Christmas celebrations at the University of Lincoln
This year, OAL celebrated Christmas at our long-time strategic partner, the University of Lincoln. The whole OAL team visited the university’s new Sir Isaac Newton building on Friday, 8th of December for a day of learning, reflection and refreshment.
This year, OAL celebrated Christmas at the University of Lincoln, our long-term strategic partner. The whole OAL team visited the university’s new Sir Isaac Newton building on Friday 8 December for a day of learning, reflection and refreshment. The team had the opportunity to see the latest computer science, maths, physics and engineering developments, giving them an insight into how these facilities, equipment and technologies are used in our collaborative research and development projects.
We’ve been working with the University of Lincoln for five years on a number of projects. During our partnership, we have invested over £4.5 million into developments aimed at future-proofing the food manufacturing industry, with support from UK government funding.
Our successes include Steam Infusion cooking, developed and available for testing at the University’s prestigious National Centre of Food Manufacturing. This unique method provides food manufacturers with a faster, more controlled heating and mixing technology, using steam as the motive force.
And more recently, leading professors and researchers have helped develop the APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system, emulating and outperforming human weighing of powders.
The day included several presentations from university staff, a tour of the new facilities, and festive refreshments in the university foyer. Hearing from prominent professors – including Professor Stefanos Kollias, the founding professor of machine learning – was very inspiring for our team. The unique expertise and the state-of-the-art facilities have been essential to helping us develop forward-thinking solutions to industry challenges.
Not everyone at OAL is directly involved with these disruptive innovation projects. By bringing the whole team together, we were able to see first-hand the step change that these projects represent for the UK’s largest manufacturing industry. In addition to nurturing relationships within our teams, we were able to see how they have contributed to these successes.
“I really enjoyed the day; it was good to spend time with my colleagues and see what we’ve been doing with the University. I now get how what I do fits into the bigger picture.”
“This was a great day and we’d love to do it again. It was the perfect opportunity to share the work that we’ve done with the University and get the whole business involved.”
The day was a fantastic way to end the year: strengthening our relationship with the University, reminiscing on the year’s achievements, and inspiring the OAL team for what promises to be an eventful – and extremely exciting – year ahead.
APRIL™ features in Made Smarter 2017 UK government review
We're very proud to feature in the UK Government Made Smarter Review 2017 launched today! The report sets out the aim for the UK to be a leader in Industrial Digitalisation, and APRIL™ Robotics was highlighted within the food section.
The report discusses the ‘perfect storm’ scenario food manufacturing faces because of an over-reliance on cheap labour:
Restriction on labour supply (due to Brexit).
Rapid above-inflation rises in labour cost (driven by the National Living Wage).
In certain sectors (e.g. fresh produce packing, sandwich manufacturing), up to 90% of the line workforce can be migrant ‘low skilled’ workers.
But for businesses which rise to this challenge, the falling cost and increased functionality of robotics offer quick productivity gains and an ability to exploit new market opportunities and grow exports. Digital technologies are at the heart of being able to exploit this opportunity which is multi-faceted and growing rapidly. Learn more in the video below where our team discuss the role of robotics in reducing capital expenditure.
You can download the full report and read more about the challenges and planned actions to enable digitalisation in food processing.
OAL's automation talent wins ‘Young Engineer of the Year’
We’re thrilled to announce that OAL's Software Engineer, Matt Ayre, won the Young Engineer of the Year award at the Food Processing Awards 2017.
Matthew Ayre at the Food Processing Awards 2017
Matt's story highlights how the food industry can attract the best and brightest; highly relevant given the well-documented engineering skills shortage in the industry. Having completed his degree in aircraft engineering, Matt changed his career path to becoming an automation engineer in the food industry because of the problem-solving challenges and variety of work involved in the UK’s largest manufacturing industry.
We nominated Matt because of the positive feedback received from our customers on his approach to work and skillset. The following references demonstrate the skills Matt has developed as an integral part of the OAL Connected team.
“I’ve been really impressed with Matt’s work ethic on site and his ability to communicate effectively with our team. He’s definitely one to watch for the future.”
“As always a difficult task to take forward the work started by others. Matt rose to the challenge of familiarising himself with the previous development allowing him to support existing engineering, expanding functionality and continuing the development to allow continued deployment to other sites.”
