Kanarie in de Kolenmijn

Environmental monitoring: the canary in the coal mine at a milk powder factory

Operations Manager Arie van Aalst had everything running smoothly in his brand new dairy factory. Or so he thought. Until that one day in spring, when everything was turned upside down by an outbreak of Salmonella. Months later, when the factory was allowed to restart, he had learned a valuable lesson. The canary in the coal mine had definitely sent a signal… So why did this remain undetected?

Manage Digital Factory from Home

A smart way to manage your digital factory from home

The Covid-19 measures have created a new reality for the way factories are organized. For many factories, there is now a minimum of factory personnel on-site. Management and supporting plant personnel work predominantly from home. People working remotely often struggle to stay well-informed on exactly what’s happening in the factory.
Thus, the new reality of factory personnel working from home has intensified the need for plant information systems in the cloud: with a digital factory we have all the information we need, anytime, anywhere.

inline measurement of product quality

Super smart: in-line measurement of product quality

In-line measurement of product quality versus of off-line quality tests. It helps.

Why? Because you can immediately notice if the production process is not performing optimally: it allows you to timely adjust your production process, in order to prevent rejected batches and ensure product quality consistency.
So, is the introduction of in-line measurement always a no-brainer? I’d say yes, provided you take the right approach.

data hard to find

“Data – I mean the right data – is hard to find”

“Data – I mean the right data – is hard to find”. This observation comes from a Lean 6Sigma Manager in the Food Industry. He understands the value of CORRECT data. Indeed, it appears that food manufacturers often seem not to have the right data in place to solve production and quality issues.

However, a professional plant information system enables fact-based decision-making. Decisions about: What are the reasons for a Rejected batch? Can we improve quality? Can we increase output?