46 n MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS September 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com Dairy milks the benefits of AI-driven predictive maintenance The German dairy producer Sachsenmilch operates one of the most modern milk-processing plants in Europe, in the town of Leppersdorf. It manufactures a variety of products including milk, butter, yoghurt, cheese, and dairy derivatives for use in items ranging from baby food to bioethanol. Every day, 4.7 million litres of fresh milk are delivered to the plant for processing – the equivalent of 170 truckloads. It’s essential for the company’s equipment to operate 24/7 and for the production facilities to have an availability of as close to 100% as possible. The production environment at the Leppersdorf plant includes modern interconnected machines that generate large volumes of data – an ideal setting for a pilot project using an AI-powered predictive maintenance system supplied by Siemens, designed to help ensure continuous 365 days a year operation following strict quality standards. The Senseye Predictive Maintenance system uses AI algorithms to identify both immediate and future machine issues, allowing proactive maintenance to be performed and downtime to be avoided. One of the biggest challenges in analysing plant data such as temperature, vibration levels and frequencies is to detect anomalies early, and to draw the right conclusions. Implementing the maintenance system required a careful analysis of specific failure scenarios, and the integration of existing data from the control system. New vibration sensors and a Siplus CMS 1200 vibration monitoring system were also installed. The pilot installation has already achieved significant cost savings by reducing unplanned downtime. “We can confirm that the pilot project with Senseye Predictive Maintenance has already paid off,” says Sachsenmilch’s technical manager and head of project management, Roland Ziepel. “Detecting a faulty pump at an early stage saved us a lot of expense – in the low six figures. “What we like about this project is that Siemens has know-how on both the technological and the technical sides as well as in project management,” he adds. “After being trained and the solution’s implementation, the Sachsenmilch team was able to independently continue and successfully complete the pilot.” Sachsenmilch is planning to integrate the maintenance system more closely with its SAP plant maintenance system, with the aim of transferring maintenance notifications from the AI system to the SAP installation to improve maintenance planning. In addition, recommendations for datadriven maintenance provided by the maintenance Copilot will be used to help maintenance teams with their work. n One of Europe’s most modern dairies has implemented an AI-powered predictive maintenance system aimed at ensuring 24/7 operation, 365 days a year. The system has already identified a pump that was about to fail, saving a six-figure sum. The Sachsenmilch dairy’s maintenance system has already spotted a pump that was about to fail
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=