Christmas celebrations at the University of Lincoln
This year, OAL celebrated Christmas at our long-time strategic partner, the University of Lincoln. The whole OAL team visited the university’s new Sir Isaac Newton building on Friday, 8th of December for a day of learning, reflection and refreshment.
This year, OAL celebrated Christmas at the University of Lincoln, our long-term strategic partner. The whole OAL team visited the university’s new Sir Isaac Newton building on Friday 8 December for a day of learning, reflection and refreshment. The team had the opportunity to see the latest computer science, maths, physics and engineering developments, giving them an insight into how these facilities, equipment and technologies are used in our collaborative research and development projects.
We’ve been working with the University of Lincoln for five years on a number of projects. During our partnership, we have invested over £4.5 million into developments aimed at future-proofing the food manufacturing industry, with support from UK government funding.
Our successes include Steam Infusion cooking, developed and available for testing at the University’s prestigious National Centre of Food Manufacturing. This unique method provides food manufacturers with a faster, more controlled heating and mixing technology, using steam as the motive force.
And more recently, leading professors and researchers have helped develop the APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system, emulating and outperforming human weighing of powders.
The day included several presentations from university staff, a tour of the new facilities, and festive refreshments in the university foyer. Hearing from prominent professors – including Professor Stefanos Kollias, the founding professor of machine learning – was very inspiring for our team. The unique expertise and the state-of-the-art facilities have been essential to helping us develop forward-thinking solutions to industry challenges.
Not everyone at OAL is directly involved with these disruptive innovation projects. By bringing the whole team together, we were able to see first-hand the step change that these projects represent for the UK’s largest manufacturing industry. In addition to nurturing relationships within our teams, we were able to see how they have contributed to these successes.
“I really enjoyed the day; it was good to spend time with my colleagues and see what we’ve been doing with the University. I now get how what I do fits into the bigger picture.”
“This was a great day and we’d love to do it again. It was the perfect opportunity to share the work that we’ve done with the University and get the whole business involved.”
The day was a fantastic way to end the year: strengthening our relationship with the University, reminiscing on the year’s achievements, and inspiring the OAL team for what promises to be an eventful – and extremely exciting – year ahead.
OAL speaking & exhibiting at the Smart Food Factory Summit
We're very excited to be speaking and exhibiting at Food & Drink Business Europe's Smart Factory Summit 2017. The event is taking place on Tuesday 7 November 2017 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry and aims to bring together professionals from the UK's food and beverage industry to facilitate knowledge, sharing and collaboration.
Jake Norman, Head of Innovation at OAL will be speaking about how OAL are putting robotics and automation at the heart of food processing with our APRIL™ Robotics solutions. Hear how we have invested, researched and developed the very latest in advanced robotics and automation technology to help food manufacturers solve challenges driven by the increasing living wage, flat line productivity and food deflation.
Alongside Jake Norman's talk, visit our stand to see how we're using £4 million of Innovate UK research projects to bring about a step change in food manufacturing using technologies including collaborative robotics, advanced vision, machine learning and big data to tackle your productivity, food safety and traceability in your food factory.
Discover how you can turbocharge your cooking process with OAL's Steam Infusion heating and mixing technology scientifically proven to help food manufacturers overcome slow cooking times, burn on contamination and over-processing. How else can you cook 500kg of sauce in just 5 minutes?
Our experts will also be on hand to share best practice advice around stopping label and date code errors and retailer code of practice compliance with our IoT based software OAL Connected. Whilst you're on our stand, make sure you pick up our latest brochure discussing the five best practice steps for continuous improvement in food manufacturing and see how easily you can implement them into your factory.
So with lots to learn, see and discover, sign up today to join us at the Food & Drink Business Europe Smart Factory Summit 2017. We can't wait to meet and discuss how powerful new digital technologies can impact your food business and start you on your journey towards automation!
APRIL™ features in Made Smarter 2017 UK government review
We're very proud to feature in the UK Government Made Smarter Review 2017 launched today! The report sets out the aim for the UK to be a leader in Industrial Digitalisation, and APRIL™ Robotics was highlighted within the food section.
The report discusses the ‘perfect storm’ scenario food manufacturing faces because of an over-reliance on cheap labour:
Restriction on labour supply (due to Brexit).
