Paperless QA – The Effective Solution for Labour Shortages and Lowering Costs
Rapid Installation and Help for Food Packers
As we entered the lock down phase of the Coronavirus epidemic, the panic-strickened public instantly put food packaging companies and the food supply chain under unprecedented pressure.
Supermarket shelves have been stripped and the nations fridges and freezers filled to overflowing. And the food industry has been expected to, and has admirably managed to, keep the supply of essential food products flowing to the retailers and food outlets.
At Tendring pacific, we know for a fact that some of our food packing customers have increased production by up to 45% in order to meet demand, and this with a labour force already struggling from the pre-pandemic shortfalls triggered by Brexit.
Labour shortages and the pressures of production deadlines are the two main factors that test the effectiveness and accuracy of quality assurance records of production line data. And at any time, not just in crisis, accurate reference data for complaint assessment, error tracing and maintenance planning are at the heart of any efficient and cost-effective production.
We have supplied Dansensor gas flushing and control equipment to the food packaging industry for over 15 years, and in that time, we’ve watched the industry come under increasing and relentless pressure to reduce costs and increase both output and efficiency.
Using our Paperless QA option to gas flushing, many food factories have already started a powerful and transformational journey. They have immediately been able to free up valuable staff resources and deploy them onto other critical tasks.
Dansensor inline Gas Analysers and inline Gas Mixers provide a constant stream of reliable, quality data, via the continuous monitoring of the packaging process; the vital first step in the real time control and adjustment of that process. That live stream of gas flow data is transmitted to software, such as Plantstats QC Pro, which captures, all of the essential, time synchronised parameters. That same central software is designed to gather data from other inline devices, such as check weighers and metal detectors, and presents a complete digital record of each product and run, for the purpose of quality assurance and maintenance.
The Benefits of Paperless QA – Paperless QA not only time records the incoming data, it also compares it against the target ranges for each product, logs and reports non-conformities and sends alerts for the corrective actions to be taken. Dansensor inline Gas Analysers and inline Gas Mixers already have the independent ability to trigger packing line shut down when the gas flow and balance drifts towards being out of tolerance
Stored digital records can be instantly retrieved to give full pack traceability, without spending hours manually searching through piles of paper records, that will inevitably have transcription errors. This is an enormous time saver and guarantee of accuracy, when it comes to BRC and full audit requirements. And from a planning and management perspective, trending each parameter in real time, or historically, is an incredibly powerful tool for optimising process and predicting preventative maintenance requirements.
The Tendring pacific offer – In conjunction with our offer of gas usage and package line audits, Paperless QA is a next natural step for tray sealing and bagging lines across the Modified Atmosphere Packing market and the next transformation in the sector.
Our team of specialist engineers is on hand for exploratory discussions and one to one interactive demonstrations, so we can help you find the next steps into this exciting new development in gas flushing.
Call us on 01223 492083 or email sales@tendringpacific.com
