Food and Beverage

Situation -

Food & Beverage processors have two main processing stages; product production from raw materials involving multiple processes such as dosing, mixing, blending, weighing, which is undertaken with raw material from stores such as bins, stockpiles, bags other vessels which then are usually cooked, canned and cooked, frozen or other permutation. The product then moves from processing through to packaging, trade packaging and distribution.
 
Problems -

The main problems in Food & Beverage production is to keep consistent quality, to adhere to the product’s technical specification, to keep to the production schedule and to maximise all areas of performance, waste reduction, and equipment availability. Particular issues concern contamination, shelf life of raw ingredients, scheduling of many SKU’s, costs for late deliveries. ‘Post cooking’ stages require weighing, correct retail labelling, correct product marking (best before etc.), trade packing, trade pack labelling, palletisation and routing to the warehouse. New lines (usually consisting of machines procured for their own performance) require to be integrated to form balanced and optimised production lines; this can raise issues with multiple protocols and data acquisition standards, the PackML and Weihenstephan standards apply for this in US and Europe respectively with some convergence starting in recent times.
 

Food and Beverage Compliance

Market trends have for some years taken a regulatory approach to food processing, however, the primary need is to reduce the risk of an external (and highly visible) product recall. Whereas the same level of stringency and regularity compliance that is found in such verticals as Pharma, Medical Device or Aerospace & Defence isn’t a legal requirement within Food & Beverage manufacturing, by taking a progressive approach in optimising your processes further you will be adding further value to your customers which in turn will help you stay ahead of your competition. This is achieved using tracking (what equipment and who was involved) and traceability of all ingredients and their processing stages. What this delivers is the secure knowledge that if the system detects an issue (an identified HACCP for example) then a problem can be corrected at an early stage, plus the system archive will have all the trends and other process information that will prove that a product was made in accordance with the agreed technical specification.

Proven Solutions - 

Initiatives for continuous improvement that require data acquisition for operations information, verification that labelling of all kinds is correct, product tracking and tracing, timely information that avoids recalls and rework, energy monitoring and targeting, one up one down traceability, laboratory interfaces for quality checks. There is a need for proven solutions
 
The EmsPT Difference -

 EmsPT has a detailed understanding of the technologies and techniques that can be put into effect in a phased and controlled manner that will deliver measurable business benefits. The EmsPT DRIVE program [link] shows our working methodology and how this could be deployed to your benefit.
 

EmsPT Solutions -
 

• EmsPT DRIVE program
• MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems)
• Performance Monitoring
• Operations Management
• Product Track and Trace (Traceability and Compliance)
• Quality Management
• Production Scheduling