Rapid above-inflation rises in labour cost (driven by the National Living Wage).
In certain sectors (e.g. fresh produce packing, sandwich manufacturing), up to 90% of the line workforce can be migrant ‘low skilled’ workers.
But for businesses which rise to this challenge, the falling cost and increased functionality of robotics offer quick productivity gains and an ability to exploit new market opportunities and grow exports. Digital technologies are at the heart of being able to exploit this opportunity which is multi-faceted and growing rapidly. Learn more in the video below where our team discuss the role of robotics in reducing capital expenditure.
You can download the full report and read more about the challenges and planned actions to enable digitalisation in food processing.
OAL's automation talent wins ‘Young Engineer of the Year’
We’re thrilled to announce that OAL's Software Engineer, Matt Ayre, won the Young Engineer of the Year award at the Food Processing Awards 2017.
Matthew Ayre at the Food Processing Awards 2017
Matt's story highlights how the food industry can attract the best and brightest; highly relevant given the well-documented engineering skills shortage in the industry. Having completed his degree in aircraft engineering, Matt changed his career path to becoming an automation engineer in the food industry because of the problem-solving challenges and variety of work involved in the UK’s largest manufacturing industry.
We nominated Matt because of the positive feedback received from our customers on his approach to work and skillset. The following references demonstrate the skills Matt has developed as an integral part of the OAL Connected team.
“I’ve been really impressed with Matt’s work ethic on site and his ability to communicate effectively with our team. He’s definitely one to watch for the future.”
“As always a difficult task to take forward the work started by others. Matt rose to the challenge of familiarising himself with the previous development allowing him to support existing engineering, expanding functionality and continuing the development to allow continued deployment to other sites.”
How will you make food tomorrow? We challenged delegates to imagine the digital food facotry of the future
The award's ceremony was held at the Doubletree Hilton, Coventry on Thursday 19 October 2017 as part of the Appetite for Engineering conference that took place earlier that day at the Manufacturing Technology Centre. Both events brought together industry professionals from all stages of their career journeys to inspire and educate, discuss and explore what the future holds for the UK’s largest manufacturing industry.
OAL was up for two other awards at the awards ceremony in addition to Matt’s entry. Our APRIL™ Cooking Cell was up for the Robotics & Automation award and our APRIL™ Robotic Ingredient Handling system up for the Future-Factory Enabling Technologies award. Both these categories were extremely competitive with the finalists from the most innovative companies the food manufacturing industry has to offer. And, although we didn’t win, it was still fantastic for us to be recognised as one of the best.
The awards season is not yet over for OAL. We’re flying the food industry flag at the cross-sector IET, Institue of Engineering and Technology Awards. APRIL™ Robotics is shortlisted for the Manufacturing Technology award in a highly competitive competition.
There were over 300 entries to the awards from 25 countries from industries including aerospace, automotive and pharmaceutical. We’ll find out if we’ve been successful on the 15th November at the ceremony at The Brewery, London.
The year then ends with the Food Matters Live awards where our unique cooking technology Steam Infusion has been shortlisted in the Best Food and Drink Process or Technology category.
OAL to speak at food robotics event at CAFRE, NI
Are you looking to introduce more automation and robotics into your food factory? Join OAL at the Robotic Automation in Food Processing seminar hosted by the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise. The event is taking place at the Food Innovation Centre, Loughry Campus, Cookstown, Northern Ireland on Wednesday 25th October 2017.
The one-day seminar brings food manufacturing and agricultural professionals together to answer these key questions:
What capabilities does robotic automation offer that could be utilised?
How easily can it be implemented and maintained?
Is robotic automation right for implementation into your processes?
How cost effective can it be?
And now robotics and automation are much more advanced and affordable, we will be discussing what new opportunities this presents the agriculture and food processing industry.
OAL's Jake Norman will be building on from this and talking about how OAL are putting robotics and automation at the heart of food processing with our APRIL Robotics solutions.
Hear how we have invested, researched and developed the very latest and advanced robotics and automation technology to help food manufacturers solve their challenges driven by the increasing living wage, flatline productivity and food deflation.
Start your journey towards increasing productivity and efficiency with robotics and automation.
