PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 59

borrowed or old equipment because they just don't have
the resources to buy new," Zijlstra says. "Legacy equipment comes with a whole slew of issues, but it's still possible to improve efficiency. You can add sensors and control mechanisms to collect data, and once you are able to
measure, to get visibility, you can improve efficiency."
Training is another area that processors should take
into consideration. "Make sure production personnel
are adequately trained on how to operate and do
simple inspections on all the equipment in the plant,"
Stank says. Greg Janzow, director, food safety, Gray
Construction, Lexington, Kentucky, agrees training
is an important part of improving efficiency from an
operations perspective. "Ensure employees understand and perform their responsibilities to include
performance requirements," he advises. Aside from
training personnel to maximize efficiency, processors should consider investing in equipment that cuts
down on the amount of training required. "Operator
training can take time, especially if personnel change
frequently," Crowley says. "Use of systems that are
user-intuitive with icon-driven touch screens will increase uptime."
From a construction perspective, there are several ways
processors can design their plants for maximum efficiency. Some areas to consider are product flow, utility
capacities and expansion consideration. "Material, packaging, and finished product should be located for ease of
access to the production floor," Janzow says. "Utilities (air,
water, steam, cooling, HVC, etc.) need to be designed for
anticipated operation demand with capacity to spare," he
adds. It is also important for processors to evaluate future
production line expansions and equipment upgrades.
This will allow for quick execution when customer demands arise or capacities need to be increased. Goodall

advises processors to perform a full simulation of the production facility prior to construction. "Custom software
allows for a full simulation of the production operation
and will identify any shortcomings in the design prior to
construction execution," he explains.
Material handling and delivery (MH&D) is another
area that is often overlooked by processors. "With increase
in demands, variety of SKUs produced, different packaging requirements, etc. the amount of material to be moved
to the production areas or packaging lines, and back to
the warehouse, has increased," Kulkarni says. "Often, and
for good reasons, the focus is on improving production
or packaging cycle times. However, without understanding and addressing the impact of these changes on
MH&D needs, i.e., frequency of movements, adequacy of
pallet jacks or fork trucks, operator requirements, etc., improvements made in the aforementioned areas may not be
realized completely."
As processors focus on new ways to increase efficiency, they are beginning to leverage continuous improvement. "Until recently, many organizations mistakenly believed that continuous improvement was an
optional initiative - a nebulous concept that sounded
useful but was not easily implemented," Dunn says. "On
the contrary, continuous improvement is an organization-wide mindset that, when paired with structured
implementation, is proven to achieve astronomical efficiency and productivity gains." Dunn points out that
the key to gaining production efficiencies is to include
all employees in continuous improvement initiatives.
"People, especially on the frontline, are critical to the
success of digital transformation. Frontline workers often have the best view of needed improvements," he says.
"They are the ones who work closest with the processes
and machines that power a business."
PFP

Left: Modernized
sanitation practices can
increase the longevity of
processing equipment
while reducing food
safety risk and protecting
a company's bottom line.
Goodway Technologies

Right: Metal detectors,
x-ray systems and other
inspection machines are
becoming more efficient
and accurate for ensuring product quality and
reducing downtime.
METTLER TOLEDO

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PET Food Processing - September 2019

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