4 Stars for Wonderware MES by Global Food Company!

Customer Evidence verified by TechValidate.

This Global 500 Food Company gained enterprise integration into their SAP ERP, as well as using it as a trusted backup system in case the ERP goes down.

Food Customers Reduce Costs Using Wonderware MES

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Why do customers choose Wonderware MES?

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Food & Beverage Industry Use of Wonderware MES Solutions

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Customer Case Study: Baltika Beverage's Use of Wonderware MES

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F&B Industry Shows Great Improvements Using Wonderware MES

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Case Study: Collaboration in the Food and Beverage Industry Using Business Process Management

 

For the Food and Beverage Industry, keeping profitable operations means an informed workforce, tuned equipment, and quick response to any adverse or unplanned conditions.
For many organizations, standardized practices are critical for maintaining a baseline that can be measured and improved, especially if multiple locations are involved.

Business Process Management, or BPM, is a collaboration solution that allows organizations to establish baseline processes that can be standardized and deployed over multiple lines and sites. The food and beverage industry is a great example of an industry that can benefit from BPM, since they establish SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) and implement, enforcing predicable and optimized performance.

An example is a Wonderware customer who is a leading blottler for a major global beverage brand in Europe.

Fortune 500 Food and Bev Company improves Quality and Productivity by more than 30%

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Wonderware MES Customer Success: Baltika Beverages Case Study, Validated by TechValidate

Customer Evidence verified by TechValidate.

For manufacturers in the food and beverage industry, good manufacturing practices, brand protection and process tuning are critical for profitable and sustainable operations.

Wonderware MES customer Baltika is no exception. Equipment uptime, product quality and line availability are paramount to respond to their customer demand and maintain an effective supply chain. They were able to improve OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) by over 10% using Manufacturing Execution Solutions from Wonderware, driving profits to their bottom line. Enterprise integration, from their automation systems to their business systems, helped to manage work orders, enable timely shipping and material consumption information back to their ERP.  Other benefits included paperless work order execution, as well as supporting Food Safety initiatives via indepth product track, trace and genealogy.  

Food Manufacturers Gain Quality Improvements Using Wonderware MES!

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The intersection of food, and drugs

I read an article today about Nestle developing foods with "real" health benefits: Nestle to test effect of nutrients on human cells.  At first glance, the title infers to activities that are scary, ominous.  But further reading, you find that Nestle is developing foods that are good for you--provide health benefits beyond nutrition.

This is interesting for a number of reasons

Repost, with Comments: Number of Trade Regulations to Take Effect in 2014

<p><a href="http://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2013/food-safety-trade-regulations/"><b>Unprecedented Number of Trade Regulations To Take Effect in 2014 </b></a><br>Matt Goodman, Livingston International<br>Prepare your company for an onslaught of new trade regulations, many of which center around food import quality and safety.</p>

Food Safety Modernization Act, Trade Acts, Compliance--how can a food manufacturer keep up with all of the regulations?  The rate of change that is hitting the food and beverage industry--from consolidations, acquisitions, to changing customer tastes, to government oversight--collectively challenge both the large and small processors.  It is one thing to purchase technology, but having the foresight and knowledge to adequately implement, and plan for the future, that's where a company needs assistance.

Repost, with Comments: Mobile devices continue to fuel consumer demand for increased transparency

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Suppliers2/Mobiles-Millennials-and-IndieWomen-Supermarket-Guru-explores-what-s-big-in-2014?utm_source=copyright&utm_medium=OnSite&utm_campaign=copyright

"Mobile devices continue to fuel consumer demand for increased transparency; more convenience; and quick, easy opportunities to be social. Expect continued emphasis on technology and social media as trend-savvy, authenticity-minded Millennials start having families of their own, along with a call for healthy, convenient foods from the growing influencer segment known as IndieWomen, according to “Supermarket Guru” Phil Lempert’s top consumer trends for 2014."

I always pay attention to articles that examine the sentiments and drivers for consumer behavior.  First of all, it shows macro trends that will eventually ripple into the conservative world of industrial automation: #mobility, #cloud, #big data, #social all started with the consumer market, and made their way into industrial offerings.  Sometimes, these trends need a push--like Microsoft's Azure program, which supports commercial offerings to further their platform, or partnerships leading to products such as SmartGlance to address cloud, mobility AND big data--a trifecta as it were.

