GEA Changeover Assist digital assistant for product and recipe changeovers

For many food manufacturers and packaging operations, product and format changeovers are among the most demanding steps in industrial production. High employee turnover, the use of seasonal labour and growing product variety add further complexity. Every deviation, such as using the wrong packaging materials or skipping individual changeover steps, can result in waste, rework, quality deviations or production interruptions.

GEA’s Changeover Assist is a digital application designed to address these challenges with standardised support for product and recipe changeovers on SmartControl-based machines. The software guides operators step by step through the changeover process, helping reduce operator errors, product waste and unplanned downtime.

The application displays only the steps relevant to the specific product changeover, supports multiple languages and can be enhanced with images, videos and additional work instructions. Each completed step is confirmed and documented, increasing transparency, traceability and process reliability throughout the changeover. The machine can only restart once all required steps have been properly confirmed.

A key component is the integration with the cloud-based InsightPartner solution. Users can centrally manage and update their own changeover instructions there and enrich them with multimedia content.

The software is initially available for GEA PowerPak thermoformers and the GEA MaxiFormer drum former, with a phased rollout to additional machines, including the GEA OptiSlicer, planned.