The Central Valley is dairy country — a huge share of California's milk is processed within an hour of us. Dairy plants run continuous, sanitation-driven processes under strict food-safety rules, which makes them a near-perfect fit for SCADA and MES on a single platform. On Ignition, the control layer and the manufacturing-intelligence layer share one tag model, one database connection and one set of screens. Here's how the pieces fit.
The SCADA layer: control and visibility
At the bottom is the process: receiving and silos, separation and standardization, pasteurization (HTST), homogenization, and filling. SCADA on Ignition monitors and supervises all of it — temperatures, flows, divert valves, tank levels — and crucially logs the data that the layers above depend on. Pasteurization in particular needs trustworthy, time-stamped records: HTST hold temperature, flow-diversion events and run logs are both an operational and a compliance concern.
The MES layer: turning data into records
On top of SCADA, the Sepasoft MES modules add the manufacturing-execution functions dairy plants need: production tracking, OEE and downtime, batch procedures, scheduling and SPC. Because these run inside the same Ignition gateway, the MES isn't a separate system bolted on with a nightly export — it reads the live tags and writes to the same database, so a downtime event or a lot record is captured as it happens, not reconstructed later.
Traceability and lot genealogy
Food safety is the headline requirement. When a deviation or a recall happens, you have to answer "what raw milk went into which finished lots, on which equipment, during which CIP cycle" — fast. Track-and-trace builds that genealogy automatically: raw receipts link to silos, silos to batches, batches to finished SKUs and pallets. A query that used to mean a day of paper chasing becomes a screen. That capability is the difference between a contained recall and a plant-wide one.
CIP monitoring and verification
Clean-in-place is where dairy lives or dies, and it's data-rich: each circuit has target temperatures, concentrations, flow and time. Ignition monitors CIP cycles in real time and records whether each step met its parameters, producing a verifiable cleaning record per circuit per cycle. Tie CIP records into the lot genealogy and you can prove the line was clean between products — exactly what an auditor wants to see.
Quality and SPC
Statistical process control on fat, protein, temperature and fill weights catches drift before it becomes scrap or a customer complaint. Running SPC inside the MES means the same system that controls the process also flags when it's trending out of control, with the context (product, line, operator, time) already attached.
Connecting to ERP
The plant floor doesn't live alone. Production orders, item masters and lot results flow between Ignition/MES and the business system (SAP, Dynamics, or similar), so schedulers work from real production status and finance works from actual yields. We build these integrations to be resilient — store-and-forward, clear retry behavior — so an ERP hiccup never stops the line.
Why Ignition + Sepasoft for dairy
One platform, server-based licensing (no per-tag penalty for instrumenting every CIP circuit and tank), a unified tag model from sensor to SKU, and web/mobile screens operators actually use. For a 24/7 sanitation-driven plant, collapsing SCADA and MES onto one stack removes the seams where data — and traceability — usually gets lost.
Where we come in
We build SCADA and MES systems on Ignition for dairy and food processors across California's Central Valley, on-site from Merced and throughout the Valley, with remote support nationwide. To scope traceability, CIP records, OEE or a full MES rollout, get in touch or explore our Ignition development services. Modernizing off an older platform? See our guide to replacing Wonderware with Ignition.