Page 14 - Industrial Technology EXTRA 15th March 2021

FOOD AND BEVERAGE...

Zero touch strategies boost

safety, quality and efficiency

Automation, robotics, image processing and AI offer valuable support in achieving

zero touch processes, as Patricia Torres of Omron explains
lease do not touch! You have probably
encountered prompts like these while
shopping. However, with the corona
Ppandemic, shortage of skilled workers
and efforts to increase efficiency, the “zero touch”
trend is now entering a new round: companies and
manufacturers worldwide are looking for new ways
to automate manual activities, thereby relieving and
protecting employees, but also optimising processes
and improving product quality. For “zero touch”
to succeed, companies in the food, beverage
and consumer goods industries need to find
appropriate technology support.
Human resources, aka employees, are the
most valuable asset for companies in the F&B
industry. Food firms should always focus on the
skills of the employees and think of strategies on
how to deploy or retrain them in order to fulfil more
value-adding tasks. Changes in the production dangerous. Manual workflows may increase health
environment such as high-mix-low-volume, product and safety risks, such as injuries or accidents but
diversity and sustainability approaches, coupled also risks in relation to the ongoing pandemic.
with an acute shortage of skilled workers, represent Human-machine interactions are further challenges
a major challenge in this respect. The corona to address in this respect. Moreover, there are many
pandemic and the associated social distancing routine tasks that quickly become boring and
requirements pose additional demands on hygiene sometimes even frustrating. Instead, the valuable
and safety. employee might be better trained and deployed for
In this context, the many manual tasks in the more value-adding tasks. But which processes
production environment tie up staff resources. should be automated to improve efficiency, safety
Manual processes are often expensive and even and sustainability?

March 2021 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p14