Cloud technology for the food and feed industry

Bühler Insights™ is one of the first secure, high-performance and reliable cloud platforms for digital services in the food and feed industry. It was launched by Bühler at the Microsoft Ignite Conference in Florida.

Partnership with Microsoft
Bühler has developed the new Insights platform in partnership with Microsoft and its Azure cloud platform. The result is an IoT platform that runs all of Bühler's digital services. Customers can access these services through a single portal.

MoisturePro™, a Bühler Insights-based digital service, reduces energy consumption in industrial drying processes, for example, helping customers save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

In his opening speech at Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted Bühler's critical role in food supply and focused on Bühler's work to leverage digital technologies for traceable food safety. Stuart Bashford, Digital Officer at Bühler, adds:

"Microsoft's technology enables us to accelerate time-to-market for products. This gives us more benefits and more value for our customers."

For producers, this means reaching a new level in productivity. With the Bühler Insights IoT platform, every single machine in a production line runs as if it were operated by the best employee - around the clock.

More return with less energy
With Bühler Insights, the Uzwil-based company can offer its own process know-how directly to its customers. Today, Bühler can already connect over 85 percent of its solutions to Bühler Insights.

At Microsoft Ignite, Bühler will present a selection of its digital services. These include MoisturePro, a cloud-based digital service that greatly increases yields, lowers energy costs, and reduces environmental impact in thermal processes in the food and feed industry.

Combined with the power of the cloud, MoisturePro enables a return on investment of approximately USD 300 000 with annual energy savings of USD 20 000.

Assess rice and corn
MoisturePro is one of a whole range of services associated with Bühler Insights. Another is LumoVision. The sorting technology detects corn kernels infested with toxic aflatoxin and sorts them out. In addition, two vision solutions are linked to Bühler Insights: GrainiGo™ for corn and TotalSense™ for rice. Thanks to them, customers can assess quality and trends of raw products, compare performance objectively and reliably, and store data for future analysis and traceability.

Bühler Insights and this first set of digital services are just the beginning. Bühler and Microsoft are already exploring the possibilities of blockchain to enable total traceability for food manufacturers and consumers. Blockchain is ideal for recording actions and transactions, because data in it is very difficult to change or manipulate.

Bühler and Microsoft are working together to develop a blockchain solution that will increase food safety and transparency along the entire food value chain. Satya Nadella said that Bühler is changing its own business with AI and its entire industry with blockchain.

Blockchain: more security, less fraud
Blockchain can benefit the food industry in many ways. One example is food contamination: In the first eight months of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recorded about 120 cases of food and feed contamination in the U.S., including salmonella, listeria, glass, metal, and rodent feces. With Blockchain, companies can quickly determine the source of a contamination and take action to prevent resulting illnesses, food production losses, and image damage. Blockchain also allows companies to ensure traceability of quality and locations.

"Bühler uses cloud technology to minimize toxic contamination, among other things."

According to Stuart Bashford, Digital Officer at Bühler Group, this could raise awareness of food safety in the industry: "We have been dealing with these issues for the food value chain for some time. Now we have the technology to solve them. We can introduce global standards, make it easier to trace contamination and reduce food waste. And we can make food fraud much more difficult."

Every day, some two billion people eat food that has been processed on Bühler machines and plants. Add to that one billion people who ride in cars or other forms of transportation that use advanced materials from Bühler's Advanced Materials business. This is the world that Bühler can change - with Microsoft, Bühler Insights, and Blockchain.

You can find out more about Bühler's digital solutions here: digital.buhlergroup.com

Read more about Microsoft Ignite and Envision here: news.microsoft.com/ignite-envision2018