Pet Food & Bird Seed Manufacture information
More than 12 million households and a total of 51 million pets. That’s the scale of pet ownership in the UK, according to the Pet Food Manufacturer’s Association 2018 report*.
It’s the reason why The £2.8bn market for pet food continues to increase, diversify and flourish.
With pet food manufacturers often producing a wide variety of ranges and products, traceability and quality is as important for pet food manufacturers as for other food processors.
Ensuring the right raw materials are used within each batch and the product consistency is maintained requires detailed planning, controls and reporting.
From dog food to bird feed manufacture
From managing dry or wet dog food on different lines to combining data on multiple mix processes for bird feed. SI’s pet food software solution provides the same superior real-time control as we deliver for other sectors of the food manufacturing industry.
With information available in real-time and archived for future audits, you will always know what has happened to every batch.
For example, SI’s recipe management software:
- ensures that the right raw materials are added to the mix and the defined tolerances are observed
- monitors all cooking temperatures for dog food, or even what bird feed products are in the treatment or drying room.
- automate process and data capture pick-up points, eliminating human error
- manages mass balance, waste and margins.
- simultaneously updates stock levels.
Data capture provides full control and visibility
Because SI’s technicians only work in the food production sector, we have a vast knowledge of how to integrate equipment on the shop-floor, enabling our customers to benefit from capturing data at every key part of the process.
With all data managed and processed in real-time by the SI central hub, we can create visual dashboards that give production teams within the pet food processing industry ‘one version of the truth’. One version of the truth will deliver complete visibility, QA control and traceability throughout your factory floor and back-office operations.
All pet food manufacturing processes can be checked, measured and reported on, including:
- Managing raw material checks at intake.
- Ensuring processing machinery is operating properly (i.e. cooking, mixing and packaging).
- Confirming the right raw material has been added to the batch.
- Capturing and managing specification tolerances.
- Recording the actual conditions that the batch was subjected to for traceability.
- Producing the right date for canning or other OCM, labelling and packaging.
- Providing a failsafe picking and despatch solution.
Labelling with full traceability and bespoke designs
Getting labelling wrong can lead to expensive recalls or reworks.
With more detail required by retailers to satisfy consumer demands and changes in legislation, ensuring all the information required is accurate before labels are printed is critical.
This is why the SI labelling module has been designed to integrate with OCM equipment, sending the exact information needed from each batch to the individual product and the outer case label for boxes and pallets.
Our solution even prevents the wrong labels being used after a batch has finished, eliminating overrun errors or incorrect labelling.
With the inbuilt design functionality, label designs can be changed, proofed and sent for approval much quicker, speeding up the whole process.
*For more information from the Pet Food Manufacturer’s Association 2018 ‘Pet Data Report 2018’ visit https://www.pfma.org.uk/pet-population-2018
If you work within this challenging food manufacturing sector and would like to discuss ways to improve efficiency, productivity and margins, we’re here to help.
Simply call 01543 444 555 to talk to one of our experts or email info@siltd.co.uk to find out more about our fresh produce processing software capabilities.