Introducing Smart Technology Into Your Food and Beverage Operations

The food and beverage industry is more complex and fast-changing than ever before.

I hear from customers regularly that they are struggling to manage the constant pressure to keep up with changing markets and consumer demands.

Today’s consumers are more outspoken and connected. For example, they can grocery shop from the comfort of their own homes with the ability to easily see all their options and compare prices from grocer to grocer with just a few clicks.

Specialty and local food producers are becoming greater competition, and regulations are constantly changing.

With rapidly changing consumer tastes, food and beverage manufacturers need to be able to quickly respond to the speed of these market dynamics. How can your company begin to keep up?

To remain competitive, food and beverage manufacturing systems must perform at the highest level. This requires comprehensive and continuous operations improvement.

Connected, information-enabled manufacturing – or smart manufacturing – can make all the difference.

New technologies are helping food and beverage manufacturers better understand and use their food processing operations. Smart manufacturing can help:

• Improve asset utilization
• Increase yield
• Drive workforce productivity
• Optimize resource management
• Mitigate security risks

Smart manufacturing can create a single view of operations and enable seamless communications across people, data and assets.

So, when new challenges arise, food and beverage manufacturers can avoid downtime and optimize their business process in a way that was previously unimaginable.

New developments in technology are redefining food and beverage manufacturing. By combining the Internet of Things, wireless and mobile technologies, data analytics and network infrastructure, companies can access and act on the data from their operations.

For example, when Hillshire Brands implemented a manufacturing intelligence system at their plant in Haltom City, Texas, the food manufacturer reduced inedible product and waste goals to 0.8 percent – saving about 5.5 million corn dogs per year.

Food and beverage manufacturers are getting the most out of their systems with smart devices connected to the internet, and data being captured and contextualized from anywhere.

This is The Connected Enterprise®.

The Connected Enterprise® converges network architecture to simplify how systems run and modernizes the data collection and analytics processes across operations.

This can help food and beverage manufacturers make operational improvements, and improve efficiency and on-demand production.

For more information on how smart manufacturing can help your food and beverage operations, check out this eBook.