Maximizing the Value of Technology in Thailand’s F&B Manufacturing Sector with IT Monitoring
By Sebastian Krueger, Vice President APAC, Paessler
Thailand’s strong presence in the food production and export industry, fuelled by its abundant natural resources and constant innovation in the sector, has earned itself the title of the “Kitchen of the World”. Thailand’s food industry has burgeoned both in manufacturing and exports despite the challenges faced due to the pandemic, Thailand’s food production increased by 2.9%, and exports were valued at 622,700 million Baht, an increase of 4.5%. The country was the 13th largest food exporter in the world in 2021, with export values amounting to US$30.5 billion.
Challenges in Conquering the Next Frontier
To remain globally competitive, Thailand’s food manufacturers must adhere to the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) guidelines. GMP refers to a certification that verifies a manufacturer’s compliance with the basic manufacturing practices and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) program. Despite the rapid growth of the food industry, it is critical to ensure that the same safe food production processes are still being carried out across the country for local and foreign exports.
This requires manufacturers to grapple with the maintenance of an increasing number of factory machines and storage devices. Adoption of industry 4.0 is posed to be the way forward for the vertical to ensure quality and output at scale to support the nation’s GDP. The management of a food production factory becomes even more demanding as all connected machinery and equipment have to function efficiently with minimal downtime, while also complying with food safety standards.
Technology in Simplifying the Management of Food Production Devices
Real-time monitoring of this dynamic and connected production shop floor enables organisations to maximise efficiency, reduce downtime, and optimise costs. Industrial software allows users to get a consolidated view of the health status of their operational devices. By keeping track of the functional status of all factory appliances at once, any potential issues can be identified and diagnosed early before it escalates into system downtime, which would negatively affect production levels and in turn incur operational and monetary losses.
Apart from preventing downtime, IT monitoring can help organisations analyse device data, such as real-time production output, to help manufacturers optimise resource utilisation and forecast requirements.
To comply with food safety regulations, manufacturers have to ensure that the ingredients used are fresh usually done by maintaining a traceability system to track the production date of all raw materials and that refrigerators and freezers are maintained at the right temperatures. To handle these large amounts of data coming from the expanding food manufacturing industry, technology provisions must be enforced to seamlessly collect, sort and derive meaningful insights from the data. Technological solutions by IT monitoring partners can simplify the process by automatically collecting and analysing statistics, and generating possible actions that manufacturers may take to ensure efficient operations.
Implementing Solutions for the Long Run
A network monitoring system fits seamlessly to cater to these new age requirements of monitoring the health and status of critical production infrastructure and devices. Organisations can obtain high-quality data presented on a dashboard for a clear overview of all their operative systems from the factory grounds to cloud servers. Any potential issues can be highlighted in real-time for IT teams to resolve issues early. This ensures that food production continues round the clock, preventing system outages and improving product outputs, which will bring food manufacturers long-term profits.
Network monitoring solutions can greatly reduce the manpower needed to individually and manually make sure that each device is functioning properly by tracking large amounts of connected machinery. Consolidated dashboards enable IT teams to easily convey data information and insights to other teams for more seamless communication and decision-making for improving food manufacturing efficiency.
As food manufacturers expand their production levels to meet demands, the monitoring system should be scalable to the manufacturer’s needs and able to cater to their growth. This will help them cut costs in the long run as there is no need to upgrade or change providers for network monitoring solutions as organisational objectives change in the future.
The food manufacturing industry involves the management of a wide range of critical production and storage infrastructure, and compliance with high quality and safety standards. Manufacturers should leverage modern technology to make the process of monitoring all factory processes simpler and reduce the need to exhaust unnecessary resources moving forward.
