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Designing a Flexible, Scalable Automated Processing System for The Better Meat Co.

The Better Meat Co. collaborated with E Tech Group and Barnum Mechanical Inc. to design, build and automate a full-scale processing system that has been successful in producing on-demand production and is scalable for future growth.

The Project: Turnkey Factory Automation for Mycoprotein Production

Food and beverage automation is changing, because so is the way we’re looking at industrial food production. The Better Meat Co. is a leader in the alternative protein movement. They produce a plant-based mycoprotein made by fermenting staple agricultural ingredients and minimally processing them into a dense protein that can be used in tandem with or instead of true meat. Their brand of alternative meat production touts:

Whole food with natural texture of animal meat
Complete amino acid profile
Sustainable production, ethical alternative
Cheaper than beef
Much smaller carbon footprint than raising traditional meat

The Better Meat Co. faced a quick turnaround to full-scale production once they cleared the necessary regulatory barriers. Knowing they would need a robust, foolproof automation system to achieve their goals, they partnered with E Tech Group and Barnum Mechanical Inc. to design, build, and automate a full-scale processing system at their new mycoprotein fermentation facility in Sacramento, California.

The Process: Build & Integrate a Custom Automated Fermentation System

The Better Meat Co. partnered with Barnum and E Tech Group to build a full-scale processing system from scratch. The project team assessed existing equipment and current system requirements, and collaborated with various stakeholders to best design the full-scale processing system, keeping alternative meat processing standards and scalable performance capabilities top-of-mind.

E Tech Group’s team leveraged their expertise in automated control systems and process design to create a custom solution. The project team accomplished a software redundant control system that was capable of developer remote access support, redundant databases, recipe controls, historic data logs, and interactive reports.

The system that Barnum and E Tech Group helped to build allows The Better Meat Co. to experiment simultaneously with different types of feedstocks so that they can sterilize different media to run different types of fermentations.

The Result: A Better Way to Process Proteins

The Better Meat Co. implemented an automated system, developed with the help of E Tech Group and Barnum Mechanical, which has been successful in producing its products on demand. The CEO of The Better Meat Co. endorsed the value of automation. The system has been reliable since its deployment and is scalable for future growth.

You can learn more about the automation process for this case study in this video interview with the Better Meat Co. CEO.

EXPLORE MORE E TECH GROUP CASE STUDIES

| February 14, 2024

Congratulations to our 2024 E Tech Group Award Winners!

We think our team is BEYOND amazing! We recently celebrated them at the Third Annual E Tech Group Awards! The awards are a way to acknowledge team members by team members. This is our third year of the awards and we had nearly triple the nominations than our previous years- proving how awesome our team is! The ten awards were for: Outstanding Internal Team Most Impactful Project Team Creative Solution Award Always Growing Always Listening Rockstar Rookie Shoutout Star Team Players The Coach Our Purpose In Action BONUS AWARD —> Above and Beyond Award Congratulations to all of our award winners and nominees!

| February 9, 2024

E Tech Group to Showcase Life Sciences Capabilities at 2024 Annual ISPE-CaSA Chapter Life Sciences Technology Show

E Tech Group will exhibit in booth #1116 at the 31st annual International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering Carolina-South Atlantic (ISPE-CaSA) Chapter Life Sciences Technology Show on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. WEST CHESTER, OH – E Tech Group, a leader in providing high-quality automation, control, and engineering services for industrial clients and Gold Certified Rockwell Automation Partner, today announced that the company will be showcasing their life sciences automation expertise at the 2024 International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering Carolina-South Atlantic (ISPE-CaSA) Life Sciences Technology Show at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, NC on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 in booth #1116. E Tech Group’s advanced manufacturing automation solutions cater specifically to the life sciences industry, emphasizing robust batch and process control capabilities, and extensive expertise in GAMP/GDP and validation, enabling life sciences businesses to maintain rigorous standards of quality and compliance in their operations. E Tech Group will be sending a team of life science experts in addition to Business Development Manager Wayne Hansley and Chief Strategy Officer for Life Sciences Rick Pierro. Pierro is a past president of ISPE Boston Area, as well as Hank Moes Award Recipient. “As a past president and longtime supporter of ISPE Boston Area Chapter, we are excited to expand our reach in the industry and make new connections at the ISPE-CaSA Life Sciences Technology Show,” said Pierro. “With a nationwide team with over 450 engineers behind us, E Tech proudly supports ISPE and their mission to connect pharmaceutical knowledge.” “As a leading innovator in industrial automation solutions for the life sciences industry, we are thrilled to participate in the upcoming ISPE-CaSA Life Sciences Technology Show in Raleigh,” said Wayne Hansley, Business Development Manager. “This event presents a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our batch … Continued

Supporting a Global Courier’s Ability to Scale with 24/7 Support

A global e-commerce leader wanted to add 24/7 support to several of their US facilities. E Tech Group’s infrastructure upgrades and added support in US-based sites paved the way for an international scale-up as multiple European sites were optimized.

The Project: Take 24/7 Domestic Control System Support International

E Tech Group had previously worked with one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies to upgrade and implement 24/7 support at a US facility. A few years after the completion of the initial project, the client implemented round-the-clock sortation of packages to keep up with demand. This compounded the time constraints associated with any interventions, and also increased the complexity of the system.

This switch to continuous sorting increased the number of calls to 24/7 support to maintain uptime at the first facility. This led to the client’s decision to add 24/7 support contracts across five additional US-based sites to support the switch to round-the-clock automated material handling.

The Challenge: Integrate SCADA Support Across Oceans

At the same time, E Tech Group developed and commissioned a SCADA environment for the client’s five largest European-based sites. These sites initially decided not to maintain a 24/7 support service contract because they were not experiencing the same delays as their US-based counterparts.

However, after the project support ended, the European sites ran into issues with their network communications, experienced power outages, and had issues troubleshooting due to the lack of knowledge about the software. This eventually led to some of the sites shutting down operations and doing manual control for the sort – a huge operational issue even for a global company.

The Solution: 24/7 On-Call Support Across the US & Europe

E Tech Group engineers with Wonderware/AVEVA system experience were contracted to support operations, troubleshoot, address concerns, and complete modifications as needed.

Two of the larger European sites agreed to a 24/7 Emergency SCADA support contract, this soon expanded to include another twelve locations. Today there are a total of 17 European-based sites that have a 24/7 Emergency Support contract with E Tech Group.

The Results: Training Offers Client Self-Sufficiency with New Systems

E Tech Group developed and trained client team members, allowing them to create an internal support group, freeing them to be self-sufficient in maintaining the system we created. And we will continue to be there as a first call when the problems, and their solutions, seem foreign.

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