Participation in a program sponsored by the Galician administration will allow Spanish pre-cooked and frozen seafood processing company Congalsa to “digitalize” its factory, making it “smarter”, it said.
Congalsa is one of the companies selected by the Galician Agency for Innovation under the third edition of its Smart Factory Program. The program aims to sponsor the advance of Galician factories, developing a more flexible, automated factory model that is “collaborative, connected and smart” and that “responds quickly and even allows [firms] to anticipate market demand with criteria of sustainability, transparency, and customization”.
The company, based in A Pobra do Caraminal, will develop its smart factory in collaboration with Galicia’s Technology Center of Telecommunications, subsidized and promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and co-financed by European funds.
The project will allow Congalsa’s “progress in the digital transformation and in the model of connected industry” and, in addition, it will make it possible “for Congalsa to be one of the leaders in industry 4.0 in the Galician food sector”, said Luis Miguel Simarro, CEO of the company.
The ultimate goal of the project is “to reorient the organization towards a smart factory model, which creates a faster response to needs of an ever-changing world and allows for the streamlining of strategic decision-making in the company,” he added.
This task will be carried out by achieving the following goals:
- Design and development of a 4.0 business model in which all processes are interconnected with each other (converging processes with those of management and with any process defined in the value chain of the company).
- Digitalization: implementation of technologies and standards that allow the extraction and analysis of information in real-time.
- Development of new data analysis techniques aimed at improving decision-making.
- Cybersecurity: Implementation of mechanisms to detect and minimize risks.
The project will mobilize €4.8 million in the period up until 2022, with €1.6m provided to Congalsa as a grant, which will mainly be used to develop a “digital twin” of the factory, the firm said.
At the Conxemar show last October, Congalsa launched 12 new products, which included Asian-style spring rolls and gluten-free hamburgers and mini burgers, breaded empanadas and tempuras. They were presented on a menu that showed features in 3D, using a mobile app.
This app, called Ibercook Foodservice, allows users to access additional information on each product, such as nutritional value or possible recipes.
The new range of products was launched for the foodservice sector and will later also be presented to retail customers.
The firm, which is increasing sales both in the domestic market and in other European countries, particularly in France, achieved a revenue of about €83m in 2019, up from €75m a year before.
The firm was the second company in the food sector to receive the Seal EFQM 500+, a Spanish award that evaluates innovation and sustainable management practices among competing companies, it said.
“This seal is the result of a path started in 2011,” noted Simarro said, pointing out that the firm focused on professionalization of the company, “radically changing” its management practices. This included making a strategy, defining key objectives and success factors and monitoring projects progress through the entire value chain and efficient teamwork.
