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Entrevistas

«En el futuro, podremos ubicar las interfaces entre los dispositivos de IT y producción en cualquier lugar».

Entrevista con el Dr. Tobias Voigt, cofundador de las Weihenstephaner Standards en el Departamento de Tecnología de Envasado de Alimentos de la Universidad Técnica de Múnich.

Las demandas del mercado cada vez son más especializadas y exigen mayor flexibilidad a las empresas de la industria alimentaria. Para poder responder a las necesidades del mercado, la producción debe poder asumir cualquier conversión con celeridad, y en el mejor de los casos permitir su control a través de sistemas independientes del fabricante. Además, los datos pertinentes deben estar siempre disponibles para poder evaluarlos y utilizarlos del modo necesario. El Dr. Tobias Voigt ha explicado en una entrevista que ha mantenido con nosotros cómo las normas uniformes contribuyen a estructurar los procesos y la comunicación, y los retos que necesitamos superar.

Dr. Voigt, la producción adaptable es un tema importante, particularmente en la industria alimentaria. ¿En qué se traduce este enfoque, especialmente en el área de la producción y envasado de alimentos?

La producción y envasado industriales de alimentos se lleva a cabo en grandes cantidades y utiliza sistemas de alto rendimiento. Sin embargo, la variedad de artículos ha crecido considerablemente en los últimos años, y continúa haciéndolo a un ritmo incluso mayor. Este escenario obliga a los sistemas de envasado a emplear tamaños de lote más pequeños y a incorporar mayores niveles de flexibilidad. Para mantener los niveles de productividad a pesar del aumento de las conversiones y procesos de reacondicionamiento necesarios, cada vez es más necesaria la automatización y conexión en red de varios departamentos y subsistemas.

¿Qué cubren exactamente las Weihenstephaner Standards?

Las normas de Weihenstephaner o Weihenstephaner Standards definen la comunicación entre máquinas de producción y envasado de alimentos y sistemas de IT de alto nivel. Si una empresa productora o envasadora de alimentos quiere supervisar exhaustivamente su producción, los dispositivos de producción deben proporcionar los datos pertinentes para ello. Además, las máquinas y la IT de la producción deben hablar el mismo idioma. Por eso, las Weihenstephaner Standards definen con precisión los datos, en contenido y formato, que las máquinas deben proporcionar para una supervisión eficaz que garantice la calidad o la trazabilidad interna. También definen como debería la comunicación ser tecnicamente y como pueden evaluarse los datos.

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Las Weihenstephaner Standards surgieron de un proyecto de investigación hace más de 15 años. ¿Puede explicar los avances que se han producido desde entonces?

Estos dispositivos tuvieron una rápida implantación en los sectores del envasado de bebidas y de alimentos. Hemos seguido desarrollando criterios en función de la respuesta de la industria. En la industria cárnica (WS Food), la resonancia fue más progresiva, porque en este sector se utilizan muy pocas redes, o funcionan únicamente en islas privadas. En unos años podremos ver cómo evoluciona WS Bake. Los primeros proyectos de sistema que incorporan las especificaciones de WS Bake ya están en fase de diseño. La producción en serie de bebidas y la ciberseguridad han dado lugar a nuevos desafíos. Para empezar, a principios de año dimos el pistoletazo de salida al proyecto WS Brew. Como parte de la iniciativa «WS goes OPC UA», definimos con precisión el modo en que los datos WS se pueden transmitir con más seguridad utilizando la cada vez más consolidada norma OPC UA en contraposición al protocolo WS cifrado.

¿Se limitan las Weihenstephaner Standards exclusivamente a Alemania o también le parece importante su implantación internacional?

Es bastante evidente que con las Weihenstephaner Standards siempre hemos pensado en un ámbito de aplicación internacional. Una especificaciones limitadas a Alemania nunca podrían considerarse «Estándar», y las empresas de comida y bebida internacionales ya las han incorporado, como también muchos de los fabricantes de equipos que abastecen al mercado global. En el sector del envasado, también estamos trabajando con OMAC Packaging Workgroup, que afecta principalmente a EE. UU. El idioma habitual de los documentos y definiciones es el inglés. Y, precisamente para facilitar en la mayor medida posible su uso e incorporación en la mediana empresa alemana, las Weihenstephaner Standards siempre se publicarán en alemán.

Las Weihenstephaner Standards se han utilizado, hasta ahora, principalmente en la industria de la alimentación y las bebidas. Con el paso del tiempo, han dado lugar a sistemas como WS Bake, WS Food y WS Pack. ¿Qué diferencia hay entre ellos?

