Food processing plant reduces downtime with efficient wireless monitoring

Posted on 28 de May de 202429 de May de 2024 by Roberta Roth

A food company in the Middle East significantly reduced its downtime with efficient wireless monitoring. NOVUS Automation DigiRail OEE enabled an overview of the whole production chain, which enhances from bottle production, oil processing, bottling, labeling, and all the way to getting the pallets into a truck. Real-time data sent to a cloud-based solution allows quick actions and preventative measures to guarantee the efficiency expected to meet productivity goals.

Keep reading and find out:

The plan to reduce downtime in the production
The benefits of monitoring the food processing line
How this Project was designed
What to expect from DigiRail OEE

Failsafe plan to reduce downtime

The whole production line at one of Savola’s oil processing plants went from zero data and significant loss due to downtime to a full overview and real-time monitoring. While meeting the company’s expectations for reduced stops in manufacturing, this plant now also has live results they can see locally and register on the cloud. NOVUS DigiRail OEE plays an important role in this Savola production site, which now has more than 20 units of the device in a wireless monitoring system.

Novus Automation business partner in Saudi Arabia, ABM carried out this project. Their representative, Amr Husain, stated that “they had no real way to push the data through because the line has an old controlling technology and DigiRail OEE came in and connected everything through Ethernet, which allowed it to go through the server.”

Wireless monitoring on food processing line

When met with the challenge of bringing a cooking oil production line, from blowing the bottles to getting the pallets into a truck to modern industry standards, ABM (https://www.automatedbmachines.com) sought after reliable devices. Besides the need for constant updated information from the many different machines throughout the process, the entire system had to be cableless.

The project was designed and commissioned by three companies. Deloitte, leading the front-end and connectivity through the server and cloud for the monitoring system; ABM, a NOVUS Automation partner in Saudi Arabia; and Savola Foods, a part of the leading strategic investment holding group for the food and retail sectors in the Middle East and North African region.

How the system works

“Before the monitoring system, the line was down a lot. There were a lot of changeovers, and now Savola has real data to see the actual efficiency of the line. It went from zero, which means they could not prove anything regarding the stops, and now they have live results they can see all the time” , explains Amr Husain.

DigiRail OEE is an IoT and I/O module designed for OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and MES (Manufacturing Execution System) industrial operations. This device can connect even outdated processing plants, modernizing the lines and employing Industry 4.0 Industrial standards.

The module collects and monitors data from production lines to ensure reliability in harsh environments. Its internal memory buffer grants data retention and integrity in an eventual downlink, keeping the data logging seamlessly. DigiRail OEE transmits data natively to Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, NOVUS Cloud, or any other compatible IoT cloud platform with a secure MQTT protocol.

A fully monitored plant

In less than 15 days, the project went from a demand of higher management to a 24/7 monitored and more efficient production line, all enabled by a wireless monitoring system. As soon as the system was up and running, Amr Husaen celebrated: “They wanted their data funnel to their server and cloud, and they got exactly that.”

Long distance wireless monitoring is also a possibility in remote locations, find out how