The need for better control of the food manufacturing process, through #MES

I read an article today on SmartBrief that said FDA recalls more than doubled in this quarter, primarily due to undeclared allergens. Here is the article link:

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/gma/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=C815E5BB-7A9C-4A0B-B3F4-8A02B272EFA5&copyid=8C2DB16D-CFB4-41CA-A7BB-13A33D45D6ED&campaign=googleplus&ref=googleplus8C2DB16D-CFB4-41CA-A7BB-13A33D45D6ED

Repost, with comments: Traceability to be a top consumer food trend in 2014

 http://www.smartbrief.com/11/13/13/traceability-be-top-consumer-food-trend-2014-1

The drive for better understanding of food sources continues, with point of origin labeling now a prequisite for many consumers.

This is an extension of the Food Safety Modernization Act now being mandated by the US government, requiring a swift and definitive response to a recall event.

For companies like Invensys serving the food and beverage industry, this is a welcome movement, for the industrial automation industry has strived to put better controls around a manufacturing process supply chain, starting with the raw ingredients/incoming quality inspection and extending through final delivery to the customer.  The more transparency the manufacturer has to their process, the better they can control and manage.  That's the focus of #ManufacturingExecutionSystems, providing the supply chain visibility, quality control, and transformation management of raw materials to finished goods. Long a staple tool for the food and beverage industry, #MES has expanded beyond the traditional plant floor to provide enterprise integration (for example, the amount of material consumed by operation), quality and production management (yields, throughput, LIMS integration) as well as equipment uptime (bottlenecks, yields, quality). It's a comprehensive solution to help manufacturers meet their customer needs for better quality, security and peace of mind.

Breaking News: FDA to Food Manufacturers: Remove The Trans Fats

http://www.foodprocessing.com/industrynews/2013/fda-to-food-manufacturers-remove-the-trans-fats/

Thanks to Food Processing for letting us know that the food industry now has 60 days to respond to this finding. For consumers, this is good protection against substances that may be harmful, but in any case, it may lead to more healthy eating, which is a boom for both the public and the processors.

Why the Food and Beverage Industry Depends On Automation to Help Them Reach Their Goals

by Michael Schwarz, MES/EMI Product Marketing Manager, Invensys

The Food and Beverage industries have been always on the forefront of technology,  with investments in automation of processes to secure profitability on high volume and low margin products.

Today, the race is on in squeezing the maximum capacity from production lines, to streamline any process, to reduce any loss in product, quality and all used resources and to streamline any process gain with superior connectivity to all automation systems. Food and Beverage industries have to satisfy the requirements of food safety regulations which requires to document product and processes and define and prepare corrective actions, What is mostly considered as additional cost is at the same time a foundation to optimize cost and reduce losses as well protect brand equity.

Top Ten Reasons for Using ArchestrA Workflow Software

ArchestrA Workflow Software is foundational software to help you manage, collaborate, standardize and control operations, events, and activities.  Not sure of why to use?  Let me give you the top ten reasons:

1. Real time Process Institutionalization.  ArchestrA Workflow Software ensures that processes are adhered to, organizationally-wide, and in real time, by making your unique practices part of your Standard Operating Procedures.

2. Enable plant-wide collaboration.  Stakeholders get context specific information, and ensure timely concurrent activities are executed.

3. Proliferate best practices. Good manufacturing practices can be made part of the "system of record" to ensure compliance of operations, replication of optimum procedures, and minimized variations in practice.

4. Ensure comprehensive compliance management. Meticulously maintain audit trails, eliminate messy paperwork while ensuring that work processes are streamlined.

5.  Schedule regular assessments.  Ensure asset excellence with system-based, timely assessments of equipment and their performance.  Contribute to effective utilization, uptime and corrective action.

The Plant Management Experience

http://www.real-time-answers.com/food-beverage/

A complimentary webinar series featuring guest speakers from leading brands in food, beverage, and CPG industries.

Join Invensys and its partners for a free, informative web series covering the issues that F&B/CPG manufacturers face today to meet compliance, regulation standards, along with brand protection & operational improvements such as increasing quality, throughput, yields, and uptime.

Safety Regulations: Food Safety Regulatory Outlook for 2013

Safety Regulations: Food Safety Regulatory Outlook for 2013

For the past few years, the demand for food safety has had a domino effect: it's not only the producers, but the suppliers to these organizations that have to be cognizant of the reporting, tracking and systems infrastructure that are necessary for compliance.  Invensys (and other automation suppliers) have offerings such as #MES, #Quality, #EMI and other visualization, reporting and analysis tools to help manufacturers/processors maintain or establish compliance.  This article is a good overview of the challenges facing us all in 2013.