En el protocolo (protocolo WS) y el enfoque principal, no hay distinciones. La diversificación se produjo concretamente en la evaluación y las descripciones de la función MES necesarias para las respectivas aplicaciones y los puntos de datos definidos para ello. Por ejemplo, WS Pack incluye perfiles de datos específicos para máquinas de envasado de bebidas, mientras que los perfiles de WS Food son para máquinas de envasado al vacío. Sin embargo, comparten los datos fundacionales (p. ej., estados de máquina o contadores de producción).

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What specific advantages did, e.g., the food industry, gain from the Weihenstephaner Standards?

Food operations are under high cost pressures and must function efficiently, sustainably, flexibly, and with almost no losses. To achieve this, they track their products precisely during production. They have incorporated extended IT systems with interfaces for production for this purpose. If these interfaces have to be individually adjusted to the different ‘languages’ and contents of the machines and systems from different manufacturers, then this networking would be complex and expensive. However, if the meat processing operation specifies maintenance of the Weihenstephaner Standards during design of new production systems, the availability of relevant data is ensured, the individual cost of interface programming is reduced, and this saves a substantial proportion of system implementation costs.

Would it be theoretically possible to open the Weihenstephaner Standards for other industries, or do they only apply to the food sector?

That is possible. We know that shoe polish and face cream packaging firms and also pharmaceutical companies have aligned themselves with the Weihenstephaner Standards. The foundational data profiles can be used by them just as well. However, this would require addition supplementation which is project specific.

Is there a specific level of automation that a production must achieve in order to be able to implement the Weihenstephaner Standards?

Theoretically, all Weihenstephaner data could be recorded via a handheld input terminal and converted manually to IT specifications. However, the Standards were not developed for this. Application is really only logical if automated production devices are linked and most of the data is exchanged online.

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The advantages of standardization are often emphasized. Be honest: are there disadvantages?

The use of standards always includes disadvantages. There are compromises, which in the case of the Weihenstephaner Standards were ‘negotiated’ with many industrial partners. Therefore, they can never completely fulfill any individual's desires. If you have enough time and money available for a specific project, you would certainly find better solutions in this individual case for integrating production systems into an IT system landscape. In addition, competing vendors are often not enthused about standards. Many companies also earn money with company-specific solutions during IT integration in the food branch, and simultaneously tie their customers to them. For them, a manufacturer neutral standard is disadvantageous, at least in the short term.

What further developments can you imagine for the Weihenstephaner Standards – in particular in respect to Industry 4.0?

As stated, we are already working on an alternative to the current WS protocol on the basis of WS OPC UA with respect to the increasing networking via the ‘open’ Internet and possible IT system applications in the cloud. In addition to IT security mechanisms (encryption, authorization protection, etc.), we are focusing less on the classic automation pyramid for future information models and communication architectures. In the future, we will be able to locate the interfaces between IT and production devices anywhere, e.g., in sensor electronics, a PLC, an IPC, a control system, or a mobile operating device. Uniform interface definitions and, most importantly, identical semantics for data contents, are gaining increasing importance. It will therefore make sense to continue to develop the Weihenstephaner Standards as IoT interfaces for the food industry. The RoboFill research project is the beginning of multi-agent based, and thus completely visualized, control of a product directed beverage filling process.

Dr. Voigt, thank you for the interview.

Personal Information

Dr.-Ing. Tobias Voigt studies Brewing and Beverage Technology at the Technical University of Munich, and holds a professorial chair specializing in brewery systems and food packaging technology. He subsequently established a research group related to his successor chair for food packaging technology, which studies filling and packaging technologies, sustainable industrial food production, and IT support for these areas. Beginning in January 2013, he also became the CEO of the Industry Association for Food Technology and Packaging (IVLV).

How it all began …

The basis for the Weihenstephaner Standards was a research project for breweries that started in 1999. Challenges for data detection systems in the beverage filling sector were defined at that time in a “standard specifications document.” These found increasing levels of use in the next few years in the beverage industry. Filling operations, mechanical engineering firms and also IT system consultants understood the desire for additional standardization. Between 2003 and 2005, the team around Dr. Voigt precisely defined evaluation functions and especially, IT machine interfaces, for the Standard. This provided the foundation for the WS Pack definitions for packaging machines, which have been available since 2007. In 2010, comparable definitions were defined for sausage manufacturing (WS Food) and in 2015 for baked goods (WS Bake).

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