Page 36 - Energize February 2022

VIEWS AND OPINION

A new dawn in operational efficiency

and traceability

by Lance Johnson and Clive Roberts, Schneider Electric

n today’s increasingly agile operational environments, intuitive, secure and seamless
integration offers several fundamental benefits that ultimately lead to enhanced operations,
Ireduced risks, and cost savings. Additionally, advancement in integration comes at a time
when operations and control professionals are required to stay within the approved CAPEX and
optimise OPEX, whilst still prioritising continuous improvements – a challenge to say the least.
Achieving true integration across operations does pose some legwork but the rewards
are tremendous. Actionable insight from integrated operations has the potential to transform
business and improve risk management.
According to market analysis and research firm, Frost & Sullivan, many organisations are
currently pursuing modernisation, IT and OT convergence and enterprise-wide connectivity
projects, but integration at the control layer with supervisory systems is not as seamless as it
should be. Lance Johnson

The solution, says Frost & Sullivan, is control and software solutions which integrate control
with supervision to facilitate seamless data flow between the control and system layers, products, as it can tangibly demonstrate
addressing the following integration challenges: where they came from and how they were
• Communication: Modern control systems need high performance, cyber-secure links handled, an important differentiator.
between many control assets and supervisory systems
• Engineering: Duplication of engineering tasks represents risk Traceability and responsiveness
• Standardisation: Standard blocks to connect to control assets and to interface to software Recipe and batch management solutions
applications provide rapid and reliable integration across the whole control system. offer agility in terms of real-time decision
making and responsiveness. It not only
Eat or be eaten automates processes, but also enhances
Across the globe including South Africa, the food and beverage industry is faced with rising equipment utilisation, productivity, quality,
input costs. Also, consumers are increasingly demanding products that are diverse, which adds traceability and reporting outcomes.
an additional layer of competition amongst industry players. For example, a leading grain flour
Consumers are also demanding more transparency and traceability when purchasing food. production facility in Argentina leveraged
There are many reasons for this trend: safety concerns, compliance with ethical standards, an integrated solution from Schneider to
reduction in food wastage and so forth. achieve high availability and control, as well
The above means that food and beverage manufacturers must become agile, facilitating as improved traceability.
increased flexibility on the factory floor that is driven by technology solutions such as IoT and Similarly, a leading beef producer in
automation. This will enable manufacturers to efficiently gather, manage and analyse the France used Schneider Electric’s integrated
necessary data needed to address customer expectations. control and software management systems
Also, traceability allows manufacturers to market food items such as luxury and organic to link production and palletising areas for
enhanced productivity and flexibility.
By leveraging integrated control and
software solutions, food and beverage
manufacturers can quickly adapt to new
product development (NPD) needs or
inventory levels. Product quality and
traceability is also ensured to meet
compliance requirements as well as maintain
preparedness in the case of food recalls.

Contact Schneider Electric South Africa,
Phone 086 130 0222,
za-ccc@se.com, www.se.com/za/en

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