Wayne Labs

Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.

Supply chains

What the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us about the internet

Supply chains used to survive without the internet, but could they now?

Wayne Labs

June 19, 2020

When I was an electrical engineer building emergency wireless communications networks, I learned about the importance of having backups—sometimes the hard way, with a 3 a.m. phone call reporting a system is down and the backup system didn’t kick in.

Engineering R&D

Heat exchangers get better with age

Wayne Labs

June 10, 2020

Some things actually get better with age as creative engineering improves performance, decreases energy usage and makes a device more efficient and better able to handle a new range of food or beverage products.

Manufacturing News

The ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the food industry and its supply chains

Wayne Labs

June 8, 2020

FE spoke with a few experts from the A&E/C community to get a wide-angle view of some of the key issues affecting food processors and their supply chains.

Willy Shih, Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at the Harvard Business School

COVID-19 and the supply chain

COVID-19’s effect on the supply chain could have been lessened

Loftware’s interview with Harvard Business School Professor Willi Shih points out weak links in the supply chain—weak links that should have been seen sooner

Wayne Labs

June 4, 2020

Loftware President and CEO Robert O’Connor spoke with Harvard Business School Professor Willi Shih in a live on-line Webinar entitled “COVID-19, Labeling, and Supply Chain Continuity,” to look at some lessons learned in the supply chain during the COVID-19 outbreak, which, of course, isn’t over yet.

Plant Construction Survey

Food Engineering’s 43rd Annual Plant Construction Survey

COVID-19 overshadows project planning and construction while decreasing already short labor supplies

Wayne Labs

June 3, 2020

Construction remains steady in the food and beverage industry, but the full effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are not yet known.

FE 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey

2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey: Part 2

The quest for the ideal food manufacturing site

Architectural and engineering design/build firms explain the site-related, key issues facing processors as they plan to renovate or build a new facility

Wayne Labs

June 3, 2020

While we've looked at the key issues - including COVID-19 - facing food processors and A&E/Cs this year in FE's 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey, there's a lot more to discuss.

2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey: Part 3

FSMA: Getting to the security aspects of food

You’d think FSMA is a done-deal, but not so much for food defense and intentional adulteration, which still need attention in facility design

Wayne Labs

June 3, 2020

While we've looked at the key issues - including COVID-19 - facing food processors and A&E/Cs this year in FE's 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey, there's a lot more to discuss.

2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey: Part 4

Plan a total, plant-wide automation system to improve facility performance and agility

Integrating all the systems on a line is important, but why stop there? Why not include HVAC, refrigeration, boilers, energy management, etc. to get total control?

Wayne Labs

June 3, 2020

While we've looked at the key issues - including COVID-19 - facing food processors and A&E/Cs this year in FE's 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey, there's a lot more to discuss.

The Allpax automated retort system featuring shuttle car transport and rigid chain loader/unloader, shown here, removes workers from the laborious and injury prone activity of pushing heavy baskets, top right, to and from and into and out of a retort.

Retort design improvements

Retort loading/unloading system removes the push-pull chain drive

A real engineering improvement, Allpax’s new design is simpler, requires fewer periodic adjustments and reduces parts wear

Wayne Labs

May 21, 2020

Real engineering improvements make things simpler to operate and maintain

2020 PLEX State of Manufacturing Technology Report

Manufacturing News

Study reveals manufacturers face new competition as biggest growth obstacle in 2020

But when it comes to adopting new technologies, food and beverage manufacturers are out in front of other industrial categories

Wayne Labs

May 19, 2020

The results are in for PLEX’s State of Manufacturing Report 2020, and they show the food and beverage industry is in many ways out in front of other industries in terms of adopting new technologies to maximize efficiency, competitiveness and profits.

On Demand Kelley Rodriguez, Editor in Chief of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, will be joined in this 60-minute webinar by industry experts to help unpack the latest research.

On Demand Driven by climate goals, business risk, client interest, and resilience considerations, food and beverage companies are increasingly turning their attention to decarbonizing their production processes.