How will you make food tomorrow? We challenged delegates to imagine the digital food facotry of the future
The award's ceremony was held at the Doubletree Hilton, Coventry on Thursday 19 October 2017 as part of the Appetite for Engineering conference that took place earlier that day at the Manufacturing Technology Centre. Both events brought together industry professionals from all stages of their career journeys to inspire and educate, discuss and explore what the future holds for the UK’s largest manufacturing industry.
OAL was up for two other awards at the awards ceremony in addition to Matt’s entry. Our APRIL™ Cooking Cell was up for the Robotics & Automation award and our APRIL™ Robotic Ingredient Handling system up for the Future-Factory Enabling Technologies award. Both these categories were extremely competitive with the finalists from the most innovative companies the food manufacturing industry has to offer. And, although we didn’t win, it was still fantastic for us to be recognised as one of the best.
The awards season is not yet over for OAL. We’re flying the food industry flag at the cross-sector IET, Institue of Engineering and Technology Awards. APRIL™ Robotics is shortlisted for the Manufacturing Technology award in a highly competitive competition.
There were over 300 entries to the awards from 25 countries from industries including aerospace, automotive and pharmaceutical. We’ll find out if we’ve been successful on the 15th November at the ceremony at The Brewery, London.
The year then ends with the Food Matters Live awards where our unique cooking technology Steam Infusion has been shortlisted in the Best Food and Drink Process or Technology category.
OAL to speak at food robotics event at CAFRE, NI
Are you looking to introduce more automation and robotics into your food factory? Join OAL at the Robotic Automation in Food Processing seminar hosted by the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise. The event is taking place at the Food Innovation Centre, Loughry Campus, Cookstown, Northern Ireland on Wednesday 25th October 2017.
The one-day seminar brings food manufacturing and agricultural professionals together to answer these key questions:
What capabilities does robotic automation offer that could be utilised?
How easily can it be implemented and maintained?
Is robotic automation right for implementation into your processes?
How cost effective can it be?
And now robotics and automation are much more advanced and affordable, we will be discussing what new opportunities this presents the agriculture and food processing industry.
OAL's Jake Norman will be building on from this and talking about how OAL are putting robotics and automation at the heart of food processing with our APRIL Robotics solutions.
Hear how we have invested, researched and developed the very latest and advanced robotics and automation technology to help food manufacturers solve their challenges driven by the increasing living wage, flatline productivity and food deflation.
Start your journey towards increasing productivity and efficiency with robotics and automation.
APRIL™ Robotics finalist at the Institution of Engineering and Technology Awards 2017
We’re very pleased to announce that APRIL™ Robotics is shortlisted for the Best Manufacturing Technology category at the Institution of Engineering and Technology Innovation Awards 2017. It's fantastic to be flying the flag for the food industry in a very competitive category. The Best Manufacturing Technology competition received over 300 entries from 25 countries from industries including aerospace, automotive and pharmaceutical!
The esteemed judging panel including the Director of Innovate UK was looking for innovative uses of automation to improve aspects such as:
Quality / consistency
Cost reduction
Energy efficiency
Reduction in pollutants
Flexible / agile production
Market response / customisation
If you’ve seen the APRIL Cooking Cell in action, then you’ll know how different APRIL is and how the advanced the technology, engineering and design can improve the way we handle and process food products..
Other finalists in the Manufacturing Technology category include:
Plastic Logic Germany
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
FliteTrak
Biohm Ltd.
APRIL™ Robotics wins PPMA Innovation Award
We're very pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robotics Cooking Cell won the most Innovative Robotics System award at this year's PPMA awards.
It's fantastic recognition from the food industry for all the hard work our team, customers and suppliers are putting into changing the way we handle and process ingredients with robots.
The judges were looking for “creative solutions” and “smart use of robotics” that lead to significant productivity improvements and cost reductions. If you've had the chance to see APRIL™ cooking then you'll know the sight of an industrial robot picking up a 500l cooking kettle is definitely different (watch the video to get an idea). And it's the emulation of how a chef cooks in a kitchen, moving saucepans around, that offers cost reductions through labour, yield enhancement and a reduction in capital equipment from the improved utilisation of assets.
