Did you know that in developed countries 40 - 50% of food is wasted at retail and consumer level*? These numbers are huge, and it makes me wonder why. In our household, we hardly ever throw anything away. When looking at the numbers more closely, it turns out that large quantities of food are wasted at the retail level due to quality standards that overemphasize appearance. Consumers are not willing to buy ‘single’ bananas or a dented packet of biscuits with potentially broken ones. Hence retailers are setting high quality standards for their suppliers and charge substantial fines in case these are not met.
In this blog you will learn how one of these suppliers – Grupo Cerealto Siro - has set off on a digital transformation journey pursuing the goal to “cultivate dreams to nourish more people every day”.
Headquartered in Spain, Grupo Cerealto Siro produces biscuits, cereal bars as well as snacks and pasta for retailers across Europe. Their goal is based on three pillars: growth and extension of market share, culture and leadership and operations. As to drive continuous improvement in operations, the company has decided to take a phased approach. First, they introduced the concept of a ‘paperless factory’ by implementing SAP ERP technology for all processes related to the factory floor. With this, they created a solid basis to start the second phase: a major Industry 4.0 project involving Internet of Things (IoT), Edge computing and Machine Learning.
“Technology is an enabler of improvements across all operations.”
Juan Manuel Garcia Dujo, Director Digital Transformation at Grupo Cerealto Siro
Up until recently, employees in production regularly had to check on quality parameters. In the case of some older machines, this meant not just reading a value from a sensor but physically putting a thermometer into the raw material to measure its temperature. Afterwards, the data was entered into an application manually. This process was time consuming and error prone.
The process has now been replaced with automatic, more frequent data collection. Older machines have been equipped with IoT sensors. The data from these machines as well as the one from newer machines with built-in sensors – however from different providers – is brought together in one single platform. This initial setup of connecting all machines is achieved through first connecting machines to an edge server that aggregates and analyzes data real-time and brings it into the cloud.
But the project did not stop there: machine data is set into business context with the previously implemented SAP ERP systems. That way, Grupo Cerealto Siro can link production parameters with machine details to predict quality risks or link it with orders and customer data. With connecting and setting sensor data into context, the company has just successfully completed the first step in embracing Industry 4.0. Their vision is to continue their innovation journey to increase efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing machines, to detect machine patterns and to utilize machine learning for enhanced detection of quality issues with an estimation to reduce manual tasks in the quality process by 60%.
“We are implementing this scenario to reduce manual tasks in production quality processes through introducing Industry 4.0 on our factory floors.”
Juan Manuel Garcia Dujo, Director Digital Transformation at Grupo Cerealto Siro
So, what does Industry 4.0 mean with regards to Grupo Siro’s goal? With the help of intelligent technologies such as IoT and Edge computing, Grupo Siro can ensure highest quality. This leads to less waste of food and enables them to nourish more people every day.
And I? Next time I come across a slightly dented packet of biscuits, I will buy it.
Hear their transformation story directly from Juan Manuel Gracia Dujo, Director Digital Transformation at Grupo Cerealto Siro, in our
TechED session – watch the recording!
*according to the
United Nations Environmental Program