APRIL™ Robotics finalist at the Institution of Engineering and Technology Awards 2017
We’re very pleased to announce that APRIL™ Robotics is shortlisted for the Best Manufacturing Technology category at the Institution of Engineering and Technology Innovation Awards 2017. It's fantastic to be flying the flag for the food industry in a very competitive category. The Best Manufacturing Technology competition received over 300 entries from 25 countries from industries including aerospace, automotive and pharmaceutical!
The esteemed judging panel including the Director of Innovate UK was looking for innovative uses of automation to improve aspects such as:
Quality / consistency
Cost reduction
Energy efficiency
Reduction in pollutants
Flexible / agile production
Market response / customisation
If you’ve seen the APRIL Cooking Cell in action, then you’ll know how different APRIL is and how the advanced the technology, engineering and design can improve the way we handle and process food products..
Other finalists in the Manufacturing Technology category include:
Plastic Logic Germany
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
FliteTrak
Biohm Ltd.
APRIL™ Robotics wins PPMA Innovation Award
We're very pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robotics Cooking Cell won the most Innovative Robotics System award at this year's PPMA awards.
It's fantastic recognition from the food industry for all the hard work our team, customers and suppliers are putting into changing the way we handle and process ingredients with robots.
The judges were looking for “creative solutions” and “smart use of robotics” that lead to significant productivity improvements and cost reductions. If you've had the chance to see APRIL™ cooking then you'll know the sight of an industrial robot picking up a 500l cooking kettle is definitely different (watch the video to get an idea). And it's the emulation of how a chef cooks in a kitchen, moving saucepans around, that offers cost reductions through labour, yield enhancement and a reduction in capital equipment from the improved utilisation of assets.
More awards to come
Get the champagne on ice, there could be a few more awards to come too! We're shortlisted in three categories at the Appetite for Engineering Food Processing Awards:
Matt Ayre, one of our talented software engineers is up for Young Engineer of the Year
Our APRIL™ Cooking Cell is also up for the Robotics & Automation award
And our APRIL™ Robotic Weighing Station is up for the Future-Factory Enabling Technologies award
And finally… we’re flying the food industry flag at the cross-sector IET, Institue of Engineering and Technology Awards. APRIL™ Robotics is shortlisted for the Manufacturing Technology award in a highly competitive competition. There were over 300 entries to the awards from 25 countries from industries including aerospace, automotive and pharmaceutical.
OAL inspires at Mission Possible Peterborough careers fair
On Friday 23 June 2017, OAL inspired students at the Mission Possible careers fair organised by the Skills Service at the East of England Showground in Peterborough. The event attracted more than 3,000 young students aged 14-24 to encourage them to explore future career options. With so many industries at the event, there was certainly a lot for them to learn about and consider.
OAL’s stand showcased our latest innovations in robotics and automation for food manufacturers to widen young people’s perception of engineering and the food manufacturing industry and to encourage more young people to continue with their STEM subjects and choose engineering as their career.
To get attendees involved and thinking more about the next 10-15 years of the food industry, we ran a competition asking them a key question.
What food will you be eating when you’re 30?
And, with a Kindle Fire tablet as a prize for the best answer, it was worth really thinking about their answers!
By the end of the event, we had more than 160 entries and it was clear that all of them knew that the food industry is dynamic and will be changing dramatically over the next 10 to 15 years.
We were really impressed with the scope of responses which considered current challenges in the world such as the growing population, rising obesity and people’s busier lifestyles. Many of the answers we received aimed to solve these issues using alternative proteins, dehydrated convenience foods and pills and potions full of all the nutrients an individual needs.
The winning answer recognised world hunger as a big issue and considered not just individual eating habits but the eating habits globally:
“A small pill that has all the right nutrients in it that fills you up. It would need to be affordable so it can help to end world hunger.”
If you’re interested in a career at OAL you can learn more in our careers area, including latest roles, summer internships and work experience.
OAL to build new APRIL™ Robotics production facility
We’re very pleased to announce the development of our new state-of-the-art facility to support our APRIL™ Robotics Systems in Cambridgeshire, UK. The new facility supports a growing order book as food manufacturers seek to avoid rising costs in the UK and Europe through significant productivity improvements.
