ICT Group supports Royal Cosun in implementing Smart Operations

Royal Cosun, an agricultural cooperative, aims to maximize the value of plants, primarily potatoes and sugar beets. The company consists of the business groups Aviko, Cosun Beet Company, Duynie Group, Sensus, and Cosun Protein. Together, these companies have 21 factories in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and China, each with its own production process but facing the same challenge: how can we make production as efficient as possible?

In 2021, the Smart Operations program was launched, led by program manager Robin Kobesen. Robin explains: “There is an enormous amount of knowledge present in the factories. We want to use that knowledge to produce even more efficiently. Data-driven working will help us achieve that.”

Strong Foundation

To avoid burdening all 21 factories individually with a large data project, the innovation department took the lead, supported by three partners. ICT Group is one of them. Robin: “They specialize in IT for OT (which stands for operational technology). They know what it takes to turn operational data from our factories into insights and help us discover and further develop the use cases.” ICT Group, along with another partner, does this using Emerson’s data lakehouse technology.

Numerous Use Cases

Mark Eijkenboom, business consultant at ICT Group, explains: "It’s about combining IT and OT so that production processes can be managed based on data." The use cases span various areas, from predictive maintenance to improving planning. Most of the realized use cases so far are relatively simple, such as adjusting energy consumption based on real-time data or emptying silos based on their actual fill level rather than a pre-made schedule. The real value comes when you start analyzing data from multiple sources together. An example of such an advanced use case within Cosun Beet Company is juice purification in a sugar factory, Mark explains. “It’s a slow process that operators previously found difficult to adjust. Based on real-time data, we have now developed an adaptive cruise control for this process. The model steers the process toward optimal values. The model was built using process knowledge and historical data. The payback time for this project was at most a few months.”

Start small and simple

Cosun begins with the low-hanging fruit: the simple use cases that immediately generate significant value. Slowly but surely, the dashboards are expanded with more functionality, following the Industry 4.0 maturity model. However, human decision-making remains central, says Robin. “Static models won’t take over all decisions, but they will help people make better decisions. Technology can never take over all decisions because our processes involve too many variables and too many controls. Smart Operations gives operators insight into the expected effects of their actions, allowing them to weigh alternatives.”

Scaling Up

At the time of the interview, half of Royal Cosun’s factories were connected to the operational data lakehouse, with at least their largest operational system. A dedicated Smart Operations team has also been created, and templates have been designed that describe the 'Cosun way of working.' Mark and Robin are now working on a library of use cases so that other factories don’t have to start from scratch when they identify a relevant use case. Although much work remains, they are proud of what has already been achieved. “We’ve demonstrated that there’s a very strong business case for data-driven working. The payback time is usually just a few months. And many more use cases are waiting for us.”