OAL News
Double win for OAL at PPMA 2018
We’re very proud to announce that we took home two accolades at the PPMA Awards 2018. Our APRIL Eye system won the Innovative Vision Solution award, while Kyle Constable, Steam Infusion technical sales lead at OAL, was named Apprentice of the Year.
Innovative Vision Solution Award & Apprentice of the Year
PPMA awards
We’re very proud to announce that we took home two accolades at the PPMA Awards 2018. Our APRIL™ Eye system won the Innovative Vision Solution award, while Kyle Constable, Steam Infusion technical sales lead at OAL, was named Apprentice of the Year. We were also highly commended for our APRIL™ Robotics Ingredient Handling system! The awards recognise the finest examples of innovation, smart manufacturing and entrepreneurship in the UK food industry, and we’re delighted to have been acknowledged in three categories.
Eyes on the prize
APRIL™ Eye is the world’s first artificial intelligence vision solution. It fully automates the date code verification process to reduce the risk of product recalls and withdrawals caused by human error on packaging lines. The Innovative Vision Solution award celebrates equipment suppliers, system integrators or end users who have manufactured, designed or installed a clever, creative or innovative industrial solution. It’s fantastic that the PPMA appreciates how APRIL™ Eye can make a significant improvement to processes, safety, quality and efficiency and deliver cost savings to food manufacturers on their packaging lines.
By combining machine learning and artificial intelligence, APRIL™ Eye transforms the traditional date code verification process, which relies on operators to check the date code is printed correctly. APRIL™ Eye removes the human error inherent in these boring, repetitive tasks by reading back the date code, fully automating the date code verification process. The system can deal with variations such as lighting, positioning, print quality and placement to eliminate errors, protect consumers and the brand while at the same time reducing labour costs and waste - it’s the full package!
“You’re hired”
Acknowledging emerging talent within the food industry, the Apprentice of the Year award celebrates the most promising apprentice, and in particular their future leadership potential. Kyle Constable is a degree apprentice at OAL, helping UK and European food manufacturers adopt OAL’s Steam Infusion technology to ensure they maximise the benefits of the cooking process. With a strong background in the food industry having previously worked for Nestlé as a manufacturing apprentice, he is currently completing a degree in Food & Drink Manufacturing Operations Management at the University of Lincoln.
The award is designed to encourage more young people to take up careers in the industry, a cause that Kyle takes very seriously as he represents a success story of taking an apprenticeship route to gaining a degree qualification within the food industry and uses this experience to mentor students as part of the OAL CSR programme. It’s wonderful for Kyle to be recognised for such a prestigious award as it endorses his hard work combining studies with great performance at the company.
Harry Norman, owner of OAL, comments, “A double win at the PPMA awards - who could ask for more? We’re absolutely thrilled to win the Innovative Vision Solution PPMA Award and for Kyle to be recognised as the Apprentice of the Year. It really demonstrates to our peers the significance of the work that we’re doing and celebrates one of our team members and the valuable contribution that he makes, not just to our company but the industry as a whole.”
We’re really making a difference at OAL. Want to join us on this journey? Get in touch to find out more about our award-winning solutions or if you want to be part of a team that values training and development, have a look at our careers page today.
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!
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.
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