Food and Beverage Industry
The food and beverage industry is characterized by a high variety of customers in global markets and strict regulations. End customers expect innovative products that are healthy, sustainable, and budget-friendly. At the same time, needs are growing due to demographic growth and increasingly scarce natural resources. As a result, the food and beverage industry is facing the dilemma of “producing more with less”. This dilemma can only be solved by increasing efficiency through an optimization of lines and processes and by reducing waste production. The VisiWin SCADA and HMI tool is a means of controlling and monitoring your production lines and processes in an optimal way.
Optimization of Production Lines
The infrastructure of production lines in the food and beverage industry features a high degree of integration of diverse machines and devices. By decentralizing the controlling and monitoring of individual units, efficiency of a production line as a whole can be improved. The connectivity of machine units plays an important role in this. Along with an open architecture and various connection options, VisiWin offers flexible system architectures to map complex constellations. They include both server-client and multi-server architectures. The possible applications are manifold and range from classical HMIs for a single machine and production lines to complex control center applications. This also increases the productivity of the operating personnel since they do not have to check individual units of a production line but can locate the error and take the appropriate measures using a mobile operator interface. Machine downtimes can thus be reduced significantly.
More information: VisiWin architecture
The flexible VisiWin system architecture allows to integrate mobile devices into your infrastructure. New ways of working and a trend towards contactless environments create a demand for mobile solutions. Platform-independent VisiWin web applications that run in a browser excite managers, service personnel, and operators. The operator interface can be adapted to the specific task of each of these user groups. Managers can keep track of the current figures by taking a look at the informative dashboard whenever they want. Service staff can view error messages and alarms on a mobile device and analyze trends to fix problems while operators can control and monitor machine functions on-site. All this is possible with web panels, which present an inexpensive alternative to industrial PCs. Platform independence is ensured by the VisiWin Cross-Platform Runtime, which can be executed on any Windows or Linux-based automation device. VisiWin can thus be used with any hardware and allows you to choose components taking suitability and deliverability into account.
More information: Cross-Platform HMI
Optimization of Processes
The process chains in the food and beverage industry are diverse and multifaceted. From procurement of raw materials through processing and preservation to packaging and delivery, products go through several processing stages. The ever-growing degree of automation requires more sensors, actuators, and software systems. All this creates a huge amount of data, which are transformed by intelligent systems into information that is used for decision-making. VisiWin supports this with a trend recording system. For many process values, not only the current values are relevant but also their development over time, and VisiWin allows to record them chronologically. The recording can be initiated at regular intervals or by a trigger such as a batch change-over. The recorded data can be visualized using various charts to enable different user groups to view and interpret them. The information can be exported into any format and summarized in reports. The reports can be used to identify bottlenecks, analyze production failures, and calculate KPIs in order to make the right decision at the right time in future. Moreover, collecting and analyzing data allows machinery and plant manufacturers to provide additional services. These services include consulting regarding machine efficiency enhancement and remote and predictive maintenance.
More information: Trend recording
Optimization of Resource Utilization
The food and beverage industry uses both batch and continuous processes in production. Particularly in batch processes, the handling of ingredients presents a major challenge. The intelligent VisiWin recipe system supports reproducibility and quality assurance of products and batches. Define which parameters are saved and managed coherently and leave the rest to VisiWin. It can save the values in an XML file or a database, create recipes from sub-recipes and display recipes with comments in the application. The recipe functions can also be controlled by the PLC by means of trigger variables. The ingredients are detected automatically and the appropriate recipe is loaded. This reduces the probability of batch loss or waste production caused by faulty input and helps to save resources and costs.
More information: Recipe management
If issues do occur, an early notification is crucial so as to reduce wastage of resources to the minimum. The VisiWin alarm system assists you in that by collecting machine data and showing them on the monitor as error messages, warnings, and notifications. The operator is notified directly and can take appropriate action to prevent any interruptions in the production process. The optional event recording allows to analyze error causes and to prevent the same errors from occurring in the future. Continuous improvement of processes is thus ensured.
More information: Alarm management
VisiWin has many more features for your HMI/SCADA solution: Functionalities
VisiWin is used by many players in the food and beverage industry and grows constantly in close cooperation with our customers.
Krones Relies on VisiWin 7
Krones AG, an internationally operating manufacturer and provider of turnkey filling and packaging solutions, relies on VisiWin 7 as an open, flexible and powerful basis for its future-oriented "Connected HMI".
