Industry 4.0 journey has started
Food and drink manufacturers that fail to migrate to new control systems which embrace futuristic concepts, such as the ‘internet of things’ (IoT) and ‘Industry 4.0’, are potentially putting their businesses at risk.
Many legacy systems in the UK industry are coming to the end of their lives and are struggling to keep pace with technological advances and evolving market demands. Savvy competitors are, meanwhile, running the latest systems and reaping the rewards associated with integrated, instant diagnostics from improved efficiency, safety and regulatory compliance to reduced waste and emissions.
“Migration is of huge importance to the food and beverage industry,” says Grant Coffin, account manager at Rockwell Automation. “It’s a very mature industry, with a lot of the manufacturing base’s systems reaching the end of their life. One of the original platforms commonly used in the food and drink sector is around 30 years old.”
The UK sector is also lagging in terms of connectivity, which reduces paperwork and scope for error on production lines. “There’s a massive opportunity for increasing the amount of smart devices on plant floors,” says Coffin.
And while programmable logic controller (PLCs) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems remain popular, many manufacturers are looking for something more as pressure increases to rapidly identify any problems and reduce downtime generally.
“Industry 4.0 and other similar concepts, such as the ‘internet of things’ and ‘machine to machine’ communications, are opening up new possibilities for driving efficiency and reliability into food and beverage production,” says Hugh Tasker, product manager for visualisation and compact PLCs at Mitsubishi Electric. “Increasingly, the aim is to have plant-wide diagnostics rather than machine-by-machine capabilities. To the control engineer, this means ensuring the whole network has integrated diagnostics, rather than individual PLCs providing local information only.”
A variety of factors are influencing the evolution of control systems. “Food and drink manufacturers are always looking to collect more data faster from their production assets,” says Tasker. “They want this data processed instantly so that machinery can be constantly optimised and re-optimised.”
Further requirements for control equipment include: enhanced wash-down capabilities with greater ingress protection ratings, stainless steel housings and better seals.
“End-users in the food and beverage field also need excellent service and support levels from their original equipment manufacturers, systems integrators and equipment manufacturers,” says Tasker. “They increasingly tie these in with energy management and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) consultancy, software backup, asset register and obsolescence identification, health checks and routine servicing.”
For Rockwell Automation: “energy reduction, waste and emission reduction and improving the overall yield and quality are all underlying factors, as is regulatory compliance”, says Coffin.
Ease of migration (Return to top)
Migrating doesn’t have to be as costly and disruptive as some might think. “With ageing networks, we can offer a phased approach to migrating to improve the lifecycle and optimisation,” says Coffin. “We take a scalable, modular approach to how we implement technology in the marketplace.”
Rob Brooks, industry marketing manager, food and beverage at Omron, highlights “the integration possibilities now offered by the likes of Omron that massively simplify the design, test, install and commission phases of a project”.
Mitsubishi Electric has found that concerns over reliability results in many food manufacturers running trusted systems for too long. “This leads to a need for simple, low-cost upgrades of both hardware and software, the ability to mix and match equipment from different manufacturers and simple fault-finding using embedded e-manuals,” says Tasker.
“Controllers should also be flexible and easy to re-deploy to new duties. For food producers, physical accuracy always needs to be improved to reduce product giveaway and waste. To this end, high-performance servos are increasingly being used to replace pneumatics and other drive systems.”
Mitsubishi Electric has experience of integrating various systems and subsystems into one efficient and reliable whole, he says, via multiple drivers included within hardware and open network capabilities, including CC-Link.
“When upgrading existing plant, food and beverage manufacturers often like to use Mitsubishi Electric’s manufacturing execution systems (MES) module ability to transfer data from the shop floor to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and database systems without needing to use a separate PC gateway,” he says.
Sector solutions (Return to top)
Frontmatec recently delivered a turnkey MES system for pork slaughterhouse Atria in Finland. Aimed at increasing throughput, reducing manual work, maintaining optimal process flow and boosting reliability of deliveries to customers, the system is based on the GOSystems platform. It includes: order handling from ERP, scheduling of the orders, data collection, traceability, and yield control. Big meat processors Danish Crown and Tican also use GOSystems.
Omron’s Sysmac platform, meanwhile, integrates all control functions from logic, motion and robotics to safety and vision. “Sysmac is easily linked to databases by in-built functionality in specific central processing unit models, and requires no middleware to integrate to numerous database types,” says Brooks.
Therefore, any data captured within the machine, cell or line can be shared. Furthermore, in the event of a server going down, data is automatically stored internally in memory on the controller.
Rockwell Automation’s control systems also focus on integrated architecture, “providing seamless integration and real-time contextualisation of information”, says Coffin. “Data is easy to accrue but contextualisation in a meaningful manner, to make smart decisions, is key.”
Last autumn, Rockwell launched the iTRAK, a modular, scalable motion control system to solve different motion and speed needs. The iTRAK represents the future of packaging, says Coffin, and combined with the integrated architecture of Rockwell Automation's Studio 5000 Logix Designer and ethernet/internet protocol offers the flexibility to switch to other products and production sequences.
Other control system developments (Return to top)
Other recent control system developments from Rockwell include new custom-device plug-in capability introduced to boost its FactoryTalk AssetCentre v6.0 asset-management software. It allows firms to centrally manage controllers, connect the software to unlimited third-party devices and offer configurable levels of security, data access and activity limitations to enhance food security and safety.
And its new PlantPAx distributed control system integrates automation processes in a single plant-wide system for process, power, safety and other non-process control systems with a focus on Industry 4.0 principles.
Mitsubishi Electric's systems include a variety of options for data logging, complementary PLC ranges from simple relay replacements to high capability automation controller platforms, integrated motion control, object-based SCADA and hardware programming tools.
“We also have Mitsubishi Adroit Process Suite, a life-cycle software tool that enhances performance, reliability and value across entire production systems,” says Tasker. “This now includes a new OEE function, which delivers systems that provide not just live data but also tools to help users analyse the data in depth.”
Earlier this year, Mitsubishi launched its updated Programmable Automation Controller, laying claim as the first to market with a controller designed to meet the needs of Industry 4.0. The new controller, the MELSEC iQ-R, boasts reduced development, maintenance and operating costs alongside improved processing performance and increased security, safety and reliability.
Looking ahead (Return to top)
“Industry 4.0 and IoT are already well underway and these will continue to drive technology developments in terms of better, easier and more widespread data acquisition, but the important part is then using data to drive line improvements in terms of throughput, quality, safety and, therefore, return on investment,” says Brooks. “One further topic that is not new, but will grow in the future, is remote connectivity. If data is collected, it can be shared anywhere in the world.”
According to Coffin: “Electronic serialisation-ready systems will be very pertinent in food and drink moving forward. It’s where pharmaceuticals were 1015 years ago and is starting to drive through into the food and drink industry.”
And Tasker says: “Advances in cloud computing and ‘big data’ systems will also have a lasting effect on control engineering for food and drink producers. Some of the issues such as compatibility, interoperability and accuracy should be seen as journeys rather than destinations, so that there is an expectation of constant improvement and development.”
