Cybersecurity Risks in Meat Processing Plant and Impacts on Total Productive Maintenance

Technological changes have been happening in production facilities including food manufacturing industries in an ever-increasing rate. This includes advancement in data capture devices, signal processing, communication capabilities and automated process control systems such as Internet of Things. It is more challenging where production systems are highly reliant on automation and robotics. Remote performance monitoring and controls are becoming progressively vulnerable due to risks associated with cyber security and corporate espionage. May 2021 cyber-attack forced JBS meats USA to pay $11m in ransom money to stop any further disruptions in services. This heavily impacted JBS global operations including JBS Australian food manufacturing facilities. Food production facilities in Australia have critical control points supported by smart technologies as part of their food safety management systems. Cyber-attacks on production facilities could result in financial, operational, health and safety consequences. As survey by the Australian Cyber Security Centre in 2020 revealed that Australian small businesses are impacted by cybercime each year with a loss of $300m. To present the potential cyber security threats and their associated risk level, a case study is presented based on the processing and manufacture of meat products in Australia. From this case study, to protect the meat industries from attacks, we identify cyber security attacks and their possible mitigation strategies. This research shows cyber security attacks can severely affect Overall Equipment Effectiveness which motivate us to embed cyber security as an additional pillar in existing 8 pillars Total Productive Maintenance. If cyber security is added as additional pillar, it will improve the quality of end products and overall productivity of manufacturing industries.