Minimize downtime with digital technology

Keeping production lines up and running has always been a top priority for food processors. But the events of the last few years have raised the stakes and exacerbated the challenges – costs have risen, lead times have increased, deliveries have slowed, and, in what has been perhaps the biggest blow to the industry, experienced employees have retired, taking their institutional knowledge with them.

Faced with such challenges, manufacturers are relying even more on their suppliers to help keep their equipment up and running and minimize production downtime. To provide this support, innovative suppliers are harnessing the power of digital technology.

Throughout its 45-year history, Rome Grinding Solutions has been focused on helping customers get the most out of their equipment. The company started in 1977 by repairing and refurbishing grinders and grinding equipment for the food industry. They quickly realized that they could improve the design of the equipment to make it more sustainable, and in 1988 they built their first meat grinder. Today, Rome serves their core sectors of meat, poultry and pet food, and also offers solutions for the fruit and vegetable, ingredients, seafood, dairy and processing industries. With this wide range of capabilities, it’s easy to see why Rome’s motto is: “Yes. We grind it”.

In keeping with its long-standing commitment to helping its customers succeed, Rome has invested in new digital technologies to mitigate the effects of prolonged supply chain disruptions as well as ongoing labor shortages.

What are the biggest challenges facing manufacturers today?

Ryan Van Maasdam: The industry is dealing with two major challenges. The first, and this is an industry-wide struggle, is finding cost-effective material. Lead times for deliveries remain longer than they were before the pandemic, especially for stainless steel, which affects both equipment and spare parts. This is made worse by the fact that delivery is not as fast or reliable as it used to be.

Another big problem is the loss of institutional knowledge. In many enterprises, this knowledge has either already disappeared due to retirements and staff turnover, or it is on its way out.

Rome uses digital technology to help processors address these two issues. Let’s start with tools to facilitate the replacement of wearing parts.

RVM: So, as I mentioned, there has been a slowdown in delivery. Too often, the “overnight” turns into a couple of days. The worst-case scenario is that a machine breaks down and the customer orders a part to be delivered overnight, but it takes longer than overnight, and then when it arrives, it’s the wrong part.

This can happen for several reasons. First, facilities often have multiple pieces of equipment that may be configured differently and require different parts. Secondly, there may be a disconnect between the maintenance technician doing the work and the purchasing agent who may not know exactly what they are ordering – it’s easy to get the wrong item if you are ordering from a spreadsheet.

Obviously, we want to make sure that our customers always get the right parts, so we’ve implemented QR codes and digital parts lists.

We start by taking an inventory of the equipment in the factory and then provide QR codes for each piece of equipment. When you scan the QR code, you see an enlarged version of the equipment. You can hover over the desired part and the part number will be highlighted. This makes it easy to order exactly what you need without having to worry about different configurations or working with spreadsheets.

That’s great. But what about protecting against the loss of institutional knowledge?

RVM: Staff turnover in the maintenance department can be catastrophic for processors because these employees take a lot of valuable knowledge with them. To ensure that this knowledge is not tied to a specific employee, we have created multilingual training videos for all of our equipment.

These training videos achieve three goals:

1. They provide training for new employees as well as refresher courses for anyone who needs to work on the equipment.
2. They help make sure that the equipment is set up, operated, and maintained properly so that the customer can get the longest possible service life.
3. They help us troubleshoot any issues remotely so that we can help the maintenance team resolve issues immediately without having to wait for us to make a support call.

Having these videos available on demand allows our customers to not have to rely on employees having institutional knowledge of how equipment works and how to repair it. Given the ongoing labor shortage, our clients use these resources much more often than they would for in-person training.

What are the main benefits your clients see from using these technologies?

RVM: Downtime is very expensive for manufacturers. We have invested in these technologies to reduce the time between the moment a problem occurs and the moment it is resolved. They save time and money for our customers by minimizing downtime in the short term and increasing equipment life in the long term.

These technologies also have additional benefits, such as helping our customers better understand their equipment and reducing or eliminating travel time and costs for support calls.

At Rome, we do business face-to-face. I think you would be hard pressed to find another company that meets with our customers as often as we do. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we couldn’t do that, so investing in these technologies is something we can do to help from afar.

Навіть зараз, коли пандемія більше не руйнує бізнес такою мірою, ці технології забезпечують постійну цінність для наших клієнтів. Загалом, наша мета — стати виробником шліфувального обладнання в галузі, і це включає в себе всілякі зусилля, щоб забезпечити успіх наших клієнтів.

You also use augmented and virtual reality. Can you tell our readers a little more about this?

RVM: Yes, we are using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for our new equipment to help customers visualize our equipment in their facility.

We started this pre-pandemic with Microsoft HoloLens. Using the headset, you can visualize the entire grinding line in real size. You can walk around and explore the equipment and see how it will look in your shop. For example, if you need to make sure that a forklift can move through a space, you can visualize how big that space will be to make sure you have the necessary clearance. Alternatively, I can come to your office and reduce an entire 100-foot shredding line to the size of your desk.

These types of technologies are invaluable because they help processors make the right equipment decisions.

In summary, what is the most important thing processors can do to prepare for 2023?

RVM: Keep an inventory of your day-to-day parts and if you need something, order it now. Don’t wait until your equipment breaks down – the sooner you order it, the sooner you get it!

16.03.2023 STUDY