Whether buying a pound of butter or 10 metric tons of flour for a bakery, customers expect to get what they pay for—not less, maybe a trifle more—because if it’s slightly under the stated weight, a processor is technically breaking the law. But of course, product given away could siphon off profits a little bit at a time until it adds up to a large sum at the end of the year.

It’s that little bit that can hurt deeply. For example, Scott Duncan, Hardy Process Solutions product manager, sensors and scales, recounts a story not atypical in the food and beverage industry: A large snack foods manufacturer was having a problem with overfill, but wasn’t sure just how much of a problem it was. So, the processor introduced Hardy’s checkweighing machinery into multiple lines at its plant. Each line produces 120 packs per minute with an uptime of 85 percent a year. Overfill typically measured two grams per pack. While the product cost was only a tenth of a cent per gram, overfill cost per year was calculated at $107,222 per line. Therefore, reducing overfill by just one gram per pack would save $53,611 per year, per line. Of course, to trim back the extra weight would require a closer look at the filling process and the sensors in use.