1. Expand on and prioritize existing critical control points. Revamping an entire food production process with IIoT-based monitoring can be overwhelming and seem cost-prohibitive for most manufacturers. Instead, begin with areas that are most essential to food safety and quality, like the Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Gathering and analyzing data in real-time from these critical supply, manufacturing, and distribution points will provide great returns in terms of mitigating recall risks by helping to find and avoid potential problems before they become costly issues. The long-term payoff of these investments can become instrumental to a plant’s success.
2. Ensure compliance through the IIoT. Implementing IIoT technologies can help food manufacturers address some of the challenges brought about by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Regulations from the FSMA increase individual food facilities’ obligations to prevent threats to the supply—the impacts of which most food manufacturers are all too familiar. The IIoT can bring about improvements such as test results that are immediately available to centralized quality systems through automated, in-line quality analysis. Through real-time chemical and spectroscopic analysis data, manufacturers can identify potential problems early in production and respond proactively before the product has been produced and shipped. This can drastically reduce the risk of a recall, large fines, and brand damage.
Another example of IIoT technology applications for supply chain compliance include the data produced, as this demonstrates to regulators that a food manufacturer is properly monitoring food quality and safety.
3. Protect and leverage data to decrease risk. Without data, the IIoT could not function and protecting the data that keep everything running is essential. In order to do that, manufacturers need to invest in systems that ensure the continuous operation of critical production and monitoring equipment. This can be done through high-availability, fault-tolerant systems that prevent data loss—from the systems that gather information throughout the supply chain to in-flight data in the cloud to permanent repositories. High availability can also increase manufacturers’ confidence in these systems.
IIoT Migration: The First Step
Forward-looking enterprises are viewing IIoT implementation as an opportunity to modernize automation systems and IT infrastructures. However, for most it is still a big undertaking. Fortunately, adopting the IIoT can be an evolutionary process. Most manufacturers will start with just a few implementations that target the most essential quality control points, as mentioned earlier. As the value from intelligent tracking, tracing and analysis of the food supply chain and production process is recognized, manufacturers can then extend IIoT infrastructure into new areas. To begin this journey, take a thorough look at your entire supply and demand chain and production process and identify which control points are most critical—and start there.
Andersen is vice president of business line management at Stratus Technologies. Reach him at [email protected].
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