Currently, 529,800 people globally are associated with the common repetitive task of weighing dry ‘micro’ ingredients. The APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system automates this task and when linked with APRIL Logistics, fully automates the ingredient and material management within factories.
The OAL team is rapidly accelerating the adoption of robots in food manufacturing as they focus on increasing productivity and efficiency in food factories by automating manual handling tasks. Harry Norman, Owner/Managing Director at OAL, explains more:
“We’re committed to eliminating manual handling in the front end of food processing, and the new APRIL facility gives our team a great space to develop and demonstrate what that means for food manufacturers.
We have a strong reputation for building large scale material handling projects, and advanced manufacturing software (OAL Connected) and the APRIL developments complement these thriving parts of the business.”
So if you’re ready to bring robots into your facility, arrange a visit to learn more about APRIL Robotics today.
OAL secures £450k funding for robotics in food manufacturing
We’re delighted to announce that we have been awarded £448,850 to develop innovative APRIL™ robotics material handling systems for food manufacturers from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency. The new project focuses on overcoming the well-documented productivity challenges food manufacturers face preparing ingredients. It will be led by engineers from OAL utilising the latest robotic and automation technologies.
The new one-year project, which is supported by a grant of £448,850 from the UK Government via Innovate UK and the EPSRC's Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) research fund, will focus on automating the processes of handling, weighing and transporting the raw ingredients. It will also make strides in developing key hygiene and food safety features which will be crucial when using robotic production systems within the food manufacturing sector. Researchers from the University of Lincoln will be supporting the project with work being undertaken at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, Holbeach, UK.
“Food manufacturers are facing rising costs and with little opportunity to increase their prices, they are seeking new and effective ways of improving productivity. Throughout the project, we’ll be taking a step-by-step approach, working our way through common operations found across the food manufacturing sector such as weighing, sieving, and moving ingredients around.
One criticism of automated systems in the past has been the lack of flexibility, but we will aim to develop flexible APRIL robotic systems that can handle some of these tasks and take the pressure off food manufacturers.”
Take the first step towards the robotic revolution with us - get in touch today.
APRIL™ shortlisted for Best Technology Innovation at the World Food Innovation Awards 2017
APRIL pouring water
We’re pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robot Chef has been shortlisted for the World Food Innovation Awards 2017 in the category ‘Best Technology Innovation’. The esteemed judging panel, including the Global Sustainability Director for Mars, recognised the transformative impact robotics will have on making food manufacturing more consistent and flexible. The winner will be announced on Monday 20th March as part of the International Food and Drink Event (IFE), ExCel London. Click here to see the full list of finalists.
UK food manufacturing faces a number of significant challenges over the coming years, not least the impact Brexit will have on the availability of labour. Sticking with same old, labour-intensive processing and material handling technologies will become cost prohibitive and leave manufacturers unable to fulfil the wide range of products retailers and consumers have come to expect.
APRIL (Automated-Processing-Robotic-Ingredients-Loading) developed with the University of Lincoln, reimagines the food production line, placing robots at the heart of the way we handle and process raw ingredients. By combining advanced materials handling and processing technologies, APRIL can consistently emulate how chefs cook in a professional kitchen bringing more restaurant quality food to our supermarket shelves.
“We are excited by the new thinking involved in the APRIL robotic chef approach. Modular robotics cells may transform food manufacturing kitchens, by breaking up processes in a different way, in doing so providing a step change in performance.”
For manufacturers, smart, robotic food production lines will simplify the way we manufacture products offering flexible consistency. Factories will become up to 80% smaller and the increased levels of control will lead to a safer operating environment and improvements in product shelf-life.
The winner of this award will be announced on Monday 20th March at the International Food and Drink Event at the ExCel in London.
Robotics & Food Manufacturing 4.0. Are you ready?
Whether robots really belong in a food factory is becoming a no-brainer. In order for the food industry to improve and grow, robotics and automation WILL play a major role in the food manufacturing process. Andrea Paoli reveals how robots have taken root so far in our manufacturing systems and are set to revolutionise the food industry in Food Manufacturing 4.0 and beyond.