More awards to come
Get the champagne on ice, there could be a few more awards to come too! We're shortlisted in three categories at the Appetite for Engineering Food Processing Awards:
Matt Ayre, one of our talented software engineers is up for Young Engineer of the Year
Our APRIL™ Cooking Cell is also up for the Robotics & Automation award
And our APRIL™ Robotic Weighing Station is up for the Future-Factory Enabling Technologies award
And finally… we’re flying the food industry flag at the cross-sector IET, Institue of Engineering and Technology Awards. APRIL™ Robotics is shortlisted for the Manufacturing Technology award in a highly competitive competition. There were over 300 entries to the awards from 25 countries from industries including aerospace, automotive and pharmaceutical.
OAL inspires at Mission Possible Peterborough careers fair
On Friday 23 June 2017, OAL inspired students at the Mission Possible careers fair organised by the Skills Service at the East of England Showground in Peterborough. The event attracted more than 3,000 young students aged 14-24 to encourage them to explore future career options. With so many industries at the event, there was certainly a lot for them to learn about and consider.
OAL’s stand showcased our latest innovations in robotics and automation for food manufacturers to widen young people’s perception of engineering and the food manufacturing industry and to encourage more young people to continue with their STEM subjects and choose engineering as their career.
To get attendees involved and thinking more about the next 10-15 years of the food industry, we ran a competition asking them a key question.
What food will you be eating when you’re 30?
And, with a Kindle Fire tablet as a prize for the best answer, it was worth really thinking about their answers!
By the end of the event, we had more than 160 entries and it was clear that all of them knew that the food industry is dynamic and will be changing dramatically over the next 10 to 15 years.
We were really impressed with the scope of responses which considered current challenges in the world such as the growing population, rising obesity and people’s busier lifestyles. Many of the answers we received aimed to solve these issues using alternative proteins, dehydrated convenience foods and pills and potions full of all the nutrients an individual needs.
The winning answer recognised world hunger as a big issue and considered not just individual eating habits but the eating habits globally:
“A small pill that has all the right nutrients in it that fills you up. It would need to be affordable so it can help to end world hunger.”
If you’re interested in a career at OAL you can learn more in our careers area, including latest roles, summer internships and work experience.
OAL to build new APRIL™ Robotics production facility
We’re very pleased to announce the development of our new state-of-the-art facility to support our APRIL™ Robotics Systems in Cambridgeshire, UK. The new facility supports a growing order book as food manufacturers seek to avoid rising costs in the UK and Europe through significant productivity improvements.
Currently, 529,800 people globally are associated with the common repetitive task of weighing dry ‘micro’ ingredients. The APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system automates this task and when linked with APRIL Logistics, fully automates the ingredient and material management within factories.
The OAL team is rapidly accelerating the adoption of robots in food manufacturing as they focus on increasing productivity and efficiency in food factories by automating manual handling tasks. Harry Norman, Owner/Managing Director at OAL, explains more:
“We’re committed to eliminating manual handling in the front end of food processing, and the new APRIL facility gives our team a great space to develop and demonstrate what that means for food manufacturers.
We have a strong reputation for building large scale material handling projects, and advanced manufacturing software (OAL Connected) and the APRIL developments complement these thriving parts of the business.”
So if you’re ready to bring robots into your facility, arrange a visit to learn more about APRIL Robotics today.
OAL secures £450k funding for robotics in food manufacturing
We’re delighted to announce that we have been awarded £448,850 to develop innovative APRIL™ robotics material handling systems for food manufacturers from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency. The new project focuses on overcoming the well-documented productivity challenges food manufacturers face preparing ingredients. It will be led by engineers from OAL utilising the latest robotic and automation technologies.
The new one-year project, which is supported by a grant of £448,850 from the UK Government via Innovate UK and the EPSRC's Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) research fund, will focus on automating the processes of handling, weighing and transporting the raw ingredients. It will also make strides in developing key hygiene and food safety features which will be crucial when using robotic production systems within the food manufacturing sector. Researchers from the University of Lincoln will be supporting the project with work being undertaken at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, Holbeach, UK.
“Food manufacturers are facing rising costs and with little opportunity to increase their prices, they are seeking new and effective ways of improving productivity. Throughout the project, we’ll be taking a step-by-step approach, working our way through common operations found across the food manufacturing sector such as weighing, sieving, and moving ingredients around.
One criticism of automated systems in the past has been the lack of flexibility, but we will aim to develop flexible APRIL robotic systems that can handle some of these tasks and take the pressure off food manufacturers.”
Take the first step towards the robotic revolution with us - get in touch today.
