Discover your next big idea at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September
Experience a breakthrough in packaging & processing and transform your business with solutions from 2,300 suppliers spanning all industries.
REGISTER NOW & SAVE

Cheesemaker Harvests the Data Cream of the Crop

The MWC cheese and whey facility, ProFood World's 2021 Manufacturing Innovation Award winner, continues to layer on SCADA functionality to get more information from the data it gathers.

The Ignition SCADA system provides alarms for MWC operators, and also provides layers of data capabilities for track and trace, OEE, and more.
The Ignition SCADA system provides alarms for MWC operators, and also provides layers of data capabilities for track and trace, OEE, and more.
Photo by Thomas Kirby

With the sheer size of its operations, and an on-site server system large enough to store three or four months of data, MWC is up to its eyeballs in data. This could be overwhelming, so it’s important to know how to turn that data into information, notes George Chappell, vice president of dairy operations for Glanbia Nutritionals. But in much the same way it has added other bells and whistles into its operations, MWC is building out analytical capabilities in layers, bit by bit.


Watch video   In this Take 5 video, ProFood World's Joyce Fassl is on location at MWC in St. Johns, Mich., to profile the 2021 Manufacturing Innovation Award winner.

According to Chappell’s “effective-before-efficient” principle, when all the equipment is running, MWC gathers data on its servers that create a baseline of information. “Once we have that, then we layer on our management information systems that will generate reports,” he says. “These are automated reports that come to specific leaders in the facility that allow them to start making decisions based on the information, not just the data.”

Now that MWC has come to the end of its commissioning phase, it’s beginning to layer on more reporting to drive further efficiencies, Chappell adds. The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system provides automation control for the facility and is also used for information and reporting. “It gives you a lot of ways to layer on additional capabilities—whether it’s around reporting systems, whether it is linking into other software, where you can pull and send data to business systems and start to link them together,” he says.


Read article   Read the full June cover story detailing MWC's award-winning cheese and whey operations.

MWC uses an Ignition SCADA system from Inductive Automation, configured and integrated by Tamaki Control, which specializes in industrial automation. “We proved it out at Southwest Cheese, and so we just dropped it in here and it’s a really useful system,” says David North, senior site director for MWC.

Conveying Innovations Report
Editors report on distinguishing characteristics that define each new product and collected video demonstrating the equipment or materials as displayed at the show. This topical report, winnowed from nearly 300 PACK EXPO collective booth visits, represents a categorized, organized account of individual items that were selected based on whether they were deemed to be both new, and truly innovative, based on decades of combined editorial experience in experiencing and evaluating PACK EXPO products.
Take me there
Conveying Innovations Report
Pharmaceutical Innovations Report
Discover the latest breakthrough packaging technologies shaping the pharmaceutical sector. This report dives into cutting-edge innovations, from smart containers that enhance patient safety to eco-friendly materials poised to transform the industry’s sustainability practices. All from PACK EXPO. Learn how forward-thinking strategies are driving efficiency and redefining what’s possible in pharma packaging.
Learn More
Pharmaceutical Innovations Report