The impact of asset performance on food safety

Asset performance is key for food and beverage processors to reliably produce safe food at the lowest cost. This goes beyond only having the equipment available. Asset performance is one of three variables used to calculate the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)—the other two variables are availability and quality. In food and beverage processing, quality is primarily about food safety, which is non-negotiable. Studies show that a food safety issue leading to a recall in average costs $10 million. The associated brand damage can be unmeasurable.

The state of equipment and the behavior of workers have a big impact on food safety. Eliminating food safety risks and risks to workers are the primary responsibilities of any food processing company. Numerous food safety issues caused by contaminations with extraneous material like metal coming from broken filling equipment, or grease or detergent remnants are reported to the FDA and RASFF every year. Cross contamination, pathogens, and faulty labeling are other possible reasons why food and beverage manufacturers must recall products

Industry 4.0 technology can help tackle these issues. Using IoT sensors on conveyer systems that monitor temperatures and vibrations to trigger a timely condition-based replacement is one example. Another important application in today’s world, is body temperature monitoring combined with facial recognition to prevent ill people from working with food products.

A modern maintenance organization is built on asset data—a large amount of data that needs to be maintained, analyzed and made readily available. By collecting and analyzing asset data not only can you gain a deeper understanding of what the maturity of your assets means—but you can predict why an asset will fail or when. With this information, you can plan preventive maintenance schedules as well as create a maintenance program that will align with your company’s strategic goals.

Leveraging opportunities for improved asset productivity will increase equipment uptime, extend asset lifecycles, support sustainability initiatives, minimize non-compliance issues, and reduce food and worker safety issues.

To learn more about how to combine asset management and Industry 4.0 technologies, download the best practices guide “Why your enterprise asset management strategy must evolve to increase food safety.”