The value of robotics
Andrea Paoli presented a number of very enlightening figures when introducing the impact robotics will have in the future. Here are a few to set the scene:
The Bank of England in November 2015 predicted that over the next decade, 15 million jobs will be taken over by robots.
In 2020, the robot market is expected to hit a value over $83 thousand million.
It’s predicted that the global saving for using robotics in terms of labour cost is 16%.
By increasing investment in automation by £1.2 billion, this could raise the overall value added by the manufacturing sector to the UK economy by £60.5 billion. This could safeguard 106,000 jobs.
Since the industrial revolution, robots have gone from mechanical production equipment driven by water and steam all the way to cyber-physical systems which integrate computers, networking and physical processes. The degree of complexity of robotics is forever increasing. As you can see from the videos in Andrea's slides, the capabilities of robotics and automation have increased and improved dramatically. Is there anything they won’t be able to do?
So what does Food Manufacturing 4.0 look like?
Robotics and automation have progressed in such a way that it’s safe for them to work in collaboration with humans (HRC systems - Human/Robot Collaborative systems). They can work to full capacity 24/7 producing the same results they’re programmed to complete. This is impossible for humans to achieve to the same degree of accuracy and consistency.
Therefore, there is a massive opportunity for an increase in productivity for food manufacturers due to the reduced cycle and turnaround times. A robot can work within stabilised conditions without human interface. Not only does this improve the health and safety of the factory, it can also increase the shelf life of products contributing to reducing waste which is a very hot topic at the moment!
Working together with the University of Lincoln, OAL has been championing Food Manufacturing 4.0 and have developed a robotic chef APRIL. APRIL is facing up to the challenges food production is facing to introduce a flexible, automated, continuous, high volume system to food manufacturers. Read more about APRIL and her talents here.
How will a future food factory look?
A factory of the future will run on big data being used intelligently to improve decision making and planning. Cloud computing will allow for anything to be controlled, recorded or reported in real-time. With humans collaboratively working together with robots along with all the big data that will be available, factories will be able to optimise production, reduce wastage and improve product consistency and quality.
Join OAL on this journey by helping us educate the industry to deliver disruptive change in manufacturing securing your factory’s future as well as the future of the food manufacturing industry.
Ann Savage on the future of chilled food manufacturing
What is the right environment for chilled food innovation? Ann Savage, former Group Technical Director at Bakkavor, spoke at the Food Manufacturing 2030 Conference on the future of chilled food over the next ten years. Discussing the rise of new technologies including robotics, Ann highlighted the pressing need for food manufacturing to create the right conditions for successful innovation. After discussing a number of the wide-ranging challenges food manufacturing faces including environmental and significant cost pressures Ann stressed the importance of creating the right conditions for innovation in the UK. Collaboration between research institutions, technology providers and manufacturers will be very important in realising new developments. Likewise, further investment is needed in skills to realise the benefits of new technologies.
Ann has seen the tremendous growth of the chilled food market which has leapt from revenues of from £5 billion in 2000 to £11.4 billion in 2014 and is still growing. Discussing the benefits and rise of automation and robotics, Ann highlighted amongst others the following areas of interest:
Longer shelf life
Robots can work within controlled environment with limited exposure to bacteria and allergens often carried by people. There are significant opportunities for improving the shelf life of products, reducing waste and improving the overall safety and hygiene of the factory in this way.
Improve decision making
Automation within a factory can also reduce human decision-making. The collection and intelligent use of big data will allow problems to be resolved before they occur, as their played out in digital factories. This will allow factories to plan further ahead, reduce stoppages and save time on resources.
Farm to fork
Improved data collection and analysis will enhance food safety from farm to fork. Big data applications will enable full visibility of the supply chain with in-line quality checks enhancing protection against errors.
If you’d like to bring these benefits into your manufacturing facility, our experts can help you take the first step.
McKinsey report: where will automation replace humans in food manufacturing
Food service and manufacturing sit at the top of a recent McKinsey report that analysed work activities rather than occupations as a predictor of automation. By identifying jobs with predictable physical work, data processing or data collecting, they were able to assess the technical feasibility of automation. By breaking down jobs by activities, up to 59% of time spent at work in the US is highly susceptible to automation. Further analysis suggested that food service and manufacturing were more suited to automation than others i.e. many activities within food manufacturing are highly susceptible to automation.
