Ilchester Cheese has new label verification that allows line speed to increase for slicing

OAL has supplied APRIL Eye vision technology that verifies labels on over 200 products at speeds that mean the line can run at a rate of up to 200 packs per minute, a 50% jump.

Ilchester Cheese Co., which is part of the global Tine Group, sees itself as a leader in flavoured cheese production. Faced with growing packaging complexity and strict traceability requirements, the company needed a scalable way to verify labels across all of its products.

Since automation provider OAL installed label recognition powered by APRIL Eye, not only have slicing line speeds increased by 50%, but traceability times for particular batches have fallen from three hours to just 15 minutes.

OAL adds that no labelling or coding errors have been recorded since deployment. Any anomalies prompt real-time alerts, and all records are audit-ready with pack-level photo evidence. Case-packing at the plant is also now fully-automated.

In the past, any checking of labels and date codes had to be carried out by the human eye, explains Ilchester operations director Pete Youé. “At 200 packs a minute, the operator simply can’t check the packs individually, which they were having to do previously,” he says.

Despite having over 200 SKUs, 75 formats, 10 production lines, and exporting to 21 countries, the increasingly complex business had still been relying on manual, paper-based checks. This had slowed audits, increased risks and placed a heavy burden on QA teams.

Ilchester’s requirements included: real-time label and date code verification; a paperless compliance system with full audit trail; and instant access to traceability records. The system had to be able to recognise and verify all international coding requirements, such as Canadian date codes. The cheese company also needed a trusted provider capable of supporting and training production teams.

Despite the speed and intelligence of the verification system, operators have not found it over-complex. “In my opinion, the system is really easy to use — just follow the instructions. It’s nothing complicated,” says Aneta Klamka, who is in charge of quality assurance.

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www.oalgroup.com