Food Processing: Opportunity

Food factory performance is dictated by a unique set of pressures. Even known variables, like food quality, ingredient availability or customer demand, are subject to change at a moment’s notice. Combined with unpredictable factors like price or supply chain volatility, one seemingly minor production delay can trigger a series of consequences that escalate into a company-wide crisis.

While the job of emerging, AI-powered food processing technology is clear—to simplify the complex, interconnected web of processes within factories—selecting the right tools can be difficult. The key is identifying specific capabilities, with a focus on advanced industry-specificity and process-focused efficiency.

Deeper Industry Specificity

No two food verticals, from dairy to baked goods, have the exact same standard practices, equipment, or issue signals. Yet, the market is flooded with generic AI solutions. These are often labeled as ‘custom-built’ for industry or factory needs. They also claim to solve for the complex, process-specific nuances of food production.

Deploying these solutions can result in just as much manual effort as traditional prevention and repair approaches, adding more work for already resource-strained factory managers.

The proven game-changing component maintenance managers need to look for when evaluating potential tools is specificity, down to differentiated industry micro-verticals.

Tools with this level of AI-powered precision come with the built-in knowledge of what equipment success and, importantly, warning signs of critical failure look like for a specific industry micro-vertical. And, the longer they’re embedded in a system, the more accurate they become.

Manufacturers should consider solutions that use real-time and historical data from equipment sensors to pick up on a specific production line’s patterns and alert managers as soon as anomalies are detected. Solutions like Infor’s CloudSuite Food & Beverage use real-time and historical data from equipment sensors to pick up on a specific production line’s patterns. The solution then analyses and alerts managers as soon as anomalies are detected.

The impact of that specificity is massive. Instead of discovering a problem when equipment stops working, maintenance managers receive highly prescriptive alerts and recommendations. These alerts arrive before an issue becomes an expensive disruption. This proactive approach helps protect customers’ trust in distributors’ ability to deliver consistently.

Stronger Status Quos

Avoiding incidents is just one piece of the puzzle. The other is visibility and access into the hidden inefficiencies holding factories back from their full potential. That can be accomplished with advanced process mining capabilities.

Process mining is the ability to examine real data from existing factory management systems to understand action against exactly how its workflows occur in reality. Not how they’re projected to work. For food factories, that means understanding and streamlining vital operations like tracking food quality, compliance, and performance against industry benchmarks in real-time.

But, even more than that, process mining gives factories the opportunity to optimize resolving inefficiencies that may seem small when refined individually, but have major cost-saving benefits when addressed together without extra resource allocation. The net result: stronger factories that act as a competitive edge.

Seamless Integration

Understandably, even if a tool offers advanced capabilities, food factories must prioritize continued operations ahead of technological rehauls.

Managing these transitions is critical. Providers should ensure that advanced technology can operate with legacy equipment and systems. Additionally, the built-in capabilities of a tool are critical to ensuring a smooth transition. Maintenance managers should seek out tools that provide a mix of robust out-of-the-box functionalities and the ability to learn from company data.

While the integration of AI and process mining technology is complex, especially in factory or production settings, the right vendor and corresponding tool makes it feel seamless.

The future of factory maintenance is in AI-powered technology. It is not in the overly-hyped, generic tools that dominate the market. Rather, maintenance managers should seek out intentionally crafted AI solutions with advanced industry specificity and process mining capabilities.

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Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. We develop complete solutions for our focus industries. Infor’s mission-critical enterprise applications and services are designed to deliver sustainable operational advantages with security and faster time to value.

Over 60,000 organizations in more than 175 countries rely on Infor’s 17,000 employees to help achieve their business goals. As a Koch company, our financial strength, ownership structure, and long-term view empower us to foster enduring, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers.

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