Articles by Wayne Labs

A modular, flexible production line
Automation

Modularity brings flexibility in automating production lines

It also affords processors the ability to experiment with changes in batches or creating entirely new products, often with simply re-configuring lines.
Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
July 9, 2020

Today, consumers expect to choose from a wide choice of brands and products—not just from the “center” of the store, but fresh and organic products from the periphery of the store. Sometimes new products are short lived and are designed to be that way—because consumers’ choices turn on a dime. Automation can help processors turn products around faster by increasing production.


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InfinityQS Doug Fair and Chris Kearsley
IT systems and COVID-19

Quality management software supplier updates IT system just in time for COVID-19

When a series of power outages caused systemic IT failure, moving to the cloud provided a solution and let the staff work from home or anywhere
Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
June 23, 2020
While it’s often been said that the shoemaker has no shoes for his own children, sometimes a similar thing can happen with a software company. Only in this case, InfinityQS, a supplier of data-driven enterprise quality management software, had an aging on-premises IT system, all crammed in together in the traditional “server room.”
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COVID-19 and the internet
Supply chains

What the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us about the internet

Supply chains used to survive without the internet, but could they now?
Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
June 19, 2020

When I was an electrical engineer building emergency wireless communications networks, I learned about the importance of having backups—sometimes the hard way, with a 3 a.m. phone call reporting a system is down and the backup system didn’t kick in.


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R Series scraped surface heat exchanger
Engineering R&D

Heat exchangers get better with age

Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
June 10, 2020
Some things actually get better with age as creative engineering improves performance, decreases energy usage and makes a device more efficient and better able to handle a new range of food or beverage products.
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Willy Shih, Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at the Harvard Business School
COVID-19 and the supply chain

COVID-19’s effect on the supply chain could have been lessened

Loftware’s interview with Harvard Business School Professor Willi Shih points out weak links in the supply chain—weak links that should have been seen sooner
Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
June 4, 2020

Loftware President and CEO Robert O’Connor spoke with Harvard Business School Professor Willi Shih in a live on-line Webinar entitled “COVID-19, Labeling, and Supply Chain Continuity,” to look at some lessons learned in the supply chain during the COVID-19 outbreak, which, of course, isn’t over yet.


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FE 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey
2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey: Part 2

The quest for the ideal food manufacturing site

Architectural and engineering design/build firms explain the site-related, key issues facing processors as they plan to renovate or build a new facility
Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
June 3, 2020
While we've looked at the key issues - including COVID-19 - facing food processors and A&E/Cs this year in FE's 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey, there's a lot more to discuss.
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FE 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey
2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey: Part 3

FSMA: Getting to the security aspects of food

You’d think FSMA is a done-deal, but not so much for food defense and intentional adulteration, which still need attention in facility design
Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Wayne Labs
June 3, 2020
While we've looked at the key issues - including COVID-19 - facing food processors and A&E/Cs this year in FE's 2020 Annual Plant Construction Survey, there's a lot more to discuss.
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