The process and packaging machinery industry has reached a decisive phase. The implementation of advanced and automated technologies has begun, but there’s still some way to go. The adoption of new technologies and innovation are and will continue to be key to completing it. Nor should we neglect security, energy efficiency and the response to a growing demand for sustainable packaging solutions among customers.
Each product and industry has specific features in terms of processes, but they all retain several similarities. Therefore, who better than some of the leading companies to discuss process machinery, a major player on the production lines? Lluís Chueca, general manager of IMCO, David Maldonado, general manager of Weber Food Technology Ibérica, Carlota Aguilar, manager of Luciano Aguilar, and José María Escot, sales and strategy manager at Radar Process, offer their views on this speciality and examine the future challenges and major opportunities set to require increasing collaboration throughout the value chain.
The present: Which stage is the process machinery in now?
David Maldonado, Weber Food Technology Ibérica
We’re witnessing an exciting phase featuring innovation and ongoing improvements in the field of automation and packaging. The incorporation of advanced technologies and comprehensive solutions is leading to significantly better operational efficiency and product quality. As a leading company, Weber Maschinenbau markets smart systems for any phase, from product preparation to the final packaging. This comprehensive approach is redefining the industry’s standards, providing greater flexibility, precision and consistency in manufacturing operations.
Carlota Aguilar, Luciano Aguilar
The food industry boasts a high degree of automation in its processes, although it’s true to say that this depends on the type of customer and/or product, as well as whether it’s a large company or an SME and whether it’s a product with high added value with greater complexity in its processing.
Lluís Chueca, IMCO
In the food industry we haven’t seen any major changes in terms of process automation, as it’s been with us for a number of years. When it comes to packaging, there’s a tendency towards developing new packaging that’s better suited to the current times. Such as smaller formats and individual portions. In the pharmaceutical industry the problem is different, but we can identify a trend to make it easier for patients to administer their medication.
José María Escot, Radar Process
The sector is demanding more and more automation in its processes, which provides an excellent opportunity for us to continue building facilities that produce in a more efficient and competitive manner, feeding and dosing the ingredients of the recipes.
Food, logistics and the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, at the forefront of innovation
José María Escot, Radar Process
The food industry is one of the most active sectors in this regard, given that automation brings great benefits to its companies; it minimises the number of errors and poor practices and reduces production times and, therefore, improves process efficiency, profitability and food security, a key issue in the case of food. Other industrial sectors to be taken into account when investing in innovation are chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Lluís Chueca, IMCO
IMCO operates in the food and pharmacy industries, both of which are very active in this respect.
David Maldonado, Weber Food Technology Ibérica
The food, pharmaceutical and logistics industries display considerable proactivity in adopting the latest technologies and investing in process innovation as they seek to improve efficiency, guarantee quality and meet growing market demands.
Sensitivity to traceability, security and sustainability is driving these industries towards leading the implementation of advanced automation and packaging solutions. We should also highlight the electronic products sector, as it continually aims to innovate in its processes to ensure the optimal protection and presentation of fragile products.
Carlota Aguilar, Luciano Aguilar
In the food industry we should mention companies that sell frozen and fresh-cut products; they’re pioneers in updating and innovating, especially the former. These have been followed by other sectors such as snacks. The fruit and vegetable sectors that process fresh fruit and greens are also committing to technological improvements in their processes.
In the baking and cheese and dairy sectors they’re generally updating their processes and attempting to improve them. For example, there’s interest in more efficient ingredient dosing and flour cooling. The pet food industry is undergoing rapid growth, which is why more and more money is being invested in processing technology. In particular by companies that want to offer their customers premium and high-quality products.
Sustainability, a growing asset
Lluís Chueca, IMCO
We regard sustainability as a global process that begins with the manufacturing of the food or medicine, taking into account, for example, minimising water and energy consumption, and ends with the final packaging. We’ve seen a change; we aren’t just looking at cutting costs, we’re also striving for less consumption of resources, as they’re becoming increasingly scarce.
Carlota Aguilar, Luciano Aguilar
There’s increasing concern about efficient use of energy, which is also due to the high price of this resource. For example, one of our teams offers innovative solutions for steam systems that prove to be exceptionally reliable and energy efficient and carry out automated operations. In addition, the use of the artificial vision technology provided by another of our teams helps to reduce the amount of waste, as it’s more effective in detecting potential defects and foreign bodies and ensuring a minimum of rejected material.
José María Escot, Radar Process
We’re a paperless company with a zero waste policy (packaging, paper and batteries) and any industrial waste is recovered and reused. The energy comes exclusively from renewable sources and the carbon footprint we produce each year is calculated and offset. The consumption at the facilities required for the feeding and dosing processes has also been optimised.
David Maldonado, Weber Food Technology Ibérica
As a modern family-run business with marked environmental awareness, we actively strive to be greener and we’ve set ourselves an ambitious goal, to achieve CO2-neutral production. The “We go Green” initiative represents the consolidation of all the company’s activities with a view to greater sustainability and climate protection, and this commitment is undergoing constant growth.
The challenges of industry 4.0, at the service of greater integration and efficiency
Carlota Aguilar, Luciano Aguilar
There’s increasing interest in interconnecting the teams of different manufacturers to enable them to provide feedback to each other or connect them to the global system of a plant to obtain information on production processes so as to analyse them and become efficient.
