Weighing Up the Benefits of the HT-CL Traffic Light Scale
Weighing is an essential metric at the core of manufacturing processes, particularly for packaged food and fresh produce. In the Queensland Strawberry season, an emerging trend has producers looking at weighing in a different light (or lights in this case) to improve product yields with some staggering results.
The change has been a simple, and it’s one that other fresh produce and manual packing operations across the industry can apply for potentially massive gains: using traffic lights to ensure accurate packing. People respond to signals with far less thought process than looking at numbers. Green means “GO”, Red means “STOP” – it’s part of everyday life, transcending language and cultural communication barriers.
Braetop Berries near Queensland’s Glasshouse Mountains were staggered to find that re-checking several cartons of traditionally packed punnets, produced several extra punnets of fruit when using traffic light scales.
With escalating costs, and downward pressure on prices, everyone is looking for simple ways to increase productivity. Many fresh fruit and vegetable companies rely on manual packing processes to pack punnets/boxes/bags ready for supermarket consumers. In addition to the Labor, there is another significant cost that can go unmeasured: the cost of extra produce given away in overfilled packs.
In the past, this could add up to thousands of dollars per week, but some local packing sheds are reducing this “giveaway” by utilizing traffic light signals on their packing scales rather than focusing on the number displayed on the scale.
This simple idea has two immediate benefits… Reducing overfilled packs and increasing packer speeds.
Several large Strawberry farms/packing sheds have started utilizing packing scales that have a target-based signal system, and packing staff and management alike enjoy immediate benefits. Stringent fill targets can be set for both upper and lower weight bands. Packing staff are able to quickly fill and check that products are correct, and the increased visibility of red/green lights means management can easily oversee performance.
“Our packers work more efficiently since using the light signals on our new A&D HT-CL scales – it’s made significant improvements to our productivity in both speed and reduced re-work of out of spec punnets”
Many modern electronic scales can send outputs to lights or buzzers, but a lot of users may not know it exists. Now, a lot of “kitchen scales” are being replaced with packing scales, like A&D’s HT-CL Compact Scale, that incorporate this type of target signal technology, historically limited to more sophisticated and costly models.
What Customers are Saying
The results speak for themselves. Braetop Berries near Queensland’s Glasshouse Mountains were staggered to find that re-checking several cartons of traditionally packed punnets, produced several extra punnets of fruit when using traffic light scales. This was “money in the bank” according to Father and son team, Peter and Aiden Young.
Another local berry farmer, Terence Roy from Coolhaven Farms cites improved packing speed as another instant benefit, “Our packers work more efficiently since using the light signals on our new A&D HT-CL scales – it’s made significant improvements to our productivity in both speed and reduced re-work of out of spec punnets.”
One of WA’s largest Strawberry producers, Berry Sweet Farms, has been ahead of this curve for some time. Last year, they replaced regular scales with ones that had LED’s built-in, prompting packers when correct weights were reached. Owner Anthony Yewers has not looked back since; “Preventing underweight punnets is essential to our business and customers, but reducing extra giveaway is a no-brainer – using traffic light signals in our packing scales has put a big tick in both these boxes.”
Not Just a Solution for Berries
The “packing by lights” principle is valid for any manual packing process where weight targets are set. The Table Grape industry uses exactly the same process in the field where fruit is packed into 9kg or 10kg boxes, and also in packing sheds where punnets or bags are produced.
Julian Horsley from A&D Weighing provided some further insight, “Scales with target-based outputs like traffic lights have been around for a long time – typically in more sophisticated models for automated processes. Recently we’ve seen this type of feature added to lower-cost packing scales, making it a viable option for packing sheds that often have dozens of scales.”
And he sees it as the next step in a holistic solution for companies. “Along with inline check weighing & data capture, scales with target-based lights are our biggest area of demand at present. With supermarkets pushing for more pre-packed fresh produce, we expect this to be a focal point for some time as growers and packers look to improve speeds and reduce giveaway.”
Whatever you’re packing, using traffic lights for fast, easy recognition of accurate fill levels, can save you time and money. You can learn more about A&D’s HT series compact scales here or fill click the link below to request a quote and learn more.