The manufacturing industry has spent decades developing management methods to keep production facilities competitive.
Retailers can apply this know-how to their meat-department backrooms in order to match manufacturers in terms of process efficiency.
Mettler Toledo has released a whitepaper entitled Backroom Production Processes for backroom optimization, while also serving as a framework for making purchasing decisions.
“Production management methodologies such as lean manufacturing and 5S give grocery retailers a new perspective on their backroom and are a valuable extension of retail know-how,” says Stephanie Rose, global backroom product manager.
“This enables backroom managers to reach sound purchasing decisions and invest in equipment which is precisely aligned with their particular needs.”
The white paper includes analysis of backroom processes based on a number of examples.
These reveal that high productivity is especially dependent on rapid product changeovers and high operational uptime of the equipment.
In contrast, the maximum number of packaged units that a wrapping machine can produce per minute is less relevant.
Moreover, when viewed over the course of the total product lifecycle of a wrapping machine, which is generally seven years or more, the purchase price of the equipment is of limited significance.
That is underlined by the total cost of ownership (TOC) model, which is widely used in the food industry and presented in the white paper.
The TCO calculation enables retailers to unearth hidden cost drivers, which in the backroom include labor and packaging film costs in particular.
Furthermore, the white paper suggests measures and concepts which can help to safeguard the long-term operational uptime of backroom equipment.