Generally speaking, we face the challenge of enhancing the integration between the different teams and making them compatible with the factory’s software.
David Maldonado, Weber Food Technology Ibérica
The successful implementation of Industry 4.0 has brought about significant improvements in the efficiency and integration of processes, but it’s also posing ongoing challenges. Interoperability is one of them; by this I’m referring to ensuring compatibility and effective communication between different connected systems and devices. Another challenge is cybersecurity, given that, as connectivity increases, cybersecurity becomes even more critical. Protecting systems against digital threats and guaranteeing data integrity is essential. Another challenge in Industry 4.0 is the lack of universal standards, which can make smooth integration difficult. Establishing common rules would facilitate the interaction between the different components and systems. Besides, the large amount of data generated by connected systems requires effective solutions for their management, analysis and meaningful use, which poses challenges in terms of storage, processing and privacy. Nor should we forget the shift towards more digitised production environments, which requires a workforce capable of operating and maintaining these advanced systems. Finally, ethical questions arise in relation to responsibility and the social impact of decisions made by autonomous systems. Addressing these challenges involves continuous cooperation across industries, as well as constant attention to the development of Industry 4.0 technologies and practices.
José María Escot, Radar Process
In recent years we’ve worked on improving and adapting our management, control and automation systems for the ingredient feeding and dosing processes, so as to make them increasingly predictive and provide us with a greater amount of information. This information is storable and it can be processed to allow us to make better decisions in relation to our production processes. The challenge lies in the fact that more and more productive units want to incorporate these predictive methods into their systems, as they perceive the usefulness of bringing this decision-making forward.
Lluís Chueca, IMCO
The success of Industry 4.0 will be achieved when all the machines and manufacturing processes in the industry have the tools required for its implementation from the outset. We continue to observe that the implementation of a 4.0 system isn’t an easy task for all customers, due to the lack of resources they can devote to it. Therefore, from the suppliers’ point of view, we suggest that they consider what they want to know about the process and what they want to control or supervise from the start. The biggest challenge lies in explaining to the customers what benefits the application of the Industry 4.0 system will bring them.
Is automation a reality?
Carlota Aguilar, Luciano Aguilar
Yes, definitely, and each sector has specific machinery to offer. This will depend on how big or small the company is. Large companies are more automated and some SMEs still have some way to go. We offer different kinds of machinery and technology, depending on the product. For example, for snacks and nuts we offer the machinery of a pioneering team in frying technology that markets comprehensive processing lines. As for salads, vegetables and fruit, we offer hygienic and innovative solutions for the processing of food and pet food.
José María Escot, Radar Process
There are now numerous companies that have automated their ingredient feeding and dosing processes. However, there are many that are still in the study process, either because they haven’t yet considered it or because they haven’t seen the need until now.
Lluís Chueca, IMCO
Automation has been and will continue to be visible in the industries that we operate in. We believe that in the future steps will continue to be taken in this direction to provide us with a more efficient process.
David Maldonado, Weber Food Technology Ibérica
The need to improve efficiency, maintain high quality standards and comply with increasingly strict regulations has led to the widespread adoption of automated technologies. In the food industry, for example, automation is applied in several stages of the process, including the preparation, processing, packaging and labelling. Automated production lines are used for tasks such as cutting, mixing, cooking, vacuum packaging and other operations specific to each kind of food. However, the exact implementation of the automation may vary, depending on the scale of production, the nature of the product and any customisation requirements.
INDUSTRY 4.0 SOLUTIONS
Robotics, Big Data, IOT and artificial intelligence are terms that make us to think of great opportunities. But is industry ready to implement these disruptive technologies on a mass scale? How can these developments help process machinery?
According to José María Escot, new automation tools and technologies that have emerged in the market are being incorporated into the ingredient feeding and dosing processes. In the opinion of the Radar Process spokesman, robotics is becoming increasingly integrated into these processes, and, although there’s a lot of talk about artificial intelligence, it remains to be seen how the application of this technology will help us in the immediate future. Lluís Chueca believes that in the coming years we’ll begin to see some applications in operations in which human intervention becomes more and more residual. Not surprisingly, there are already some examples of artificial intelligence and deep learning being applied to process and product controls in the food chain. As for robotics and the emergence of collaborative robots, the director of IMCO believes that it’s leading to the replacement of some repetitive operations, which is why it remains a sector with significant growth potential.
Carlota Aguilar, as spokeswoman of the Luciano Aguilar company, believes that there’s still some way to go for the use of data, for example, in the field of product traceability. Finally, David Maldonado lists some examples of advances in his company related to the use and implementation of this type of technology. In the case of robotics, there are self-manufactured robots for line automation and smart transport solutions, and, in that of Big Data, there’s data analysis software. Maldonado also mentions systems based on artificial intelligence for carrying out visual inspections to record and identify reasons for line stoppages, incidents, etc., as well as artificial intelligence algorithms to analyse data and optimise processes.
These technologies already form part of the present (some more than others), but all of them are sure to transform the processes of the future. Processes that continue to be aimed at achieving maximum efficiency and innovation in the coming years. Hispack will provide the meeting point for sharing this progress and the challenges facing the industry.
Cristina Benavides, Hispack partner