Food Manufacturing 2030 Conference - APRIL to cook lunch
Get your lunch cooked by a robot and learn what food manufacturing could look like in 2030. Join us and other food industry leaders to ponder what food processing will look like when we're in driverless cars at the Food Manufacturing 2030 Conference at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, Holbeach, UK on Thursday 13 October 2016.
See the future
The food industry is ripe for change as it faces a perfect storm driven by the living wage, flat line productivity and food deflation. We believe in order to meet these challenges the industry must transform itself with flexible robotics and automation over the next two decades.
Share in our vision of the future and join us on Thursday 13 October 2016; listen to expert speakers and watch demonstrations as we debate food manufacturing in 2030. Designed for senior food professionals, the event is FREE to attend, and we expect strong discussions as we shape the future of our industry.
APRIL will cook your lunch
Our APRIL robotic food processing platform is pushing barriers and attendees will get a taste of the future as she's cooking lunch. Watch the future of ready meal production as APRIL (Automated Processing Robotic Ingredient Loading) effortlessly twirls a pan around the food processing hall combining ingredients, cooking and cleaning with no human intervention.
Expert speakers
We've brought together thought leaders from across the food industry to provide insights into why and how the food industry will change by 2030. Speakers include:
Simon Lushey, Specialist Technical Manager at Marks & Spencer, will be speaking about why innovation is important to retailing.
Ann Savage, Technical Specialist (Former Group Technical Director at Bakkavor), will be speaking about the future of chilled food manufacturing.
Steve Osborn, Food Technology Scout, will be discussing the consumer trends that will shape food manufacturing moving towards 2030.
Andrea Paoli, Senior Lecturer in industrial automation and robotics at the University of Lincoln, will be speaking about robotic technological developments.
More expert speakers are set to be announced.
Who should attend?
The event is designed for senior food processing and industry professionals looking to learn how robotics and automation will transform their food businesses. Expected delegate job titles include:
Managing Director, Operations Director, Technical Director, Innovation Director, General Manager, Technology/Innovation Manager, NPD Manager, Continuous Improvement Manager
Successful APRIL™ Robot Chef launch & slides
We launched APRIL™ the Robot Chef at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing during a conference with the University of Lincoln focused on understanding how robotics and automation will change food processing. Food manufacturing is facing a perfect storm driven by the living wage; flat lining productivity and food deflation. Advanced technology and robotics can address these issues yet the UK is seriously lagging behind the developed world in its implementation. Speakers discussed different aspects of this challenge which culminated in live demonstrations of the APRIL™ Robot Chef system in our state-of-the-art test centre.
Food professionals view Steam Infusion & cryogenic cooling
Moving forward, our vision is to create a Global Centre of Excellence for Robotic Food Manufacturing at the University of Lincoln that will:
Educate the industry
Partner with visionary early adopters
Deliver disruptive change in manufacturing.
The APRIL™ system demonstrates the potential of robotics to deliver competitive advantage for food manufacturers and how they can overcome existing challenges e.g. traceability, flexibility, adaptability, quality etc.
Speakers included:
Andrea Paoli, Senior Robotics Lecturer at the University of Lincoln explaining the basics and future of robotics.
Jeff Nowill, CEO, Kuka Robotics UK on the intersector knowledge transfer opportunities for the adoption of robots.
Ian Beauchamp, OAL's Head of Process Engineering on the challenges robotics can overcome on the shop floor.
Mark Swainson, Principal lecturer on the challenges robotics can overcome on the shop floor.
Harry Norman, OAL's Managing Director describing his vision of robotic food manufacturing.
Here are the slides from the day (they can be downloaded by clicking through to Slideshare for Jake Norman’s slides and Jeff Nowill’s slides)
Biographies of speakers:
Andrea Paoli
Andrea has been a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Automation and Robotics since 2014 at the University of Lincoln where he serves as the Programme Leader for the brand new BEng Automation Engineering programme. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society UK organising committee.
Jeff Nowill
Jeff is a chartered engineer; having completed an apprenticeship at Dunlop Aviation, and a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Coventry University. He joined KUKA in 2009, and is CEO of the UK and Irish operations, and sits on the board of ESPRC’s RAS network. KUKA boast a turnover in excess of €3 billion, as a world-class manufacturer of industrial robots and automation solutions.
Ian Beauchamp
Ian’s background is control engineering and business. He draws on over thirty years’ experience working for companies such as P&G and APV within R&D, design, project management together with leading product, service and engineering activities. Ian facilitated Performance Optimisation projects within the food industry in a global position utilising Six Sigma and Lean Methodologies.
