As a family business, apetito AG has been providing nutritious food for people in various nutritional and life situations for over 60 years. Founded in 1958, the apetito Group is now divided into apetito AG for retail and system business and apetito Catering. The company employs a total of 12,000 people. Apetito is active in the development of catering services in eight countries, including the USA and Canada.
apetito used its own MES solution for several years, but over time it reached its limits. The dynamic development of digitalization and the growing importance of Industry 4.0 therefore shifted the focus of the company’s search for an MES provider.
Pilot Launch at the Rheine Plant
The implementation of the software solution started at the plant in Rheine. In phase 1, the filling, freezer and packaging departments were connected to FASTEC 4 PRO. First, a sketch of the production was converted into a data model and the apetito project team worked together with FASTEC employees to work out where which type of sensors needed to be placed. Due to the complex processes at apetito, further challenges were quickly identified and solved.
FASTEC provided us with optimum support in implementing these admittedly very complex requirements of our production process with their knowledge and experience.
Customized Implementation with RFID Technology
In the second phase of the digitalization project, digital data acquisition, batch tracking and container management were implemented in the cooking unit area. We used the RFID solution from our partner Gustav Wilms oHG, which can be optimally bound to FASTEC 4 PRO. This has further optimized and digitalized the existing batch tracking system.
Ideal Outcome – All Targets and Expectations Were Met:
- Self-explanatory, intuitive user interface – simplified information retrieval for employees
- Online monitoring – real-time production control
- Effective control of production through prompt reaction to deviations – Improvement of productivity through optimization measures – Achievement of savings
- Comprehensive reporting with individual views – fast decision-making in day-to-day business
- Up-to-date, reliable data at the touch of a button – derive measures in meetings with production planning and Scheduling
- Significant improvement in the reliability of the data
