Today, the 10th Fresh Asia Supply Chain Expo (FLA2024) kicked off at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. As a global expert in digital transformation in the field of energy management and automation, Schneider Electric presented innovative digital solutions covering production, packaging, logistics and operations management centers to help food and beverage industry users improve the quality and efficiency of all aspects of the value chain, with the theme of “unlocking ‘digital intelligence’ technology and reshaping the innovation impact of the food and beverage industry”. Seize the digital “fresh” machine.

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At present, China has formulated and issued 1,563 national food safety standards, realizing the full chain coverage from farmland to dining table. Under the increasingly strict food safety supervision, the entire food and beverage industry has ushered in market trends such as consumption upgrading and demand diversification, on the other hand, it is still facing many challenges such as production efficiency, cost and environmental pressure. Taking the fresh industry as an example, with the upgrading of consumer demand, residents’ attention to the freshness of food has been further improved, and the importance of cold chain transportation of fresh food has become more prominent. In this context, relying on intelligent and digital technology to create more efficient and flexible intensive production capacity and cold chain logistics facilities, the overall planning ability of the whole production process safety compliance, transparency and traceability, and the ability to take into account the sustainable development of the environment have become the urgent needs of current food and beverage enterprises.

From production, packaging, logistics to operation, empower the entire value chain of the food and beverage industry

Food from farm to table, both step by step safety, but also all the way to lead “fresh”. Based on the real demands of industry users, Schneider Electric displayed innovative products and technologies in the four sectors of production, packaging, logistics and operation management on the site, and brought the core values of advanced nature, standardization of process flow, transparency and traceability to the enterprise through the digital solution of the whole value chain of the food and beverage industry:

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As the first checkpoint of food processing, the production link is related to product quality and safety, and has high requirements for the flexibility and efficiency of enterprises. Schneider Electric’s smart factory blueprint for the food and beverage industry, based on the EcoStruxure™ architecture and platform, enables enterprises to comprehensively improve efficiency, safety, compliance and sustainability through automation and digital means. Specifically, led by consulting, Schneider Electric provides vertical digital solutions covering three levels of production line level, factory level and group level. By integrating intelligent equipment + production control platform, and creating an integrated production scheduling command center and an integrated integrated operation command center, Schneider Electric brings more flexible production capacity to users. While ensuring the uninterrupted supply of energy, it can optimize the operation mode, continue to save energy and increase efficiency, and help enterprises achieve cost reduction and carbon reduction goals.
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• Building sustainable, efficient and flexible packaging production lines is becoming a “must answer” for food and beverage companies to rebuild their core competitiveness. In this regard, Schneider Electric provides modular and intelligent hardware such as manipulators and magnetic drive flexible conveying systems to help enterprises create flexible packaging equipment by simplifying the mechanical structure of packaging equipment to flexibly meet the changing packaging needs. At the same time, relying on the open and flexible automation control architecture, combined with the application software function library of packaging equipment, can provide enterprises with high-performance solutions, shorten the time to market, reduce the comprehensive cost of equipment, and further improve the efficiency of packaging production line. By collecting and analyzing the data of the packaging production line, Schneider Electric can also help users achieve equipment condition monitoring, production data transparency, preventive or predictive maintenance, and electronic reporting functions, and fully promote the digital upgrade of the production line.
• A highly reliable and stable logistics system is the key to ensuring that food is “fresh” from the farm to the table. Schneider Electric’s latest cold chain logistics solutions focus on users’ needs for automated storage and operation in a temperature-controlled environment, providing a full line of products from temperature control to operation, from automation to digitalization, including PLC, inverter, servo and HMI, etc., which can adapt to -25~55℃ or even wider temperature environment to meet the needs of automatic storage, conveying equipment, disassembly and palletizing. And provide a special solution for hot and fast lifting. Starting from the preliminary planning, relying on Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Machine Expert (EMET) software for simulation and virtual commissioning, to the final delivery of a complete digital twin system, enterprises can continue to improve and verify the design concept, reduce technical risks and costs, and create a smart cold chain logistics through the “production, supply and marketing” full link.
• Efficient operation system: If enterprises want to open up from production to packaging, and then to logistics links, and achieve efficient coordination and operation between all links, they cannot do without intelligent operation management center. On site, Schneider Electric showcases digital solutions for operations management centers including Lighthouse plant Consulting, integrated operations center AVEVA UOC, Plant Advisor Factory, Energy management system EMS+, Building operations System EBO, and predictive maintenance consultant PMA. It can further empower the digital upgrading of the whole value chain of the food and beverage industry.