Video analytics elevates security levels at Granarolo’s dairy plant

The Granarolo S.p.A was established as a food company in 1957, and it has been catering to the needs of Italians in the entire country ever since. More than 600 farmers, 70 trucks for the collection of milk and 720 vehicles handle 850 thousand tons of milk every year. Their dairy products, such as milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, and lately also ham and pasta, reach around 20 million families in Italy on a daily basis.

The Granarolo Group has built up the chain food company to become one of the top choices of Italians when it comes to dairy products. To ensure impeccable product quality, they also aim for high-tech and streamlined factories. One of their biggest perimeter areas can be found in Soliera and stretches over 45,000 square meters, near a wooded land.

The factory was already equipped with an old analog video surveillance system, but Granarolo decided to digitize it as security challenges transcended the boundaries of the old arrangement. Thus, the security solution, as well as the dairy plant itself could meet the requirements of the 21st century. The project carried several challenges, the most significant being the vast area of the factory itself, as well as the location of the perimeters near an area that can be poorly overseen. Since the factory is covered by a heavily wooded area, the functionality of the video analytics is more complicated, because it has to exclude false alarms from vegetation, the ever-changing lights, shadows and the constant movement of trees and plants.

The Modena-based Gruppo Sirio, which has been collaborating with Bosch for several years, worked out the modernization of the plant’s security system and included Bosch cameras with integrated Video Analytics technology.

On the one hand they has implemented line crossing rules based on Bosch's Video Analytics throughout the factory perimeter: when the lines are crossed these rules generate real-time alarms throughout various internal workstations – some of which are manned day and night - guaranteeing the highest protection of the perimeter to catch what the human eye might miss. No matter whether it’s about suspicious objects or unusual movements in daylight or nighttime, constant surveillance with a special focus on sensitive areas ensures the utmost security.

On the other hand, Bosch provided a high-tech video surveillance system with 48 cameras with Video Analytics featured on board to complete the coverage of the factory perimeter. The system, which is centrally managed with the Arteco platform, is completely autonomous and entirely separate from any other system or network in the plant to establish maximum security and avoid interference or failure within the system itself. Moreover, Granarolo can rely on the high quality of the images provided by Bosch DINION IP 5000i IR cameras to capture detail.

As a result of the modernization process, Granarolo can now rely on a system specifically designed for the dairy factory’s needs. The newly established, digital safety scheme ensures maximum levels of security throughout the entire area, with high-quality cameras providing clear images and intelligent functions of Video Analytics that can inform security operators of any potentially critical situation detected the moment they happen.

And what’s the best part from the milk-lovers’ point of view? That they don’t have to worry about ever missing their favorite morning cappuccino because Granarolo will provide its dairy products undisturbed now and in the future. At least, when it comes to its Soliera factory, that’s for sure.