Customized inspection equipment and data collection software foster continuous improvement at fifth-generation family milling firm

Mennel Milling is continually striving to improve operations.

Headquartered in Fostoria, Ohio, the Mennel Milling Company has been on a strategic expansion mission. For over 138 years, the family-owned firm, currently the seventh largest flour milling company in the U.S., has produced and distributed its products in bulk quantities via rail car, semi-truck trailer, 2,000-lb. super sacks and 50-lb bags. However, with the addition of smaller, retail bag pack systems to address consumer demand during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with assuming full ownership of bakery mix and milling company Renwood Mills in 2022, Mennel has been prioritizing the efficiency and performance of its quality control inspection and checkweighing solutions.

The following highlights from Mennel Milling’s Newton, North Carolina, and Fostoria, Ohio, plants illustrate how Fortress Technology’s Raptor Combination system and Contact 4.0 data software package have been critical in helping Mennel achieve its efficiency and performance goals.

Less downtime at bakery mix plant

Jonathan Mace, Project Engineer at Mennel Milling and Bakery Mix — Newton, North Carolina, has been an integral part of installing new inspection equipment at his location. Since installing its first Raptor Combination metal detector and checkweighing system on the Newton packing line in 2023, Mace reports that the company has incurred no unplanned downtime on the new equipment so far. Mace cites simplicity, robustness and reliability as some of the biggest benefits of the inspection machines.

A plastic cover prevents flour buildup on the Raptor's conveyor.

The production, packaging and inspection of approximately 750,000 lbs. of flour each day for private label retail products, food service mixes and wholesale bulk flour requires durable and reliable machinery states Mace. “In a milling and packaging environment, screens can be easily damaged, and clearances can be extremely tight. Sometimes the products themselves contain salt and phosphate which can be corrosive. The Raptor’s stainless-steel construction has held up so far in these challenging environments.”

To optimize performance and ensure that the flour doesn’t accumulate and affect the weight readings, plant technicians regularly clean the Raptor Combination units during each shift.

Another useful design feature is the plastic cover over the HMI panel, highlights Mace. “This is a great addition as it helps to prevent damage to the screen. The plastic cover [over the conveyor] helps prevent loose flour circulating in the environment from settling onto the conveyor, building up and negatively impacting weighing accuracy.”

Several customizations were made to the equipment supplied to the Mennel Newton plant. For example, the metal detection aperture on the second Raptor machine installed at Newton is an inch higher than standard. This was required to accommodate the different product formats and pack sizes that come off the existing vertical form, fill and seal pouch packaging system.

A plastic cover over the Raptor's HMI panel prevents damage to the screen.

Additionally, because the seven-story milling plant has a variety of moving machinery operating around the clock, vibration can affect the performance and signals of sensitive metal detectors and checkweighers. However, Fortress spokesperson Ken Atkinson notes that Fortress machines offer a couple clever solutions that suppress this noise interference, ensuring that metal detector performance is not affected.

With a total of nine current packing lines and growing at the North Carolina plant, Mace says that there is an opportunity for more potential improvements to their lines in the future.

Supporting digital capabilities

Tethering multiple front-end production machines to back-end reporting software in real time has been hailed as the next step in smart manufacturing. Using an Ethernet connection, Fortress’s Contact 4.0 data collection software enables Mennel to review and collect data, as well as securely oversee the performance of an unlimited number of Fortress machines connected to the same network.

Each morning, the Contact 4.0 software automatically generates and emails key personnel a report and histogram summary to assist with decision making.

Fortress’s Contact 4.0 digital tool is currently being utilized in Mennel’s Fostoria, Ohio, factory on both of its checkweighing and metal detection systems. This has proven helpful to the team’s effort to make informed, well-timed production and brand assurance decisions, as well as maintenance schedules.

“Every morning, the production manager, the maintenance manager and I receive a report automatically generated by Contact 4.0 to assist in our decision making,” notes Mennel Senior Corporate Packaging Engineer Dieter Flick. “Contact 4.0 clearly displays both the checkweigher’s histogram of batch weight distribution and bag data points to issue concerns over rejects, calculating the amount of product giveaway. These tools help us define problems with our filling system upstream.”

Revolutionizing productivity

To achieve ambitious growth targets and meet stricter standards, today’s modern manufacturers face higher demands for faster and more productive and energy-efficient processes.

“The reliability of these machines and technologies and their ease-of-use, especially when calibrating and testing the inspection equipment, has proven very important to our QA department,” says Flick. “More importantly, our customers are specifying higher standards for metal detection to avoid any product contamination.”

Facilitating scalable and seamless communication in all cyber-physical interactions is imperative to adopt a smart manufacturing approach. When digital transformations are scaled across the entire value chain, the gains can fundamentally transform a food manufacturer’s competitive position, accelerating decision making and unlocking productivity gains.

Highlighting the benefits of implementing a fully networked, standardized equipment and technology plan, Flick concludes, “A high-quality product combined with excellent service has always been the key to any successful operation.”

Fortress Technology