Digital Transformation: How cutting-edge technology helps make the perfect coffee

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A shift toward digital transformation in coffee production is revolutionizing the industry, allowing companies to meet modern demands while maintaining tradition.

The earliest credible evidence of coffee brewing and drinking dates as far back as the 15th century in Yemen. Fast forward over 500 years, and coffee has become a beloved staple in the lives of people around the world, with over 2.25 billion cups consumed daily. Today, brewing the “perfect” cup has become somewhat of a holy grail for coffee aficionados across the globe and subsequently, roasting and brewing has evolved into what many consider an artform.

Given the big focus on excellence of taste alongside huge global demand, it’s no surprise that quality and food safety assurance, supply chain tracking, production optimization, and sustainability are all important considerations for coffee suppliers around the world. Adoption of the latest digital technology enables coffee companies to better monitor, and optimize their end-to-end production processes, making it easier to ensure they can provide the best in the quest for the perfect cup.

Tradition meets technological innovation to optimize production

Zicaffè, an Italian roasting company with over 90 years of tradition, produces high-quality coffee blends and distributes them around the world. Founded in 1929 in the town of Marsala in Sicily, Italy, this family-run company has maintained the same passion for coffee for over four generations. Today, they combine their entrepreneurial drive with attention to innovation and the environment to ensure they can continue to produce exceptional coffee whilst remaining responsible, efficient, and competitive well into the future.

Recently, the team at Zicaffè embarked on a project aimed at improving their production process across its entire lifecycle by integrating digital technologies and solutions, starting with digitizing coffee weighing and connecting it to the factory management system. This initiative is a prime example of digital transformation in coffee production, where cutting-edge technology meets traditional craftsmanship to enhance efficiency and quality.

Previously, bags of raw coffee beans were weighed on arrival using analog equipment prior to being stored in the warehouse, then again before the roasting stage, and this data was entered into the factory management system. This manual process and lack of integration inevitably led to user error, data loss, and significant paper consumption. Another difficulty was tracking bags throughout the production process, which further increased the risk of error in the various coffee blends produced. 

Zicaffè worked closely with Bit Control, a Schneider Electric Alliance Partner, to develop a full EcoStruxure solution, including EcoStruxure Automation Expert.

One of the first steps in the project involved upgrading existing coffee weighing equipment to allow digital access to weight data. This made the weighing data available to the plant’s production and business systems so it could be stored in the plant database and accessed for subsequent production steps. Additionally, the project provided the ability to equip each bag of Zicaffè coffee with an RFID (radio-frequency identification) tag to ensure accurate end-to-end tracking and monitoring from arrival of the raw beans all the way to through to shipping of the end product. Overall, the project provided much tighter process control and greatly reduced the risk of production errors.

“Weighing control ensures immediate benefits, as it allows us to identify any drops in roasting and/or increases in weight and verify that the operator does not take the wrong batch – dangerous in terms of traceability and contamination of the coffee. In addition to these, there are future benefits, because this check helps control the invoice for the benefit of the purchasing office, which is allowed to report the weight of the bags directly into the database, saving paper and time,” explained engineer Giuseppe Zichittella of Zicaffè. “Not only that, we can also think of additional digital services such as remote assistance.”

Adopting EcoStruxure Automation Expert was a key foundational step for Zicaffè to begin their digitization journey. It will continue to support their further innovation across all production and business systems by allowing easy integration of digital technologies, offering the flexibility and openness needed to connect a wide array of existing IT and OT equipment and software.

With the ability to connect all process and business systems, EcoStruxure Automation Expert helps provide an important digital thread of data for each bag of coffee, making it much easier to ensure the quality and authenticity that is so integral to the essence of the Zicaffè brand.

The digital transformation journey: starting small, thinking big

It’s important to remember that digital transformation is not a ‘one-and-done’ project or a single event, but an ongoing commitment to operational evolution via the adoption and integration of the best and most appropriate digital technologies.

Zicaffè is an excellent example of a business that has stood the test of time by being open to change and willing to invest in innovating their operations. Their journey into digital transformation in coffee production demonstrates how even small, incremental changes can lead to significant long-term benefits. They may have started with digitizing a simple weighing process, but they’ve also had the forethought to engage with experts who can help them to look further into the future. By taking this broader view, the team at Zicaffè have set themselves up for ongoing transformational success, allowing them to continue their digitization journey as and when they are able. Their approach will allow their operation to become smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable over time, ensuring they can keep up with ever-evolving industrial technology, and continue to provide the world with excellent coffee for years to come.

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