Nestlé Wagner GmbH, a European frozen pizza division of Nestlé S.A., Switzerland, selected the Getac A140 fully rugged tablet from Getac Technology Corp., a Taiwan-based subsidiary of MiTAC-Synnex Business Group, to digitize workflows and optimize productivity at its Nonnweiler, Germany, headquarters.

Nestlé Wagner produces around 350 million frozen food products annually. Using the Getac A140, the company has achieved wide-ranging digitization of its production processes, significantly increasing efficiency and allowing greater flexibility in day-to-day operations.

Nestlé Wagner chose the fully rugged Getac A140 due to the quality assurance benefits it provides and the ability to roll it out quickly to employees at the site, where it will complement existing laptops and special industrial computers already in use.

"The Getac A140 is extremely robust and reliable due to its outstanding build quality," says Christian Joseph, team leader operational excellence at Nestlé Wagner. "Its rugged design and impressive performance makes it ideally suited to everyday use on the production floor."

High-level safety and usability in a wide range of temperature zones

In the food manufacturing process, it's critical that no contaminants enter the food at any point. With the deployment of the Getac A140, Nestlé achieves the confidence that if a tablet is accidentally dropped, it won't break apart, ensuring production quality.

The use of the tablets has also proved to be extremely user-friendly. Not only are the devices easy to handle, but the 14-inch screen also offers enough space to clearly display key software applications. For example, all standard SAP information is displayed on screen, and transactions are carried out quickly using the A140's stylus. Furthermore, the A140's high degree of tolerance to temperature fluctuations means it can be used in a wide variety of different temperature zones.

"The A140 is our largest and most powerful tablet," says Rowina Lee, vice president of global sales and business development center, Getac. "It stands out thanks to its excellent performance, its industry-leading level of safety and its extraordinarily rugged characteristics. With its reliability and comprehensive functionality, the tablet is perfectly suited to the production conditions at Nestlé Wagner GmbH."

Industry 4.0: Digital workflows optimize production efficiency

With the Getac A140, Nestlé maintains a fully rugged mobile device at its disposal for accessing information and gathering data directly onsite.

"Until today, we worked with a predominantly paper-based system, so that, for example, each change to the documentation of the numerous standards [that] food production requires had to be printed out and specially filed in a folder," says Joseph. "With the new digital workflows, employees on the production line can easily access and make changes to the documents directly on the tablet if required."

Nestlé can also use the A140's integrated cameras to simplify and improve its production process. By making it possible for employees to take photographs or record videos directly on site, any potential difficulties occurring on the production line can be documented and distributed in real-time, ensuring they are resolved as quickly as possible.

 "With these Getac devices, we are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by Industry 4.0, utilizing mobile data capture to benefit from an increased level of production performance," adds Joseph. "Getac is also helping us to simplify, accelerate and digitize our processes right here on site where events occur. This way we can ensure continuous compliance to the latest quality standards. New opportunities have opened up for our employees to extend their level of competence and media usage, which is a key factor for us in developing the digital factory of the future."