Food Production Efficiency and Risk Mitigation
on Pre-Batch Processes
THE CHALLENGE
- The pre-batch step in food manufacturing involves manually measuring out small amounts of ingredients, which is prone to errors such as incorrect measurements, mislabelling and mixing mistakes.
- This manual process lacks transparency and traceability, increasing the risk of product defects, allergen contamination, and regulatory non-compliance.
- The complexity of multi-stage mixing further exacerbates these challenges. Food recalls are incredibly costly, with the average direct cost amounting to greater than $10m!
THE SOLUTION
visionTrack offers targeted interventions to address specific challenges in the pre-batch process:
- Source-to-Bag Verification: Use overhead cameras to observe and correlate barcode scanning with ingredient scooping. This ensures that the scanned ingredients match those measured into the bag – reducing the risk of mislabelling and incorrect measurements.
- Bag-to-Palette Tracking: Vertical view cameras monitor the placement of each bag or box onto the palette, ensuring that the correct ingredients are placed on the appropriate palette, thereby minimizing mixing errors.
- Independent Verification: Establish an independent verification process at the end of the pre-batch conveyor line, combining physical and digital checks to ensure accuracy and completeness of ingredient placement on palettes, reducing reliance on manual inspection.
- Storage Area Monitoring: Introduce methods to track palettes and detect fallen bags in the storage area, enhancing visibility and minimizing the risk of misplaced or lost ingredients during storage and transport.
- Hopper Loading Automation: Develop automated systems to read barcodes of ingredients as they are loaded into hoppers, ensuring accurate dispensing, and minimizing errors during the final stage of mixing.
THE RESULT
- Dramatically reduced instances of human errors in ingredient measurement and mixing.
- Enhanced traceability throughout the pre-batch process, facilitating easier identification and resolution of issues.
- Minimized risk of product defects, allergen contamination, and regulatory non-compliance.
- Improved operational efficiency through automation and real-time monitoring.