The background
Moy Park Ltd is one of Europe's leading food processors with sites in Northern Ireland, England and France. The company produces a wide variety of poultry products, none more classic than its own label, flagship dish - the breaded chicken Kiev with garlic butter.
With sales of the Kiev constantly rising and even greater volumes projected due to promotional activities, Moy Park was driven to streamline its production process to keep up with demand cost-effectively into the future.
The challenge
The existing process was not fast enough and far too labour-intensive because it involved placing the product into a tray, over-wrapping it with stretch film, and then hand applying a sleeve.
To design a better, faster system and enjoy the reduced costs that increased automation would bring, RPS was tasked with making the three key stages of the process work together. The process needed to move away from over-wrapping. Manual application of the sleeve had to be replaced with total automation. And finally, the packs needed to be collated automatically for shrink-wrapping into bundles in order to reduce transit costs.
The solution
RPS was convinced that top web sealing (TWS) was the best alternative to over-wrapping in the first stage. But for the second stage, none of the automated sleeving solutions on the market could match the speeds TWS could handle, which was essential to achieving reduced costs. Consequently, if the sleeve option was kept, then the third stage, automatic collation, would remain just a pipe dream because the trays would slide out of the sleeves when the machine picked them up to be bundled.
Key to achieving total success was devising a solution to all three stages, because savings from the second and third stages were financing the capital expenditure for the project.
RPS still believed printed top web film was the answer and that the other stages would simply have to be pulled into line. Although in material terms there would be no direct saving from TWS, this option could at least cope with the increased production speeds, required no manual intervention, and would ensure the end of line collation system could operate, as no sleeves were involved.
The major hurdle was the tray sealing kit itself. It had a step/repeat cycle of 860mm and with no flexographic printers able to print reels of film to match that size, the project seemed doomed to fail.
That was until RPS hatched a plan to 'trick' the tray sealing equipment into 'stepping' twice within the normal cycle. Working closely with the machinery manufacturers and the printers, RPS developed the software that would read a specific trigger printed on the film, which in turn made the machine prematurely step but not seal until the second step. This smart device now meant that a repeat length of 430mm was all that was needed, and preprinted reels of film could be produced to match that specification.
RPS had some trial reels printed that ran perfectly, leading Moy Park to choose printed top film as its preferred solution.
The winning package
RPS had realised Moy Park's goal by achieving a fast, highly automated production line that delivered cost-savings, and involved no additional capital expenditure into the bargain.
Through the use of top web sealing, Moy Park has more than doubled the production speed of Kievs compared to the previous process of over-wrap and conventional sleeves.
Since the film is pre-printed, a conventional sleeve does not have to be hand applied to each Kiev tray, thereby achieving significant labour savings. Top web sealing has also made automated collation a reality. The machine can collate up to 12 packs securely and shrink-wrap them into bundles, removing the cost of using plastic crates or corrugated cases.
By pushing established technology to its limits and ignoring received wisdom about what is and what is not possible, RPS created the perfect solution.
Moy Park Ltd is one of Europe's leading food processors with sites in Northern Ireland, England and France. The company produces a wide variety of poultry products, none more classic than its own label, flagship dish - the breaded chicken Kiev with garlic butter.
With sales of the Kiev constantly rising and even greater volumes projected due to promotional activities, Moy Park was driven to streamline its production process to keep up with demand cost-effectively into the future.
The challenge
The existing process was not fast enough and far too labour-intensive because it involved placing the product into a tray, over-wrapping it with stretch film, and then hand applying a sleeve.
To design a better, faster system and enjoy the reduced costs that increased automation would bring, RPS was tasked with making the three key stages of the process work together. The process needed to move away from over-wrapping. Manual application of the sleeve had to be replaced with total automation. And finally, the packs needed to be collated automatically for shrink-wrapping into bundles in order to reduce transit costs.
The solution
RPS was convinced that top web sealing (TWS) was the best alternative to over-wrapping in the first stage. But for the second stage, none of the automated sleeving solutions on the market could match the speeds TWS could handle, which was essential to achieving reduced costs. Consequently, if the sleeve option was kept, then the third stage, automatic collation, would remain just a pipe dream because the trays would slide out of the sleeves when the machine picked them up to be bundled.
Key to achieving total success was devising a solution to all three stages, because savings from the second and third stages were financing the capital expenditure for the project.
RPS still believed printed top web film was the answer and that the other stages would simply have to be pulled into line. Although in material terms there would be no direct saving from TWS, this option could at least cope with the increased production speeds, required no manual intervention, and would ensure the end of line collation system could operate, as no sleeves were involved.
The major hurdle was the tray sealing kit itself. It had a step/repeat cycle of 860mm and with no flexographic printers able to print reels of film to match that size, the project seemed doomed to fail.
That was until RPS hatched a plan to 'trick' the tray sealing equipment into 'stepping' twice within the normal cycle. Working closely with the machinery manufacturers and the printers, RPS developed the software that would read a specific trigger printed on the film, which in turn made the machine prematurely step but not seal until the second step. This smart device now meant that a repeat length of 430mm was all that was needed, and preprinted reels of film could be produced to match that specification.
RPS had some trial reels printed that ran perfectly, leading Moy Park to choose printed top film as its preferred solution.
The winning package
RPS had realised Moy Park's goal by achieving a fast, highly automated production line that delivered cost-savings, and involved no additional capital expenditure into the bargain.
Through the use of top web sealing, Moy Park has more than doubled the production speed of Kievs compared to the previous process of over-wrap and conventional sleeves.
Since the film is pre-printed, a conventional sleeve does not have to be hand applied to each Kiev tray, thereby achieving significant labour savings. Top web sealing has also made automated collation a reality. The machine can collate up to 12 packs securely and shrink-wrap them into bundles, removing the cost of using plastic crates or corrugated cases.
By pushing established technology to its limits and ignoring received wisdom about what is and what is not possible, RPS created the perfect solution.
