PLANT BASED DAIRY ALTERNATIVES 2022
ProLeiT
Power to the pea – disruption of the milk industry
January/February 2022 ¦ international-dairy.com · 9
Author:
Dr. Thomas Wunderlich,
ProLeiT, proleit.com
Milk alternatives are all the rage these days.
An increasing number of people are giving
up cow’s milk in favor of plant-based substitutes,
such as soy, oat, almond and pea drinks.
Once considered a niche item, they are now hugely
popular with many consumers - especially vegans
and so-called flexitarians.
We are currently experiencing enormous growth
in the market for milk alternatives. Young startups,
in particular, are driving this development through
innovative solutions and practices. As a leading
supplier of process control technology, our focus in
2022 will, therefore, also be on supporting these
business startups from day one in all things automation
through the compact entry-level solutions of
our process control systems Plant iT compact and
Plant iT express. Moreover, it is true to say that startups
that opt for scalable automation early on can
achieve success faster and leave their competitors
standing. Thanks to our highly flexible software solution,
we not only grow with our customers but also
provide them with valuable support and assistance
to standardize and optimize their processes from
the earliest possible stage. The costs for the ProLeiT
entry-level solutions are recouped relatively quickly,
meaning startups can expand production effectively,
efficiently and skillfully.
This current mood of change is also being felt at
large dairy cooperatives. Although sales of conventional
dairy products are still significantly higher
than those of plant-based substitutes, transformation
of the market is now unstoppable and steadily
gaining momentum. Many long-established companies
are still on the fence when it comes to vegan alternatives,
but at the same time they are struggling
with declining demand for their products. Long overdue
investments in automation are being put on the
back burner – replacing the entire control level would
simply be too costly in the current situation and the
associated production downtime would not be feasible
due to the full utilization of resources. Thanks to
the new ProLeiT Batch Engine, we are able to meet
this challenge by introducing an intermediate level
through which key topics such as cyber security and
traceability can be implemented – without extensive
and expensive downtime.
Through the plant-wide MES reporting and workflow
management system Plant Integrate iT and the
optionally available add-ons, ProLeiT also offers intralogistics
solutions to guarantee full transparency
and permanent optimization of internal processes.
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