Mark Swainson
Mark’s industrial background is Technical and Operations Management within the high risk chilled and frozen food industry. He is listed on the European Food Safety Authority Food Safety Experts Database, is an experienced Lead Auditor and a member of the Institute of Packaging. Mark conducts industry based research to address specific food industry challenges; Quality, Safety and Hygiene Control Systems, Advanced Process Technologies & Automation, Food Supply Chains, Microbiological Safety and Shelf Life
Harry Norman
Harry was just 28, with only a few years of industry experience and a first class degree in controls and automation when he founded OAL (Olympus Automation Ltd) in 1993. OAL now supply cutting edge food manufacturing systems for leading blue chip clients such as Allied Bakeries and Bakkavor that have increased the efficiency and consistency of their manufacturing operations.
OAL partners with Macmillan Cancer Support for 2016 fundraising
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In 2016 OAL will be running, cycling, baking and more to fund raise for Macmillan Cancer Support. As our official 2016 charity, we hope to assist Macmillan (made up of professionals, volunteers and campaigners) in their journey to offer support and inspiration to those affected by cancer, to take back control of their lives.
There are currently 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK alone with that number expected to reach four million by 2030, so there is no time like the present. It costs £27 for a Macmillan nurse for an hour, that nurse could provide emotional and practical support as well as essential medical advice to those affected by cancer. Nobody should have to go through cancer alone so if you would like to join us in supporting this fantastic charity.
Find out more about our social responsibility!
OAL secures £60,000 for APRIL™ robot development
We are pleased to announce we have received a £60,000 Agri-Tech Growth Grant for the development of our robotic food processing system, APRIL™. The grant will be used to further develop APRIL™, our fully automated robotic food manufacturing cell that will boost production, efficiency and improve the quality of food produced.
“OAL is transforming the food manufacturing industry through their technology. The APRIL™ system will kick-start the industry’s move towards fully automated production lines, allowing food to be produced quicker, with less waste and greater precision.”
APRIL™ robot with food basket
A full size demonstration system is being built at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing part of the University Lincoln in Holbeach, Lincolnshire - come and learn more about the technology.
OAL sponsors Cambridgeshire Kidsafe Scheme
OAL is delighted to announce that we are a proud sponsor of Kidsafe, an organisation that actively commits to helping keep kids safe across the UK and EIRE. Unfortunately, kids’ safety is a major issue these days for everyone involved including parents and teachers. The philosophy at Kidsafe is to make children more aware of the dangers they face without destroying their sense of adventure, they believe the best approach is to make learning about safety fun.
“OAL is pleased to sponsor the Kidsafe School Safety Pack; it’s an important scheme and we like to get involved with and help local charities.”
OAL has sponsored the ‘School Safety Pack’ which is distributed to primary schools around the Cambridgeshire area, in order to educate them on the responsibility of their own safety. This pack includes a ‘Get Home Safely’ game which visually demonstrates the actions to take when faced with issues over their own safety, in a fun board game inspired layout.
OAL discusses APRIL™ at Future Food Horizons
Back in October, OAL travelled to Chester to take part in the Future Food Horizons Conference and introduce APRIL to industry and academic professionals. The conference, led by The University of Chester, was designed to tackle social challenges through food science and innovation. Jake Norman from OAL joined speakers from Innocent, Quorn, Muller and Sainsburys to discuss how they could turn their insights into food and innovation into a solution for social challenges.
Jake's presentation explains how OAL are using insights from the automotive industry to change food manufacturing with the introduction of APRIL™.
Ready to transform your facility? Get in touch with our experts today!
Harry Norman on the launch of APRIL
Harry Norman spoke to Food Bev Magazine back in October, about the introduction of APRIL, robotic food processing. We were invited to speak about innovation at the Next Generation Manufacturing conference at Gulfood Manufacturing in Dubai. Whilst at the show Darren Wood of FoodBev media caught up with OAL's Managing Director, Harry Norman, to discuss our new product.
“We are launching a new product into the market called APRIL which will revolutionise the way the front end processing of food factories is handled.”
Ready to take the next step towards the robotic revolution? Get in touch today!
