Electricity and Control December 2021-January 2022

INDUSTRY 4.0 + IIOT

Robotics in SA’s food and beverage industry

Linda Eales, Robotics Division Manager at ABB South Africa

The future has never looked more unpredictable for South Africa’s food and beverage sector, as it battles a perfect storm of pressure brought on by Covid-19, changing consumer and retail consumption patterns, disrupted supply chains and ongoing scrutiny around food safety.

T he Food and Beverage (F&B) sector has been battered by a number of high-profile food safety scares in recent years and, in some areas, it is struggling to keep up with mega-trends like digitalisation and shifting consumption patterns. The good news is that this could be a perfect opportunity for the local F&B industry to reposition itself for the present and future. F&B manufacturers increasingly need more flexibility on their production lines to enable them to adapt to changing consumer tastes and demands. At the same time, they re- quire higher levels of productivity and efficiency, while main- taining the highest levels of product quality. In many cases, the answer to these challenges is to install a robotics solution, which makes F&B operations safer and more productive. Globally, the uptake of robotics is growing rapidly. In an ABB Industry Survey in January 2021, covering 1 650 large and small businesses in Europe, the USA and China, 84% of businesses said they would introduce or increase the use of robotics and automation in the next decade. Nearly half (43%) said they were looking to robotics to help them improve workplace health and safety, and more than a third (36%) are considering using robotics to improve the quality of work for their employees. The South African F&B industry is lagging behind these regions in implementing robotics. There are a couple of reasons for this: robotics is seen by some as an expensive solution, and there is the lingering perception that robots will take jobs from people.

It can be argued that neither is true. Plants that use robotics tend to have fewer breakdowns, and higher productivity. The cost of a plant standing still for several hours far outweighs the cost of a robot. And plants that install robots can create more jobs for people to cope with higher outputs. Instead of a team of people manually palletising 80 kg bags of material, a robot can do that job faster and more effectively, and the people who were doing it can be re-deployed in jobs as forklift drivers, for example, or quality assurance controllers, or maintenance operatives. The future of F&B manufacturing Robotics is nothing new. It has been used at a basic level in the F&B industry for some time in applications such as the ultrasonic cutting of cheeses, cakes and gateaux; using water jets to cut bread rolls; collating meat and fish products into packing formats before primary packaging; and the automated de-panning of various bakery products in the confectionary and biscuit segments. It is becoming more important – and more sophisticated. In the ABB Industry Survey conducted in January 2021, 85% of respondents said the pandemic had been ‘game- changing’ for their business and industry, with Covid‑19 a catalyst for accelerating investment in automation. 51% said robotics could enhance social distancing. In this time of a pandemic, robotics can play a key role in ensuring food safety by ensuring personnel work safely and eliminating by-product contamination. This means fewer risks to workers’ health and safety, and improved food quality and traceability; and it frees up people to perform higher-value tasks while securing food safety. The convenience factor is another major driver of auto- mation in the sector. F&B manufacturers are increasingly being challenged to supply the right range of products, in the right sizes and formats, in the right types of palletised loads, for the right sales channels – at the right time. The businesses that are using robotics in their operations are seeing notable results. In Brazil, ABB robots are supporting Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, to improve the productivity of pallet loading in its chocolate manufacturing facilities by 53%, using a new palletising robot solution. A South African beverages manufacturer has reduced the risk of injury and increased productivity using a single robot palletiser. Previously, four people at a time would

As well as improving efficiency and driving down costs, robots can increase production flexibility.

4 Electricity + Control DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022