Food production

Improving Your Product Flow for a More Efficient Food Production Plant

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Set up any new food production facility for success. Ensuring success, the facility should promote food safety, employee health and safety, and efficient processes.

Improper product flow—whether it is moving a product from one area to another or filling products —can be damaging to your food plant’s operations in more ways than one. Just this one inefficiency can cost you money, introduce safety hazards, and jeopardize food quality.

Let’s explore ways your facility may be at risk of improper product flow and what you can do to improve the situation.

Does Your Facility Have a Product Flow Problem?

These three signs indicate your plant has a product flow problem:

  • Excess raw materials inventory: An abnormal amount of excess raw ingredients means not moving your products quickly enough.
  • Surplus work in inventory: Having too many unfinished products in storage is a typical red flag that your processing stage has a problem.
  • Too many product losses: If your actual output is less than your forecast numbers, this typically means there are interruptions in your process.

Often, these signs can go unnoticed. Instead they creep up gradually and surprise you only when the situation has worsened.

Inefficient Product Flow Affects Your Business

Poor process flow has three consequences for your business:

  • Increased safety risks. Workers are more likely to get injured when they physically transport products across the facility.
  • Wasted money and time. An inefficient process is lengthier and leads to lower revenue.
  • More chances of product damage. Physically moving the product from one area to another increases the risk of contamination and spoiling.

Improving the Product Flow

Start by conducting a comprehensive assessment to identify the bottlenecks in your chain, then think of solutions to optimize the process. You can make your product flow more efficient by:

  • Streamlining the Process. Place the areas of each step close to each other to maximize production time and minimize unnecessary exposure of the product.
  • Locating Your Maintenance Area at the Center of the Facility. Your maintenance team can get to the problem and fix problems as quickly as possible.
  • Automating Your Processes. Using piston fillers for filling your products and using machines for smooth transfer of products from one area to another reduces delays in the process.
  • Locating Utilities Outside the Building. It will be easier to streamline your process flow with more space on the main floor of your facility. Make sure, however, the utilities are accessible without workers having to cut through the process area.

Improve Productivity in Your Facility with Volumetric Technologies’ Tabletop Conveyors

Conveyor belt

Need to make your production line more efficient? Volumetric Technologies offers tabletop chain conveyors for your conveying needs. We provide various types —closed-top, open-top, and hygienic designs —that are available in any configuration or length.

With their modular construction, our tabletop chain conveyors are easy to incorporate into your existing systems. They are designed to endure harsh environments and with easy wash-down in mind.

Browse our range of products by visiting www.volumetrictechnologies.com. For inquiries, call 507-263-0034.