OAL leads research project into cryogenic cooling
We’re pleased to announce the launch of our latest research project set to revolutionise ready meals with cryogenic cooling in partnership with BOC, The University of Lincoln and Iceland Manufacturing. The £969,000 project, part funded by Innovate UK will last two years and aims to develop an innovative cooking and cryogenic cooling system for ready meals providing a step change in product quality and healthiness. The project seeks to help tackle the current levels of food waste and increase the speed of production.
The project will combine our rapid cooking Steam Infusion Vaction™ technology with a cryogenic cooler from BOC. It follows our first major Innovate UK project ‘Nutrition for Life’, that has focused on understanding the full operating envelope of our Steam Infusion cooking technology and it's effects on nutrition and food safety.
Over the two-year project, the team plans to gain a full scientific understanding of the effects of rapid cooling using liquid nitrogen on sauces and soups, and the vegetables, fruits and meats they contain in order to maximise nutritional values. Product shelf life could also be increased and waste minimised as we will develop a fully flexible process that will reduce production, cleaning and changeover times for increasingly variable supply requirements.
Interview on APRIL™ & Food is Life at PPMA 2015
At the PPMA Show 2015, we were interviewed about our involvement with Food is Life and APRIL™, our food processing robot. APRIL will enable food processing without any platforms or pipework in a smaller factory. Bringing together state-of-the-art technologies, she will increase capacity, significantly reduce the number of operators and produce safer, better looking, tastier foods.
Developed with the University of Lincoln at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, APRIL enables parallel food processing and can emulate a chef’s method of cooking on an industrial scale. Utilising grant funding from Innovate UK, we have put our expertise and skills into making this research concept a reality with a demonstration available early 2016.
We have been working closely with members of the Food Is Life consortium in the development of APRIL™. Food is Life firmly believes that the food industry can benefit from learning and exploiting technologies from the automotive industry to improve production and safety of food.
Transforming food processing at Gulfood Manufacturing, Dubai
We're speaking about disruptive change at the Next Generation Manufacturing Conference, part of Gulfood Manufacturing 2015 in Dubai on Tuesday 27 October at 15:30. We were approached by organisers following the launch of our revolutionary APRIL™ food processing system. APRIL uses principles from the automotive sector to link proven state-of-the-art cooking and materials handling technologies with automated robotic ingredient loading.
The talk will provide insights into how APRIL™ style systems will change both factory layouts and the flow of materials through a food processing facility. By removing the need for pipework, pumps and valves, APRIL will produce more consistent and better quality products, faster than current processes with significantly reduced ingredient wastage and energy costs, whilst taking up to 80% less factory space.
APRIL™ has been developed in partnership with a leading global robot manufacturer and the University of Lincoln, with a full-size demonstration due for installation December 2015 at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing. The development has come off the back of two £1 million Innovate UK funded government projects into improving the efficiency and quality of food products. APRIL™ will integrate and enhance two existing technologies being researched under the two Innovate UK collaborative research projects into cryogenic cooling and rapid heating and mixing (Steam Infusion).
The three day show is the region's biggest food and beverage processing industry event and brings together suppliers from over 60 countries, showcasing the very latest improvements in manufacturing. The show is a popular knowledge transfer and sourcing event which allows attendees to explore solutions for potential expansion on production capacity, creating greater efficiency and much more!
APRIL™ draws the crowds at the PPMA Show 2015
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On the last week of September 2015 industry professionals from all around the world were enamoured by APRIL™ at the PPMA Show in Birmingham, UK. With dual presence at the show, we took the opportunity to introduce our new disruptive technology, APRIL, on the Food Is Life stand. APRIL combines proven state-of-the-art cooking and materials handling technologies with automated robotic ingredient loading, emulating a professional chef.
Food Is Life is a consortium focused on bringing disruptive change to the food industry and accordingly was the perfect setting to introduce APRIL™. The stunning BMW i8 was the perfect back drop for the launch, highlighting the knowledge transfer opportunities available between the food and automotive industry. Visitors sat in the car and were captivated by the video:
It was incredibly effective with many of the biggest names in food production stopping by to discuss their desire for step change improvements in food manufacturing. We are working closely with the University of Lincoln and Food Is Life partners to deliver Food Manufacturing 4.0 and the visitors strong reaction is a great driver to continue the pursuit of change.
Del Boy BMW i8
The three day event saw Del Boy and Joanna Lumley impersonators, an awards ceremony, countless customer meetings and chatter throughout.
OAL would like to say a massive thank you to the organisers of the PPMA and for all our customers, new and returning, for giving us the chance to introduce APRIL™ to the world.