(268g) Smart Product and Process Design – a Digital Thread Approach to Enable Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Companies’ Transformation to a Smart and Adaptable Enterprise

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, specifically food & beverage and cosmetics companies, today face constantly changing and increasingly complex market trends driven by consumer habits. As a result, companies have replaced siloed systems with digital platforms that allow them to be responsive and build a 2-way relationship with consumers.¹ Despite that, 95% of new product launches per year fail.² Therefore, companies face the challenge of developing connected, flexible, adaptable, and sustainable products that will drive customer loyalty and improve their bottom line. The solution is digital transformation using a “digital thread” approach for smart product and process design; an approach to design and virtual validation leveraging simulation and concurrent design. Such approach ensures manufacturability at desired speed, quality, and cost.³

A ”digital thread” is a discrete, linked, traceable sequence of activities in the product or production lifecycle, that is digitalized and automated.⁴ For the food and beverage industry, Siemens outlines 5 digital threads, shown below, which comprise the entire digital twin and are implemented as a complete solution set with the Xcelerator portfolio.

Figure 1

Each thread is further characterized to detail the components that implement the solution. The smart product and process design (SPPD) thread is one such thread, the steps from which are shown below.

Figure 2

1. Beginning with formula design, integrated with laboratory testing, the formulation technology and computer algorithms work together to uncover optimal quantities of raw materials and minimize cost while maintaining nutritional and quality requirements.⁵
2. Laboratory quality control includes automated contextualization of test batch information and results validation to establish quality standard, protect the product design and enforce regulatory requirements.⁵
3. Package design is done in a centralized collaboration platform to maximize re-use and utilizes detailed simulations to ensure package integrity during packaging, e-commerce transport and consumer handling.
4. Artwork and labeling is seamlessly integrated in the collaboration platform to allow immediate data exchange across disciplines and ensure data accuracy for every label.⁵
5. Recipe planning leverages a digital set of capabilities that harness the complexity of recipes by automatically modifying them for scale-up across plants based on pre-defined rules.⁵
6. Recipe simulation incorporates Multiphysics simulation of plant-specific equipment to virtually validate manufacturability and optimize the recipe.⁵
7. Packaging process planning bridges the gap between R&D and manufacturing by using a standardized method to define filling and packaging processes and creating straightforward EWIs to ensure rapid scale-up.⁵
8. Finally, packaging process simulation validates the manufacturability and optimizes filling and packaging processes using Multiphysics simulation with the plant site’s specific equipment and layout.⁵

With this multi-disciplinary product design, a digital twin of both the product and production is generated to provide a complete set of solutions for a product maintaining its connection to the manufacturing process. This results in an integrated environment where all change drivers can be considered simultaneously. Process design and planning are performed to implement product development capabilities, maximizing reuse and increasing collaboration by connecting processes with a single source of data.³

Recipes can be scaled-up faster and optimal operating setpoints are uncovered; currently a speed limiting step. Furthermore, the manufacturing process validation verifies that products can be manufactured, assembled, and packaged virtually to reduce the time and cost of physical testing. Creating a site-specific manufacturing plan enables the optimization of the filling and packaging processes. Utilizing the ”Smart Product and Process Design (SPPD)” digital thread approach, companies can bring new products to market ~15-35% faster.³ This allows them to meet consumers’ demand for personalized experiences and enter the market at the right time while keeping the costs low.

In this presentation, we will present the steps involved in the “Smart Product and Process Design” digital thread with the help of examples and recorded demos for the use of case of cold brew coffee. It will help establish an understanding of the procedures and widely growing benefits of digital transformation.

[1] Marfa, E., “Smart Product and Process Design Executive Presentation Recording,” Highspot Available: https://siemens.highspot.com/items/63fe51caaa621aa2caa5cdd3?lfrm=srp.5.

[2] “Product innovation: 95% of new products miss the mark,” MIT Professional Education Available: https://professionalprograms.mit.edu/blog/design/why-95-of-new-products-....

[3] Marfa, E., “Smart Product & Process Design - Food & Beverage,” Highspot Available: https://siemens.highspot.com/items/60cc6b683f65f6508db05dc2?lfrm=shp.0.

[4] Jackson, C., “Digital Threads and business processes - siemens xcelerator software for industry,” Xcelerator Available: https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/xcelerator/2021/08/20/digital-threads-and-b....

[5] “ Digital Enterprise Touch App - Focus F&B with Digital Threads HM21,” Highspot Available: https://siemens.highspot.com/items/62bc5c47070e798f4e41f4fd?lfrm=shp.0#34.