JBT’s IoT (Internet of Things) platform iOPS is continuing its expansion during the early weeks of 2021, with the first custom-built iOPS Dashboard for the JBT Stein TwinDrum Spiral Oven being successfully launched for a market leading European customer. Specialising in cooked chicken products, the customer is able to use the iOPS Dashboard to gain instant access to performance data, enabling them to achieve optimum product results and tackle any potential problems.
Using a TwinDrum Oven that started running in 2020, the customer is now able to receive minute-by-minute information from the system, which will help consistently produce the desired color and yield, explains JBT’s Manager for Coating and Cooking Applications, Bart Kivits.
“Before iOPS we had to go out to the customer to get performance data, but now we are able to view the data on our laptops through the iOPS Dashboard, which shows straightaway what exactly is going on,” he says. “For both the customer and the team at JBT, instant access to this data is hugely valuable. Customers can see what’s going on with the oven, so from the application side, they almost immediately see value.”
Improved support
By being able to look at the oven performance data such as feedback from temperature sensors on any given day, Kivits says JBT is also able to better support both the customer and its own team on site. “This information shows us for example if the air was not as hot as it should be, if there wasn’t enough steam or if there are performance problems with the products,” he says.
But not only is the JBT and the customer able to look at how the oven is performing, they can also examine factors – from a laptop or telephone – such as how much energy it is consuming and how long it has been running, enabling efficiency and energy-saving improvements.
With the iOPS Dashboard adaptable to almost any JBT technology and continued positive feedback from customers, Kivits adds that expansion of the platform is only likely to continue in the months and years ahead.
