Ben MorrisKnow-how of Enterprise Editor
A stream of scorching caramel runs by means of the Thomas Tunnock manufacturing unit simply outdoors Glasgow.
From the second flooring the place it’s made, it runs alongside conveyor belts all the way down to the primary flooring, bringing a a candy, heat aroma to the constructing.
However working with caramel isn’t simple. Skilled employees need to verify 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 era of the Tunnock household to work on the enterprise.
“Operators do a whole lot of caramel testing, simply on sight and on really feel. So principally, they stroll as much as the caramel and simply give it a squeeze.”
As soon as made, a conveyor belt takes the caramel all the way 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, many of the remainder of the manufacturing unit is automated.
The corporate has at all times tried to make use of the newest know-how 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 a giant pond, and to try to sustain with a few of these larger firms that we’re competing towards, you have to have the great machines there to get the output,” says Mr Louden.
They do have machines to unfold the caramel, which work at night time, 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 yr.
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 below shut human supervision.
In the meantime, the wrapping of the wafer bar is folded across the product, somewhat than sealed on the ends. If Tunnock’s switched to sealing then the manufacturing line might run extra rapidly.
“It is a good factor. If you happen to give individuals a caramel wafer, and anyone’s not had one for 20 or 30, years, they go, ‘I keep in mind having considered one of 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 velocity and custom.
Canada’s Unifiller, a part of Coperion a giant maker of apparatus for meals manufacturing, spent years growing a robotic arm, referred to as HIRO.
It is designed to embellish truffles and might deal with all kinds of toppings, together with caramel.
“If you happen to 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 improvement supervisor at Coperion.
However making tools for the meals trade includes further challenges – maybe the most important being hygiene.
“You must make issues simple to take aside, so that individuals clear them. The underside line is, if it is not simple to take aside, you do not clear it.”
Unifiller’s robotic arm comes from Swiss robotics agency Stäubli, which might provide an arm that is simple to scrub.
One other complication is the variability of meals merchandise like truffles.
On manufacturing traces in most industries parts would be the similar measurement, typically to inside fractions of a millimetre. That is not the case in baking, the place the truffles rolling down a line shall be completely different – not by a lot – however sufficient,maybe, to upset a robotic.
“The cake might not be completely centred on the cardboard it is sitting on. It could be just a little bit oval, could also be just a little bit increased or barely domed. So, our answer has to accommodate that,” says Mr Lanoville.
For Anomarel Ogen, human fingers 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 three hundred and sixty five days a yr, supplying sourdough loaves to Gail’s, in addition to supermarkets, retailers and eating places.
It makes use of round 16 tonnes of flour to provide as much as 40,000 loaves a day, which appears like quite a bit however, in contrast with the enormous bakers, remains 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 can be farmed utilizing sustainable strategies that prioritise soil well being.
Mr Ogen says which means their dough is delicate. We watch considered one of their employees forming loaves from the dough.
“Take a look at his fingers, and look how light he really is with the motion, how little stress he’s really placing in. That requires years of talent. This isn’t absolutely replaceable by machines simply but,” says Mr Ogen.
Having workers within the manufacturing unit additionally provides flexibility to the manufacturing course of. If the recipe is tweaked, they will monitor the impression that has on the dough and alter the baking course of, if obligatory.
“You possibly can 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 stability, says Craig Le Clair, principal analyst on the analysis agency Forrester, and in addition the writer of Random Acts of Automation: The best way to Battle Again When Automation Threatens Your Work, Your Life, and Every thing You Do.
“The important thing in meals in addition to different industries is growing a hybrid mannequin that integrates automation with out shedding the “soul” of a handcrafted product, like a embellished cake.
“Course of transformation should apply automation solely to areas that profit from consistency, velocity, and quantity, whereas holding core value-add components 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 yr is basically nailing down our scanning, imaginative and prescient and and security techniques 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 atmosphere. Cocoa costs have been risky over the previous two years, which has a huge impact on his agency.
“With regards to 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 proper time, and we do not wish to put ourselves financially ready that it might damage us.”
