Case Study: Fonterra achieves major protein and fat giveaway reductions with Rockwell Automation's Pavilion8 MPC solution

Fonterra’s Australia Dennington Overhauls Standardizing System

Fonterra’s Australia Dennington site, a major milk powder producer, needed to reduce protein and fat giveaway while staying within codex standards. Its existing batch standardizing process was inflexible, slow to correct, and made it hard to optimize final powder composition without risking out-of-spec product. Rockwell Automation’s Pavilion8® solution was used to address these standardization challenges.

Rockwell Automation implemented a two-phase upgrade: first moving Fonterra from batch to an in-line standardizing system, then deploying Pavilion8 model predictive control (MPC). The result was a much more agile operation with faster correction times, better composition control, and less variability. Rockwell Automation reports a 49% reduction in protein giveaway and a 38% reduction in fat giveaway, saving about 78,000 kg of protein and 58,000 kg of fat annually, with more than NZ$1 million in annual benefit.

Fonterra