Food and beverage manufacturers are increasingly using technology to protect their brand equity and to ensure that they can compete in this growing global market.
In 2005 producers of baby food in China made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons due to a counterfeit formula. As a result, major companies were put on the defensive - fighting to renew brand trust - in a crisis every food and beverage manufacturer fears.
Regulators in countries around the world are ordering manufacturers to adopt ways of tracing the origin of each and every ingredient in a recipe, including details of who processed it, when, where and how. If manufacturers do not comply with the new laws, they risk a lot more than just a fine - customer loyalty is at stake.
"The most valuable thing that any company in the food and beverage industry owns is its brand name," explains Rudolf Van Wyk, software business unit manager of Rockwell Automation South Africa & Middle East. "Things do go wrong, but what is important is a focus on making sure you have the right practices and procedures in place to respond rapidly in the event you find out that tainted food is out there."
The food and beverage businesses comprise one of Rockwell Automation's several core competency industries created specifically with the needs of customers in mind. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is quickly becoming a valuable tool within this sector.
As an example, the meat industry in New Zealand requires that people manually inspect the carcass to identify the best way to cut it to achieve the greatest yield. Due to recent regulations, RFID tags can now be attached to the carcass enabling information about the meat to be fed directly into the control system utilising technology such as RSMACC and RS Batch. While companies must apply technology to comply with government mandates, they must also be careful to select a solution that saves money and accelerates production. According to a whitepaper from ARC Advisory Group, companies like Kraft have been able to achieve ongoing savings of about US$14 million a year, as a result of operational equipment efficiency (OEE) and manufacturing execution system (MES) initiatives it put in place a few years ago with Rockwell Automation's help. Now other companies are taking notice and doing the same.
Many food producers are looking towards automation to speed up production and to allow them to be more agile. Rockwell Automation is working closely with food and beverage OEM design firms and producers to provide solutions for these markets. "Many packaging machine OEMs who need to design highly flexible machines are using Rockwell Automation's Integrated Architecture approach," says Van Wyk.
This approach to hardware and software allows the development of highly integrated control systems with the minimum of development time, enabling the OEM to meet their customers' demands of shorter lead times and faster product line changeovers.
Whether a company is a big multinational expanding its reach or a small local business adding automation to production lines, the Rockwell Automation food and beverage teams can help. "Technically, there are many solutions that can be provided," Van Wyk explains. "The key is making sure all the solutions are complementary so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." To that end, the company has mapped out six strategic business issues that need to be addressed for manufacturers to flourish. They are: regulatory data management; product tracking and tracing; production optimisation; order and process execution; recipe and product management; and asset utilisation. Servicing all of these areas, Rockwell Automation gives companies the tools, technologies and knowledge needed to compete in a global market while adhering to government standards and most importantly, catering to customers' needs.
Rockwell Automation has the product and solutions available to assist food and beverage manufacturers in protecting their brand equity. These solutions furthermore support the development of an agile and efficient supply chain to ensure the manufacturers beat their competition to the market at a lower cost.
For more information contact Rudolf Van Wyk, Rockwell Automation South Africa & Middle East, +27 (0) 11 654 9700, [email protected]
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