A middle-America located bread producer has worked with Sterling Systems & Controls for over 25 years and needed an upgraded batching solution for baking industry. Recently the customer asked Sterling Systems to analyze the existing batching and material handling systems and to offer upgrades to reduce manual handling of bowls and eliminate equipment while increasing production.
THE CHALLENGE:
Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. reviewed the existing designs and operations with customer personnel and evaluated the processes currently in place looking for opportunities to achieve the customer goals as stated above.
THE SOLUTION:
As a result of the evaluation Sterling Systems & Controls offered and implemented a design to increase batch size by ten (10) times, upgraded and replaced scaling equipment for both dry and liquid ingredients (scales and liquid meters). In addition, the existing batching control systems were upgraded to include formulation, inventory, lot tracking and data acquisition as recommended by Sterling Systems.
THE RESULTS:
The number of mixes was reduced, reducing handling of small mixer bowls and the associated conveyor equipment to move bowls and the mixers. Customer comments after completion of the upgraded system by Sterling Systems & Controls include:
“I do believe this had to be one of the smoothest installs we have ever done.”
”It was clear that we were well planned and a lot of forethought was put into this project before we jumped.”
”The system is awesome.”
“The cleaning crews asked if we mixed last night, it was so clean after production.”
“Cycle time is fast, way faster than we can process, and weighments are dead on.”
KEY BENEFITS:
BATCHING PRODUCTIVITY INCREASED: Batch size was increased along with speed and accuracy. Sterling Systems batching system upgrade increased batch size by ten (10) fold.
CLEANER BATCHING PROCESS: Customized ingredient sequencing led to lower dust levels during batching: “the cleaning crews asked if we mixed last night, it was so clean after production”.
Working With Us
Give us a call today to talk about your business and process objectives and see how Sterling Systems & Controls can provide a custom engineered solution. You can reach us by phone at 1-815-625-0852, toll-free in the USA 1-815-281-5378, or by email at sci@sterlingcontrols.com.