NEW EVENT! Cutting-edge Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast
Discover all the latest packaging & processing solutions for food products at the all-new PACK EXPO Southeast in Atlanta, GA, March 10-12, 2025

Real-time data and augmented reality are a welcome sight for operators

A constant state of change in the manufacturing industry is a challenge, but new automation technologies are pushing food and beverage companies to new heights of optimization.

New pilot projects are being implemented by many food and beverage companies, and OEMs are also providing more services, such as augmented reality troubleshooting. Photo courtesy of Tetra Pak.
New pilot projects are being implemented by many food and beverage companies, and OEMs are also providing more services, such as augmented reality troubleshooting. Photo courtesy of Tetra Pak.

Discussion surrounding advanced manufacturing reveals the struggle many companies have with mountains of data and the challenge of turning this resource into actionable information. More responsive data analytics is needed for production line operators as enterprises move past rote operator duties and focus more on exception-based routines. 

The good news is that the food and beverage industry is taking action. In PMMI’s 2017 Trends in Food Processing Operations, predictive maintenance is being used by 64 percent of the 150 respondents. During a recent food and beverage panel discussion at the Manufacturing in America (MiA) conference, Dave Greenfield, director of content/editor-in-chief at Automation World, said, “Food, beverage and consumer packaged goods companies want to manage, analyze and transfer data from all of their equipment in all of their locations. They want a more holistic and historical, as well as a real-time, predictive view of what’s going on in their operations and plants on an enterprisewide basis.”  

The panel discussion also included Cameron Cane, president of turnkey brewing equipment company Deutsche Beverage Technology. “One thing that we see with craft brewers is the move to increase output without having to [station more] people at their process or double the size of their plant,” said Cane. “They like to automate processes as much as possible.” 

Deutsche Beverage provides remote monitoring of equipment and IT services for brewers by sending components and tags and rewriting software fixes as needed. For its customers, there’s no information technology/operations technology (IT/OT) debate due to smaller brewery staffs and the need for quick analytics.  

INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast
The exciting new PACK EXPO Southeast 2025 unites all vertical markets in one dynamic hub, generating more innovative answers to food packaging and processing challenges. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity for your business!
REGISTER FOR $30!
INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast