Swiss technology group Bühler is taking the long-lasting and fruitful relationship with Kägi Söhne AG, the Swiss chocolate wafer producer, to the next level. Bühler is supporting Kägi in building its smart factory. By 2024, Kägi plans to have its entire machine park digitally networked and all process data visualized.

The first steps towards the smart factory started in 2019 when Kägi and Bühler teams conducted a Performance Assessment Workshop to discover where improvements could be made in the production process of the chocolate wafer manufacturer. “Our vision is to produce the perfect Kägi every day, whether it is 30°C in summer or minus 10°C in winter,” says Pascal Grin, Chief Operating Officer of Kägi Söhne AG.

After all factors relevant to the production were analyzed, the teams identified areas for improvement and defined plans to address them going forward. The quality of Kägi’s products has always been high, explains Grin, but the goal was to ensure a high level of quality without interruption and with fewer rejections.

THE DIGITAL JOURNEY

One of the first actions of the team was to connect most of Kägi’s production to the Bühler Insights platform, Bühler’s digital tool that connects devices, operational metrics, and analytics. With that, the level of transparency on process and machine data has increased significantly. “25 to 30 data points per machine connected to Bühler Insights enables both operating staff and management to take their decisions based on data, facts, and figures. This is of special interest for the Continuous Improvement Process at Kägi,” says Kristina Polic, Project Lead Smart Factory 2024, and Continuous Improvement Manager at Kägi.