Safety
Cleaning and changeovers mean working on machines that are stopped but not always safe. Lockout steps and safety checks need to happen every time, not only when someone is watching.
Solutions / By industry / Food and beverage
Food manufacturing software for the people on the line
Most plants that work with the EZ-GO platform make food and drinks: dairy, infant nutrition, beverages, biscuits, bread, confectionery, and potato products. They share the same challenge. Food safety, hygiene, and changeovers depend on people doing the right thing at the right moment, on every shift.
The EZ-GO platform is not an ERP. Your ERP plans orders, batches, and stock. The EZ-GO platform covers the part your ERP does not reach: the operator at the line who cleans, checks, changes over, and reports what he sees.
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How food and beverage plants work with the EZ-GO platform
Every segment has its own processes. Below, you find the work that matters most in each one, and the plants that already do it with the EZ-GO platform.
Dairy and infant nutrition
In dairy and infant nutrition, small deviations have big consequences. Cleaning, inspection, and the critical checks from your HACCP plan must be done the same way at the right time, including tasks that come back only once a year, such as calibrations. Operators also take over maintenance work such as dismantling a filling head or replacing a gasket, which only works with a clear standard.
- FrieslandCampina has worked with the EZ-GO platform since 2018. At the Leeuwarden plant, operators and team leaders moved their procedures and instructions into the platform themselves, within two days. At Lochem, cleaning and inspection tasks run in the EZ-GO app as part of autonomous maintenance, so mechanics have more time for structural maintenance.
- Dutch Nutrition, part of FrieslandCampina, makes powdered nutrition for infants and the elderly. All tasks are in the EZ-GO platform, from daily checks to yearly calibrations. The platform works next to the production control system that holds the HACCP requirements, so a standstill can be compared with the checks that were done.
“The EZ-GO app is the enabler of improvement. All I can say is: go, go, go!”
Beverages
Beverage plants run many products and packaging types on fast filling lines. That means frequent changeovers, many sites with their own habits, and people who need to be able to work on more than one line. Standards that differ between plants make it hard to move people and to compare results.
- Refresco fills beverages in cartons, bottles, and cans at 75 plants on three continents. Standards were incomplete or outdated, and plants worked differently, which made changeovers slow and staff hard to exchange. With a superuser per department, best practices became work instructions and checklists in the EZ-GO platform. The digital skills matrix now shows who can work where. Refresco reports fewer disruptions and a higher OEE, and is rolling the platform out to its international sites.
“EZ-GO has the power of simplicity.”
Bakery and confectionery
Bakeries and confectionery plants often run around the clock, with new recipes and machines added regularly. Line settings and changeover knowledge tend to live in the heads of experienced operators. Certification audits and requirements such as halal approval ask you to show that cleaning methods are followed.
- Pally Biscuits moved to a continuous five-shift operation. New operators work independently with the work instructions from day one, and training follows the TWI method, with assessments in the EZ-GO platform and results in the digital skills matrix.
- Hoogvliet, the only Dutch supermarket with its own bakeries, had its line settings and changeover methods only in the heads of its operators. A packaging operator led the project, with instructions in Dutch and English. After an eight-week pilot on one line, all lines now work with tasks, work instructions, and checklists.
- Confiserie Napoleon recorded its cleaning methods as one-point lessons in the EZ-GO platform. That helps to show BRC compliance, and lets the halal certification body check the process in advance. Deviations on one shift are passed to the next as an action, with photos.
“You think: I know how to do it, until you forget something once.”
Potato products and ready meals
Process lines for potato products and ready meals combine long cleaning procedures with strict hygiene, and often employ many young or new operators. A long cleaning and inspection document is hard to follow at the line.
- Aviko Rixona makes potato flakes and granulate for the food industry. Its cleaning and inspection tasks used to be in a long document with boxes to tick. The plant started on one process line with many young operators, and now runs its GMP and glass audits in the EZ-GO platform as well.
“Digitization is a must, especially for the new operator generation.”
Meat and fish
In meat and fish processing, sanitation between production runs, temperature checks, and hand and knife hygiene decide whether a batch is safe. Crews often speak several languages and change often, so instructions must be clear at a glance.
How food plants usually start
Most plants start small and grow line by line. Hoogvliet ran an eight-week pilot on one line before moving to all lines. Confiserie Napoleon first updated its instructions and then entered everything for its first production line within a day. Aviko Rixona chose a compact process line where many new operators work. In every case, operators helped build the content, which made the standard their own.