In order to optimally prepare for the step towards highly autonomous Industry 4.0 processes, food producers need to rethink their approach to stock units. Internal goods logistics processes include not only raw materials and products, but also storage aids, transport containers and packaging objects as well as empties management within the company.
In addition, the increasing individualisation of orders is leading to a trend towards ever smaller transport units. As a result, mixed pallets are increasingly becoming the norm in shipping.
As early as 2018, we extended the proSystem solution framework so that the consistent mapping of multidimensional stock units (containers) is possible without any problems.
Fit for today and tomorrow: flexible container logistics
Batch formation to trace the origin of a raw material has long been an indispensable core process in food production. In today's increasingly networked production and supply chains, it is particularly important to map this transparency across systems and partners.
In proSystem two methods are available for this purpose: closed batch tracking and integrated HKN inheritance. The latter implements an inheritance logic for HKN articles from goods receipt in production, so that the origin of the product can be determined at the push of a button in each subsequent production stage. The advantage over closed batch tracking is that the process is better suited for time-critical applications such as packaging and labelling.
In the respective HKN system number (HKN_TC) different strategies of the retail chains can be mapped, which are then maintained as article characteristics in the article itself. In this way, proSystem also offers the possibility of setting up specific HKN criteria for different customers. Our solutions are based on the fTRACE system of the tracing specialist GS1. Using this system, all origin data for a delivery can be retrieved for a supplier delivery note. fTRACE is based on GS1's own platform, which can be easily integrated into other IT systems.
Food safety on the cutting edge
The trend to break down complex system functions into any number of networked microservices is particularly topical today due to the breakthrough of cloud infrastructures. However, the concept is much older and was first implemented at syspro in 2011.
The benefits of switching to virtual mini-applications are particularly high in production solutions. This is because a conventional application never achieves the necessary flexibility at this level to adapt to variable components in the process, to adapt precisely to new specific scenarios again and again, and to deal intelligently with new categories of faults and errors.
Changing a powerful application each time for individualization and other adjustments would be neither efficient nor safe. Instead, we rely on independent microservices that communicate with each other in close networking via standardized interfaces. Each of these services autonomously performs a small, precisely defined task.
Lean, cloud-ready and flexible: Microservices for process data acquisition