The next wave of the industrial revolution, industry 4.0, focuses on integrating poultry and other supply chains with digital technologies like precision agriculture, the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data.
“Continuous improvement is really the fundamental basis for competitiveness. It’s all about whether or not you are improving better than your competition,” said Tony Del Sesto, technical fellow, MxD. “Industry 4.0 and digital manufacturing builds on this fundamental concept of continuous improvement.”
Del Sesto discussed how digital manufacturing can impact the manufacturing sector and the meat and poultry supply chain during Industry 4.0.
What is industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, represents a connected ecosystem of digital technologies that aims to provide a predictive future.
For example, sensors and big data can help the poultry supply chain gather information about the process, while IoT, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning can communicate about and learn from the information collected.
While many digital technologies have been around for decades, the difference here is the convergence of the technologies to automate and enable continuous improvement. Industry 4.0 doesn’t stop a machine when a piece of equipment starts to malfunction, it predicts when replacements will be needed, minimizing downtime.
Addressing challenges in food processing with digital manufacturing
Labor shortages and worker turnover, shifting product quotas and inaccurate parameters challenge the meat and poultry supply chain. Digital manufacturing can help food processors tackle these issues.
One example is a common dashboard that shares the data of machine suppliers throughout a complete minced meat production line. This offers several advantages in one system, including the key performance indicators (KPIs) of every machine supplier and an overview of the production status.
Industry 5.0 is coming soon
The potential uses of digital manufacturing and industry 4.0 to transform the meat and poultry supply chain are rapidly evolving, so it’s important to be aware of what’s coming next.
“People are already talking about the fifth industrial revolution. I think it’s really important to note that the rate of change is increasing. You don’t want to be more than one industrial revolution behind,” Del Sesto explained.
