Managing demand with on machine seasoning

Faster changeover between different flavours allow snack manufacturers to meet quick - changing consumer trends VARIETY is considered the spice of life and when it comes to snack, new flavours are launched onto the market all the time. The next biggest flavour hit for the snacks industry is anyone's guess and snack brands will always follow consumer trends. The next question should be, however, how can snack manufacturers efficiently meet the demand of the quick changing taste of the consumer? One of the problems for the snack manufacturer is that consumers will want their "old favourites" to still be available on the shelf as well as the new exotic ones. The second is to be able to keep up supply. Processing programs now have to juggle more flavours at the same time and deal with complex warehousing and distribution systems. Those manufacturers who want the ability to meet consumer demand need be able to change their processing programs quickly and efficiently without affecting quality. It is now evident that new seasoning techniques offer a way to offer increased flexibility. Flexible seasoning system The advent of On Mac h ine Seasoning (OMS) is giving snack manufacturers more flexibility when it comes to changing flavours to suit a wide variety of tastes. Over the ten years that OMS has been on the snacks manufacturing scene it has made good progress in seasoning accuracy and coverage as well as reducing overall cost. It is now considered by many in the industry as a logical progression for snacks processing in order to respond to the increasing demand for flavour variety. Heat and Control has made significant breakthroughs in the OMS concept with the Fastback Revolution Seasoning System (RSS) and the Revolution proportional Gate System. The advent of the Fastback horizontal motion conveyor allowed for a more compact seasoning system to be developed, until then OMS were large and cumbersome. Once the RSS was developed, a more consistent feed system was needed in order to achieve the same coverage and quality as Process Area Seasoning systems or In-Kitchen seasoning systems. The Revolution Gate solved the feed consistency issues enabled Revolution OMS to offer coverage and quality as good as if not better than In Kitchen seasoning systems. Achieving variety quickly, simply Ricky Ong is an OMS advocate and sales manager for Heat and Control. "There are many opportunities to increase efficiency by using OMS including meeting variety demand, high quality, reducing lost production time, reduced cleaning, gentle handling at greater capacity, and improved fulfilment and distribution," says Ong. When it comes to variety in seasoning application, there is now the ability to run up to 100 different flavours. Revolution allows runs as short as four hours with a changeover that takes only 30 minutes thus allowing for many flavours to be made in a short amount of time. With several OMS units on one line, each unit can be applying a different seasoning or filling different sized bags, or both, without stopping the processing side of production. Because you now have the ability to make more flavours in a shorter amount of time a "fresher" finished product can reach the shelf much quicker and spend less time in storage. This also suits the Just- In-Time distribution system. Faster changeover between different flavours and increased capacity will impact fulfilment and distribution. Onsite warehousing of boxed product is reduced because orders are fulfilled and distribution channels are supplied more regularly (Just- In-Time). Downtime diminished Less downtime due to faster cleaning and changeover provides more production capability. Cleaning is significantly reduced with changeovers at 30 minutes as compared with In-Kitchen seasoning systems that can take upNike Air Max