability and allowed data capture from the entire electrical system.
Key takeaway: Whether you’re ready for full digital implementation or want to take a more gradual approach by digitally enabling assets, ABB can support. The most important thing? Getting started.
Lesson #3 – Evaluate your maintenance strategy
For almost all Food and Beverage operators maintenance strategy optimization is key to ensuring safer people, products, and assets, as well as driving long-term improvements and cost savings.
Moving away from a corrective approach
One of our recent customers had always relied on a traditional ‘hands off’ approach to maintenance with action only taken at a point of failure or time based. Though this resulted in initial savings, the long-term costs of unplanned downtime and asset replacements were significant. But when they decided to move towards a smarter, more proactive maintenance strategy, such as condition-based monitoring or predictive maintenance, ABB supported with holistic digital solutions to monitor, flag, and predict asset health. The result? 40% OPEX reduction and a futureproof approach to maintenance planning.
Key takeaway: Once you have access to ABB’s cloud-based domain expertise, operational data can be transformed into actionable insight that increases availability, reliability, and predictability.
Wherever you are on your digital journey, there’s a wide range of solutions and expertise to leverage. We’re dedicated to helping customers develop their unique digital vision. Talk to an ABB salesperson to find out more.
Author: Sandra Perletti
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