Pet food producer improves automated packaging line

Wagg Foods has increased its overall equipment efficiency by 30 percent with OAL Connected, a modular suite of packaging line software.

Photo by Andrea Gantz
Photo by Andrea Gantz

Wagg Foods, UK premium pet food producer, has increased its overall equipment efficiency by 30 percent with OAL Connected, a modular suite of packaging line software. Wagg Foods has also secured its packaging lines from errors and ensured full compliance with retailers’ code of practice, according to a company press release.

As part of its focus on quality, nutrition and product development, Wagg Foods was looking to eliminate human errors and improve its operational efficiency. Wagg Foods was attracted to the OAL Connected system because it offers label and date code verification with the option to expand functionality.

At its core, the automated system verifies the labels, packaging and date codes on every product. The same system can then be used for factory performance monitoring, offering the real-time data and metrics required to implement a successful continuous improvement, OEE program. Additional functionality also includes paperless quality checks and checkweigher links to ensure full traceability.

The OAL Autocoding label and date code verification module places control of the packaging line with Wagg’s technical team rather than operators on the line, ensuring compliance with retailers’ codes of practice.

The automated system links a master database of products, scanners, printers and touchscreen PCs on the production line. The same touchscreen PC on the production line can then record product counts and downtime reason codes, replacing existing manual production logs. As part of a continuous improvement strategy, Wagg Foods used this data and reporting to drive improvements. Operational managers can then predict and plan their factory more efficiently using the collated data.

Working with the OAL team, Wagg Foods has been able to further protect its brand against product recalls related to label and date code errors. 

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