Predictive maintenance has helped our customers cut downtime by 30%: Bühler India’s Subramanya

Bühler India, a subsidiary of the Bühler Group, serves as a significant supplier of machinery, plants, and services for the food processing, advanced materials, and die-casting industries. The Swiss company set up its India operations in 1993, and since then expanded its Bengaluru hub (manufacturing, application and training centre), its fourth largest globally, serving 75-80% of the Indian market. The company has also heavily invested in research and development (R&D) to meet evolving domestic needs. In an interview with TechCircle, Shashidhar Subramanya, Head of Corporate Technology at Bühler India, discussed the company's use of smart analytics, AI, and other technologies to reshape India's food processing industry. He also emphasised Bühler India's focus on global R&D while adapting to regional food preferences and quality standards. Edited excerpts:

How is Bühler India supporting the digital transformation of the food processing industry, and what specific customer service and technology offerings are driving this shift?

Digitalisation is reshaping the Indian food processing industry, fuelled by the demand for uptime, rising consumer expectations for quality, and increased awareness of food safety, traceability, and sustainability. Customers seek to maximise their ROI by leveraging asset performance tracking. While data-driven milling is a niche market, awareness is growing, suggesting a potential digital inflection point soon. Bühler addresses these needs with smart process solutions integrated with data-driven insights. Its portfolio of sorters, scales, and sensors monitors critical process parameters like energy, yield, and product quality. The myBühler platform enables spare part ordering and tracking.

How are technologies like smart analytics, AI, and machine learning being used to modernise production plants?

Bühler uses smart analytics, AI, and machine learning to modernise production plants. Positioned between farm and fork, Bühler mills generate substantial data. Bühler's Data Science Program helps teams utilise this data to optimise process outcomes, both internally for business excellence and externally for customer benefits. Bühler Insights, a central platform for connected products and services, ensures a secure data gateway and analytics. Predictive maintenance, enabled by anomaly detection in vibration or temperature patterns, can reduce unplanned downtime by up to 30%. In flour milling, the Yield Management System uses real-time analytics to optimise milling parameters, potentially increasing yield by 1–2%. Sustainability analytics leverage plant data to identify trends and enable continuous process improvement for sustainability goals.

What range of services does Bühler offer across industries, from process optimisation to hardware support, installation, maintenance, upgrades, and training programs?

Bühler India offers a comprehensive range of services, including process optimisation, hardware supply, installation, commissioning, maintenance, and upgrades. With over 200 service engineers and a network ensuring reach to 7,000 customers within four hours, Bühler prioritises uptime and efficiency. Services include preventive and predictive maintenance with remote monitoring, spare parts management, digital services, and 24/7 support via the customer operations centre. Local manufacturing in Bangalore, combined with advanced engineering, provides tailored solutions for India's food processing market.

Bühler emphasises skill-building through the Application and Training Centre (ATC) in Bangalore, which facilitates product trials, recipe development, and process refinement. Additionally, 26 global training centres support specialised needs. In India, structured operator training covers start-up, shutdown, cleaning, and maintenance, alongside annual and on-demand programs in grain milling, rice processing, plant automation, digital solutions, food safety, and energy efficiency, helping customers maintain competitiveness and product quality.

How do Bühler’s Application and Training Centres contribute to product development and innovation?

Bühler’s Application and Training Centres are hubs for innovation, knowledge sharing, and industry collaboration, driving advancements in food processing, grains, and advanced materials. They provide hands-on training and serve as platforms for co-creation with customers, partners, startups, and universities.

The Middle East, Africa and India region has four such centres, including one in Bengaluru with multiple processing lines and others in Nigeria (millets), Nairobi (milling school), and Abidjan (Cocoa Innovation Centre). Knowledge exchange between these centres powers innovation for the global south.

Key activities include applied research, customer training, and open innovation. The centres pilot new technologies and conduct training programs, such as the Bengaluru centre's 20 annual programs for over 500 professionals. These programs cover equipment operation, process training, digital automation, data analytics, food safety, and quality standards. Bühler also collaborates with startups and SMEs, providing support for pilot trials, product development, and process optimisation.

How does Bühler balance its ‘in the region for the region’ approach while leveraging global expertise to deliver measurable outcomes for customers?

Innovating “in the region - for the region” is a core strategy at Bühler. Foundational knowledge in key processes like rice, atta, and pulses originated in India. Bühler India houses approximately 10% of Bühler's global R&D workforce, developing solutions from concept to implementation. Solutions developed and built in India are now used globally. While a lower cost base is a benefit, the real driver of globalising R&D is the region-specific nature of food preferences and quality understanding. Translating sensory experiences, such as those related to roti, dhokla, or spices, into quantifiable analytical parameters requires deep food science knowledge, leveraging Bühler's decades of expertise and global teams through cross-regional collaboration.