Improving manufacturing flexibility with IBCs and parallel processing
Consumer tastes drive the demand for complex and varied product recipes, which puts food manufacturers under significant pressure to adapt quickly and stay competitive. However, strategies are available to help manufacturers enhance their production techniques, meet consumer demands, and ensure product quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
By embracing a modern and efficient design approach, along with suitable technology, companies can significantly increase their profitability and improve the flexibility of their manufacturing processes, allowing them to adapt swiftly to market fluctuations.
Identifying the pressure points in your process
By their nature, in-line process systems follow a linear path: raw materials enter the formulation area and progress through various stages until the final product emerges. This setup applies universally, whether for a 500-kg or a 10-ton production run of a specific recipe.
In a production line, numerous processing stages must occur, such as formulation, mixing, sieving, packing, and sometimes more complex tasks like granulation and drying. Perfectly synchronizing these stages is nearly impossible, leading to significant waiting periods between stages.
During these wait times, mixing and packing equipment remain idle, affecting the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of both individual machines and the entire process line.
With consumers' ever-growing demands, recipe variations are on the rise, leading to more frequent changes and batch size variability. This further hampers the efficiency of traditional processing methods, which just lack the flexibility to switch recipes or produce small batch quantities. They are particularly restricted (held back) by the need for considerable downtime for cleaning between recipe changes, especially when cross-contamination poses a threat. To keep processes underway, some companies produce large work-in-progress (WIP) or work-in-queue (WIQ) batches, which are expensive to store and risk product wastage.
Boosting efficiency with parallel processing
To tackle inefficient production and long waiting times, companies can apply a parallel processing approach. This involves decoupling process steps so that formulation, blending, packing, and cleaning occur simultaneously, allowing multiple batches to be handled throughout the production line at the same time. Any concerns about safety risks can be mitigated with the right technology and a well-thought-out concept.
Intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) are a suitable container format for parallel processing. They transport bulk solid materials throughout the production line, enabling each independent processing step to be fed continuously with product, improving the OEE rates of all the equipment. An additional improvement over traditional in-line systems is that the IBC itself serves as the blending vessel, eliminating direct product contact with the blender and downtime for cleaning between recipe changes.
IBCs are cleaned offline, ensuring that production remains uninterrupted. Fully enclosed IBCs prevent cross-contamination and dust generation, allowing simultaneous processing of different recipes without compromising safety — a significant benefit.
By adopting the parallel processing concept, manufacturers can easily accommodate rush orders, facilitating rapid responses to customer demands. OEE rates can rise from 15-20% to 75-80%, generating substantial additional revenue annually. IBC systems offer a lean solution, ensuring right-first-time production, minimizing scrap and waste, and reducing the final product cost.
A phased approach to process improvements
If a full-scale transition to an IBC system is not feasible immediately, a phased approach is possible. The modular design allows for incremental additions as needed. Here are some typical changes that can be implemented:
Decouple mixing from packing. This can double the capacity of both mixing and packing equipment. Transferring the mixed product from the fixed mixer into an IBC allows packing lines to be continuously supplied while new batches are formulated and mixed. This rapid emptying of the mixer means that it can go back into service more quickly, increasing throughput.
Decouple raw material batching from mixing. This separation can boost available process time by 50% or more. Formulating recipes into IBCs offline and then using these to fill the fixed mixer significantly speeds up the loading process compared to ripping and tipping each individual sack into the mixer.
Replace static mixers for premixing. High-volume production lines benefit from premixing micro and minor ingredients. IBC blenders can create premixes offline, which can then dose directly into the fixed mixer.
Replace static mixers with IBC blending. Installing an IBC blending system eliminates idle time. Recipe formulations prepared offline in IBCs can be blended without the need for cleaning between recipes, enabling multiple recipes to run simultaneously without cross-contamination risks.
The industry is evolving, are you?
Both large multinational manufacturers and smaller SMEs have adopted IBC system designs and achieved significant output improvements. For instance, a spice blend contract manufacturer can now handle more than 1,000 flavor mixes hygienically and maintain a consistent 3-day make-to-order regime without creating costly inventory using an IBC system.
An IBC system also benefits the bakery industry. A British bakery manufacturer added an IBC system alongside its fixed mixing system, enabling the company to produce high-variety, low-volume product lines. The new system cut cleaning time from 480 to 70 hours, released a considerable amount in cash due to reduced inventory, lowered labor costs by 25%, halved manufacturing time, and allowed the company to expand its product range to meet changing consumer tastes.
According to the company's operations and engineering manager, they can offer an enhanced product range, better pack size flexibility, and significantly improved quality assurance and customer service.
Even in the realm of infant nutrition, improvements can be made. IBC blenders have been used to create a premix of micro or minor ingredients, which are then added to the fixed mixer. This has significantly sped up the production process and improved efficiency.
For manufacturers managing a diverse portfolio of recipes or facing the need to produce smaller, customized batch runs, an IBC system could be an ideal solution to achieve the required process flexibility and efficiency.
Matcon
www.matconibc.com
