The head of engineering at food giant Princes has laid out five key challenges facing his firm in making factories more efficient, but admitted there is not currently a solution for some of them.
John Griffiths, who has over 30 years of experience in the sector, spoke at the Siemens Digital Talks 2019 event at ACC Liverpool, where he revealed several issues facing his massive firm - particularly in technology.
His speech discussed how Princes, recognisable for its fruit juices, tuna, fruit and ready meals, is taking on the challenge of making factories more efficient.
The event took place last Tuesday, where he said: "Industry 4.0 is here and quite rightly so, but for the vast majority of companies in the food and drink sector, it's going to be very difficult to realise the potential.
"Food and drink is bigger than automotive and aerospace combined, but it still hasn't got the basics right.
"There is a disconnect in overall understanding between technicians, consumers and manufacturers. It's controversial, but it's not a one-way disconnect. We are not close enough to tech to realise how we can benefit from them.
"The factory of the future needs standardisation, connectivity, information and data to hand and a highly skilled workforce to complement, optimise and continuously improve and challenge what is there."
Princes, owned by parent firm Mitsubishi, describes itself as the leading importer of canned food in the 海角视频 - and third largest soft drinks manufacturer.
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Mr Griffiths added: "It's a challenge for the whole supply chain, that I haven't got the answers for, and I don't think anyone else in this room does."
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These are the five challenges he mentioned:
1. The market is suffering year on year deflation
Mr Griffiths said this means retailers in the main have "short-term horizons".
That means "inhibiting investment", which has led to several cutbacks.
He added: "We are consolidating some of our manufacturing facilities. I would like to think we are doing it in a smart way, but there are casualties [and] really tough decisions [being] made."
2. Princes' factories are "full of legacy equipment"
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A "great deal" of that is sub-optimised and - in some instances - "not even connectable", Mr Griffiths admitted.
He added: "We have 14 factories with 100 production lines.
"By the time you strip it out and fix it, you're not getting much change out of £10m, and we can't change them every year."
3. Integration between IT and operations is poor
His view is that digital at Princes is a "system of systems" - but those systems don't connect well.
4. Control system standards are "extremely difficult to bolt down"
That's because business investment cycles are "not keeping pace with technological cycles".
5. The workforce skills are "behind where they need to be"
Mr Griffiths said: "We don't all have to be superheroes, we just need people to be best they can possibly be with the skills they have to present to the business.
"If they can learn one thing, that's fantastic."
But he added: "Combine all the legacy and non-standardisation with a workforce that needs upskilling, and it makes for a very big challenge."