Preventing product damage is important to any manufacturer, but is particularly crucial to the food industry where jammed perishables can make for a real mess. Such was the case for a frozen pancake manufacturer whose inefficient conveyor system was creating a lot of flapjack fragments.

A re-engineered production flow and conveyor system changed all that, though. And key to the improved system was simulation software, which ensured the conveyor could meet the manufacturer's strict limitations of no more than 0.2% product damage and 96% run-time efficiency.

The pancake maker needed more controlled product flow as pancakes move from a refrigerated spiral conveyor to wrapping machines. Its spiral conveyor was dispersing 720 pancakes a minute randomly onto a 42-inch wide conveyor. This caused pancakes to frequently jam as multiple lines merged into a stacking area. Additional labor was necessary to manually rearrange the pancakes.

To eliminate its problems and excess labor costs, the company chose a system layout that channels pancakes into six orderly streams as they emerge from the freezer. Pancakes are then stacked six high and merged onto a single-lane, plastic-chain, curved conveyor toward the wrapping machine.

The only catch of the newly designed system was that it had to demonstrate success before being implemented. The conveyor manufacturer therefore used simulation software to calculate variables that could occur as pancakes are processed. Based on the conveyor system's estimated flow rates and product distribution, the software helped create a streamlined process. In fact, the simulation showed that timing conveyor speeds based on the travel length of the conveyor would eliminate pancake collisions that typically occur with single-lane conveyors.

Once installed, the system has reduced the labor required for monitoring production from four workers to only one. And the system operates with more than 96% efficiency and less than 0.2% product damage just as required.