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Digitalization of sugar manufacturing process

Reduce cost, better manage the capacity of assets and realize improvements in the whole supply chain efficiency of a sugar mill

While every sugar producer faces specific manufacturing challenges, there are several that resonate across the industry. Among today’s most pressing concerns include the need to optimize energy consumption, reduce material use and inventory costs and increase asset utilization and throughput. Other priorities include the need to improve quality and reduce variations, errors and waste while maximizing material traceability and fulfilling regulatory compliance. Finally, there is a greater awareness and desire to embrace an agile manufacturing environment. Solutions to these challenges can be found in the new world that is emerging with the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and the application of digital technologies.

We suggest that most of today’s digital systems are not fully integrated. Companies, suppliers and customers are rarely closely linked. Nor are departments such as engineering, production and service. Functions from the enterprise to the plant floor level are not fully integrated. Even engineering itself – from products to plants to automation – lacks complete integration.

Digital technology can be applied to the horizontal and vertical value chains. The transformation into a digital sugar mill requires the introduction of a new level of digital intensity including connectivity, big data, analytics and artificial intelligence. With digitalization and Industry 4.0, companies, departments, functions and capabilities will become much more cohesive, as cross-company, universal data-integration networks evolve and enable truly automated value chains.


How Digitalization addresses sugar production challenges

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A digital sugar mill

The strategic goals of sugar producers are simple: to provide competitive products, boost profitability and grow their business in a climate of increasing globalization and elevated product development costs. The starting point is how the different process control levels affect both the horizontal and vertical value chains found across a sugar production facility. Automation helps perform operations that are continuous and repetitive, eliminating manual operations that would otherwise be required. Automation of a sugar production process leads to high yields, uniform quality and high plant utilization with minimized energy losses and environmental impact.

Sugar industry opportunities

1

Optimize energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions 

2

Maximize material traceability and fulfill regulatory compliance 

3

Embrace an agile manufacturing environment 

4

Reduce material use and inventory costs 

5

Increase asset utilization and throughput 

6

Improve quality and reduce variations, errors and waste 

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Modular approach enabling truly automated sugar value chains

ABB Ability Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) software is a comprehensive, scalable and modular suite that helps your production process to become more responsive and adaptive by connecting the people, assets and systems involved in the production process.

ABB offers a big set of applications and solutions that help collect, integrate, and analyze data from multiple plant sources, supply chains, applications and other sources to facilitate decision-making and improve production planning. In addition, manufacturing flexibility, traceability and genealogy of manufactured products can be improved.

Based on our experience and customer feedback, we recommend to build up the MOM phase by phase. During phase one, OEE and downtime management modules are recommended. This means implementing the most basic data collection type within the MOM function module first and expand the MOM as demand grows. For example, the KPI dashboard, OEE and downtime management are relatively easy to implement and often easier to justify in terms of return on investment. They also provide a solid foundation for other function modules, like Energy Monitor and other to be added later.

Key capabilities:

Process Intelligence
Analyze, understand and tune your process with applications for time series data and events

Production Intelligence
Track your production data and increase efficiency across your manufacturing facility.

Manufacturing Execution
Integrate, monitor, and control your manufacturing operations

Production Optimization
Increase throughput through higher level of automation, optimization and emission control



e.g. You can find out why the energy level is too high in your sugar plant, get down to the assets which are causing the high consumption, inform the operator to check in System 800xA and send out service technician to repair it - closing the loop to the device level again

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