You may have a scheduling module within your ERP system, and it’s good at what it does. But it’s not clairvoyant.

In the food and beverage industry, any process instrument used for temperature, pressure, flow or level measurement that contacts product must meet hygienic requirements designed to provide cleanable surfaces and avoid areas capable of retaining contaminants or facilitating bacteria growth. These rules exist for good reason, but until recently machinery and process designers had to settle for workable but basic instrumentation due to the limited configurations available for meeting sanitary requirements.

With automation and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), it’s now easier than ever to collect data and monitor production—all this in the name of managing food quality and food safety. But, with multiple sites and lines supplying data around the clock, any staff would be all but overwhelmed—without a direction in where to focus their process management efforts.

Crown Beverage Packaging North America’s new 14,000-sq.-ft. graphics design studio serves the entire U.S. and Canada, offering can design and consulting services and providing rapid proofs made on a digital system to preview art and produce printing plates for all U.S. and Canadian customers.

A recent statement from U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber+Infrastructure’s (CISA) National Cyber Awareness System noted that the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has updated its “Essential Eight Maturity Model.” Though all this sounds like alphabet soup or bureaucratic gobble-de-gook, the Maturity Model consists of eight important mitigation strategies you should be employing to protect your computing systems.

Tuffy’s Pet Foods has broken ground on a 173,500 sq. ft. facility in Delano, Minn.

The food industry is undergoing rapid change, much of which is driven by high consumer and retailer expectations when it comes to food freshness, quality, safety and expedience. That’s a tall order for brands to fill while also focusing on innovation and adapting packaging to align with changing retail trends such as e-commerce.