A little over three hundred years ago, Abraham Darby became the first ironmaster to successfully smelt iron using coke, a coal-based fuel, and kicked off what later became known as the first Industrial Revolution, a coal-fueled sprint away from human and animal labor to a bold new world of machined mass production. Since then, the manufacturing world has undergone a series of further industrial revolutions culminating in the fourth and most recent: what’s called Industry 4.0. It’s a catchy name for a complex idea. Building off industry sea changes achieved via the revolutionary power of coal, gas, electricity, and digitization, Industry 4.0 encompasses the major leaps taken in the fields of automation, connectivity, and the digitization of the manufacturing sector. In this modern era of technological advancement, industries are rapidly embracing digital solutions like cloud computing and artificial intelligence to enhance efficiency, productivity, and overall operations. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is one of these new tools: an operations-improving network that has gained significant traction across multiple sectors, including the food and beverage industry. The integration of IIoT technologies in food and beverage means a new era of smart production, quality assurance, and supply chain management, with unparalleled benefits and opportunities.
IoT to IIoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of an estimated 30 billion interconnected devices and systems which collect, share, and process data over the internet. You’ve almost certainly seen IoT in action in the form of wearable devices like smartwatches, smart home systems, or Wi-Fi-connected appliances; devices that talk to each other without requiring human intervention.
It’s not a stretch to recognize how many applications a network of this kind, collecting and analyzing data in real time, has for the world of industry. The IoT’s industrial counterpart, IIoT, is tailored for manufacturing and other industrial sectors. IT is informational technology, while OT refers to operational technology and together, they connect industrial machinery, control systems, sensors, and devices to create a seamless flow of data across the manufacturing process. Some of the sectors harnessing IIoT include energy, agriculture, healthcare, oil and gas, transportation, aerospace and defense, and even smart cities.
How is IIoT different from connected systems already in use? It comes down to the layers which compose it: the devices collecting data, the network connecting them, the applications which process and analyze the data, and the interface with which a human operator can access those results for valuable insights and process optimization.
Get Smart
A major advantage to implementing IIoT in food and beverage manufacturing is the ability to achieve smart production and process optimization. With so many sensors and devices installed across the production line, manufacturers gain a granular view of their operations, helping to mitigate food waste, trim costs, and improve quality and food safety. For example, real-time temperature data can ensure that perishable goods are kept at the optimal temperature throughout the production process, reducing spoilage and waste. Predictive maintenance, too, becomes a much easier prospect through IIoT. Sensors continuously monitoring the condition of machinery can detect anomalies or signs of wear and tear, allowing maintenance teams to address issues before they lead to breakdowns. This proactive maintenance can help reduce downtime and increase overall operational efficiency.
Food Safety
One of the largest areas of concern for any food and beverage manufacturer, particularly one working with perishable ingredients or a high likelihood of contamination, is food safety. A product recall and the accompanying bad press can tarnish a company’s reputation and negatively impact their bottom line, not to mention harm dozens or hundreds of consumers.
The multitude of data collection points and the ability for real-time analysis of that data can mitigate the need for a recall by flagging bad products before they leave the facility. More proactively, those same temperature sensors in our earlier example can notify facility staff if recipe-determined acceptable time and temperature ranges aren’t met. An undercooked batch can be dealt with directly, instead of getting shipped out and later recalled.
Quality Assurance
In the food and beverage industry, ensuring product quality and safety is of paramount importance. And it’s easier to attain a consistent product across multiple facilities when, with the press of a few buttons, you can push recipes and procedures and any changes from a single server to each and every production line. Assuming the facilities utilize a similar set-up, you can expect the same product every time, regardless of which facility produced it.
Any inconsistencies would then be captured in data analysis, allowing manufacturers to continually improve recipes and procedures while flagging any issues. By closely monitoring pre-defined parameters during production, manufacturers can detect deviations from desired standards in real time, ensuring that products consistently meet quality specifications.
