The industrial and agricultural worlds have always been widely separated. The industry is generally characterized by huge factories located in industrial areas, where complex and often polluting machines work.
This could end thanks to an innovative mobile factory called "Insta Factory", created by Mutti. It's not just about technological innovation but a new conception of the working process.
"Insta Factory" contains all the parts necessary for tomato processing in a small format, but placing it close to the fields eliminates all intermediate and transport operations within the supply chain. It's an attempt to minimize the industrial processes from washing through sterilization to evaporation, reproducing them on a smaller scale and bringing it down to essentials.
The project was developed by pushing the ideas of Industry 4.0 to the limit, making the mobile factory completely managed by a supervision system, remotely accessible and controllable.
The first beneficiary is undoubtedly the planet, eliminating all emissions related to transport and handling. The quality of the product is also improved because the on-field processing reduces the stress and degradation of the product. The produce can now be processed at the moment of perfect ripeness and so enhances the flavor.
This idea fits well with the conception of localism and the shortening of supply chains demanded by the green revolution, taking it to the extreme by applying the concept of zero miles.
This shows well how the development of solutions that imitate the simplicity of the pre-industrial world, but with the current know-how and technologies, can benefit the product, the workers, and the planet.