Automation platforms
deliver productivity
benefits in food and
beverage production
There are clear benefits for food & the automation platform is a system
beverage manufacturers in rationali- where the benefits go far beyond the
sing their automation vendors. Using footprint of the machine, process or
a single source of supply for automa- production line, to provide the driver
tion components can play a big role for plant-wide improvements in ope-
in improving flexibility and reducing rational efficiency and agility.
downtime but as Jeremy Shinton
An automation platform can be
of Mitsubishi Electric explains, an
pro-active, predict its own health and
automation system can be much more
performance and inform operators
than just the sum of its parts.
about how to make improvements
With supermarkets driving demand in efficiency, helping to coordinate
for more diverse products at lower manufacturing, processing and logis-
prices, combined with increasingly tics. This can be a major step towards
being a smart factory.
stringent legislation – not only within
the production environment but
Using the cloud it can also extend data
throughout the entire supply chain
– food and drink manufacturers are that can be derived from sourcing re-
facing increasing pressures on their quired automation components from
business. The companies that typically a single vendor. The result is that the
grow and succeed are the ones who likes of PLCs, inverters, servo com-
are quick to adapt and flexible enough ponents, networking cards, HMIs, I/O
to change. modules and even smaller robots are
Increasingly, investment in auto-
mation is being recognised as a key
more frequently purchased as a total
solution.
storage and processing to t