Digital In-Line Blending Continuously Standardizes Non-dairy Products

The H.P. Hood plant at Oneida, NY, shifted from a batch to a continuous process for standardizing non-dairy creamer production with a skid-mounted Digital In-Line Blending system designed and installed by JCS Controls, Inc. (Rochester, NY). The new system boosts production by 30% in only 43% of the original batch-process time, reduces non-dairy production labor by 60%, reduces energy consumption by 20%, and eliminates rework.

Non-dairy creamer demand formerly exceeded the plant's ability to batch and process. Although the plant was producing non-dairy creamers seven days per week, production fell behind whenever maintenance was required on process equipment. JCS Controls conducted an engineering study to determine how the plant could change its batching process to increase production, and/or accommodate the large family of H.P. Hood products (including heavy cream, light cream, whipping cream, half-and-half and at least 20 products co-packed for others.) JCS then proposed a three-phase retrofit project which would ultimately resolve all processing and product conflicts for both dairy and non-dairy products. The first phase, completed this year, removed non-dairy production from the batch process and applied continuous Digital In-Line Blending to non-dairy products.