In food industries, focus is on more than just lean production. It’s about ensuring public health and safety through total traceability of raw materials and finished products. Lots of industries today rely on having total traceability in the unlikely event of something going wrong. One example is the automotive industry, where traceability helps when products have to be recalled. Another is the food industry where it ensures that the foods we eat are as safe and as hygienic as they can be.
One practical case is that of Swedish Cerealia Unibake who produce different types of cereal-based products for the food industry. Their work involves producing goods that are made from a variety of ingredients, then packed, transported, stored, sold and consumed within a limited time frame.
It is crucial for Cerealia Unibake to have total control of quantities of ingredients when baking: which batch these ingredients came from, where they originated and how long they had been there. The problem they faced, however, was that baking wasn’t controlled in the WMS system. Another problem was that goods purchased in bulk like flour and yeast were stored in several large cisterns which were often refilled before they were completely empty.
PDAs facilitate information management
Cerealia Unibake implemented the Astro WMS system from Consafe Logistics to ensure full traceability for every part of the bulk preparation, storage and delivery processes. Once the system was implemented the challenge was to get personnel to input information into it. The solution was to equip personnel with hand-held PDAs. These PDAs have an interface that is very easy to use. Today, documents are printed from the bakery system using bar codes. These bar codes are scanned into the PDA. Operators read the recipes transferred from the barcodes onto their PDA screens. They can then bake according to that specific recipe. For instance, they can add 100 kilos of yeast and scan the yeast pallet every time they take yeast from it. This tells the system exactly how much yeast is left, when it needs to be replenished, and how old the remaining yeast is.
Cerealia Unibake has implemented two PDAs per production line, one at the beginning, when goods are picked at the warehouse, then one at the end for packaging. Cerealia Unibake has implemented traceability for ingredients, plastic packaging, clips, cartons, etc. When goods are finished they are transferred to a pallet. A signal is automatically sent to the warehouse that the pallet is available for collection.
Traced every step of the way
Cerealia’s system fulfils all requirements on traceability, and they are very proud of what they have achieved. The Astro system logs everything in the most minute detail. The attached Retrospect traceability module then enables Cerealia Unibake to study all the traceability information they may need. Using Retrospect, the company can see which goods have come in and which goods could possibly be contaminated in any way. It then traces which pallets were replenished by those goods. This enables Cerealia Unibake to conform to all regulations regarding traceability of goods.
In the unlikely event of a customer complaining about goods delivered, the system traces the specific ingredients containing the problem along with all other pallets or individual packaging containing those ingredients. The system provides complete information about who got what and when.
Trace everything from one label
Peter Lindgren, Logistics Manager at Cerealia Unibake recounts a situation where one of their largest customers arrived holding just a label. “The customer demanded to know who the batch was delivered to, what was in it, when the delivery date was and what ingredients it contained. Happily we could answer all the customer’s questions in detail. This demonstrates that we are ahead of the game when it comes to following all health and safety laws to the letter.”
Tough legal requirements
Requirements from the EU mean that manufacturers are forced to implement a modern IT solution for both Warehouse Management and all aspects manufacturing. Using a well-developed WMS system enables all people in the sales chain to have full control of “best before” dates. Obviously, goods need to leave the warehouse long before they reach their best before date. The types of dates and alarms that can be set with a system like Astro are many. They let companies specify events such as last sales date, first warehousing date, etc. In the same way, the system will activate warnings according to what specific action needs to be taken, allowing companies to sell out goods as special offers.
By implementing tough traceability requirements on suppliers’ systems, companies are able to mix goods, both in the warehouse, and on display. However, the original labelling is crucial. If the original label isn’t on reusable pallets or containers when they are returned, then they must be thrown away, creating additional costs for suppliers.
Without added conservatives
Modern WMS methods combined with deep freeze transport allow companies to market their food products as containing no conservatives. While raw materials are not frozen, all finished goods are. Bread is often thawed in the store just before it is sold.
Footnote: Best before date - an offer you can’t refuse
Who invented the “best before” date on foods?
One claimant was Al Capone, famous for putting expiry dates on many of his competitors. Rumor has it that many of Chicago’s children in Al Capone’s era became ill through drinking sour milk. Al, who sponsored much of the free milk, decided to do something about this. He apparently ordered that no milk should be more than 72 hours old from the time it was milked from the cow to when the children drunk it. This meant that the milk was produced and consumed well inside a reasonable time scale to keep it fresh.
While Al was possibly the first person to introduce traceability in foods, it was traceability that caught up with him in the end!
2005