Charles Williams, Managing Director of process automation company Promtek, looks at how bakeries can reduce their energy usage at the same time as improving productivity.
Searching the Internet to find out ‘how to reduce energy consumption or improve production throughput’ will result in a range of manifold answers, some of which prove to be helpful. Others, however will be generic, non-industry specific responses that are likely to leave you no further forward.
What we do know is that throughput in production can mean the difference between meeting quotas and targets and losing custom to competitors. One of the biggest challenges facing bakeries today is maintaining consumer trust in what you are providing. And it’s not just about the quality of the product. Today’s consumers are starting to ask questions about how their food is produced and what the carbon footprint is through the whole supply chain. So, the real challenge is what are you doing to tackle these issues?
Reducing energy
According to the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) energy-intensive industries, in which the food sector sits, account for around one-sixth of CO₂ emissions in the UK. So, this is one area which needs to be given serious consideration, for both production cost reasons and to reduce carbon footprints.
There are, of course, many schemes and technologies that allow for the reduction of energy costs. For example, Promtek’s enterprise integration platform, Condor is able to monitor fundamental process data for machine performance, offering both historical plant performance as well as real time snapshots of current output such as real time energy usage data. This data allows for machinery performance to be profiled and compared when changes are made to make sure that payback is achieved. It’s no longer a case of it is either on or off.
Further, smart motor control allows targeted equipment power management, providing key diagnostic information that enables bakeries to optimise performance with real-time access to operation and performance trends – hence further energy savings. Automation removes human error and influence on the production system. It also increases efficiency and can help to reduce carbon footprints.
Improving throughput
Mechanically, bakeries do not change and evolve that quickly. However, most of the equipment used on a production line will include motors and sensors, and smart technologies allow data to be gathered from these components. This data is the heart of improving production throughput. Collecting, processing, analysing and validating that data before sending it on to other systems – such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and maintenance management systems provides the fundamental measurement that will be used to assess production performance. Enterprise integration platforms will give you this benchmarking data before and after you make any changes to your production cycle and will provide the evidence required to show you have been successful.
Another challenge affecting production throughput in modern bakeries is spikes and dips in demand. These are difficult to predict (except for the obvious seasonal demands) yet they can also be useful and used to drive a positive net gain with the application of smart data. By collecting data from early on in the process – such as the physical impact of the ingredients on the equipment and relating that back to the dates in question – it is possible to look for patterns which will help predict more accurately the demand on machinery’s reliability. Do this over time and it is possible to start to see annual trends too.
In a spike phase you do not want your factory to let you down. Knowing your supply chain and all the demands on it, coupled with ongoing and effective maintenance on machinery, will ensure demand is met. A dip in demand is an opportunity to carry out that maintenance and review production throughput, ultimately using the dip strategically. Data collection on the factory provides indisputable facts on what you need, how you need it and when you need it and that data will feed into a producer’s planning process.
Skills and experience
Carbon neutrality has become the favoured touch stone in the drive for sustainability, but we would argue that it is not enough. If the bakery industry fails to embed the knowledge, experience and skills gained over the last 40 years into the next generation of engineers, technicians, production managers and business owners, then all the benefits of carbon reduction will be wasted by the effort of re-learning all those lessons in the course of replacing old equipment with new, rather than learning new techniques to adapt and update the equipment to keep it fit for purpose. Young and inexperienced new starters joining the industry are vital to creating a sustainable knowledge base and must be empowered.
When employees lack proper training, they cannot support a business properly, when they are poorly trained, they can also become a danger and could actually create delays to a production schedule. So, properly trained employees and suppliers with the appropriate skills to make confident, well-informed changes to the production process is key to maximising throughput.
So, in addition to the adoption of smart technology to collect and analyse production data, investment in staff, and staff training, will create real time improvement in production throughput as employees will feel rewarded and valued and will in turn add value to the business.
With controlled energy costs – through carbon footprint reduction – data driven production throughput and well-verse staff are keys to success in the bakery industry today.
Ediorial contact:
Editor: Kiran Grewal kgrewal@kennedys.co.uk
