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Almarai partners with Schneider Electric to introduce smart manufacturing system

Schneider Electric, a provider of energy management and automation solutions, has partnered with Almarai to develop a smart manufacturing solution.

Almarai is said to be the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy company. The company already uses Schneider’s industrial internet of things platform, Wonderware.

Now it has expanded its Schneider Electric deployment as part of a smart manufacturing initiative by deploying line performance suite. 

As an existing Wonderware user, Almarai will add Line Performance Suite, workflow, MES Operations and Quality Management to its Schneider Electric Manufacturing Execution System spanning over 100 filling and packaging lines.

Anticipated benefits include streamlined data gathering, increased agility and improved operational efficiency.

Food and Beverage manufacturers are embracing new strategies to digitize operations, simplify production processes and be “smarter” about manufacturing process execution.

This transformation is global, driving significant investment in Industrie 4.0 initiatives to better capture and analyze operational data.

Increasing access to information and applying predictive analytics strategies can yield actionable intelligence that improves performance.

Sjur Fitje, general manager, manufacturing at Almarai, says: “Our Schneider Electric solution has provided a platform to best manage production requirements and initiate process improvement.

“The model-driven approach included in Line Performance Suite helps to accelerate deployment by standardizing operational processes with reusable templates and integrated workflow. Our next step is to gain better visibility to this data to empower our team to make smarter, more informed decisions.”

Nayef Bouchaaya, director, software business Middle East at Schneider Electric, says: “We are thrilled to work with Almarai and they are truly an industry visionary. By leveraging our Line Performance Suite as part of their manufacturing operations management solution, Almarai can create an intelligence hub for the company that offers a 360 degree view of operations.

“Almarai’s addition of new capabilities can be readily added to our platform-based solutions to achieve greater efficiency, planning, and profitability.”

Fitje adds: “We expect the added visibility and intelligence, including the ability to run reports consolidating near and long-term data, will positively impact how we perform process improvements and ultimately drive even greater customer satisfaction.”

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