Technical feasibility of automation in food
The McKinsey report highlights food manufacturing and food service as highly susceptible to automation due to the activities involved in the jobs (see figure 1). The main driver for this is the high amount of time people spend on predictable physical work. Often in food factories, people will undertake a high number of predictable activities such as lifting product, moving ingredients etc. (see figure 2).
In our experience, the trend fits for our customers who manufacture a smaller range of SKUs and have already been able to automate a high number of the predictable activities. This is in contrast to chilled food manufacturing, where upwards of 40 SKUs can be produced per day and predictable and unpredictable activities become intertwined.
One major part of the puzzle will be splitting out the predictable from the unpredictable physical work, thus enabling higher levels of adoption of robotics. For instance, lifting ingredients into a saucepan is a predictable task but judging the taste of the food requires the expertise of a chef, hence it isn't so susceptible to automation.
We're working with the University of Lincoln to develop robotic systems that provide manufacturers the flexibility to split out the predictable from the unpredictable thus enabling greater levels of automation. APRIL™ the Robot Chef installed at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing enables this flexibility by breaking down activities in a different way to traditional manufacturing processes.
Mckinsey Technical feasibility
Mckinsey industry Feasbility
Food Manufacturing 2030 Conference - APRIL to cook lunch
Get your lunch cooked by a robot and learn what food manufacturing could look like in 2030. Join us and other food industry leaders to ponder what food processing will look like when we're in driverless cars at the Food Manufacturing 2030 Conference at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, Holbeach, UK on Thursday 13 October 2016.
See the future
The food industry is ripe for change as it faces a perfect storm driven by the living wage, flat line productivity and food deflation. We believe in order to meet these challenges the industry must transform itself with flexible robotics and automation over the next two decades.
Share in our vision of the future and join us on Thursday 13 October 2016; listen to expert speakers and watch demonstrations as we debate food manufacturing in 2030. Designed for senior food professionals, the event is FREE to attend, and we expect strong discussions as we shape the future of our industry.
APRIL will cook your lunch
Our APRIL robotic food processing platform is pushing barriers and attendees will get a taste of the future as she's cooking lunch. Watch the future of ready meal production as APRIL (Automated Processing Robotic Ingredient Loading) effortlessly twirls a pan around the food processing hall combining ingredients, cooking and cleaning with no human intervention.
Expert speakers
We've brought together thought leaders from across the food industry to provide insights into why and how the food industry will change by 2030. Speakers include:
Simon Lushey, Specialist Technical Manager at Marks & Spencer, will be speaking about why innovation is important to retailing.
Ann Savage, Technical Specialist (Former Group Technical Director at Bakkavor), will be speaking about the future of chilled food manufacturing.
Steve Osborn, Food Technology Scout, will be discussing the consumer trends that will shape food manufacturing moving towards 2030.
Andrea Paoli, Senior Lecturer in industrial automation and robotics at the University of Lincoln, will be speaking about robotic technological developments.
More expert speakers are set to be announced.
Who should attend?
The event is designed for senior food processing and industry professionals looking to learn how robotics and automation will transform their food businesses. Expected delegate job titles include:
Managing Director, Operations Director, Technical Director, Innovation Director, General Manager, Technology/Innovation Manager, NPD Manager, Continuous Improvement Manager
Making big data small in food manufacturing
Confused about the impact of big data on food manufacturing? We believe many food manufacturers already have the data and our focus is better directed to the meaningful presentation of figures to deliver operational improvements.
Originally featured as a guest article on www.bakeryandsnacks.com
There’s a lot of excitement about the internet of things (IoT) and big data but realistically many larger food manufacturers already have access to lots of data. When we speak with our customers, often the idea of more data is seen as a distraction. There are bigger opportunities for operational improvements in presenting data in an informative and actionable way. For big data to be a success, data must be more informative, actionable and timely.
OAL big data bakery SCADA screen
Informative big data
What use is all the data about a process if it’s not easily understood by engineers and operators? One of the big switches we’ve made on our control systems is how we present data. For instance, when you compare our traditional SCADA screens to our newly developed screens they look completely different. Designed with user experience at its core, the new visuals seek to present information that is much more relevant to the end user. For a bakery process, traffic light systems easily indicate if there are any issues relating to humidity, temperature etc. If they’re all green no worries at all. Likewise representing the flow of product as blocks as opposed to how the system operates clearly indicates bottlenecks and breaks in production.
