JBT’s innovative Intelligent Operations or iOPS® Platform collects data from across a facility in real-time. Having up-to-the-second data means companies can detect potential issues before they become problems and even improve the overall efficiency of operations. Netherlands-based High-Pressure Processing (HPP) toller Pascal Processing is one such company that has recorded real, definable dividends from the analysis through iOPS.
Based in the small city of Helmond in the east of the country, Pascal Processing provides HPP services to companies across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, covering a huge range of products from cold-pressed juices to meat products, guacamole, vegetable spreads, baby food, raw dog food, to smoked fish.
“We handle everything that can be HPP treated,” explains Pascal site manager, Willem van de Ven (pictured above), who says demand for the company’s HPP services has experienced strong growth as awareness of the technology’s benefits has steadily increased. “We are now seeing a far broader range of products: a few years ago it was cold-pressed juices and meats, but now we are handling all sorts of products.”
Complete overview
A key component in the company’s recent development has been the implementation of an iOPS system – designed in close cooperation with JBT engineers – covering Pascal’s entire facility. Instead of having to rely on workers reporting problems after they had already occurred, the JBT iOPS system focuses on providing customers with tools to detect delays in the process and machinery failures. As van de Ven explains, a virtual dashboard provides an overview of the equipment and individual operator effectiveness, as well as displaying accurate information if and when components begin to fail.
“The dashboard enables you to have the right information quickly whereas before we had to go back and revise the old data we had on the machine,” he says. “It gives us a good picture of how efficiently we are working with a machine and how efficient individual operators are.
“We found for example that we were losing time by manually filling machines and by changing that we have been able to save 45 minutes per week between four-five people increasing productivity with almost four hours per week.”
Data-based decisions
By having access to accurate production data, van de Ven says Pascal is now able to make more decisions based on facts. “Before when a machine wasn’t working, the operator would come to us and say they had been having problems for a few days,” he recalls. “Sometimes there are problems that aren’t seen by the operators. Before it was done on feeling but now, we make decisions based on data.”
Van de Ven says the fact of having more data on how machines are performing has helped eliminate apparently minor problems, resulting in time and money savings. “Maybe saving 15 seconds per cycle doesn’t sound significant, but between cycles this can add up to almost an hour of time saved per day,” he adds.
Learn more about JBT iOPS and HPP technology