This is the story of a family farming business c north of France, passed by the father to his sons about twenty years ago. During this time, the company managed to earn a reputation as a reliable supplier washed potatoes.
The business grew steadily during the first few years. To meet the growing demand for products in 2007, the decision was made to make capital investments for the first time. Thus, a modern sorting line appeared in the building of the new workshop, which included an automatic sorting plant of the first generation. With its help, the company intended to open up new sales channels for itself, such as supplying products to supermarkets, exporting, providing packaging services for third-party manufacturers.
Initially, the Vandale brothers processed only produce from their own fields. Subsequently, they decided to increase production by purchasing raw materials from other manufacturers and importing packaged potatoes, as well as packaging potatoes for third-party companies.
A 30% increase in production volumes was designated as a specific target. However, achieving such significant indicators would require an increase in the number of staff involved in manual sorting, as well as the commissioning of a second line of manual sorting.
Such measures were due to the specifics of the main raw materials of the Flandre Pomme de Terre company: the processing of very small potatoes is not an easy task, even for experienced employees.
As a result, it was decided to go the other way and equip the existing line with the latest optical sorter of the highest quality, which would significantly increase the volume of products.
“This was the best way to ensure the stability of the sorting process, minimize organizational costs, increase seasonal productivity and achieve desired growth rates, while avoiding the need to hire and train seasonal workers and reduce the quality of the finished product,” explained Olivier Vandaele. CEO of Flandre Pomme de Terre.
Having studied the solutions presented on the market and tested the equipment on samples of his own products in the demonstration center in Leuven, Olivier Vandale chose the model Sentinel II from TOMRA Food.
The plant was commissioned in November 2019 and almost immediately began operating at maximum capacity, processing all possible varieties of potatoes. She completely changed the entire production process of the enterprise. Employee shifts have become shorter, their workload has decreased. Moreover, it became possible to involve these employees in other work.
«Specialist TOMRA Food spent two days at our enterprise while the equipment was being installed. During this time, he managed to teach us how to work on it, told in detail about the most useful pre-installed sorting programs and showed how to calibrate and set up the machine, ”the plant operator shared his impressions.
“For each batch of products that go into sorting, we just need to check the settings to account for differences in product characteristics such as color. In addition, we have to take into account the criteria set by our customers. There is nothing difficult here. Hopefully I will be able to explore all the possibilities of this sorting machine soon. In particular, I will be able to set up the Sentinel II as easily as the technicians at the Leuven test center do, ”said Olivier Vandale, smiling.
Sentinel II: fully meeting expectations
Already in the first season of operation, the Sentinel II showed good performance. In 2019, farmers faced challenges when the very porous soil caused the potatoes to peel off, leaving a lot of skins on the line that the Sentinel II was able to detect and sort efficiently.
In the production line, the Sentinel II stands after the washer-polisher. The installation is configured in such a way that the output is three types of products: waste, too large or too small tubers and a good product. This allowed the company to easily manage the production volumes.
Sentinel II provides quality control of tubers as they arrive. Green, spoiled, pest-infested tubers are easily separated from the main stream and sent to waste. This greatly facilitates subsequent manual product handling and quality control.
"Batches of potatoes sorted with an optical setup TOMRA, have homogeneous characteristics. This allows the downstream processes to be optimized and thereby ensure that the products are tailored to the specific requirements of the customer, ”commented Olivier Vandale.
Grégoire Volpoet, Regional Sales Manager overseeing the project, added: “The first thing to do was to increase the production capacity of the plant, eliminating the difficulty of recruiting qualified personnel. That is why Flandre Pomme de Terre decided to look for more modern technologies for automating sorting processes. As a result, a solution was chosen from TOMRA... The client was convinced of the feasibility of such investments by the quality of the finished product. We are very glad that our client was satisfied with the new purchase, and we hope that our cooperation will last for a long time. This will be the best reward for our entire team. "
About Us TOMRA Food
Company TOMRA Food is engaged in the development and manufacture of sensor sorting equipment and integrated post-harvest technology for the food industry. Our solutions are based on the world's most advanced quality control, sorting, cleaning and process analysis technologies. More than 8000 of our machines are installed in different countries in the factories for the production, packaging and processing of food: fruits, nuts, vegetables, potatoes, grains and seeds, dried fruits, meat and seafood. The mission of the company is to provide customers with smart and practical technological solutions that increase their investment efficiency, increase productivity and ensure food safety. TOMRA Food has its own innovation centers, regional offices and production sites in the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia.
TOMRA Food Included in the group of companies TOMRAfounded in 1972. The pioneering activity of the company began with the design, production and sale of vending machines for the collection of used beverage containers. To date TOMRA offers high-tech solutions that contribute to the development of a circular economy, which includes the use of advanced collection and sorting systems. These solutions ensure that resource use is recovered and waste is minimized in the food, mining and recycling industries.
At the moment, about 100 technological solutions TOMRA used by customers in more than 80 markets. In 2019, the company's total revenue was approximately NOK 9,3 billion. The group employs approximately 4500 international employees and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE: TOM). Additional information about the company TOMRA can be found on the site www.tomra.com.
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