Digitalization presentation on F&B industry by Roland
Heymann, Head of Global Food and Beverage, Technical Account Management,
Siemens Germany
At
the full-day seminar on “Digitalization of the Food and Beverage Industry in
the Philippines” held by Siemens last month, a team of global experts from the
company showcased their technological expertise to current and potential customers
in Philippines’ F&B industry.
Through interactive presentation sessions, Siemens presented
how
industry players can discover
the potential of digitalization in food and beverage industry. Topics covered include “Digitalization - The future of manufacturing in Food
and Beverage” and “Standardization –
Set the pace for digitalization in Food and Beverage”. There was also a live demonstration to
showcase how companies can “Reduce
downtimes and cost with transparent operation”, where Siemens used the example of
the dairy industry to demonstrate how both process and discrete workflows in
the food and beverage industry can benefit from digitalization. Factors
typically affecting the dairy industry are high cost sensitivity and mass
production on the one hand, coupled with the growing diversity of available
flavors and innovative packaging concepts on the other.
“We’ve
been working with a number of global food and beverage players and learned from
them about their demands and specific trends in the market. In order to respond
to these needs, we are adapting our digital enterprise software suite
accordingly and are implementing these functions into our applications, our
solutions, and our products. While doing so, we aim to bring those solutions to
anywhere in the world that has major expansions and investments ongoing for the
food and beverage industry, to give all regions and specifically the
Philippines an equal and fair chance to leverage our learnings,” shared Roland Heymann, Head of Global Food and Beverage,
Technical Account Management, Siemens Germany.
Digitalization the Food
and Beverage in Industry in the Philippines
The F&B industry in the
Philippines is a highly competitive one, and it is expected to amount to
approximately US$26 million in revenue this year. For manufacturers in the
industry, operating productive production facilities requires many factors for
consideration, including a consistently high level of product
quality, maximum plant availability, optimum resource efficiency – and,
increasingly, the greatest possible flexibility in order to meet more and more
individual customer requirements.
Additionally, about 1.3 billion tonnes of food – which is
about a third of all that is produced – around the world is wasted due to
factors such as poor equipment, transportation and infrastructure, rejection
due to aesthetics, and over purchase. The supply chain has to be more agile to
allow companies to produce the right amount of products to cater to consumer
demands, at the right time and at the right location.
Mastering all these challenges today and in the future is
possible only with digitalization. Digitalization
is the interaction of the virtual and real world. It is a major trend and
innovation driver, creating completely new business and growth opportunities
for companies. Digitalization of the entire value chain is crucial for catching
new trends and ensuring competitiveness.
This is particularly important
for the Philippines, as the country is growing rapidly in terms of population
and production capacities. Digitalization would lay the foundation of how the
local food and beverage industry will perform in the next few years and be able
to compete with other countries in the region.
The digitalization of the manufacturing industry, which
is also known as “Industrie 4.0”, is a topic of global interest.
Siemens
offers the products and solutions required fully or gradually integrate and
digitalize the entire value chain. The Digital
Enterprise Suite is Siemens’ answer to Industrie 4.0, and it enables
manufacturing companies to streamline and digitalize their entire business
process, seamlessly integrating suppliers into the mix. They can begin at any
point of their value chain, from product design to service, and can extend
digitalization gradually, depending on their current needs.
With the Digital Enterprise Suite,
Siemens offers a comprehensive portfolio of software-based systems specifically
for the discrete industries. It integrates and digitalizes the complete value chain
from Product Design, Production Planning, Production Engineering, Production
Execution to Services. The result of the integration and digitalization of the
complete value chain is a perfect digital copy of the value chain – the Digital
Twin. This enables companies to perform simulation, testing, and optimization
in a completely virtual world – before ever committing any resources in the
real world. The connection of the virtual and real worlds leads to shorter
time-to-market as well as greater flexibility, quality, and efficiency.
Enrico
Buergo, Vice President and Country Division Lead, Siemens Philippines, said, “Digitalization is an integral part of
the industrial revolution. You have this shift coming, it’s about the analysis,
integration and standardization. We’re bringing it here to kick-start a very
vibrant market which is food and beverage... and we really want to use it as a
way for each company to achieve whatever it is they are aspiring and not to be
left in the game.”
“The
future is always in motion,” explains Alexander Grimm, Head of Food and Beverage ASEAN,
Siemens Singapore, during the beginning of his presentation session. “Digitalization itself, it’s a thing which is in movement. It’s a continuous development.” He later explains in detail how
customers have become more discerning in terms of the wants, and how
digitalization in production can address these needs at the quicker and more
precise way.
Present in the seminar
were key officials of Siemens from both the regional and global headquarters
including Enrico Buergo, Vice President and Country Division Lead, Siemens
Philippines; Alexander Grimm, Head of
Food and Beverage ASEAN, Siemens Singapore; Roland Heymann, Head of Global Food
and Beverage, Technical Account Management, Siemens Germany; Christopher
Roppelt, Key Expert for Food and Beverage Automatic Concepts, Siemens Germany;
and Lito Torres, Head of Factory and Automation, Siemens Philippines.
As part of the
company’s commitment to the F&B industry in the Philippines, Siemens will
be offering a two-day workshop that would showcase in detail products and
technology that can be personalized and applied to their operating processes.
The workshop will be conducted by product specialists and will be at no cost to
participants of the seminar. Those who are interested can get in touch with
their Siemens representative.
For more information on
Siemens offerings in the F&B industry, please visit https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home/markets/food-beverage.html
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
