Automation
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Field Reports

From clipboards to CMMS, maintenance is now a snap

Fish producer uses computerized maintenance management to handle production equipment, farm equipment and operator certifications.

Wayne Labs

January 10, 2014

Snow Island is a Nova Scotia-based salmon producer distinguished by its commitment to the environment and sustainable farming practices for raising salmon from egg to plate. The company gives its salmon extra room to grow, maintaining a 98.5 percent volume of water to 1.5 percent of fish in its pens and nets. And while many other operations house one million-plus fish per farm, Snow Island farms contain only 500,000.

TECH FLASH

Cool energy waste in your refrigeration systems!

Energy audits can spot potential waste and provide short-term fixes, but a refrigeration energy management system can keep temperatures and costs cool.

Wayne Labs

November 25, 2013

A modular energy management system can keep a facility’s cooling costs under control.

TECH FLASH

Rockwell Automation Fair offers up-close look at trends in automation and process control

Global population growth means great challenges, but also great opportunity.

Shane O'Halloran

November 25, 2013

Improving asset utilization and innovation while managing risk will allow industry leaders to thrive.

TECH FLASH

ARC announces 2014 Industry Forum agenda

The event will focus on the emerging information-driven enterprise.

November 25, 2013

The 2014 event will be held February 10-13 in Orlando, FL.

Maintenance Technology

Proactive maintenance management

Processors move from calendar-based checks and reports to condition monitoring of assets in real time.

Mikell Knights

November 8, 2013

Predictive and preventive maintenance tools help to reduce unplanned downtimes of critical equipment.

Best Practices

Automation tales from the trenches

Best practices in setting up and implementing automation systems go a long way to making a processor more successful than its peers.

Wayne Labs

November 8, 2013

Technologies must be properly applied after careful planning to ascertain where and what to automate.

Downtime’s true calculated cost

November 7, 2013

Production is king, so maintenance personnel are lucky to get an hour per month on the equipment for fine-tuning, says JBT FoodTech’s Hanssen. “Yet you cannot run this way profitability, so food and beverage companies have to build in the time for preventive and predictive maintenance. Maintenance and production work more closely together,” continues Hanssen.

TECH FLASH

Zen Guide to Manufacturing Intelligence provides enlightenment on quality metrics

A new eBook shows how to use data beyond the shop floor.

Shane O'Halloran

October 29, 2013

The guide covers five steps in the journey to data-driven wisdom.

TECH FLASH

Fieldbus Foundation and HART Communication Foundation discuss merger

A combined organization could more comprehensively address field communications and intelligent device management.

Shane O'Halloran

October 29, 2013

A combined organization could more comprehensively address field communications and intelligent device management.

TECH FLASH

10 steps to making analytics pay in manufacturing

Plant floor analytics have to be linked with customer-focused processes to be the most beneficial.

Shane O'Halloran

October 29, 2013

By choosing metrics to measure performance from a customer’s perspective, manufacturers can make analytics pay off.

Join Lynn Dornblaser, Client Advisor at Mintel, and Alyse Thompson-Richards, Editor-in-Chief of FOOD ENGINEERING, as they break down the 2026 Top 100 Food and Beverage Companies and discuss the factors affecting this year’s rankings.

Explore food safety strategies that strengthen sanitation, risk management, operational efficiency, and compliance across foodservice and facility environments.