February 2022

10 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk February 2022 Insight T he fictional computer, which refuses the engineer’s request to find the golden tickets because it “would be cheating”, was actually based on a Siemens 4004, a real system commonly deployed in industrial settings for its data processing capabilities. And while the real-life Siemens computer didn’t have the processing to uncover the whereabouts of the last Wonka bars, the scene hinted at the aspirations for data analysis, AI and machine learning technology. Fast forward to present day and automation, intelligent processes and almost endless storage space in the cloud have laid the foundations for data collection and analysis capable of birthing breakthroughs, generating insights and paving the way for successful new strategies to take shape across the wider food and beverage industry. Today’s factories are becoming huge data centres with great potential for collecting valuable insights on any area of factory operations, from production through-puts to machine usage, availability, and set-up. Industry 4.0 has paved the way for smart data-driven production plants. The present picture However, despite the massive potential of the wealth of facts and figures now available to food and beverage manufacturers, Keith Thornhill, Head of Food and Beverage for Siemens UK & Ireland, believes the sector hasn’t laid firm enough foundations to unlock the opportunities. “As it stands, I’m not too sure there are many How a Hollywood film fantasy supercomputer became a reality Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the iconic 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but was also the setting for a classic Hollywood computer cameo from Siemens involving an overconfident engineer who fails to demonstrate “the greatest miracle of the machine age” by using a supercomputer to reveal the locations of the final golden tickets. PWE reports.