GEA has introduced Changeover Assist, a digital application designed to streamline product and recipe changeovers for food and drink manufacturers on SmartControl-based machinery. The software delivers standardised, step-by-step operator guidance to reduce human error, product waste, and unscheduled downtime.

Product and format changeovers represent one of the most demanding phases in food manufacturing, often complicated by high staff turnover, seasonal labor, and growing product variety.

Changeover Assist addresses these operational hurdles by displaying only the relevant steps for a specific changeover directly on the machine’s display screen. Operators must confirm each step before the machine is allowed to restart, ensuring strict process reliability and traceability.

Key benefits and capabilities for food and drink producers include:

• Error-free guidance: delivers multi-language instructions enriched with images and videos directly at the machine, enabling faster onboarding for new or seasonal staff.
• Waste reduction: prevents costly mistakes such as skipping changeover steps or loading incorrect packaging materials, directly reducing food and material scrap.
• Centralised cloud management: connects to GEA’s cloud-based InsightPartner platform, allowing plants to manage, update, and deploy standardised changeover instructions across multiple operational sites.
• Real-time alerts: features an integrated notification service and mobile app to send instant machine alerts to responsible plant personnel.

Changeover Assist is currently available for GEA PowerPak thermoformers and the GEA MaxiFormer drum former, with a phased rollout planned for additional machinery, including the GEA OptiSlicer.

The application was developed at GEA’s center of excellence in Biedenkopf-Wallau, Germany. As part of a broader organizational initiative, GEA plans to consolidate sales, service, and testing functions for its Food Solutions slicing and loading systems at the Biedenkopf-Wallau site by April 2028 to foster better line integration and digital development.