Automation in food industry

Automation is the development and use of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of goods and services while minimising human intervention. In a food plant, its central value is standardisation of the production process, and with it improved product performance, improved production quality, improved production speed and lowered production cost. Automation is rarely installed in one move — it is frequently accomplished in small steps, area by area.

The scope runs the length of the factory. Front of line automation covers depalletising, loading, line charging and food packaging. Handling and picking automation covers pick, place and sorting tasks, while delicate process automation deals with slicing, punching, cutting and fillings. Processing itself takes in mixing, blending, steam injection and infusion, frying, boiling, drying and freezing, and end of line automation closes the loop with wrapping, labelling, packing and palletising.

Six enabling technologies sit behind this. Computer vision, an Artificial Intelligence field that extracts meaningful data from digital images, videos and other visual inputs and acts or makes recommendations on it, is used for detection of surface defects and contamination, quality inspection, and product grading and counting. Online sensors detect and react to input from the physical environment and convert the output into a human-readable display or transmit it over a network — gas sensors, electronic noses, bioelectronic noses and metal oxide semiconductor devices are used for gas presence and detection of food aromas. Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) integrates design and engineering, manufacturing and production scheduling, inventory control and materials handling, quality control, and order processing and finance, so that departments share manufacturing data. Robotic technology serves packaging and palletizing, meat processing, dairy processing, foodservice applications and food delivery, improving food safety and sanitation while taking on jobs that are challenging and dangerous for human workers. Systems engineering designs, integrates and handles complex systems — for example a cloud-based Warehouse Management System (WMS), which stores data on a cloud host and offers rapid implementation, economy, ease of use and security. Expert systems, knowledge-based programmes that combine knowledge, information and data from various sources, support food safety by putting experimental data and expert knowledge into user-friendly software tools.

Fully automated lines built from mechanical, electronic and computer technologies give manufacturers faster pick-and-place and handling times, quicker production and packaging processes, and the ability to react quickly to market dynamics and changing food industry demands. Digitisation addresses the requirement for real-time traceability and precise data, integrated systems reduce or eliminate packaging and labelling errors, and automation aids the prevention of failures — less downtime, less waste and reduced energy consumption. Against this sit real constraints: high initial investment, uncertainty about both hardware and software, the need for high maintenance, a long-term investment horizon, worker displacement, and a lower degree of flexibility in terms of the possible products.