In many companies, where the production process consists of weighing and dosing of individual components, the recipe preparation of a semi-finished product is required, which is converted into the finished product in subsequent operations. Here, the first and also the most crucial operation is preparation, as it determines the quality of the final product. If the preparation isn’t carried out well enough and if mistakes are made, we can’t expect that the final product will be optimal, which means that it won’t meet the expected quality standards. Additionally, the costs of all future claims will be immense, customers will be dissatisfied, and business efficiency will drop. It is precisely because of the complexity of the work process, that the preparation is often entrusted into the hands of the most experienced staff, who know the process in detail.
With the introduction of a recipe (weighing) system, individual steps are automated to such a degree, that work that previously had to be performed only by experienced staff, can now be carried out by (relatively) inexperienced workers. The automated system guides the worker through the individual stages of preparation and in the event of any error or deviation, alerts them on time. In real time, 24/7. This way, the frequency of errors is reduced and both the quality of work and the efficiency of the employee increase. The latter simply can’t make mistakes or skip steps any longer, because the recipe (weighing) system is there to guide and direct them through the entire product preparation process.
What does the recipe (weighing) system appear like in practice?
Imagine that you’re a CEO of a dairy manufacturing company. In the process of making finished products (e.g., yogurt), production workers must first prepare a mixture that includes various ingredients. If the company doesn’t have an automated recipe system, they must have highly experienced staff who can calculate all the ingredients manually or "by hand". A work process like this is often very time-consuming and demanding, as workers are subject to various influences (both external and internal), which can quickly lead to anomalies and errors, such as incorrect dosage of components, introduction of wrong ingredients, use of the incorrect recipe, etc. If we introduce a recipe (weighing) system into the production process, we get rid of the beforementioned errors, which ultimately leads to the optimization of the entire operation.
The discussed system, which is also very common in the meat processing and pharmaceutical industries, is of key importance, as any error in the preparation phase of the semi-finished product is clearly visible in the quality of the end product that the company produces. In addition to the fact that the use of the recipe (weighing) system is very simple, which is a great advantage especially for employees, the true face of automation is shown especially in terms of benefits for the company’s operations. Simplified processes, lower costs, higher productivity and higher customer satisfaction, are just some of the reasons why considering the introduction of a recipe (weighing) system and digitalization of the entire business is very favourable.
Key benefits of the recipe (weighing) system are:
- lower level of prior knowledge required from employees, which consequently means less need for experienced personnel
- cheaper costs of labour
- lower costs of claims
- increased employee productivity
- flawless dosing of all components into the final product with 100% quality
- simplicity and ease of use
- traceability of every component and material throughout the entire production process
- reduction of human errors, which can be the result of a wide variety of factors (e.g., fatigue, sloppiness, excessive workload, ignorance, lack of experience)
- by connecting to measuring equipment, such as scales, we can introduce a recipe-weighing system, that further reduces the possibility of errors and speeds up the entire process