Actionable big data
Data, no matter what its size, is useful to management, engineers and decision makers when it’s actionable. We’ve brought vegetable preparation lines into the 21st century by providing individual operators a screen with real time yield, production feedback and all their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Previously multiple operators would be reliant on a single beacon to track weight. Now actionable data can be presented on an individual basis to improve yield and performance. For both management and operators, it’s clear if an individual is giving away too much product and both parties have the information to hand to take action.
Timely big data
Reviewing yesterday’s production reports looking for insights leaves manufacturers in a reactive state. Manufacturing excellence requires proactive responses to data. Timely delivery of data removes distractions and allows operators and engineers to focus on the job at hand until required. Simple things like changing the colour of a screen from blue, when the downtime is planned, to red, when the downtime runs over are easily understandable.
OAL Factory Performance Changeover
Big data has the potential to be extremely powerful but only if it’s presented in a timely, informative, actionable manner to end users - take the first step today!
Time to act: robotics in food and beverage manufacturing
APRIL™ Robot Chef
Food manufacturing is facing a perfect storm driven by the living wage; flat line productivity and food deflation. Advanced technology and robotics can address these issues yet the UK is seriously lagging behind the developed world in its implementation. The Office of National Statistics recently announced that the UK has returned to recession for the 3rd time in 8 years. A dive in productivity further underlines the challenge in the UK manufacturing sector. The UK now has a 30% lower GDP per hour than countries such as the US, France and Germany. It must be time for food and drink, the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, to act.
The impact of robotics
In 2014, global robot sales increased by 29% to 229,261 units with the main growth seen in the automotive industry, representing 40% of all robots sold. The UK food and drink sector has a 10-year average adoption rate of just 63 robots a year!
China has expanded its leading position in the adoption of robotics with 25% of the total supply in 2014. High productivity countries such as Germany, France and US show a strong correlation to the number of robotic installations, with the US and Germany featuring in the five countries accounting for 70% of all robot sales along with China, Japan and Korea. France also increased investment in robotics, while the UK’s commitment has been in decline. The forecast for robotic installations sees China looking to around 150,000 by 2018, double the 2014 levels, compared to the UK whose outlook is relatively flat during the same period. The other industrial nations have shown steady growth during the same period.
With the food and beverage sector at such low levels of commitment and as such an important economic contributor, the use of robotics must become part of the vision for the future food factory, and the move to Food Manufacturing 4.0.
Barclay’s bank (2015) forecasts that an investment of £1.2bn in automation will add £60bn to the UK economy, ultimately safeguarding 106,000 jobs. Barclays note that the food and drink sector would be one of the primary sectors to benefit, with productivity improvements of 25% being achieved by 2025. Early indications are proving that embracing automation has enhanced productivity and lead to job creation.
Global centre of excellence for robotic food manufacturing
Working with the University of Lincoln we have been championing Food Manufacturing 4.0 and have developed the transformative APRIL™ Robot Chef. APRIL is challenging the way food production lines are set out, moving away from ‘traditional’ linear continuous production, where high volume and limited flexibility have been the watchwords. APRIL will deliver a system that introduces a return to flexible batch systems, but with intelligent and integrated scheduling that optimises production, improves efficiency and in doing so enhances productivity – Potentially more traditional than continuous linear systems in reality?
At the successful launch of the APRIL Robot Chef in April, we set out our vision to create a Global Centre of Excellence for Robotic Food Manufacturing at the University of Lincoln to:
Educate the industry.
Partner with visionary early adopters.
Deliver disruptive change in manufacturing.
If you’re interested in transforming your facility and bucking the productivity trend, get in touch with our experts!
Successful APRIL™ Robot Chef launch & slides
We launched APRIL™ the Robot Chef at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing during a conference with the University of Lincoln focused on understanding how robotics and automation will change food processing. Food manufacturing is facing a perfect storm driven by the living wage; flat lining productivity and food deflation. Advanced technology and robotics can address these issues yet the UK is seriously lagging behind the developed world in its implementation. Speakers discussed different aspects of this challenge which culminated in live demonstrations of the APRIL™ Robot Chef system in our state-of-the-art test centre.
