How Production line Data adds up to Valuable Business Benefits

Data is everywhere on today’s factory production lines – but all too often its use is restricted to detecting poor-quality products that need to be rejected or reworked.

- Dr Richard Parmee

And, even if any of the data collected is shared, it is likely to be limited to information such as whether a unit is running correctly or there are any signs of a fault.

Yet data gathered from end-of-line inspection technology on food and beverage production lines can tell a valuable story – yielding real-time insights into production that can be used to and reduce costs. The dramatic decrease in the costs associated with data collection, storage and analysis – as well as tools such as machine learning – mean this ‘fastmoving’ data can now be captured and analysed like never before.

Measurements from a checkweigher, for machines are involved in producing bags of rice and one of them develops a fault that leads to overweight bags, high-level data might not suggest a problem if the batch averages across the four machines are within the accepted range. It is only when the individual weights are analysed that a pattern emerges – allowing the issue to be enrober coating multiple lanes of chocolate bars is uneven across the conveyor belt, real problem. Without the insights from data on individual weights, the enrober will be adjusted to ensure all bars meet uneven, this will mean some of the bars receive an extra-thick layer of chocolate – increasing costs compared with running the equipment at the optimal level.