Top 3 Tips to Streamline Food Processing and Conveying

Tom Vilsack, the Agriculture Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), announced earlier this month that approximately $400 million is now available to "strengthen and enhance local and regional food systems across the nation." 

The goal is to support smaller producers, processors, and distributors to diversify economic opportunities and streamline food processing and conveying throughout the agriculture industry. Building on lessons learned during the pandemic, the USDA wants to provide technical assistance to improve local and regional supply chains. 

According to the USDA, the Regional Food Business Centers will use these funds to help small to mid-sized food and farm businesses create a more streamlined food system to eliminate food shortages and supply chain issues in the future.  

3 Tips to Streamline Food Processing and Conveying

Food processing plants must run at maximum efficiency. To run a successful operation, you will need to systemize and optimize each plant’s production line to improve OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). 

Increasing the cost-effectiveness and productivity of your plant by streamlining operations will improve your output. Keep your food production line operating systematically with these three tips for streamlining operations:

Streamline cleaning and maintenance time and costs 

Conduct regular cleaning and maintenance on your conveyors. A consistent, more reliable, eco-friendly cleaning process will reduce ongoing cleaning and labor costs. Streamlining cleaning and maintenance will also reduce product loss and guarantee a clean operation to ensure food safety.

Improving the cleaning process is especially important between shift changes to reduce areas of potential contamination and ensure food safety in all plant locations.

Streamline employee training throughout all plant locations using the spiral 

Employees that operate your production lines obviously require training on how to run your machinery. They should know how to identify potential issues and act to fix problems when they arise. 

If your plant uses the cutting-edge technology of a spiral conveyor, ensure that your staff knows how to run these conveyors effectively and efficiently. 

If your plant uses spiral conveyor technology, ensure that your staff knows how to run these conveyors effectively and efficiently.

The spiral conveyor features an open design to minimize harborage points, offers a transferless solution, and helps eliminate the threat of recalls. A well-trained staff can further optimize productions that use spiral conveyors.

Cut out transfer points that cause damage and delays

Increase end-of-line packaging productivity by cutting out transfer points. Every conveying system has transfer points. Small productions may have a handful, while larger plants could have hundreds. 

The challenge is that each of these points creates the risk of damaging products. They can slow down the conveying process and require more maintenance than the conveyor would need without the additional transfer points.  

Reducing the number of transfer points is one solution and the most effective. For transfer points that are unavoidable, fill in gaps to lessen damaging incidents. 

Streamline Your Food Processing and Conveying with Solutions from SideDrive Conveyor Co.

If you're looking to streamline operations for your food processing and conveying plant, consider a spiral conveyor from SideDrive Conveyor Co. It's your sanitary solution that also offers a transferless system for optimal productivity.

Contact us today to discuss the best ways to streamline your food processing and conveying operations.