Blog & News

Intelligent automation – the final frontier. People make mistakes. But when people in feed mills make mistakes, the results are always costly. It’s just a matter of degree. As feed mills move toward an ever-higher level of automation, people are being taken out of the equation. Facilities have begun operating with almost no direct labor, aside from people who maintain equipment and manage through uncommon situations that may arise. Those people aren’t in the mill monitoring equipment. They’ve shut off the lights and left, returning only if needed to fix equipment or perform normal maintenance. This is “lights-out” automation, the final frontier in process automation. Lights-out is automation to the fullest possible level. When you’re at lights out, your plant floor operates on its own, maintaining the established level of product quality and preventing product waste. No one has to hover over equipment, watching for problems that might arise. Although […]

Obsolescence not scary enough? If you ever wanted to envision a collective shoulder shrug, there may be no better way than to read this: Many of today’s manufacturing plant process automation systems could suddenly fail with costly consequences. Across the industry, companies are familiar with the threat of obsolescence. Few are prepared for it. While sound reasons for this exist, such as budget, one rather fuzzy and unspoken one may be at work. Could it be the threat obsolescence just isn’t scary enough? After all, the way you feel about something can profoundly influence your perception of risk. If you don’t really perceive that obsolescence will cause imminent harm, a shoulder shrug may be all you can muster. When people calculate risk, they rely more on feeling than fact (Source: Peters, Burraston, and Mertz; OSU). It’s hard to take action and prepare for a risk if we don’t feel it’s […]

Lot Tracking Basics – A Primer to Clear Up Confusion Lot tracking can sometimes seem a bit like tax code. Everyone is aware of it. Few really understand it. Most avoid delving into it until faced with a recall or violation. It won’t take long to learn some lot tracking basics. Find out why lot tracking only keeps getting more important. After that, decide whether manually tracking is worth the risk. You can take small steps to mitigate large risk. Why wait for bad news that could inflict both financial and commercial pain? New Times, New Rules The first thing to recognize about lot tracking is that regulations have changed, and the number of new regulations is piling up. You likely know the FDA now has authority to mandate recalls and shut down mill operations. All it takes is lack of proof on the part of the mill. A mill […]