- Food and Beverage
- Case Study
With Industry 4.0, every day is Smart at Deco Industrie
Deco Industrie has been a specialist and benchmark in the production of consumer goods for the food, home and personal care sectors since 1951. The company, with headquarters in the province of Ravenna, and 4 food plants and 2 detergent production sites in Emilia Romagna, has more than 500 employees, turnover of € 150 million, 300 million SKUs sold per year and 1 million consumers reached per day.
For over 70 years it has been designing, producing and packaging household detergents, as well as bakery, confectionary and savoury products, dealing directly with the needs of the supermarket sector, the quality standards of major national brands, consumer habit studies, the analysis of product composition logics, and using an elevated culture of process and product to promptly comply with regulations and optimise resource logistics.
The digitalisation process in Deco Industrie stems from the need to be able to exploit and manage to its full potential the data generated by its machinery, in order to reduce recording errors and speed up production times.
The adoption of the Industry 4.0 paradigm is thus a prerogative for optimising processes, improving production efficiency and introducing a new, totally paperless production model with know-how focused on digital applications and no longer on paper and operators as in a conventional model.
The digital transformation journey began at Deco Industrie with an initial analysis phase which guided the company in identifying the most effective approach to modelling its processes and datasets and introducing predictive analysis with Artificial Intelligence algorithms.
The implementation of a complete execution system (MES) on two pilot lines marked the first significant step towards more intelligent production, and was later extended to three further lines.
To respond to the peculiarities and specific needs of each production line, Deco Industrie adopted the flexible and easy-to-use solution provided by IoF PMS (Internet of Factory - Production Management System), the Var Group MES which manages complex lines with machinery and devices connected to each other by automatic conveyor systems (conveyor belts, robots, etc.).
With IoF-PMS, production activities can be organised, managed and monitored by exploiting their interconnection with machine control systems and ERP systems for business management. The system monitors all activities in real time, and acquires and distributes data to the respective systems to provide useful production cycle information (sending/status of production orders, machine recipes, machine stops, speeds). By monitoring resource availability and the quality of products, it optimises production and logistical processes, drastically reducing production times, waste generation and non-conformities.
The path to full digitalisation will continue, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, with the implementation of Predictive Maintenance and quality control systems, and the launch of a CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management System) to handle asset management.
Thanks to this project, Deco Industrie now has access to real-time data that are sent to management control, quality control and logistics to guarantee continuous improvement in the quality and efficiency of production.
Operators are able to work more flexibly, monitor the status of each machine in real time, and reduce downtime.
The availability of data on actual waste and energy consumption, coupled with predictive maintenance and paperless management, promotes more sustainable and not just more efficient production.
Finally, the ability to model the production line with a digital twin has further advantages: the Digital Twin offers a more dynamic and autonomous system capable of responding quickly to production needs by automatically reconfiguring parameters in relation to incoming orders.
Digitalising processes not only grows competitive advantage, but also introduces a new approach within the company.Industry 4.0 is a paradigm shift in which the adoption of a new cultural model is driven by innovation. A challenge for companies that has become an indispensable strategic factor.
“We believed in the value of change, and today we are reaping the fruits of this journey. Continuously improving recipes and products, reducing registration errors, just-in-time data for analysis and intervention, energy savings, economic and environmental sustainability: these are the benefits our company has experienced thanks to our partnership with Var Group.
We have created a virtuous circle that, on a day-to-day basis, offers tangible benefits to all our stakeholders: the client is satisfied and stays loyal, the company is more responsive and competitive in the marketplace, and our staff can work in a positive climate of confidence in the future. Industry 4.0 makes every day a good day. For everyone!” - Antonio Campri, President of Deco Industrie.