Technology implementations in the field of Industry 4.0, including production reporting, often involve modernization of machinery fleets. This is a quite natural process in the automotive sector, for example. But how do you digitize a confectionery plant if technology in this sector does not require regular upgrades? In that case, is there any point in digitizing at all? What challenges does this industry have in terms of automatic production traceability, and is it possible to go through the digital transformation gradually, step by step? Today, using a concrete example, I will zoom in on a simple production reporting solution for the confectionery industry.
In the process of making confectionery products, a variety of raw materials, both liquid and loose, must be mixed. Production takes place on an industrial scale, so the mass of raw materials is really large, and hundreds or thousands of baked goods are made from it. Every ingredient, from sugar to flavorings, must be accurately measured and identified for a specific production batch. This is required both by regulatory standards and by end customers. Operators are therefore given recipes and must manually enter the exact quantities of raw materials taken and the batch numbers.
Already here the first challenges are beginning to emerge:
In response to these challenges, the explitia team and I proposed a manual system based on web forms that reside on operator panels. This system replicates exactly the form that the operator fills out manually, but uses a barcode scanner instead of typing in the data.
There are numerous benefits to introducing such a system:
The introduction of digitization in industrial dough production can be implemented step by step, without the need for costly upgrades to the entire machinery fleet. Our proposed solution, based on web forms and barcode scanning:
This allows confectionery plants to gradually implement the next steps of digitization, achieving tangible benefits and improving the efficiency of their production.
