Many large food and beverage manufacturers have their own engineering staffs, which provide system integration and automation services to their various facilities. However, most medium- and small-sized processors often don’t have these capabilities—and may have just a single plant engineer.
Therefore, for any number of reasons, a food processor may need to look for a system integrator (SI) to help with its automation strategy, whether to update aging and existing automation systems or plan new automation strategies that could require complete revamps or new facilities. First, we look at the basics in choosing a system integrator, and second, we look at the ways a food processor can work with a SI to plan a successful automation strategy.