Even though Gropper only appears hidden as a manufacturer on the product packaging, the company applies the same quality standards to its products as do manufacturers of branded products. For example, it has contracts with around 870 dairy farmers from the region who supply the dairy with around 355 million liters of milk. Of this, about 80 million liters meet the criteria for organic milk. To process this volume efficiently and safely into various products, Gropper has been using industrial PCs from Noax in production and logistics for over 20 years. As the company can rely on the durability, robustness and functionality of Noax hygiene and logistics terminals, it has once again opted for industrial PCs from Ebersberg. "We calculate with a 10-year service life for our machinery and we also apply this value to the IT in production and logistics." This is how an employee of the IT department at the Gropper dairy and its sister company, Gropper Fruchtsaft, put it. In the meantime, the stainless steel industrial PCs from Noax are just as much part of the inventory as the filling machines for yogurt, milk and the other Gropper products.

In use for over 20 years

As early as 1998, the company from Bissingen in the district of Dillingen a. d. Donau ordered the first Noax industrial PCs of type C15 with a screen diagonal of 15 inches for recording operating data in production. Some first-generation IPCs are still in use in the bottling halls. After more than 20 years of use, a generation change is due, especially as the new devices are better able to cope with new software and offer significantly more operating convenience than their predecessors. Since 1929, the Gropper dairy has been bottling milk and processing it into various dairy products. The Gropper name does not appear on the packaging, as the company supplies large retail chains in Germany and abroad, where the products are sold under their private labels. Since 2015, the sister company has been producing fruit juices and smoothies. Above all, Gropper Fruchtsaft can draw on the experience of the Gropper dairy when it comes to filling, processing and distributing sensitive and, for the most part, liquid foods. As early as 1998, the dairy realized that its operating data could best be recorded using Noax's completely waterproof and dustproof computers. The industrial PCs, with their protection standard of up to IP69k, guarantee that neither moisture nor solid components will get inside the PCs, even if they are frequently cleaned with water and special disinfectants. Their resistance to vibrations and their fail-safety did the rest to make the dairy choose Noax more than 20 years ago.

Greater overview, easier work

Noax has not disappointed the company. That's why it made sense to turn to Noax again for the new order. Nevertheless, the employee in the IT department freely admits that they also looked at the devices of other companies. In the meantime, Gropper had even used industrial PCs from competitors in production. But they were not able to convince those responsible, especially because they could not cope with the extreme ambient conditions in the dairy. In addition to the temperatures, these include high humidity and, above all, regular cleaning with water and disinfectants. "We had massive problems with the other devices; in contrast, Noax completely met our requirements and scored points with its robustness and fail-safe operation." The reliability of Noax products was one of the reasons why those responsible at Gropper again opted for the hardware from Ebersberg. However, this time they chose industrial PCs with a screen diagonal of 21 inches. "The 16:9 format was very important to us because it clearly displays the large PDA tables. It simply provides the maximum density of information at a glance."

Intuitive multi-touch

The definitive application on the Noax IPCs is a self-developed BDE solution in table form, which now runs on Windows 10 loT. The advantage of the larger monitors is that even if employees cannot see certain information, all they have to do is move the table to the left on the screen. There's no need to scroll down "That was also our goal," explains Gropper's IT specialist, "We want to make handling hardware and software as easy as possible." And there's something else that makes working with the new stainless steel IPCs more pleasant: if employees want to take a closer look at a particular section of the screen, they can zoom in on it with two fingers on the multi-touch, just like they're used to doing on their smartphones. The IPCs not only display the PDA solution, but also other applications: For example, employees can call up internal company information via the terminals, such as vacation or shift schedules.

Invisible IT

The user-friendly application of the hardware has promoted the acceptance of the new Noax IPCs among the workforce. High usability was a key goal of those responsible. "Our employees should be occupied with their actual tasks, not with the system. It just has to run," explains the IT department employee. "Hardware and software should work and not cause any annoyance. That's what we mean by 'invisible IT. The stainless steel computers from Noax have shown that they are just that. From our point of view, that spoke in favor of placing the order again." Currently, Gropper Dairy uses more than 30 S21W devices with a screen diagonal of 21 inches in production, i.e. in the filling of milk, desserts, yogurt and other dairy products. The company attaches great importance to ensuring that all industrial PCs are of the same technical standard. In this way, a terminal could be replaced without any significant interruption to operations; again, usability is the guiding principle. "This takes just five minutes and then the employee can continue working as usual," explains an IT specialist at Gropper. Because the industrial PCs in production and logistics are isolated from the Internet, updates cannot be applied automatically. For this reason, only a few updates are necessary. If necessary, they are installed during maintenance work in the IT department.

The large 21-inch stainless steel industrial PCs from Noax are used not only in production, but also in the cold storage area during delivery. They are mounted on the industrial trucks and provide the order pickers with all the information about the current orders. But unlike the terminals in production, the industrial computers in logistics have a resistive touch. Temperatures here range between 2°C and 7°C all year round. Therefore, it was important to those responsible that the touchscreens work with bare fingers as well as with gloves. While latex gloves are used in production, thicker thermal gloves are used in logistics. Noax's touchscreens respond equally to all operating variants, so employees do not have to take them off to operate the screen. This speeds up the workflow and saves time. Production and logistics each place different demands on the hardware. That is why Noax has developed solutions that optimally meet the necessities in both operational areas. The employee in the IT department appreciates this: "As a hardware manufacturer active in the food processing industry, Noax knows our needs. We have experienced this over the long period of more than 20 years. They implement our wishes consistently and, above all, promptly. This customer focus makes Noax a partner for us that will continue to provide what we need in the future."

Author
Michael Naumann, Freelance Trade Journalist, Munich, Germany