Asset Monitoring for the Food Industry with MENTIS

Why asset monitoring is strategic in the food industry

In food industry production lines, the single machine is often the most critical link: unplanned downtime, energy consumption out of standard, or a component that silently degrades can compromise an entire production campaign. To address this challenge, we developed MENTIS: an Edge computer integrated directly into our machines, at the heart of Asset Monitoring within the Performance Intelligence ecosystem.

MENTIS is not just a data collection system: it is an operational platform that turns machine information into concrete actions, through four vertical applications designed to meet the real needs of production and maintenance teams.

What MENTIS is and how it works

The MENTIS asset monitoring system consists of an Edge computer — a processing device installed directly on board the machine — that continuously collects the data generated by the asset: status signals, operating parameters, energy consumption, vibration and thermal data. This data is processed locally, in real time, and made available through intuitive dashboards accessible to production and maintenance managers.

Direct integration with CFT machines ensures higher data quality than generic retrofit solutions: MENTIS speaks the machine’s language and knows its critical parameters and expected reference values.

MENTIS Performance: real-time machine OEE monitoring

The first MENTIS application is dedicated to monitoring the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) of each individual machine. Availability, performance and quality are calculated continuously and displayed on intuitive dashboards, without waiting for manual processing or end-of-shift reports.

A distinctive feature of MENTIS Performance is its detailed CIP (Cleaning-in-Place) reports: each cleaning cycle is analyzed by comparing it to a user-selectable Golden CIP, making it possible to optimize downtime dedicated to sanitization and verify compliance with expected parameters.

Operational benefits include:

• OEE: Immediate visibility into the real status of each asset, without relying on manual updates.
• OEE: Classification of stoppages by duration and occurrence, used to calculate MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) and MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) indices.
• CIP: Easily identify underperforming CIP cycles thanks to the score the system assigns to each of them.
• CIP: Drill down into every single CIP through Temperature, Flow Rate and Conductivity trends, labeled with the description of each step.

MENTIS Energy: monitoring energy consumption in food production lines

Energy efficiency in the food industry is often an underestimated lever. MENTIS Energy fills this gap by continuously analyzing each machine’s consumption and correlating energy data with production data. When consumption deviates from standard — due to a leak, a malfunction or a non-optimal setup — the system flags it immediately, giving enough time to intervene before the deviation turns into a significant cost.

Results achieved with our customers demonstrate the concrete value of this approach: identified and corrected deviations have brought consumption back to standard values, with a measurable reduction in operating energy costs. MENTIS Energy also supports corporate sustainability goals, providing structured data for:

• Energy performance reporting by line and by asset.
• Tracking total and per-production-unit CO2 emissions.
• Identifying the least efficient assets to prioritize for improvement.

MENTIS Maintenance: structured planning of interventions

Maintenance management in food production environments presents specific challenges: high frequency of interventions, the need for traceability for hygiene and regulatory reasons, and staff turnover that makes knowledge transfer critical. MENTIS Maintenance was designed to meet these needs, supporting teams with structured planning of interventions.

Every intervention — scheduled or due to a fault — is recorded and documented in the system, building a valuable knowledge base over time. The value of this tracking shows on multiple levels:

• Proactive intervention planning, reducing unforeseen emergencies.
• Complete history of every machine, accessible to all team members regardless of staff turnover.
• Analysis of recurring causes of downtime, supporting decisions on structural interventions.
• Long-term maintenance cost optimization thanks to accumulated knowledge.
• Automatic email notification system that gives adequate advance notice of the next intervention to be carried out.

MENTIS Condition Monitoring: predictive maintenance in action

Condition Monitoring is MENTIS’s most advanced application and the heart of our predictive maintenance strategy. Available for pumps and rotary fillers, it continuously monitors the critical components of these assets through vibration and thermal sensors, with the goal of anticipating mechanical anomalies before they cause unplanned downtime.

The operating principle is simple but powerful: instead of waiting for a breakdown (reactive maintenance) or intervening at fixed intervals regardless of the component’s actual condition (preventive maintenance), the system intervenes only when the data indicates degradation is underway. Monitored parameters include:

• Bearing condition, with early detection of wear and damage.
• Misalignment between rotating components, a frequent cause of premature failure.
• Dynamic imbalances, which generate excessive vibration and accelerate degradation.

When the analysis algorithms detect a significant deviation from baseline values, the system sends an alert to the maintenance team up to 24 hours in advance of a possible machine stoppage. This time window is enough to plan the intervention at the most convenient moment, without interrupting ongoing production.

The benefits of predictive maintenance with MENTIS Condition Monitoring are measured across three dimensions: a drastic reduction in unplanned downtime, extended service life of critical components, and optimized overall maintenance costs.

The future of MENTIS: CFT AI Apps

To complete our MENTIS offering, we are developing CFT AI Apps: vertical applications that leverage artificial intelligence algorithms to further optimize the performance of specific assets. Rollout is planned progressively between 2026 and 2027, integrating AI models directly into the MENTIS ecosystem to expand its predictive and prescriptive capabilities.

MENTIS in production: concrete results with CFT customers

Data collected from real-world installations confirm the effectiveness of the MENTIS approach. Among the results measured through our asset monitoring software:

• Aseptic filling: average error reduced to just 56 g against a 240 kg target, with a direct impact on product quality and waste reduction.
• Line availability: average 1% increase in overall availability. On high-productivity lines, this translates into thousands of additional units produced each year.
• Energy efficiency: identification and correction of consumption deviations, restoring standard values and measurably reducing operating costs.

These results don’t come from technology alone: they stem from the combination of CFT’s process expertise, our deep knowledge of plants, and MENTIS’s digital intelligence. It is this integration that turns data into real competitive advantage.

Want to know what MENTIS can do for your plants?

Contact us for a personalized assessment: our experts will analyze your plant’s needs and show you concretely how MENTIS can improve OEE, reduce machine downtime and optimize energy consumption.

→ Request a free MENTIS demo