CASE STUDY


A BETTER PACKAGING DEAL O


ne of America’s oldest potato chip manufacturers, Better Made Snack Foods’ formula for success has been


to maintain its original standards for high product quality. Demand for its brand name and private


label snacks is now higher than at any time since the company fried its first chip in 1930. And that growth recently prompted Better Made to find a better way to season and package its potato chips and sticks. “Our old conveyors were too noisy. Our


old seasoning tumblers and bagmakers limited production output. And our product handling system could barely move the output of one 3,200 lb/hr fryer. “It was so overloaded we’d have chips


spilling onto the floor,” recalled Mike Schena, president and chief operations officer at Better Made. For potato chips and sticks alone, Better


Made runs up to 20 different bag sizes and 14 types of seasonings with four or five changeovers per shift. “We had to run some products several


times a week, which made order scheduling incredibly complicated,” explains Schena.


9­ Ishida bagmakers in action. Luckily, a better system was readily


available. “We conducted our own industry survey and Heat and Control was the company others kept recommending,” says Schena. “For our needs, Heat and Control’s


FastBack and Ishida system was the best choice because of its efficiency and product delivery without broken chips. Heat and Control’s history of installing


complete systems was also very encouraging,” noted Schena. At Better Made’s plant in Detroit,


Michigan, Heat and Control provided the latest technology in one complete package. The system was composed of four integrated Ishida weighers and bagmakers, FastBack on-machine seasoning and Revolution product distribution systems, an ITM-Plant iT control and manufacturing execution system (MES), and a modular Rapid Deployment packaging platform, and including support from highly experienced engineering, installation, and commissioning teams. “To achieve the highest level of quality


and productivity for Better Made, equipment for the entire on-machine seasoning and packaging room was designed to behave as a single cohesive system, and not just a room full of individual unit operations,” said Blake Svejkovsky, product handling systems manager at Heat and Control. “The product demands of each


weigher-bagmaker are continuously communicated to the FastBack conveyors and Revolution distribution gates through


Potato Processing Int. Magazine - Digital Digest • www.potatobusiness.com 9­


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