Project Description

Supermarkets of the future: with SITE S.p.A. and KIRETI, MMR stores are upgraded to “Industry 4.0”

With the support of SITE, one of the leading mass market retailers in Northern Italy decided to invest in an innovation project to transform 62 of its shops into real Smart Factories and become an Industry 4.0. In order to make the users’ shopping experience safer and more comfortable, the company chose to adopt the KIRETI platform and apply IoT paradigms to ensure better management and the interconnection into a single platform of the numerous machines and installations in its shops.

Client:

The company has always distinguished itself throughout its 40 years of activity for being a pioneering supermarket chain committed to energy efficiency and sustainability. Each store has a wide range of machinery and systems that are essential for storing, cooking and keeping food products fresh. In order to optimise the performance of machines and reduce energy consumption, the client decided to invest in a project of innovation supported by SITE.

Aims of the project:

The client was looking for an innovative solution that could follow the Industry 4.0 logic and use open standards in order to upgrade store management. The client was seeking to implement new energy control strategies, while increasing the efficiency of production machinery and optimising all maintenance processes. Specifically, the actual project objectives focused on the following aspects:

  • Improving energy efficiency by monitoring and controlling power consumption using interconnected meters;
  • Increasing the efficiency of baking and roasting ovens by monitoring and  controlling cooking cycles, operating or alarm conditions, and cases of non-standard procedures;
  • Automating the air-conditioning system alarm triggering and its operation according to detected store temperatures;
  • Automating and digitising maintenance processes as part of the platform, and triggering maintenance operations automatically using a vertical ticketing system integrated in the platform;
  • Counting the number of entries through the entrance gates and of any irregular event.

Solutions:

To meet all clients’ requests, SITE configured the KIRETI Smart Building platform to interface with production machinery and guarantee their smart management. Below is a list of the main machines and systems that can be controlled and their provided functionalities:

  • Air conditioning systems were interconnected to detect alarm situations and sensor temperature. This system helps to adjust the air quality parameters inside the stores and provide people and personnel a high level of comfort and to optimise maintenance operations.
  • Store entrance gates were interfaced for statistical and operational purposes, that is, for counting the number of shoppers and for monitoring the gates’ condition regarding maintenance.
  • Bread baking ovens and meat grills to monitor cooking procedures and cycles in order to ensure compliance with company directives.
  • Monitoring of energy consumption and of electrically powered utilities in the entire store. The platform can read utilities of different types: lighting systems, production machinery, MT-LT cabinets, solar systems, cold rooms, etc. and monitor consumption logs in order to facilitate the implementation of efficiency policies.

Achievements:

Implementing the KIRETI Smart Building platform helped turn 62 of the client’s stores into truly Smart Factories, designing the IoT system in compliance with Industry 4.0 requirements. The systematic collection of data related to machinery power consumption and operation cycles led to adjustments that improved energy efficiency at the monitored stores, and consequently to energy savings of over 10%. The continuous monitoring of operating systems, on the other hand, helped optimise maintenance procedures, minimising disruptions and making best use of resources. Thanks to the scalability of the Kireti platform, the client can decide to invest in new projects in the future to enhance their business services.