The demand for manufactured and ready-to-eat food products is constantly rising every year. And while this has become a significant challenge for many food manufacturers in the past year, it has become more rigid as more people demand healthy and nutritious food.
That said, manufacturers are expected to utilize new equipment to meet the demand for food and beverages without compromising the quality of their products. Efficiency is at the core of the many challenges food manufacturers face nowadays. They need to cut costs yet deliver on time to boost their profit.
Here are some tips to help you enhance your food manufacturing efficiency.
Ways to Improve Food Manufacturing Efficiency
Prepare for Risks
Your entire inventory is at risk of spoilage with a broken chiller or refrigerator unit. The only way to prevent this is by practicing regular maintenance of your equipment, yet you should be ready for some losses in case a machine’s system control stops working.
Make sure to have backups, like installing a generator, to keep your units running in case of blackouts. And like your food storage machines, your generators must also undergo regular maintenance to ensure that they are operational when needed.
Apart from keeping up with maintenance procedures, investing in business loss insurance is ideal. Insurance policies can cover the loss caused by natural calamities and power outages. With the help of business insurance, you will be able to operate again quickly and recover from the losses.
Become Energy-efficient
Energy efficiency can reduce your operating expenses massively. Luckily, there are many ways to implement this method into your daily operations. Here are some examples:
- Integrate natural light into your facility to reduce the need for numerous light fixtures.
- Use LED lights only. LED lights can last longer than incandescent bulbs and uses less power.
- Move your heat-generating equipment away from refrigerators to help the chiller function better.
Automation
Automation has become an integral part of many industries. It can enhance productivity as it reduces human errors. Many traditional manufacturers still heavily rely on manual labor, which affects their production and efficiency. If possible, invest in automation equipment to make the workflow smoother and help your company produce more products.
However, be wary of choosing your machine suppliers. Go for equipment that will improve your efficiency but will not affect the quality of your products. For food manufacturers, investing in reliable pneumatic valves is critical as this can impact the operations and become a source of major problems if the equipment is of poor quality.
As for your employees, train them to perform other tasks so you won’t have to reduce manpower. Being short-staffed is the last thing you’ll need, especially when you’re on the initial testing of automated operations.
Save Water
The food production industry uses more water than any other manufacturer. By saving water, you will save more money. You can then use that saves money to invest in things that will make your facility more productive and efficient. Did you know that a chicken nugget manufacturer in North Carolina was able to save $100,000 per year by cutting their water use by 30%? You can implement this in your plant if you want to save more money.
Start by reconsidering your company’s cleaning processes, because that department usually uses a lot of water. Try to invest in water flow restrictors and reuse systems to cut the amount of water you use for cleaning.
What is a reuse system? This is a system used by many establishments to take wastewater, clean it, and treat it to use the water again for non-potable utilization. Similarly, flow restrictors regulate your water use during cleaning processes to reduce water volume.
Practice Predictive Maintenance
Even though you don’t automate everything in your facility, technology can help you be more efficient. Predictive maintenance allows you to save money and time as it tells you when a machine is about to break down. Because of this, you can prepare for repair costs and upkeep better, reducing production downtime.
Predictive maintenance is easy to use. You need to install sensors in your machines and download the software to analyze the machine’s real-time information and monitor them at the same time. You are putting your facility on the front line of the food industry revolution by doing this.
Unlike other businesses, food manufacturers have a lot of factors to consider. But even though the industry is a bit complex, you do not need extra-sophisticated algorithms to boost your efficiency. Remember the tips mentioned above to make your facility more efficient and productive.
