Pet food
A recipe handling system for a big player in the animal food market
We created a recipe handling system for a large pet food manufacturer. This system receives order and recipe information, and based on this information the scales and mixers are provided with the correct ingredients and weights.
A few details about
THE PROJECT
A pet food factory in the eastern part of the Netherlands was having problems with the quality of the product they were producing. The software they were using in production was outdated and could no longer be used to ensure a realistic production flow. The factory produces animal feed for, for example: cows, sheep, pigs, horses, etc.
All raw materials are stored in silos, these raw materials are delivered by trucks. These deliveries are registered to comply with ISO 9002, chapter R10-01.
Based on a recipe, a finished product is made. To create this product, raw materials are weighed on scales, transported to mixers and finally stored in a finished product silo. The system contains hundreds of recipes to produce all kinds of products, each recipe can be adjusted on details per product.
Some special
SPECIFICATIONS
- A dedicated administrative system for feed production uploads order, product and recipe information to the order and recipe handling
- At the front end, an operator selects the order to be produced.
- The recipe handling system determines the amount of charges to be produced for that order.
- After a charge is started, all recipe information is sent to the scales. These scales control the valves connected to the raw material silos. Each scale operates about 10 silo valves.
- The raw materials are added in a certain order, depending on the type of raw material: fine or liquid.
- After all the raw materials are balanced, the ingredients are transported to an extruder. The extruder, controlled by a PLC, mixes the raw materials and finally produces the final product.
- The finished product is transported to a finished goods silo, where it is stored for later delivery.
How we solved it
OUR APPROACH
We created the frond-end of the recipe handling system as a web application. The advantage of this is that the application can run on different devices, such as PCs and tablets.
The system registers the supply of raw materials. A special interface was created for the truck drivers where they can enter the type and quantity of raw material. This information is used to generate the R10-01 report and to determine from which silo the raw material should be taken. Furthermore, the quantities of raw materials can be managed in this way.
The system contains various overviews, such as: products, recipes and contact information of, for example, transporters and suppliers. The information that cannot be modified in the recipe handling system is constantly updated by the administrative system. This information is used to supplement raw material delivery reports (R0-01) and cost reports. These reports can be used to prove the quality of the finished product.
