Nukon has been recognised as the Ag-Tech and Digital category winner at this year's Wine Industry Impact Awards, held at the National Wine Centre on the 14th of November.
The award recognised Nukon’s work partnering with Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) and its automation suppliers to deliver a digitalisation and end-to-end automated Barrel Management System - a first in the global wine industry. This transformed a number of traditional winemaking processes at TWE’s Barossa Valley facility into a highly efficient, sustainable, and data-driven operation.
From left to right; Jackson Baldwin and Karen Yong (Treasury Wine Estates), Kim Fiddaman (Nukon), James Roberts,
Daniel Bergen and Chris Hoffman (Treasury Wine Estates). Official photos by Ben Macmahon.
The implementation has enabled winemakers and operators to digitally track and interact with wine barrels.
Using QR codes and RFID barrel identifiers, the entire barrel lifecycle can now be traced, making it easier to track and gather highly valuable data from each individual wine barrel.
This means TWE have greater traceability and improved quality across a total capacity of 125,000 barrels of Australia’s finest wines in their Barossa Valley site.
Combined with an automated warehouse using driverless forklifts, and automated barrel washing and filling, TWE has been able to increase its handling capacity by 60% as well as improve the safety, sustainability, and consistency of its operations.
The project saw two SAGE Group companies working across the Barossa site, as SAGE Automation integrated the robotic Automated Barrel Processing Line (APL) for emptying, washing, and filling barrels.
Nukon was tasked with delivering a Barrel Management System (BMS) and an automated solution to streamline and modernise TWE’s operations at the Barossa Valley site’s barrel hall, improving operational efficiency and safety.
“The Barrel Management System (BMS) sees world-first industry-leading technology replace the traditional processes such as paper and chalk with a fully digitised barrel handling and management system. It is one of Nukon’s core capabilities – connecting and integrating people, systems, processes, data and robotics into a digital workflow. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Treasury Wines, our sister company SAGE Automation, and TWE’s automation suppliers on such an innovative project,” said Kim Fiddaman, Practice Lead at Nukon.
From left to right; Nukon’s Gareth Williams, Kim Fiddaman, Marilis Sattolo and Scott Schulz with the Ag-Tech and
Digital award. Official photos by Ben Macmahon.
The award announcement reflected some of the judge’s comments, with one calling it “One of the most phenomenal implementations of hard engineering and digital integration in the TWE barrel management system, built on SAGE’s incredible history of digital technology innovation and implementation. It is hard to say just how impressive this achievement is in delivering safety, financial, environmental, and operational outcomes.”
Further judging commentary emphasised the industry-leading nature of the project, stating “The barrel management system at TWE is an innovative development in automation for the wine sector, with few comparable examples worldwide.”
The Wine Industry Impact Awards celebrate excellence and innovation across the wine supply chain, highlighting outstanding achievements that drive the Australian wine industry forward.
WISA Chair Tim Stead speaking at the event. Official photos by Ben Macmahon.
“The finalists and winners represent the Australian wine industry’s greatest competitive advantage. Our capacity to innovate, to improve and to adapt to changing conditions is what makes our sector resilient and that’s what we’re celebrating. I encourage everyone in our industry to pay attention to the achievements of the award recipients and take inspiration from them.” said WISA Chair, Tim Stead.
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