Dairy

Skotidakis Goat Farm had grown from a small artisanal operation into a multi-product dairy producing Greek yogurt, feta cheese, dips, spreads, and ricotta — but its plant infrastructure had not kept pace. Milk routing relied on manual flow panels with swing elbow connections that lacked proximity sensors, providing operators no automated way to verify connections before starting a sequence. As product mix and production volume expanded, so did changeover frequency and the risk of costly mistakes: misrouted milk could run down the drain or fill the wrong fermentation tank before an operator caught the error. In food and beverage manufacturing, that kind of process failure translates directly into yield loss, wasted raw material, and an inability to meet retailer supply obligations.

OEM Qualtech — a Quebec-based dairy process engineering firm with over 150 cheese plant expansions across North America — led a multiphase modernization of the Skotidakis facility using a Rockwell Automation platform. Allen-Bradley CompactLogix 5370 programmable controllers tied together on an EtherNet/IP network form the control backbone, while Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 525 and 753 AC drives manage pump and mixing applications. PanelView Plus graphic terminals and tablet-accessible HMI interfaces give operators full plant visibility from a single point. The manual flow panels were replaced with 200 intelligent mixproof valves equipped with sensors that validate open/closed state through the control system — enabling simultaneous milk and CIP solution flow without cross-contamination risk and eliminating manual connections entirely. The expansion also added silos, fermentation tanks, a Greek yogurt separator, an automated feta molding line, and updated HTST pasteurization and CIP systems.

The plant-wide modernization delivered immediate, measurable improvements across operations. Operator error fell by 95%, eliminating the misrouted milk events inherent to the manual system by removing the failure mode rather than relying on operator vigilance. Productivity increased 20%, driven by faster validated changeovers and the removal of manual connection steps between production sequences. Yield also improved as more consistent process control reduced material loss throughout the line. Key outcomes:

• 95% reduction in operator error
• 20% productivity increase
• Improved yield across yogurt, cheese, and specialty product lines
• Full plant control accessible via HMI or tablet

CEO John Skotidakis credited the upgrades with enabling the company to expand its customer base.

• Replacing manual fluid routing with sensor-validated mixproof valves eliminates dairy process errors at the source — removing the failure mode rather than relying on operator discipline.
• A unified control architecture (PLC, drives, and HMI on a single EtherNet/IP network) simplifies multi-product changeovers and gives operators visibility they can actually act on.
• In food and beverage, automation ROI compounds: fewer routing errors reduce material waste, which improves yield, which increases the capacity to fulfill contractual volume commitments.
• Phased plant expansions are most effective when new automation is scoped to encompass existing lines, not just the new addition — otherwise complexity accumulates at the seams.