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More than just process visualization

The Fresh Food & Beverage Group in Bischofszell has comprehensively modernized part of its production. Thanks to the WinCC Unified operation and visualization system, their facilities can now be operated intuitively and efficiently.

Leading Food Production at Industrial Scale

The Bischofszell site spans an impressive 120,000 square metres across 26 halls. Around 60,000 tons of potatoes are processed there every year, representing approximately 33% of the Swiss market and making the FFB Group the market leader. Operating in three shifts, the site produces chips, rösti, French fries, and mashed potatoes. In addition, fruit juices, iced tea, jams, ready meals, and frozen products are manufactured for retail and food service sectors.

Long-standing partnerships

In 2024, the FFB Group modernized part of its production facilities in Bischofszell. The goal was to replace the French fries and steam peeling lines with modern, fully automated systems while adapting upstream and downstream processes. This included expanding potato intake, automating washing and peeling processes, and integrating multiple production lines for potato-based products.

To implement the project, the FFB Group partnered with system integrator ICS Automation AG. Together with its subsidiary ACS Solution, the Siemens Solution Partner developed a comprehensive automation and digitalization concept. As Andreas Rutz, Managing Director of ICS, explains:
“We were responsible for the entire electrical installation, switchgear engineering, process control systems, PLC programming, and the development of user interfaces using Siemens WinCC Unified.”

Innovative Visualization with WinCC Unified

At the unloading station, potatoes are tipped directly from trucks, with up to 25 tons processed within 30 minutes. They are then sorted by size and either stored in one of the 23 silos for later use or immediately washed, peeled, and processed. To ensure seamless traceability, FFB Group staff use scanners and label printers to document all information related to each truckload.

ICS, located just around the corner in Busswil bei Sirnach, deployed Siemens WinCC Unified for the first time in Bischofszell. This next-generation, scalable control and visualization solution enables cross-platform operation via modern touch panels or web browsers. Alexandra Hug, project engineer and Unified specialist at ICS, stated:
"WinCC Unified represents a major technological leap. The FFB Group is a true innovator in adopting it. The program offers extensive capabilities, making it complex, but its openness to various interfaces, web-based technology for platform-independent access, and centralized configuration for multiple devices – including PCs, touch panels, and handheld devices – are significant advantages."

The Modernization Continues

The system uses WinCC Unified touch panels, which are client-server capable and allow both asynchronous (not constantly connected to the server) operation and remote access with screen-to-screen transmission between devices. This greatly facilitates operations across the expansive production area. Näf explained:
"We use five touch PCs that are operated via a virtual centralized server. From any of these control stations, we can access the others, analyze faults, view notifications, and monitor or adjust process parameters in real time."

The project planning spanned almost five years, and installation took about a year. The new facilities have been operational since August 2024. During the development phase, the use of WinCC Unified was extensively tested. A digital twin with PLCsim Advanced simulated the Simatic controllers and served as a development and testing platform prior to commissioning. This simulation continues to run around the clock at ICS.