A Vision for Excellence
At Maple Leaf Foods, Canada’s leading protein producer, sustainability and efficiency are at the heart of their mission. The Heritage Plant, producing 800 million hot dogs annually, stands as a symbol of this commitment. Yet even the most advanced facilities faced challenges. With Aveva MES providing robust production data, the plant had a foundation for monitoring operations. Yet inefficiencies in some processes caused significant waste:
- Logs: variations in size and shape disrupted slicing efficiency and reduced yield.
- Cooking: Overcooking to ensure safety led to moisture loss, reducing final product output
- Slicing: Inconsistent settings caused wasted product and equipment wear.
Andrew Thorne, a Senior Solutions Architect with over 25 years at Maple Leaf Foods, had witnessed the company tackle countless operational challenges. This time, however, the problem demanded a fresh perspective.
Building on a Strong Foundation for Productivity
Maple Leaf Foods faced persistent inefficiencies, with valuable production data captured but not fully used. Despite having Aveva MES for process monitoring and a Historian for data storage, these systems alone did not actively drive productivity improvements. The team needed a way to move beyond static data collection and translate insights into real-time, actionable gains.
Initially, the project was envisioned as a large-scale IoT deployment, with plans to install numerous sensors and send data to the cloud for AI analysis. However, this approach risked adding complexity without delivering immediate value. Andrew Thorne, Senior Solutions Architect at Maple Leaf Foods, challenged this assumption: “Do we really need to reinvent the wheel? We already have a full MES in place—why not build on what we have?”
With this shift in thinking, Maple Leaf Foods, guided by Cygnus Consulting, an Aveva-certified integrator, took a more strategic path—leveraging their existing MES to access comprehensive plant data while selectively integrating IoT sensors where necessary.
Turning Data into Actionable Productivity Gains
With a solid data foundation in place, the challenge became making sense of it all—turning raw data into precise, actionable insights without adding complexity or disrupting operations. Maple Leaf Foods needed a system that could bridge the gap between data visibility and real-world impact.
That’s where Braincube stepped in as a Productivity Management System, designed to go beyond visibility and actively uncover hidden inefficiencies. Unlike traditional MES monitoring, Braincube could instantly identify operational blind spots and provided precise, real-time recommendations that directly impacted yield, waste reduction, and overall performance.
By integrating Braincube, Maple Leaf Foods moved from static monitoring to proactive, data-driven decision-making. Braincube highlighted inefficiencies that MES alone couldn’t detect—such as subtle process variations that impacted yield, energy use, and equipment performance. These insights allowed operators to make immediate adjustments, preventing waste before it occurred and ensuring that every production decision contributed to higher efficiency and greater output.
From Insights to Impact
Braincube didn’t just identify inefficiencies—it enabled operators and engineers to take precise, real-time actions that systematically increased total productivity across operations. One key breakthrough came in slicing operations, where small inconsistencies in settings were leading to significant waste. Operators previously relied on static recipes that didn’t account for minute variations in product texture or machine wear—factors that had a direct impact on yield.
Braincube’s CrossRank AI detected that slight adjustments in blade speed and angle—as fine as 0.05mm—could dramatically improve yield while extending equipment life. With these insights, operators could now make real-time, precise modifications that ensured every cut was optimized, reducing giveaway and stabilizing output.
This shift transformed slicing from a reactive process into a continuously optimized operation, reinforcing a data-driven culture where every shift operated at its full potential. CrossRank AI continuously analyzed 150 tags per machine, pinpointing where total productivity improvements could be made in real-time.
Beyond slicing, Braincube helped optimize logs and cooking operations:
- Logs: Braincube helped standardize dimensions, ensuring consistent cooking and minimizing slicing waste.
- Cooking: Optimized oven recipes balanced temperature and time to retain moisture and maintain food safety.
- Slicing: Slicer recipes were continuously adjusted based on real-time production data. Operators could monitor live yield data, identify trouble spots, and make adjustments as fine as 0.05mm, reducing giveaway and extending equipment life.
As these improvements took hold, all the teams—operators, engineers, and management—adopted Braincube’s insights to scale results across lines and continuously evaluate gains. The collaboration amplified savings and transformed the plant’s approach to operations, leading to consistent golden batch performance on every shift.
Empowering Teams, Redefining Excellence
What set this transformation in motion was the fundamental shift from traditional process monitoring to proactive, AI-driven productivity management. While MES provided visibility, it wasn’t designed to continuously identify and eliminate inefficiencies in real time. Braincube’s Productivity Management System filled this gap, ensuring that every production variable was optimized, every shift operated at peak efficiency, and every opportunity for improvement was captured.
Maple Leaf Foods moved beyond passive data collection to an active, real-time problem-solving approach that systematically reduced waste, optimized processes, and drove measurable gains. The result? A new standard for operational excellence—one where productivity breakthroughs became the norm, not exceptions.
The results exceeded all expectations:
- 3-Month ROI: Immediate cost savings through reduced waste and optimized processes.
- +12% Yield Improvement: Scaled across multiple lines.
- 100% Golden Batches: Achieved consistently, tailored to real-time conditions.
With the right Productivity Management System, even the most advanced operations can continuously push limits, maximize efficiency, and sustain long-term performance gains.
