Predicting maintenance, preventing downtime, and creating a more efficient food processing line is always challenging. But with OmniBlu™, JBT’s new, AI-powered subscription-based platform that combines Parts & Service, Maintenance manager, and Machine performance, it will be easier than ever, providing customers with a powerful tool that creates more value, maximizes uptime and improves yield.
OmniBlu is a service designed around improving customer operations and includes services and parts supported by digital tools. This is intended for one single goal: optimizing customer results. Consequently, OmniBlu includes spares on stock, preventive maintenance activities, and a customer success manager to support the customer with operations and maintenance activities. JBT has optimized the monitoring to an expert level by building and continuously improving its digital tools.
“OmniBlu will bring our customers unmatched visibility of their operation and help them improve it even in the smallest detail,” says Guilherme Goinhas, General Manager of Customer Care Protein, EMEA at JBT.
OmniBlu monitors a machine’s performance, gets all the different data, and generates alerts and graphs depending on equipment and application. OmniBlu can also help predict the future based on the new algorithms that have been developed. The data presented in the monitoring tool is designed to control the most critical value levers that operations and maintenance can use to improve.
“The information collected from the machines is merged with the customer’s operation because food processing works differently for different customers. This is designed to generate more value for the customer on their operations by analyzing and optimizing their performance and more accurately predicting future maintenance needs”, says Goinhas.
“With OmniBlu, we are a strategic partner to our customers, working with them to maximize performance and yield while minimizing downtime,” says JBT’s Guilherme Goinhas
Fast and reliable results
For years, JBT’s PRoCARE® service contracts have effectively maximized the longevity of JBT machines through high-quality support and maintenance. At the same time, JBT’s iOPS® offered machine performance monitoring and analytics to give customers insight into equipment performance data. Now with OmniBlu, JBT combines these different services, PRoCARE and iOPS, and takes this to a new level, providing smart insights and connected care designed around
customer value.
“OmniBlu has been field tested on various food production sites in US and Europe for almost a year. During this time, much information has been collected and used to fine-tune the tools and validate the data and what conclusions one can draw from it,” says Auke Bouwense, Global Commercial Director of JBT OmniBlu.
He continues: “The testing guarantees that the tools will work as intended. 
We will keep learning while we keep implementing OmniBlu for more customers. Our customers are diverse and different, so we are never done learning and improving.” When OmniBlu is implemented, data is collected from day one, but how much information is needed to analyze a trend depends significantly on the customer’s conditions, like how many hours they work, how many shifts they have, or if they frequently change products.
“If a customer has an inefficient process, we will see it immediately and get insights into what to adjust after a few weeks. But if a customer has all their processes well under control, the improvements are more subtle and need enough data to improve the process, like avoiding micro stops, for instance”, adds Goinhas.
Setting the standard for efficient food processing
Subsequently, as more and more food processing plants use OmniBlu, the aggregated data creates a standard industry benchmark for individual food products. Even if the plants are different and located in separate regions, the processing of, for instance, poultry is done in the same way on the same JBT equipment. However, there can be minor differences depending on the chosen options.
“Now we can support our customers in more ways than before. We create a form of best practice regarding how the customers should run their process under certain conditions. Another benefit is that by analyzing aggregated data, we will be able to provide feedback on the development of our equipment and improve it in a way that will benefit our customers even more”, says Bouwense.
Works with all JBT equipment
OmniBlu is developed to work with all JBT food processing equipment, although it will be launched in different steps.
“First connected was the JBT Frigoscandia GYRoCOMPACT® self-stacking spiral freezer, and we are now deploying ovens, fryers, and the DSI Waterjet portioners. OmniBlu can also be connected to older machines depending on age,” explains Bouwense.
“Machines up to ten years old are pretty easy to connect. If they are older, they need an upgrade that could be more or less expensive, depending on what kind of machine it is. All devices can be connected, but if it’s too old, it’s probably a good idea to invest in new equipment anyway”, says Goinhas.
Empower your food processing with OmniBlu
OmniBlu will bring unmatched visibility of the companies’ operations and improve them even in the smallest detail. It offers a high degree of predictability, making it possible to anticipate problems and thus decrease downtime.
“OmniBlu allows us to add more sensors on the equipment, which gives the customer a better understanding of their process by using specific parameters for specific operations and needs. It also makes it more convenient to plan maintenance by predicting it and making it easy to order spare parts through the Parts portal.
“With OmniBlu, we are a strategic partner to our customers, working with them to maximize performance and yield while minimizing downtime. And although we have just launched OmniBlu, the interest is huge,” Goinhas.
With OmniBlu, JBT also introduces the new Parts Portal, where customers can order parts online for their equipment. They will see a digital twin of their machine on their tablet or PC and can drill down to a specific section or detail of the device and look for the components or parts they want. There they will see the part number, price, availability in stock, and delivery time, and they can order the part with one click.
With the new Maintenance Manager, they will also get a visualization of all the maintenance activities they need to do in the next couple of months. All the data being uploaded from the equipment and analyzed by the algorithms are used to adjust the Maintenance Manager continuously. Based on machine learning, it will extend or reduce activities of maintenance to make it as efficient and predictable as possible.
“With OmniBlu, we will also be able to detect things in the customers’ operations that they don’t see and help them improve their working flows. We can show them how they can reduce cleaning cycles or adjust them to make them more efficient, for example”, concludes Goinhas.
Contact us!
If you want to learn more about how JBT and OmniBlu can help you create more value, maximize uptime, and improve yield, don’t hesitate to contact one of our food processing experts.
You can also read more about OmniBlu HERE.
