Do You Know Your Sensors?
July 25, 2022
Industrial Robotic Vision Systems
August 27, 2022
As a business leader, how does your organization use automated food production lines to improve efficiency, quality, and safety?
With the declining profit margins and increased competition in the food industry, businesses must adopt a seamless flow in production.
Automation enables organizations to meet industry quality control standards, exercise scalability, and comply with state and federal laws and regulations. The improved food quality and safety can grow your brand and ultimately increase ROI. For food industries to be sustainable, mass production of high-quality products and low operational costs are essential. To counter challenges, food industries adopt automated processes in their production lines to lower costs and enhance efficiency.
Here are the benefits of automation for food quality and safety.
1. Quality Control
There are numerous points of contact along the food supply chain. And automation makes it much easier to track and maintain quality.
A well-designed automation system yields predictable and consistent results. This is especially important if you work in the food industry. Food, after all, must be traceable and safe.
The right systems will assist you in detecting problems in the supply chain as early as possible.
Data generated from robots, IoT devices, and other sources form a basis of predictive analytical tools. AI algorithms gather and utilize data in production lines to forecast potential risks or processes limiting real-time product quality.
Automation enables managers to take charge before these possible dangers become a reality and impact production.
You’ll be able to reduce the number of defective goods that reach consumers this way.
Through automation, food industries can evaluate food quality to prevent and detect contamination to improve a product’s shelf life.
2. Enhanced Traceability
Traceability is a significant advantage of automation. Food industries can track their products or raw materials in real time from the field to order fulfillment without requiring manual intervention. Business managers can instantly track production as well as the supply and delivery chain.
Recalls keep consumers safe from tainted foods. As a result, it’s critical that you’re prepared for a quick response via automated tracking. This enables you to track your products from beginning to end as they move through the supply chain.
Traceability assists food industries in adhering to applicable laws and regulations. When the need for proof of submission arises, an organization can provide real-time data. By utilizing data from the tracing software, inefficiencies and expenses are reduced. Automation allows industries to extend the life of their products and track the removal of bad products from the line.
In other words, you can follow your products as they progress through the manufacturing process. You will be able to better manage recalls and protect consumers by automating tracking protecting your company’s reputation as well.
3. Increased Efficiency
When all systems are in place, automation improves efficiency in the food industry by maximizing production, lowering costs, limiting waste, and improving quality. Automation reduces direct contact, reducing potential downtime, delays, or variability caused by employees.
If you produce too much, you may generate a lot of waste. Not to mention that it will cost your company a lot of money in the long run.
A high-precision automation system will handle your large number of inputs. Industrial automation will also track your outputs, allowing you to cut waste.
Automation reduces direct contact, reducing potential downtime, delays, or variability caused by employees.
Machines, unlike humans, can work for extended periods of time without rest. In fact, industrial machines can be run continuously if necessary. This continuous production expands the range of foods and beverages available to your company. As a result, your company’s profits will rise. In other words, industrial automation is a business investment.
4. Enhanced Safety Precautions
Automation minimizes exposure risks to plant workers, including those from chemicals, blades, and heavy equipment. The potential impacts of the food processing industry’s “three D’s”—dangerous, dirty, and dull—are reduced. Robots enhance safety by completing high-risk tasks and freeing employees to engage in other activities in the production line.
Integrating automation with IoT devices enhances safety controls by generating data. Managers can monitor and analyze the real-time data to initiate safety protocols to optimize production processes.
Next Steps
Do you want to improve efficiency via automation in your production line? Schedule a call or speak with a specialist today. We have comprehensive automation solutions for diverse industries. Our team is on standby to evaluate and develop the right solution for your industry.