Food professionals view Steam Infusion & cryogenic cooling
Moving forward, our vision is to create a Global Centre of Excellence for Robotic Food Manufacturing at the University of Lincoln that will:
Educate the industry
Partner with visionary early adopters
Deliver disruptive change in manufacturing.
The APRIL™ system demonstrates the potential of robotics to deliver competitive advantage for food manufacturers and how they can overcome existing challenges e.g. traceability, flexibility, adaptability, quality etc.
Speakers included:
Andrea Paoli, Senior Robotics Lecturer at the University of Lincoln explaining the basics and future of robotics.
Jeff Nowill, CEO, Kuka Robotics UK on the intersector knowledge transfer opportunities for the adoption of robots.
Ian Beauchamp, OAL's Head of Process Engineering on the challenges robotics can overcome on the shop floor.
Mark Swainson, Principal lecturer on the challenges robotics can overcome on the shop floor.
Harry Norman, OAL's Managing Director describing his vision of robotic food manufacturing.
Here are the slides from the day (they can be downloaded by clicking through to Slideshare for Jake Norman’s slides and Jeff Nowill’s slides)
Biographies of speakers:
Andrea Paoli
Andrea has been a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Automation and Robotics since 2014 at the University of Lincoln where he serves as the Programme Leader for the brand new BEng Automation Engineering programme. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society UK organising committee.
Jeff Nowill
Jeff is a chartered engineer; having completed an apprenticeship at Dunlop Aviation, and a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Coventry University. He joined KUKA in 2009, and is CEO of the UK and Irish operations, and sits on the board of ESPRC’s RAS network. KUKA boast a turnover in excess of €3 billion, as a world-class manufacturer of industrial robots and automation solutions.
Ian Beauchamp
Ian’s background is control engineering and business. He draws on over thirty years’ experience working for companies such as P&G and APV within R&D, design, project management together with leading product, service and engineering activities. Ian facilitated Performance Optimisation projects within the food industry in a global position utilising Six Sigma and Lean Methodologies.
Mark Swainson
Mark’s industrial background is Technical and Operations Management within the high risk chilled and frozen food industry. He is listed on the European Food Safety Authority Food Safety Experts Database, is an experienced Lead Auditor and a member of the Institute of Packaging. Mark conducts industry based research to address specific food industry challenges; Quality, Safety and Hygiene Control Systems, Advanced Process Technologies & Automation, Food Supply Chains, Microbiological Safety and Shelf Life
Harry Norman
Harry was just 28, with only a few years of industry experience and a first class degree in controls and automation when he founded OAL (Olympus Automation Ltd) in 1993. OAL now supply cutting edge food manufacturing systems for leading blue chip clients such as Allied Bakeries and Bakkavor that have increased the efficiency and consistency of their manufacturing operations.
OAL partners with Macmillan Cancer Support for 2016 fundraising
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In 2016 OAL will be running, cycling, baking and more to fund raise for Macmillan Cancer Support. As our official 2016 charity, we hope to assist Macmillan (made up of professionals, volunteers and campaigners) in their journey to offer support and inspiration to those affected by cancer, to take back control of their lives.
There are currently 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK alone with that number expected to reach four million by 2030, so there is no time like the present. It costs £27 for a Macmillan nurse for an hour, that nurse could provide emotional and practical support as well as essential medical advice to those affected by cancer. Nobody should have to go through cancer alone so if you would like to join us in supporting this fantastic charity.
Find out more about our social responsibility!
OAL secures £60,000 for APRIL™ robot development
We are pleased to announce we have received a £60,000 Agri-Tech Growth Grant for the development of our robotic food processing system, APRIL™. The grant will be used to further develop APRIL™, our fully automated robotic food manufacturing cell that will boost production, efficiency and improve the quality of food produced.
“OAL is transforming the food manufacturing industry through their technology. The APRIL™ system will kick-start the industry’s move towards fully automated production lines, allowing food to be produced quicker, with less waste and greater precision.”
APRIL™ robot with food basket