Transparent, Trackable Supply
The supply chain is an innocently straightforward term that overly simplifies the complex web of stakeholders it comprises from suppliers to consumers. Keeping track of ingredients and finished products can be difficult even in the best and most organized of situations. But with IIoT, supply chain stakeholders can establish previously unprecedented levels of visibility into the process.
Between RFID transmitters and GPS, manufacturers can have digital eyes on their product throughout shipping and storage. This increased traceability helps manufacturers respond to market needs while improving inventory management and minimizing waste. In the event of a quality issue or a product recall, manufacturers can quickly trace the origin of the problem and take appropriate actions, minimizing impact on consumer safety and brand reputation.
A smart supply chain can even help manufacturers strategize for the future. By analyzing historical sales data and external factors, manufacturers can predict demand patterns and adjust their production and inventory levels accordingly. This not only prevents overstocking or stockouts but also streamlines the entire supply chain, leading to cost savings and improved customer satisfaction.
Data-Driven Decision-Making
The abundance of data generated by IIoT devices offers manufacturers a goldmine of insights. Advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms can process this data to uncover patterns, trends, and correlations that would be otherwise difficult to discern. By analyzing historical production data, manufacturers can identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement.
For example, a beverage manufacturer could use IIoT data to optimize their production schedules based on demand fluctuations. By analyzing past sales data, weather forecasts, and even social media trends, the manufacturer can rapidly adjust production volumes and distribution routes, ensuring that products are readily available when and where consumers need them.
Packaging
Packaging, always an area improved by efficiencies, is a clear choice for IIoT implementation. Changeovers and downtime directly affect the maximum revenue a line can produce, so integrating smart solutions into the packaging process can mean a healthier bottom line for the manufacturer.
Sensors on packaging equipment can be programmed to expect pre-determined SKUs from the processing area, then verify the correct packaging is being used and immediately halt the process at any discrepancy. Traditionally, if an operator ran a product in the wrong packaging film, it might not be detected until much later, resulting in wasted product and packaging that has to be thrown away. Today, these discrepancies can be virtually eliminated by catching packaging mistakes before or as they happen.
Like recipes and processes, labeling parameters can be downloaded from a central server and sent to internet-connected equipment, reducing potential operator error on the plant floor. Operators can instead focus on troubleshooting and verifying if the labeling is correct.
A Human Touch
One of the major concerns of smart manufacturing is the assumption that the smarter the machines, the less need there is for human operators, pushing plant personnel out of jobs. There’s always a balance to strike between automation and human labor, but IIoT integration doesn’t have to mean fewer jobs for human workers. The smartest machines in the world still require human interaction, turning plant floor work into a two-way conversation. When machines can signal to their human operators that something is wrong or empower the operators to work more efficiently and with better focus, production goes much more smoothly.
And despite the advent of Industry 4.0, we aren’t at the point where facilities can run fully autonomously. The question of how best to balance human workers and smart machines is still ongoing.
What’s the Hold-Up?
Despite the many benefits to instituting IIoT in food and beverage production facilities, implementation across the industry has had a slow start, partly due to the cash injection required to switch over from their older equipment. “Most manufacturers won’t pursue an all-in approach which would require significant capital investment to replace all of the sensors and controllers that aren’t network-enabled,” says Nichols. “It’s going to take time to overcome significant security concerns of exposing plant floor devices to the network. And IIoT adoption goes far beyond hardware/software changes – it requires significant modifications in the processes themselves. For all of these reasons, IIoT will be phased in slowly and in very specific applications.”
Although IIoT integration takes some extra steps and requires serious consideration of the pros and cons before implementation, there’s no questioning that it’s a game-changer in the food and beverage manufacturing industry. As manufacturers continue to embrace IIoT, the industry is poised to witness unprecedented levels of innovation, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, ultimately contributing to a safer, more sustainable, and technologically advanced food and beverage ecosystem.
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