New Zealand food and beverage manufacturing is shaped by distance: from export markets, between regional plants and specialist support, and between premium product ambitions and the realities of labour, cost and compliance pressure.
That distance has made the sector disciplined and resilient, while sharpening the need for operational confidence. As plants become more automated, weak points are often the repeated control points that determine whether a process is clean, safe, stable and ready to run.
Valves sit at the centre of that challenge. They direct product, cleaning chemicals, steam, air, water and utilities, influencing food safety, changeover speed, energy use, maintenance effort, and production continuity. Yet valve-layer information often remains limited.
For manufacturers, digitalisation is not about more data. It is about knowing whether a critical valve reached position, identifying a slow actuator before downtime, replacing a device with the right parameters, and strengthening evidence around hygiene, traceability, and control.
These questions matter because New Zealand processors compete on trust, consistency, and premium products, not volume alone. In dairy, beverage, brewing and value-added processing, a minor valve-level failure can have consequences beyond the component itself.
Much of the smart manufacturing conversation focuses on dashboards, analytics and enterprise systems. These are valuable, but only if the field layer provides reliable information. If it still relies on limited signals, the broader digital strategy is limited too.
“Food and beverage manufacturers want more certainty from the equipment they rely on every day,” said Steve Richardson, Sales Manager at Burkert New Zealand.
“They want valves that perform mechanically but also show what they are doing and whether they are healthy before an issue becomes downtime.”
IO-Link is gaining relevance because it offers a pragmatic route into connected manufacturing. Rather than replacing existing architecture, it provides an open, standardised way for sensors and actuators to exchange digital information with the control system.
For food and beverage plants, that distinction matters. Many sites need targeted improvements that can be introduced on critical assets, proven in operation and scaled. IO-Link fits that logic by improving visibility while keeping adoption manageable.
IO-Link enabled valve control can support faster commissioning, simpler device replacement, consistent parameter management and better diagnostics. Maintenance teams can move beyond whether a valve is open or closed to whether it is behaving normally and configured correctly.
The strongest digital strategies are selective. They start where better information will reduce risk, improve uptime or strengthen process assurance.
For many plants, that means CIP and SIP circuits, changeover manifolds, allergen separation, filling and dosing systems, steam and utilities, and any valve position that can compromise product quality or availability.
Brownfield reality should shape adoption. New Zealand manufacturers often operate proven equipment across different valve brands, control philosophies and upgrade histories. The practical question is how to improve intelligence without unnecessary disruption.
That requires decisions about alert priorities, diagnostics, parameter management, maintenance training and how data will connect with PLC, SCADA, maintenance and quality systems.
Control heads as a practical enabler
Bürkert’s ELEMENT platform reflects the direction of travel for hygienic valve automation: robust stainless‑steel hardware, compact integrated actuation and control, and valve‑level information connected to the wider automation environment.
The company’s new universal control heads extend that thinking to mixed‑valve environments, with a range of variants that can be configured for different valve types, signal concepts and communication needs.
From angle‑seat and globe valves to diaphragm, ball and butterfly valves, including third‑party hygienic bodies, the same control‑head family can be specified as a simple on/off unit, a feedback‑rich control head or a fully-fledged positioner, and can be ordered with IO‑Link and other digital interfaces to match the surrounding automation.
For plants with hygienic valves from multiple manufacturers, this breadth of options makes it possible to standardise the automation interface and diagnostic philosophy while retaining existing mechanical assets, supporting consistent feedback, diagnostics and configuration without wholesale replacement.
“The universal control heads are about meeting plants where they are,” Richardson concluded.
“You can retain existing hygienic valve assets while choosing the level of feedback and control you need, from basic indication through to IO‑Link‑enabled diagnostics and apply the same head concept across different valve types.”
For New Zealand food and beverage manufacturers, the opportunity is not to digitise everything at once. It is to make the most important parts of the plant more visible, reliable and manageable: one critical control point at a time.
