Leading American Dairy Sees 50% Decrease in Quality Control Audit Time

This leading American dairy produces and distributes cheese, yogurt and other products. It faced lengthy processes to ensure high-quality food production and a lack of data-driven visibility.

The customer needed to reduce quality control process time and streamline ERP systems. Strict quality control standards enforced by FDA drove the customer to spend significant time testing food safety. The company needed to accelerate these quality control processes. Furthermore, the company also needed to gain visibility into root causes of unplanned downtime.

Working with GE Vernova, the company deployed Proficy Plant Applications, initiating a Smart Factory digital transformation journey.

For the customer, this technology enables automated quality control reporting on the production floor and messages with the company’s ERP systems.

The Proficy MES solution also provides root cause analyses of unplanned downtime. Once explanatory variables of unplanned downtime are identified, they can be isolated, and processes can be put in place to ensure that type of downtime doesn’t recur.

The company underwent a culture change as it took full advantage of the MES technology and digital transformation journey.

The customer engaged plant personnel with the digital technology enhancements, and the operations teams are now inspired to fully leverage the gains realized by harnessing data.