At the entrance to the village of Lingenau in the central Bregenzerwald, Käsekeller GmbH operates a cellar for alpine and mountain cheese that the local dairies use jointly for ripening and caring for more than 32,000 wheels of cheese. Stacked on racks, the wheels are stored there up to a height of 7 metres and are cared for on site by robots, fully automated. The complex storage and care process is run and monitored by a modern control system. At peak times, up to 1,600 wheels of cheese a week are moved into and out of storage. This local control system was recently extended with the IoT platform digifai control, which now makes condition monitoring far more convenient and increases the effectiveness of quality assurance.
The challenges in cheese ripening
The wheels of cheese come in from different producers, for example the surrounding dairies. The intake process alone is complex and has to make sure that every wheel can be found again after ripening. Continuous, gap-free quality control and traceability are essential — from intake, throughout the entire care process, and finally at removal from storage. For ripening, the wheels are cared for and stored in two climatically separate ripening cellars.
Alongside the care regime, the climate — temperature and humidity — is decisive for optimal cheese ripening. Unfavourable or incorrect parameters have an immediate effect on quality and can lead to total loss. To maintain the right climate, special ventilation and filter systems are installed in the cheese cellar, and they have to be monitored continuously.
Care — brushing and salting — is carried out by care robots individually for each product batch. During ripening and depending on the degree of maturity, the wheels’ care requirements change. An automated care sequence controls the necessary program adjustments in the care robot.
An IoT platform connects sites, cellars, machines and plant with the master cheesemaker
Besides the cheese cellar in Lingenau, the master cheesemaker also looks after a second site around 30 kilometres away. Process data for cellars, machines and plant has to be monitored at both sites. The IoT platform collects data and information across sites and provides access to the process data from anywhere, no matter which site the master cheesemaker is working at. Conveniently, he can also log in from the road via web-based access. Thanks to web technology, no special devices or connections are needed for this. An internet connection and an end device — a smartphone, a tablet or an ordinary web browser on a desktop PC — are enough. Two sites, three cellars, six robots plus the air-conditioning and building data are therefore integrated into the IoT platform. The warehouse management system supplies the utilisation figures. All the data relevant for condition monitoring can thus be viewed in one central place.
Trend analysis and automated alerting safeguard quality
The IoT platform continuously records and archives the process data histories. The resulting data value trends open up a new perspective for condition monitoring, because recorded trends can be analysed retrospectively. Looking at several data value trends together in context reveals correlations that would probably go unnoticed in the day-to-day running of the store. What, for example, is the real relationship between the cooling capacity of the air-conditioning system and the utilisation level?
Automated trend analysis and graduated escalation levels for limit violations in the data histories open up entirely new possibilities for quality assurance. The IoT platform also collects and archives the alarm messages from the individual machines, plant units and robots. If an error message occurs or a limit value is exceeded, the master cheesemaker is notified by SMS, e-mail or phone call. The platform’s automatic notification function shortens the response time to malfunctions enormously — and it does so before quality suffers.
An IoT information platform makes cheese ripening transparent and processes traceable
The complex requirements of cheese ripening alone — and even more so the particular conditions created by the different supplying producers at the Bregenzerwälder Käsekeller — make it necessary to keep the storage and care processes traceable. Gap-free documentation is essential. The IoT platform digifai control makes the cheese ripening process transparent and the data accessible. Digitalised data acquisition makes analysis considerably easier in the event of complaints or warranty claims. Storage and batch reports are available at the push of a button.
Large-screen displays and mobile access keep the information in view at all times
At the Bregenzerwälder Käsekeller, the most important data values and current process information are shown on large screens using the IoT platform’s dashboard function. That way, staff always have a digital view of the store in front of them. Alongside current operating messages, the displays also show the current position of the robots or the climate data of the ripening cellars. Implementing this was easy: commercially available internet-capable large screens were simply installed.
Implementation is straightforward, scalable and suitable for other applications too
Condition monitoring is necessary or worthwhile in many applications. An IoT platform such as digifai control makes it possible to tap into local data sources — machines, plant or building data — and bring the information together. The Bregenzerwälder Käsekeller example shows how these functions are applied in practice. Requirements similar to those in cheese ripening can also be found in other areas of food production.
Data sources are usually integrated via so-called IoT gateways. They act as the interface between machine and IoT platform. Everything needed in terms of functionality and interfaces is already built into the IoT gateway. On the other side, the gateway is connected to the IoT platform over the internet — and with that, the data source is tapped. Thanks to the scalable IoT platform, no software has to be purchased, and the application can be extended at will. The outlay for the gateway hardware and for the installation stays within manageable limits.
