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Budweiser, the World's Largest Beer Maker, is Using Low-Cost Sensors and Machine Learning To Keep Beverages Flowing (wsj.com)
The world's largest beer maker is using low-cost sensors and machine learning to predict when motors at a Fort Collins, Colo. brewery might malfunction. From a report: The Anheuser-Busch InBev SA plant was the first among the company's 350 beverage-making facilities to test whether wireless sensors that can detect ultrasonic sounds -- beyond the grasp of the human ear -- can be analyzed to predict when machines need maintenance. "You can start hearing days in advance that something will go wrong, and you'll know within hours when it'll fail. It's really, for us, very practical," said Tassilo Festetics, vice president of global solutions for the company.
The project began about six months ago when Mr. Festetics's team installed 20 wireless sensors across three packaging lines motors to measure vibrations. The sounds picked up are transmitted in real time and then compared to a normal, functioning engine's sounds, which serve as a baseline and allow the program to identify anomalies. A key advantage is that the sensors are non-invasive and don't need to be placed inside a machine. Sensors have been used for predictive maintenance in the past, but they were unable to transmit information in real time. Advances in processing data at the edge of the network, referred to as edge computing, enables companies to collect and analyze real-time sensor data from machines.
The project began about six months ago when Mr. Festetics's team installed 20 wireless sensors across three packaging lines motors to measure vibrations. The sounds picked up are transmitted in real time and then compared to a normal, functioning engine's sounds, which serve as a baseline and allow the program to identify anomalies. A key advantage is that the sensors are non-invasive and don't need to be placed inside a machine. Sensors have been used for predictive maintenance in the past, but they were unable to transmit information in real time. Advances in processing data at the edge of the network, referred to as edge computing, enables companies to collect and analyze real-time sensor data from machines.
The AE-35 dispensing unit is going to fail, Dave. You should go down to the factory floor and replace it before failure which would cause a large beer spill. I'll shut down the line for you Dave. It's perfectly safe.
(From the article) You can start hearing days in advance that something will go wrong
Translation: They're starting to run out of piss.
Oddly I've had the opposite experience. As I get older I hate all the bitter or hoppiness that tends to be the trademark of craft beers. The "weaker" beers are better (granted something like Spotted Cow and German beers like Hacker Pschorr are better than Bud).
Granted I've fallen in love with sour beers, but they tend to be high on the pricey list, so are only an occasional treat.
Or he just likes beers that don't fit into what the trendy crowd says is "proper".
I can't stand hoppy beer. I enjoy beer just fine but I literally research the IBU and basically won't touch anything over 15-ish (generally the lower the better for me). That doesn't mean I don't like beer - just that I don't like the same beer as you.
Shiner Bock, Snapshot Wheat, or yes, even Bud Light, taste fine to me.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
"I am not familiar with the term edge computing.
That's all the people who use Edge as browser.
Both of them.
Paper mills in the US were doing this in the 80s, using microphones and chart recorders to rack wear in motors and bearings, identifying potential problems, and scheduling repairs. A full size paper machine back then making newsprint would cost a million dollars an hour in lost production due to unplanned maintenance. And lots of mills scheduled that heavy maintenance during holidays.
I knew of several machines that used these measurements in a way to be able to change calendar bearings during production - something I never saw, but that had to be a bit scary.
I also knew of a manufacturer that in the early 90s used computer-driven analysis, including motor current draw and process timing, to determine when wire forming tools and machines were close to failure or not meeting specifications for the job. They moved really quickly from measurement to real-time serial communications to alert maintenance techs and reduce spoilage and waste, sometimes dramatically depending on the materials being formed.
And of course railroads have used microphones along yard tracks to listen for bad trucks, and get the cars scheduled for service. Very inefficient to have bearings fail out in the middle of a tunnel, for instance, with 100+ cars going form Colorado to California. Railroads are models of efficiency because they cannot survive otherwise, and haven't been able to do so for decades.
Mich of this isn't new, and was only waiting for someone to do the math and approve the projects.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Bud is chewy next to coors light.
Not saying it's not terrible, just that you can get much closer to water (think on a log scale) than bud.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
In general, you don't like beer. You like some beers, particularly ones that have been engineered not to taste very much like beer. Nothing wrong with that, but to say you like beer is stretch. In general, you don't. With exceptions.
Beer predates the use of hops by centuries. Beer was beer long before that ingredient was ever even used. Granted, I don't make any claim that IPA's or other hoppy beers aren't beer, but declaring that a later adaption is the only legitimate form is just stupid. Not to mention that though IPA's and other super hoppy beers IN GENERAL have existed for a long time, they've only become the trendy little niche they are in the last 20 years or so.
Besides - as the article so plainly states, Anheuser-Busch is the largest beer producer in the world. If anything is determined to "not taste very much like beer" the exception would be the victim, not the rule.
And please people stop with the "it tastes like piss" jokes. I'm guessing that almost no one claiming that even has any idea what piss tastes like. I certainly don't, but I'd imagine it's bitter as fuck and at least that portion of it (and little else) probably resembles an IPA a lot more than your standard plebeian lager.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Get up to a 10MW gen-set in a vessel which clocks $10,000/hour of down time with several hundred personnel idle while the machine is idle ... and miraculously vibration sensors (which they're describing as "ultrasonic sensors" ; meh) start sprouting from major shafts, in the sides of bearing mounts, all over. 40 years ago, they've have gone to a dial gauge with a pen marking at "normal" and writing the figures onto a data sheet every hour. 30 years ago, they'd have gone onto a chart recorder. 20 years ago, the chart recorder would have sprouted alarms and recorded a dozen sensors. Ten years ago, it got computerised.
WiFi *might* be easier than hard wiring, but you've still got to power the sensor. Or you have to change the batteries regularly in your PPM (Planned Preventative Maintenance) schedule.
Who thought this was even news?
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