Ben MorrisKnow-how of Enterprise Editor
A stream of sizzling caramel runs by means of the Thomas Tunnock manufacturing unit simply exterior Glasgow.
From the second flooring the place it’s made, it runs alongside conveyor belts right down to the primary flooring, bringing a a candy, heat aroma to the constructing.
However working with caramel is just not straightforward. Skilled employees need to test that it’s on the proper consistency, and it takes a group of 12 to unfold the caramel in 5 layers that make up the Tunnock’s wafer biscuit.
“We’re making roughly 20 tonnes of caramel a day,” says Stuart Louden, the agency’s engineering and transport supervisor, and the fifth technology of the Tunnock household to work on the enterprise.
“Operators do loads of caramel testing, simply on sight and on really feel. So mainly, they stroll as much as the caramel and simply give it a squeeze.”
As soon as made, a conveyor belt takes the caramel right down to the ground under, the place the spreading group works.
“Spreading caramel onto wafers may be very, very tough as a result of it is so sticky,” says Mr Louden.
Whereas this can be a labour intensive a part of the Tunnock’s operation, a lot of the remainder of the manufacturing unit is automated.
The corporate has at all times tried to make use of the newest expertise to assist sustain with the competitors. In contrast with the snack giants like McVitie’s or Fox’s, Tunnock’s is a small participant.
“We’re a small fish in an enormous pond, and to attempt to sustain with a few of these greater firms that we’re competing in opposition to, you have to have the nice machines there to get the output,” says Mr Louden.
They do have machines to unfold the caramel, which work at evening, however the human workforce is extra versatile and takes up much less area.
Between them, the machines and people end up round seven million wafer bars and 4.5 million tea truffles a 12 months.
Elevating output could be a balancing act for the agency, between sustaining their traditions and rising output.
For instance, like their caramel manufacturing, Tunnock’s marshmallow is made beneath shut human supervision.
In the meantime, the wrapping of the wafer bar is folded across the product, slightly than sealed on the ends. If Tunnock’s switched to sealing then the manufacturing line may run extra shortly.
“It is a good factor. In case you give folks a caramel wafer, and any person’s not had one for 20 or 30, years, they go, ‘I keep in mind having one in all these once I was a child’.”
The makers of a brand new robotic arm for the cake trade are hoping to bridge that hole between pace and custom.
Canada’s Unifiller, a part of Coperion an enormous maker of kit for meals manufacturing, spent years growing a robotic arm, referred to as HIRO.
It is designed to brighten truffles and may deal with all types of toppings, together with caramel.
“In case you can squeeze it by means of a pastry bag… then it can undergo our tools and the the adorning ideas,” says Derek Lanoville, the analysis and growth supervisor at Coperion.
However making tools for the meals trade entails further challenges – maybe the largest being hygiene.
“You need to make issues straightforward to take aside, so that individuals clear them. The underside line is, if it isn’t straightforward to take aside, you do not clear it.”
Unifiller’s robotic arm comes from Swiss robotics agency Stäubli, which may provide an arm that is straightforward to scrub.
One other complication is the variability of meals merchandise like truffles.
On manufacturing strains in most industries elements would be the identical measurement, typically to inside fractions of a millimetre. That is not the case in baking, the place the truffles rolling down a line can be totally different – not by a lot – however sufficient,maybe, to upset a robotic.
“The cake is probably not completely centred on the cardboard it is sitting on. It might be a bit of bit oval, could also be a bit of bit greater or barely domed. So, our resolution has to accommodate that,” says Mr Lanoville.
For Anomarel Ogen, human arms are nonetheless important to the baking course of.
Mr Ogen is head baker at The Bread Manufacturing facility, which is the place merchandise for the café chain Gail’s are baked.
Their bakery in northwest London runs 24 hours a day and one year a 12 months, supplying sourdough loaves to Gail’s, in addition to supermarkets, outlets and eating places.
It makes use of round 16 tonnes of flour to supply as much as 40,000 loaves a day, which seems like rather a lot however, in contrast with the enormous bakers, continues to be a medium-sized enterprise.
Machines combine the dough and divide it into into smaller, loaf-sized portions.
They use a variety of flours which are farmed utilizing sustainable strategies that prioritise soil well being.
Mr Ogen says meaning their dough is delicate. We watch one in all their employees forming loaves from the dough.
“Have a look at his arms, and look how light he truly is with the motion, how little strain he’s truly placing in. That requires years of ability. This isn’t totally replaceable by machines simply but,” says Mr Ogen.
Having employees within the manufacturing unit additionally provides flexibility to the manufacturing course of. If the recipe is tweaked, they’ll monitor the impression that has on the dough and alter the baking course of, if essential.
“You’ll be able to automate extra, however you continue to have to put in gatekeeping proper alongside the trail, to just remember to can safeguard the method,” says Mr Ogen.
Introducing new tech to a manufacturing line is at all times a steadiness, says Craig Le Clair, principal analyst on the analysis agency Forrester, and in addition the writer of Random Acts of Automation: Methods to Combat Again When Automation Threatens Your Work, Your Life, and All the things You Do.
“The important thing in meals in addition to different industries is growing a hybrid mannequin that integrates automation with out dropping the “soul” of a handcrafted product, like a embellished cake.
“Course of transformation should apply automation solely to areas that profit from consistency, pace, and quantity, whereas retaining core value-add parts strictly human,” he says.
Again at tools maker Coperion, Mr Lanoville has plans to develop the robotic arm additional.
“What we’re targeted on this 12 months is de facto nailing down our scanning, imaginative and prescient and and security programs in order that, in order that our our prospects can work the way in which that they work, with out the robotic being intrusive.”
In the meantime in Glasgow, Mr Louden has plans to improve his manufacturing line, however a lot hinges on the monetary setting. Cocoa costs have been unstable over the previous two years, which has a big effect on his agency.
“On the subject of investing one other two-and-a-half million kilos in tools, we simply want to attend, as a result of the final couple of years simply haven’t been the appropriate time, and we do not wish to put ourselves financially able that it may harm us.”
