In the previous parts of this series, we considered the aspects of land, locale and logistics. This edition will discuss the top trend in the food and beverage processing industry—automation, and how this is affecting site selection decisions.

The cloud provides storage space, communications, analytics and much more. But knowing the cloud's limitations in terms of reliability, security and performance—and what your expectations are—will play a major role in how you design and implement a cloud-based IIoT system.

A good way to think of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is as an ever-expanding toolset to improve your operations.

Kevin Fitzgerald, a global solutions architect and Schneider Electric Fellow and representative of OPAF, answers questions on IIoT and the OPAF’s role in IIoT technologies.

While there's no "one size fits all" solution to improving throughput, there are some guiding principles to help processors achieve greater productivity.

Among the top trends, automation and robotics are expected to gain mass adoption in many food processing plants to help operational efficiencies and customer order fulfillment as well as to increase throughput and quality.

Knowledge of how attacks occur, new tools coming on the scene, and long-term investments in cybersecurity can all help processors stand a better chance of keeping their plants safely up and running.

While you might wait until a small motor burns out before you replace it, do you want to take a similar chance with a control system failure?

When it comes to designing a washdown-friendly facility, it really starts before a company even begins to build the factory.