A study by Aberdeen found that unplanned downtime in the food & beverage industry costs manufacturers up to $30,000 per hour. Improving overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) through real-time monitoring not only reduces downtime but also enhances sustainability.

In a Food Entrée & Manufacturing article, Achieving Sustainability Goals with Smart Automation, Emerson’s Chiara Ponzellini shares several examples of how original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) applied intelligent automation to drive operational performance improvements.

Chiara’s first example was Cadence Automation:

…a manufacturer of automation and robotics solutions that created a palletizing solution for La Maison Orphée, a food producer of mustards and oils in Canada.

The robotic palletizing solution replaced manual box assembly onto pallets. The solution integrated the Movicon SCADA/HMI application:

…for control and a vision system for inspection… The vision system inspects product containers, cases, and palletizing processes, preventing defective or improperly packaged products from entering the supply chain and significantly reducing costly product waste.

This solution:

…provides built-in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) reports that are essential for assessing equipment performance and identifying bottlenecks in the production flow, allowing production teams to optimize operations, leading to streamlined processes, reduced idle time, and ultimately, less waste of raw materials and finished products, while comprehensive data aggregation supports logical process development.

Read the article for other examples of increasing OEE performance, including aluminum can palletizing and depalletizing, as well as industrial packaging and filling. Visit the Movicon section on Emerson.com for more information about SCADA/HMI connectivity and operability through modular, scalable, and secure interfaces that help you optimize operations and efficiency.