The SEA2TABLE project (Development of Multifactory 4.0 Digital Technologies in the Smart and Sustainable Food Industry) aims to implement a new factory model in the food industry represented by Nueva Pescanova, promoting sustainability and productive efficiency through the application of artificial intelligence technologies in a multifactory environment. The goal is to create a digitalized supply chain that ensures quality, safety, and traceability throughout the value chain, protecting the end consumer from food fraud while ensuring that the final product comes from sustainable resources. The project will streamline decision-making and increase flexibility in the supply chain by consolidating all the data collected from Nueva Pescanova’s three industrial centers in Galicia.
Progress achieved 2021-2023
During the first year of the project, the following progress has been made:
- Defined different use cases based on real needs identified in Nueva Pescanova’s production environments.
- The foundations have been laid to access data from the MES/MOM system following a multifactory approach and meeting the required security protocols. Access to reliable data is crucial for the functioning of Artificial Intelligence and, by extension, the Digital Twin.
- Work has begun on developing a digital document signing system for third parties on the IBM Food Trust platform, a leading solution in food product traceability.
During the second year, Gradiant has made substantial progress in the development of the following modules:
- The Artificial Intelligence module, integrated into the digital twin, aims to facilitate decision-making using algorithms, exchange necessary information for calculations, and gather results to present them to the factory manager.
- The Digital Twin module, which aims to implement a digital twin of the factory capable of utilizing real-time and historical plant data to aid in decision-making.
- The blockchain module, which integrates traceability, quality, and food safety risks of manufacturing processes and raw materials, making data public on the supply chain platform using blockchain technologies.
As the project progresses to its third year, the following milestones have been achieved in the development of the technologies:
- The overall data processing architecture of Nueva Pescanova’s MES/MOM system has been validated in a production environment.
- All defined use cases from the start of the project related to the application of AI techniques and ML-based modeling (such as correlation search, predictive analysis, optimization, etc.) have been addressed within the multifactory digital twin.
- A pilot has been completed where Nueva Pescanova’s suppliers can upload events to the IFT platform through simplified, accessible forms with authentication features, ensuring supply chain continuity.
- An additional pilot has been completed, also operational on IFT, for detecting trace breaks in the supply chain, which generates detailed periodic reports based on processed event data.
