RFID technology makes the milk transportation process more transparent and easier to control

After severe summer thunderstorms exposed shortcomings in the existing milk transportation and truck delivery systems, the founders of Hansa Milch AG decided to invest in a new system based on industrial wireless LANs (WLAN) and radio frequency identification (RFID). Recording system. Integrated truck information flow from arrival to dispatch ensures maximum process transparency and minimizes possible problems.

Speaking of which, this seems to be some kind of providence. As early as 2011, the German food company Arla began to look for an alternative to the old truck recording system for its milk transportation system and sales network. The project was initiated due to a major summer storm.

Lightning strikes at a dairy plant that produces an average of 600 million kilograms of milk per year caused critical components to go awry and exposed weaknesses in data exchange between gatekeepers, weighing stations, transport lines, process control systems and cleaning facilities based on Magnetic card.

Within a short time, a team of experts from Hansa Milch GmbH in Upahl drafted a statement of requirements and objectives for the development and implementation of a new integrated truck recording system. The new system required as few structural changes as possible and retained as many existing components as possible.

  solution

At the heart of the new scanning process is the RFID Card system, which is based on the infrastructure of an industrial wireless LAN. Siemens implemented the system in cooperation with the dairy plant's technical management and experts from the German vehicle metering manufacturer Pfister Waagen Bilanciai.

Coordinated by the central control system Simatic S7 controller, the new system supports complete data exchange between the truck driver and the process control system, monitoring and managing the truck from its arrival until its departure.

Once the truck driver logs into the system with his RFID card at the entrance, the system records transportation-related data, such as the quality of the raw milk, the type and quantity of the product, etc., and the batch information immediately (unlike before) appears on the In the SattLine process control system of the dairy plant. Andreas Fischer, Maintenance Supervisor at Arla Food AG in Upahl, Germany, said, “Previously we had to enter data not only at the entrance but also in the process control system. Now we have a standardized data storage system. This not only saves time, but also This reduces the potential for errors and gives plant operators the opportunity to adjust the quantity of milk arriving of a certain quality early.”

Less mistakes

After the truck is weighed on a calibrated vehicle scale, the process control system directs the driver to a certain route based on the type of delivery. Once the results of the rapid inhibitor test are in and the driver has entered the correct transport line via RFID, the process control system allows the truck to be unloaded.

To ensure that everything in the carriage is evacuated, the process control system compares the weighing results with inductive flow measurement (IDM) data from the production area. If the two values match, the truck can proceed to the cleaning in position (CIP) procedure.

In this way, the new RFID card system ensures data consistency throughout the entire process (truck arrival and departure) and provides valuable support in terms of batch traceability and process transparency. Fischer concludes, “With this solution we can guarantee that organic and conventional products are not mixed together. It also helps us comply with the requirements of the US biostandard NOP (National Organic Program) and be certified in IFS (International Food Standards) services provided in the process.

Effective communication

By introducing new solutions, communication between truck drivers and factories becomes more systematic and efficient. And sources of error are greatly reduced, such as manually entered data or verbal descriptions. Not only do factories benefit greatly in terms of production process and product safety, they can also provide a reliable source of products at all times, thanks to the integrated electronic signature authentication function.