If you have old equipment, there is hope that you can keep what works and modernize it by pulling worthwhile information from it with instrumentation and controls.

Other industries have long been ahead of food and beverage in areas such as automation, but processors are drawing on that knowledge to modernize their own operations.

How processors are visualizing production to help meet output and efficiency targets. 

Food, pharmaceutical, nutrition and other manufacturers typically consider automating manual operations when significant, immediate troubles are causing line downtime; when they need to meet increased production targets; or when they can no longer tolerate an ongoing series of problems.

Seven suppliers from mechanical engineering, industrial automation and software announced the foundation of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance at the Hannover Messe 2019 trade fair. With this cooperation, the companies want to overcome proprietary solutions and give a boost to the digital transformation of the European industry.