Reduce production line food waste: the next 5 steps for your factory

40% of food is wasted

If as a food manufacturer, you are asked how important you think tackling food waste is in your production process… what do you say?

Everyone feels the social responsibility concerning food waste. Especially when you realize that 40% of food is wasted in the entire chain from you as producer to the catering industry, and consumers, according to some estimates. Nevertheless, it is not at the top of every food manufacturer’s priority list. Recognizable?

Embracing the principles of Moerman’s Ladder of Food Waste, which highlights that addressing food waste higher up the ladder retains more value, is not only environmentally responsible but also economically savvy.

Reducing food waste is good for factory profits, not just the environment.

Discover the reasons for your production line food waste.

Reducing factory food waste starts with data monitoring.

Factory food waste. Are you playing your part?

What is your factory doing to reduce factory food waste?

Why Food Waste is not (yet) an absolute priority

Food waste is often a blind spot in your production process. It is not immediately visible until you know it is there. In addition, there are 4 reasons why food waste is not yet an absolute priority for many food manufacturers:

Lack of data

Not every food manufacturer collects enough data about how much food waste takes place in the production process. Therefore, not enough is known about the causes of food waste and how much waste they each generate.

Internally Competing Interests

You need to consider the interests, opinions, and priorities of others. If tackling food waste is not their priority, it is quite a challenge to gain sufficient support within your organization.

The focus is on productivity and food quality

You are mainly concerned with delivering orders on time and important KPIs such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and the quality of your products on the machine line.

Reducing food waste is more than just investing money

Food waste is not only a matter of investing money, but it also needs to affect the company culture. For this transition to be successful, it is important that everyone is supportive and actively engaged.

Start Step 1 now with the innius scorecard

10 reasons for production line food waste

Get the food waste scorecard

Food waste as a profitable business case

There is a way to solve the challenges mentioned above. Suppose you make food waste not only a sustainability goal, but a profitable business case. That you make an invisible problem transparent, including the associated financial costs. But without your own data tools and in-house expertise to make this possible. And then, solve this step by step with predictable investments where you can see exactly what it costs per step and what it yields. Fully in control.

What would that mean for your business?

Data driven decision making platform for food manufacturers

Industrial IoT platform Innius and partner QING make it possible to gain insight into food waste whatever your production line. Using a unique method, they turn food waste into a profitable business case.

This is how it works

Innius and QING provide a data platform to which you can connect your production line machines. If necessary, including extra sensors to collect specific data. Thanks to the machine data, you gain insight into a possible food waste problem. Possible, because being 100% sure that you don’t have a food waste problem is also valuable. In addition, you proactively receive improvement proposals with predictable investments. That way you know exactly what the next step costs and what it will yield.

More than just data

The data platform not only offers you access to important data regarding food waste. It is also a tool to convince others within your organization, as to why tackling food waste is a priority. It also helps you to create support from your colleagues because they are fully engaged in the process.

A 25% reduction of food waste in 5 steps

With these 5 steps, Innius and QING ensure that you not only gain insight, but also control over your food waste.

Step 1 - Define: Map your production process

Together with Innius and QING, you determine with which production line you want to minimize food waste. Define your optimization goal and connect the production line with sensors from QING to the Innius platform. Start today with the food waste scorecard.

Step 2 - Measure: Real time monitoring of the production line

The production line is monitored in real time based on the connected data points. As soon as the production line is connected, there is immediate insight into how much food waste the production line is causing. The first measurement is a baseline measurement. This is the starting point to achieving the set goal.

Step 3 - Analyze: Improving Production Line

In the Analyse phase, the collected data is analysed more deeply. Innius and QING look at how the production line behaves to determine where improvements are needed to achieve the stated goal.

Step 4 - Improve: Concrete improvement proposals

In this phase, improvement proposals are generated and planned. Together with those involved in the production process (including the maintenance team), where discussions are held about which improvements are possible to achieve the set goal. In this way you also get important stakeholders involved in the changes.

When several improvement proposals have been made, the best option is determined to implement the improvement. A schedule is then drawn up to implement the selected improvement on the production line.

Step 5 - Control: The desired result

In this step, real time measurements are used to check whether the implemented improvement has had the desired result. The new solutions are integrated in the process. The chosen solution may require an adjustment in the production process. All production employees must of course be aware of this and, where necessary, be trained in this.

A low threshold solution for food waste

Do you also want to gain insight into invisible food waste problems based on data, without having to invest tens of thousands of euros? And solve the problem in small predictable steps, demonstrating what it will cost and what it will yield?

With a low threshold start Innius and QING help you get started and work through steps 1 to 3. You get an insight into the food waste in a production line. You will receive an initial analysis and an improvement proposal for a fixed price. After that, you are in control of whether you want to continue or not. You are completely in control.