From raw milk to real-time insight: The digital transformation of a smart dairy factory

Posted: June 11, 2026

Every day, raw milk arrives at Bakoma’s production facilities in tanker trucks. From there, it enters a carefully orchestrated process—pasteurization, fermentation, ingredient mixing, and packaging—designed to deliver high-quality yogurt, desserts, and dairy products to market. Bakoma is one of Poland’s largest dairy producers. But behind this seemingly simple production flow lies a highly complex operation, where timing, quality, hygiene, and traceability are critical at every step.

As Bakoma’s portfolio and production volumes grew, so did the complexity of managing its processes. The company recognized that fragmented SCADA systems and manual reports were no longer enough to keep up with its production growth.  

Why traceability is critical in dairy production

Dairy production is inherently dynamic. After collecting and transporting raw milk to the processing facility, it goes into a raw milk tank before moving through a heat exchanger to be pasteurized. After pasteurization, the milk waits again in tanks until a specific production order is released—whether for yogurt, dessert, or another product. Bakoma then introduces bacterial cultures to begin fermentation and, depending on the product, ingredients such as fruit or other flavorings. Finally, the finished product moves to a packaging machine.

Operators had to move between different stations and interfaces, which made diagnostics slower and onboarding more difficult.

Bakoma needed a unified view of production that connected raw materials, production orders, quality parameters, and finished products.

Building a digital foundation: The brain of Bakoma’s smart dairy factory

Partnering with AVEVA and system integrator explitia, Bakoma defined a roadmap for its smart factory strategy. The goal was not just to replace its SCADA systems, but to build an integrated manufacturing ecosystem with long-term development potential.

At the core of this architecture is AVEVA™ System Platform. Combined with AVEVA™ Historian, this digital foundation centralizes and contextualizes data across packaging lines, equipment, orders, and processes—this is the brain of Bakoma’s smart factory.

This digital foundation allowed Bakoma to integrate SCADA, MES, and ERP systems, with one centralized screen for complete real-time visibility. Now, operators can access the right information at the right moment, without digging through disconnected systems with different naming conventions or walking the plant floor to inspect individual machines. Acting as the brain of Bakoma’s factory, the platform connects people and data for smarter, faster decision-making.    

End-to-end process monitoring for a smart dairy factory

A critical element in Bakoma’s integrated manufacturing ecosystem is its end-to-end real-time process monitoring—particularly important in hygiene-critical operations such as those involved in dairy production.

With full visibility into CIP (Clean-in-Place) and sterilization monitoring, alongside production lines for milk, yogurt, cheese, and desserts, Bakoma now has the traceability it needs to catch issues early and maintain the quality its customers expect.

And automated documentation and reporting give Bakoma a clear record of when and where a process starts to drift, along with the detailed production data it needs to make the yogurt that satisfies customers, retailers, and regulators alike.

Standardization and centralized visibility for faster onboarding and quicker decisions

Today, teams at Bakoma no longer need to switch between multiple SCADA systems and physical stations. The company unified not only screens, but also operating logic and data naming conventions. Temperatures, alarms, and process descriptions now follow the same structure across departments. As a result:

• New operators can onboard faster
• Automation and a consistent interface reduced the cognitive load on operators
• Operators can rotate between production areas with minimal retraining
• Workers spend less time walking between machines, and more time reacting to issues
• Centralized alarms and remote monitoring capabilities led to faster diagnostics and problem-solving

Historical and live data are accessible from a single source, enabling teams to prevent downtime, analyze deviations, and make decisions in real time rather than waiting for manual reports.

Bakoma’s data-driven culture—Powered by people

While technology enabled the transformation, Bakoma is clear about what made it successful: people. The company embraced a core Industry 5.0 principle—putting humans at the center of digital transformation.

Bakoma prioritized finding a common language across IT, production, and management. Operators and team leaders were involved early, ensuring solutions reflected real-world needs. Training, step-by-step implementation, documented workflows, and continuous feedback loops built trust and ownership across teams.

The results speak for themselves. Bakoma now operates a fully integrated smart factory, with real-time visibility from raw milk intake to packaged goods, improved quality control and traceability, automated reporting, and measurable sustainability gains—including a 25% reduction in water usage. And Bakoma’s strong digital foundation lays the groundwork for advanced analytics and AI-driven innovations in the future.

If Bakoma's journey has shown anything, it's that the right technology backed by the right partner can turn a smart factory roadmap into results.