In 2026, Vietnam’s soft drinks, energy drinks, juices, bottled tea, bottled coffee, and nutritional beverage market is shifting toward lower-sugar, healthier, and more diversified product offerings. Notably, the 2025 Law on Special Consumption Tax, effective from 1 January 2026, stipulates that beverages containing more than 5g of sugar per 100ml will be subject to an 8% tax from 2027 and a 10% tax from 2028, creating pressure for manufacturers to adjust their formulations and product portfolios ahead of these changes. Alongside the need to bring new SKUs to market faster while maintaining consistent quality, manufacturers are facing an increasingly urgent need for stronger production control, greater flexibility in product changeovers, and end-to-end data management.
Challenges Faced by Manufacturing Plants
- Blending accuracy directly determines product flavour: In many plants, syrup ratios, Brix, and pH are still controlled through manual operations and paper-based records, leading to flavour variations between batches and across production sites.
- Thermal processing is difficult to control consistently: Extraction, concentration, cooling, and pasteurisation directly affect product flavour and structure, but depend on multiple variables such as temperature, pressure, and flow that must be controlled in a coordinated manner.
- Utility systems account for a significant share of energy costs: Refrigeration, concentration, and boiler systems consume a large proportion of plant energy but often operate without centralised monitoring or effective use of waste heat
- Production data is fragmented across legacy platforms: Supervisory systems that have been in operation for many years no longer meet current requirements for reporting, remote access, and integration with corporate production management systems.
Tan Tien’s Solutions
1. Blending and Filling Systems: Design, supply, and install complete electrical and automation systems for blending areas and filling lines.
- Scopes
- Electrical panels, control equipment, and instrumentation
- Control of mixing ratios, Brix, and pH
- Cable trays and electrical installation
- System configuration and process description documentation
- System programming and soft drawings
- Programme migration from SIMATIC S5 to SIMATIC S7
2. Process Control Systems: Design, install, and program automated control systems for key processing stages in instant coffee and processed beverage production.
- Applications
- Extraction and aroma processing systems
- Concentration systems
- Automated control systems for Barista equipment
- Pre-cooling systems
- Electrical panel connection and integration for process equipment packages
3. Refrigeration, Utility and Heat Recovery Systems: Design, install, and program high-energy-consumption systems to improve operating efficiency.
- Applications
- Cooling and refrigeration systems
- Concentration systems
- Heat recovery systems
- Utility monitoring through BMS
- Plant-wide electrical energy monitoring systems
4. SCADA Architecture and Data Management: Build and modernise supervisory platforms for centralised operation and production data utilisation.
- Platforms:
- Siemens
- WinCC
- GE iFIX
- AVEVA InTouch
- Functions:
- SCADA version upgrades
- Server and redundant server architecture
- Remote data access for multiple users
- Historical data storage systems
- Automated reporting
5. OT Digitalisation and MES Integration: Deploy OT automation systems for beverage production lines and connect production data to management systems.
- Includes:
- Barcode printers and scanners
- Raw-material weighing systems with communication interfaces
- Remote I/O panels and signal cabling for data acquisition
- PLC and SCADA systems for production lines
- Programming communication and data exchange with MES
6. Supporting Infrastructure and Plant Safety: Deploy systems that help ensure safe and continuous plant operation.
- Includes:
- Faraday cage lightning protection systems
- Plant-wide earthing systems
- Upgrade of control networks from ControlNet to EtherNet/IP
Implementation Benefits
- Maintain consistent product flavour across batches, production lines, and manufacturing sites by controlling blending processes according to recipes rather than manual operations
- Improve product quality through coordinated and automated control of thermal processing stages
- Reduce energy cost per unit of output through optimisation of refrigeration, concentration, and heat recovery systems
- Monitor production data and energy consumption in real time
- Enable remote access, automated reporting, and integration with corporate management systems through modern SCADA platforms
- Extend the lifecycle of existing control systems instead of requiring complete replacement
- Improve protection against lightning and electrical faults, reducing the risk of unplanned production downtime
In the non-alcoholic beverage and processed beverage segment, Tan Tien works with leading brands in the Vietnamese market such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Vinh Hao, Nestlé, Vinacafé Bien Hoa, and Masan. Its project portfolio covers soft drinks, energy drinks, mineral water, and instant coffee, including large-scale production lines such as Vinacafé Bien Hoa’s instant coffee line with a capacity of 800 tonnes per year.
Because product quality and flavour depend heavily on precise control of blending and processing at each production stage, manufacturers must maintain process stability while improving energy efficiency and ensuring sufficient production data is available for monitoring and management. Tan Tien supports these requirements as an electrical and automation partner for blending, processing, and utility systems, covering new installations as well as retrofits, upgrades, and digitalisation of existing systems. This helps customers maintain consistent product quality, improve energy efficiency, and gradually build a stronger data foundation for production management.
