Intelligent Management System for Industrial Sugar Hoppers in Food Manufacturing Using IoT

Food manufacturing industries utilize various bulk raw materials to produce finished goods, driving advancements in inventory management through research and innovation. Currently, the primary technology for managing bulk materials Inventory is the hopper, which feeds materials to the assembly line on demand. However, manual refilling by operators introduces safety risks and inefficiencies under lean manufacturing principles. To address these challenges, this study developed an intelligent management system for a smaller-scale sugar hopper. The system automates refilling processes triggered by low levels or empty conditions using infrared sensors to monitor the hopper status. A servo motor actuator controls a reservoir that gravity-feeds sugar into the hopper. Automation is facilitated by Arduino Cloud programming, offering real-time monitoring through a user dashboard. Results demonstrated efficient performance, initiating auto-refilling in an average of 2.706 seconds. The system halts refilling accurately when sufficient sugar is detected, maintaining a consistent flow rate of 8.7g/s with minimal deviation (1.5g/s). This study provides a functional proof-of-concept for an intelligent management system applicable to small-scale sugar hoppers, scalable for broader industrial applications.