FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANUFACTURERS EMBRACING SYSTEMS INTEGRATION TO MINIMISE WASTE AND DOWNTIME, SAYS SIEMENS

Siemens 04/10/2011

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Siemens Industry Automation & Drive Technologies’ (IA&DT) recent sales success suggests that the food and beverage sector is embracing the benefits of integrated systems.

Sales of the Siemens Coriolis flow meter, which can be fully integrated into the Siemens PCS 7 control system, have more than doubled in the sector in the past twelve months.

With economic pressures increasing as raw material and energy costs rise, integrating systems is a clear way to tackle some of the pressures facing the industry, as it works to minimise both wastage and downtime.

Danny Ronson, product manager, Siemens Sensors & Communication, comments: “At Siemens we have started to see a marked change in the purchasing mentality of food and beverage plants as operators look to integrate their systems, instead of procuring products that work in isolation of each other. This is evidenced by the recent sales figures for our Coriolis flow meter, which integrates with the plant by sending data to an embedded process transmitter in the Siemens PCS 7 control system. This allows operators to access and view the data collected continuously, in real time.

“As well as monitoring flow, the meter also measures density, temperature and concentration of individual ingredients which clearly gives customers improved visibility over their manufacturing process. Importantly, the meter feeds critical diagnostics into the control system so any abnormalities can be picked up before the plant fails and production comes to a halt. Operators are then able to interrogate the flow meter remotely, enabling them to explore faults from the control room.

“In the case of one client, they have been able to reduce wastage by carefully monitoring the individual amounts of each of the three ingredients in a mixture. Before, if one was slightly too high or low it resulted in a faulty batch but now this can be identified and remedied before products come off the production line.

“While the sector has begun to embrace integrated systems to increase operational efficiency, we still come across operators who enter into the solution sourcing process without full knowledge and understanding of how a product will perform in relation to the plant as whole. This can easily work out to be a false economy as products can require a significant amount of operator time to manage, configure or fault find. What businesses should look to do to increase operational efficiency is select an integrated suite of products that will provide interoperability and transparency of information throughout the plant. This enables production decisions and adjustments to be made rapidly to increase efficiency and reduce downtime.”

In an industry where profit margins are tight, ensuring monitoring systems are working efficiently is crucial to increasing operational efficiency and systems integration is the way to achieve this. Return on investment can be achieved as early as a couple of months after installation, depending on the scale of operation.

For any further product information or literature requests please contact Siemens Automation & Drives, Princess Road, Manchester, Tel: 0845 7705070 / www.siemens.co.uk/automation.