Manufacturing & Supply Chain

By 2050, the world population is expected to be 9 billion people. The combination of richer diets and increased population means that food production will have to be doubled in the next 30 years. Today’s Food and Beverage manufacturing facilities are held to extremely strict standards that are being met and regulated through automation. There is also consistent pressure from competition to improve product nutrition, taste, and integrity – all while keeping pricing low and food safe. Achieving efficiency, keeping costs low and maintaining quality is the balance that leads to success.

The Smart Food Factory Online Conference & Exhibition, which will be held on 10th of September, will investigate what future food factories will look like and how current issues should be addressed to realise this vision.

The event will include speakers on the following areas:

Factory design and equipment of the future
Recipe Management
Industry 4.0
Digitisation
Engineering / Automation / Robotics
Information Technology
Future manufacturing practices
Cooking, Chilling & Freezing
Supply Chain Optimisation
Lean & Continuous Improvement
Traceability
Packaging Machinery & Materials
Materials Handling
Sustainability – Water – Energy – Waste
Laboratory Technology.

Food and beverage manufacturers must consider many factors when deciding on investment in new processing and packaging technology. A consistently high level of product quality, maximum plant availability, optimum resource efficiency – and, increasingly, the greatest possible flexibility in order to meet more and more individual customer requirements. Mastering all these challenges today and in the future is possible only with digitalization.

The food and beverage manufacturing sector must be able to feed over 9 billion people despite the demands of climate change. A balance will be found between quality, price, animal welfare and security of supply. Food production is constantly changing with mega trends setting new standards for key stakeholders.

The Smart Food Factory will mean machines will be able to communicate with each other as well as with the digital systems in the entire operation, automatically taking on tasks such as diagnosing problems, ordering and delivering parts, and looking for an engineer who is most suitable for the service needed. The technology builds on previous measures to bring the benefits of digitalisation to the food and beverage industry.

Digitalization, in short, means optimizing business processes through the adoption of a host of new digital technologies – big data analytics, IT/OT convergence, digital twin, artificial intelligence, even 3D printing and robotics. Elements of digitalization (or digital transformation or Industry 4.0) are applicable across industry and manufacturing, including food & beverage.

Because the food and beverage industry faces unique challenges (seasonal changes, demand for differentiated SKUs, increasing regulatory/quality restrictions, complicated production planning and the sheer scale of production), it is uniquely situated to take advantage of the benefits of digitalization.

Register free for this online event to meet with c level executives and engineers from all sectors of the food industry plus key suppliers of equipment, materials and services to help make and distribute food in a smarter way. Register now at https://www.smartfoodconference.com/register/