Aavin Dairy, a part of the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited, has over one crore daily consumers and now has enhanced its performance in the Indian dairy industry by upgrading IoT. This step improved its productivity levels, asset management, energy efficiency, and further increased the processing capacity from 2 LLPD to 3 LLPD when commissioned, and now has scaled up to 5.5 LLPD.
The dairy operates to promote the economic development of the farming community by procurement of milk from villages, along with processing and manufacturing milk products. However, the segment faced numerous challenges, including shifting consumer preferences, developing competitive, profitable, safe, and desirable products.
Hence, it demanded the development of advanced digital technologies capable of providing transparency, security, regulatory compliance, and reliability. To increase performance in the Indian dairy industry, the dairy concentrated on building a solid business model. The vision was to develop the reliability and quality of milk processing while also guaranteeing efficiency directing to match the pace of technological advancements with the rapidly changing environment.
According to Jai Kumar, General Manager, Aavin Dairy, back in 2014, the company thought of renovating its plants to become better prepared for the future. Automation promises increased plant productivity, higher returns on CapEx and OpEx, and achieving optimum energy efficiency. Schneider ElectricEcoStruxure Process Expert (formerly EcoStruxure Hybrid DCS) has helped it in improving operational efficiency.
Before the placement, the dairy managed its operations manually, facing the initial challenge to convert and upgrade the manual plant into an automated facility.
“Once the plant was automated and transformed, we were faced with another issue of lack of know-how and expertise to handle the new technology. However, with appropriate training sessions, we were able to empower, skill, and upgrade our workforce to transition towards an automated style of working,” Kumar adds further.
Because the dairy is open 365 days a year, regardless of natural disasters or other issues, it was consequently essential to devise a technology that allowed for incessant and smooth operations. Due to the automated transition, the dairy was able to improve operational precision and reduce errors.
Furthermore, it has increased end-product quality and reliability while increasing the plant’s overall operational efficiency, flexibility, scalability, and ease of maintenance. The EcoStruxure Process Expert helps to coordinate processes such as pasteurization, homogenization, CIP, and others.
In addition, the facility has a comprehensive control and monitoring system for the entire dairy process, including the electrical and utility systems. Because of the availability of overall Sequence of Events (SOE), focused MIS reporting, Trend, and Historian data of all dairy processes, it has experienced a streamlined rise in efficiency with increased resource optimization.
“There is data for everything that empowers informed decisions. Further, the time taken to manage the daily tasks has reduced. Asset management and energy efficiency have improved our production capacity from 2 lakh litres per day to 5 lakh litres per day, ” Kumar said. Along with EcoStruxure Process Expert, the dairy has also used Altivar Drives for pump applications, AS-Interface Ethernet PnF Gateways with control systems for discrete actuators and valves, Conventional MCC Panels Switchgears, and APC UPS of 20KVA for automation & IT systems.
The company has now addressed the issue of insufficient monitoring, which affects operational efficiency and poorly affects the visibility into energy use and scalability. As a result of digital transformation, new revenue and value-creating opportunities have emerged. The F & B supply is also being realigned and digitized to improve efficiencies and ensure that products can be handled, stored, and delivered safely.