METTLER TOLEDO Productivity Guide Brings Lean Principles to Food Manufacturing

METTLER TOLEDO, the global manufacturer of scales and analytical instruments has addressed the effective use of filling, batching, checkweighing and inspection as part of a Food Productivity Guide with clear lean undertones.

Developed as a food process and equipment selection reference tool, the guide is aimed at food and beverage manufacturers with a view to providing insights and best practice ideas to enhance companies’ bottom lines.

As well as honing in on existing, successful processes, manufacturers are also pointed in the direction fo further capital investments to improve parts of the process, including weighing, inspection and measuring to produce more accurate material transfers, as well as more efficient tracking and tracing, more consistent filling and increased throughput in both automated and manual processes.

“Weighing and measuring are crucial in many of these process steps. Selecting the right technology and inspection methods—and making sure they can be easily integrated into a company’s existing MES/ERP systems—are key to increased efficiency and therefore bigger profit margins,” said Urs Berli, Market Manager Food, METTLER TOLEDO.

Key indicators for manufacturers to keep in mind include: reducing bad batches and assuring consistent product taste through traceable PC-guided formulation; ROI calculation tools to assess potential savings by reduced waste and minimised product giveaway; speeding up manual portioning processes; enhancing foreign body detection to reduce food safety risks; optimising throughput and uptime in vehicle weighing; achieving consistent, sustainable weighing precision and higher uptime via appropriate calibration and performance check procedures.

“With the Guide’s comprehensive nature, it is METTLER TOLEDO’s intention to support food manufacturing operations large and small to realize benefits through increased productivity, consumer satisfaction and profits,” Mr. Berli conculded.