When companies in the food and beverage sector begin the process of digital transformation of the plant, those responsible for production aspire to make the experience as simple as possible for all those involved, and that this step allows them, in the short term, to start offer products faster, with better quality and adapted to the constant and incessant demands of customers and consumers.
These challenges have contributed to the explosive growth of the different technologies to improve the performance of food production in the industry , because they have helped to fully optimize the process, which includes better decision-making, time reduction, elimination of scrap material and reduced maintenance costs, which are aspects that directly influence the continuous improvement of the process.
Basically, digital transformation in food and beverage plants is the process of integrating new and emerging digital technologies into all aspects of a company in this sector. The goal is to harness the benefits of these technologies to improve employee safety and working conditions, operational efficiency, agility, and business manageability.
For example, for a company that produces inputs for juices, the digital transformation of the process would help them to know, exactly, the amount of concentrated syrup that they transport in the tankers destined for the processing plants of their clients. Today, many of these companies do not control this information, because they do the tank filling process manually, with notes on paper, which is then entered into the ERP through the keyboard. A digitized process would allow them to know how much the truck weighs before the filling process and what its weight is at the end, and would generate a report that would go directly to the database and the ERP.
Digital transformation is seen as a way to streamline operations and maintain your own competitiveness in an open, global marketplace. This is especially relevant for companies that aspire to have a completely digital process, but the truth is that the path to digital transformation goes beyond installing equipment and automating functions.
So, how to start the digital transformation process in food and beverage plants in a simple way? For us, at SINCI®, the most important thing to take the first steps safely is to define the business objectives of the company.
Steps to start the digital transformation process in food and beverage plants
- Focusing on business objectives is a very important point
Digitizing the plant, for the mere fact of "digitizing" it, will only bring losses, unprofitable investments and negative attitudes towards the processes themselves, if there is no well-planned strategy. In this sense, the first step is to identify which process is susceptible to improvement in which profitability is not as desired, before deciding which is the appropriate technology to turn the situation around.
For example, if one of the problems that occurs in the plant is that the process shows a large number of downtimes, then you can think about looking for a technology capable of offering precise information that allows you to solve the root problem. But, the technology cannot be chosen before knowing what the problem or situation that needs to be solved is, because it could be that the opportunity for improvement can be seized with a solution other than the one originally thought.
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Prepare the plant to start the digital transformation process
Once the improvement opportunity is identified, and before choosing the right technology, it is important to prepare the plant for the digital transformation of that particular process. What do we mean? Specifically, to describe approaches the characteristics of the implementation of the project, in stages and with previous diagnoses, before making an investment decision. At this point, the production manager could be the project leader, so he must be aware of the resources he needs for digitization. And, since we are talking about innovation projects for food and beverage plants, it is best to do it in stages.
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What technology to implement in the process?
There are many digital technologies, and new ones will probably appear as the days go by. Therefore, it would be a destructive approach to use everything at once or to try to integrate, for example, artificial intelligence in a process that can do without it in the initial stage of the digital transformation project.
Of a large number of digital technologies, it is key to know exactly those that a food and beverage plant that begins its digital transformation process really needs, for various reasons, one of which is that it can directly impact business profitability without fully resolve the situation.
- Transform not only the process, but also the culture of the company
Developing a roadmap to start the digital transformation process in food and beverage plants allows a clear understanding of the company's horizon. Once the project starts, you should start thinking about the second wave, which would be carried out in the medium term and so on until achieve a high level of digitization of manufacturing processes.
But beyond that plant, any technological transformation must also include the transformation of plant personnel. Looking back a bit, two decades ago few people used software like Word or Excel, and there was no talk of cloud storage, nor did smartphones have 128 GB of capacity.
The world is constantly evolving, introducing new technologies and demanding adaptation in return. In that regard, make sure that all plant personnel understand the true role of technology in their daily and work lives, adapt to changes as quickly as possible, and correctly understand their role as individuals. In other words, transform the culture of the company and its people, because technology is a tool, not the other way around.
To start the process of digital transformation in food and beverage companies, we invite you to carry out a self-diagnosis of digitization in food and beverage plants, to find out, in one minute, how connected your company is with the digital world to identify strengths and areas for improvement in the field of digitization.
Also, learn about steps for the modernization of obsolete industrial systems in the food and beverage sector, through intelligent manufacturing solutions.
