OAL News
APRIL™ draws the crowds at the PPMA Show 2015
i8
On the last week of September 2015 industry professionals from all around the world were enamoured by APRIL™ at the PPMA Show in Birmingham, UK. With dual presence at the show, we took the opportunity to introduce our new disruptive technology, APRIL, on the Food Is Life stand. APRIL combines proven state-of-the-art cooking and materials handling technologies with automated robotic ingredient loading, emulating a professional chef.
Food Is Life is a consortium focused on bringing disruptive change to the food industry and accordingly was the perfect setting to introduce APRIL™. The stunning BMW i8 was the perfect back drop for the launch, highlighting the knowledge transfer opportunities available between the food and automotive industry. Visitors sat in the car and were captivated by the video:
It was incredibly effective with many of the biggest names in food production stopping by to discuss their desire for step change improvements in food manufacturing. We are working closely with the University of Lincoln and Food Is Life partners to deliver Food Manufacturing 4.0 and the visitors strong reaction is a great driver to continue the pursuit of change.
Del Boy BMW i8
The three day event saw Del Boy and Joanna Lumley impersonators, an awards ceremony, countless customer meetings and chatter throughout.
OAL would like to say a massive thank you to the organisers of the PPMA and for all our customers, new and returning, for giving us the chance to introduce APRIL™ to the world.
Ready for robots to transform your operations? Get in touch to take the next step!
Disruptive food processing technologies
We recently had the opportunity to discuss how disruptive technologies will deliver a step change in performance for food manufacturing with the Daily Telegraph. With over 25 years’ experience in food processing, we understand the demands of 24/7 operation with tight deadlines and short shelf-life products and are in a unique position to work with the industry. Leading two collaborative research projects with prominent food manufacturers and research institutions, we now invest 8.2% of turnover in R&D.
As Harry says "It's not going to be easy, it's going to be a rollercoaster of change" but the opportunities are huge:
Like the automotive industry, over the next decade, food factories will change dramatically because of disruptive technologies with major implications for the whole supply chain. Food Manufacturing 4.0 has arrived. Highly flexible “lights out” manufacturing will enable the production of new products whilst intelligent product tracking will improve food safety and traceability. Smart factories connected to the industrial internet will react to changing consumers demand at an incredible pace.
That's why we are working as part of the Food Is Life consortium to deliver Food Manufacturing 4.0. The opportunities for embracing disruptive technologies are huge and we are constantly looking for new collaborations and partnerships to work towards this.
Get in touch with our experts to start your transformation today!
OAL dry materials handling featured on BBC!
A recent BBC series, "Inside the Factory: How Our Favourites Foods Are Made" focused on the way bread is manufactured. The programme spotlighted the Allied Bakeries West Bromwich site where OAL Group supplied a turnkey materials handling system for all dry ingredients used in the bread process.
BBCBreadFactory
Clips from the video can be found on the BBC.
Top safety accreditation for OAL
OAL has been awarded accreditation from Safecontractor for its commitment to achieving excellence in health and safety. Safecontractor is a leading third party accreditation scheme which recognises very high standards in health and safety management amongst UK contractors. Safecontractor is applicable to most sectors although it is particularly relevant to food manufacture, property, facilities management, retail and leisure sectors, all of which are big users of contracted services.
“Major organisations simply cannot afford to run the risk of employing contractors who are not able to prove that they have sound health and safety policies in place.
More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that OAL has done. The firm’s high standard has set an example which hopefully will be followed by other companies within the sector.
Safecontractor plays a vital role in supporting our clients in meeting their compliance needs, whilst working with their contractors as they progress through the accreditation process.”
Under the Safecontractor scheme, businesses undergo a vetting process which examines health and safety procedures and their track record for safe practice. Those companies meeting the high standard are included on a database, which is accessible to registered users only via a website.
Client-organisations who sign up to the scheme can access the database, enabling them to vet potential contractors before they even set foot on site. These clients agree that, as users of the scheme, they will engage only those who have received accreditation.
Over 210 major, nation-wide businesses, from several key sectors, have signed up to use the scheme when selecting contractors for services such as building, cleaning, maintenance, refurbishment or electrical and mechanical work.
Safecontractor is a third party accreditation scheme that assesses health and safety arrangements. Many major clients recognise the scheme and accept the Safecontractor certificate as confirmation of competency.
Ready to work with a Safecontractor accredited supplier? Get in touch today!
Food is Life at Gulfood Manufacturing "Food Wall"
At Gulfood Manufacturing, Dubai, the biggest food show in Africa and the Middle East, we decided to do something different to engage visitors. Steam Infusion is a revolutionary heating and mixing process, and from previous shows in the UK we recognised we need food manufacturers to think creatively and differently about their manufacturing processes. So to break down barriers and to get people thinking about what’s really important about food, we introduced them to our “food wall”. Visitors were simply asked to write what was most important about food to them on our “food wall”.
We were genuinely amazed by the excitement and engagement with the "food wall". Over the 3 days of the show, 473 people signed the wall from 70 different countries. Writing in Arabic, Chinese, English, Filipino, Hebrew, Japanese, Swahili, and Turkish to name a few. It really was a truly eclectic mix of global opinions on what’s important about food.
What we found?
Coming from the UK we were expecting people to write the commonly accepted important factors of food such as safety, quality, taste and flavour. These were key elements and many people from all over the world cited safety and taste as the most important areas to them.
But interestingly there was a real focus on the fundamental link between food and life. For instance “Food is life itself”, “Can’t live without food”, and “Africa needs more food.”
But should we have been surprised? Nestle, the biggest food manufacturer in the world, has the slogan “Good Food, Good Life,” clearly linking food to life itself and it’s true to say that without food we wouldn’t be here. But on a daily basis as engineers and food manufacturers do we make the connection between food and life in the UK?
But what’s the link with Steam Infusion?
Gulfood Food Wall Steam Infusion Unit
Often at exhibitions visitors have very specific requirements about what they are looking for and to a certain extent are closed down to things outside of their remit. By simply asking visitors to write what’s important about food on the wall, we found visitors opened up much more and were in a much better position to discuss innovation.
This innovation mind-set is really important to us because often with the Steam Infusion process we are radically changing traditional manufacturing processes, for instance going from a multi stage process to a single stage faster process. Likewise we found visitors engaged much more strongly with new product development and step changes to improving flavours and taste having written on the wall.
Hot application at Gulfood
Food is Life Gulfood Manufacturing Steam Infusion
Not only were people able to write on our walls but they could taste the difference as well. On the stand, we had pots of freshly made condensed milk made using Steam Infusion which attracted a lot of interest because of the considerable difference in product quality and operational performance. Steam Infusion condensed milk suffers no burn on discolouration, has a particularly smooth texture and cuts manufacturing times by 50%.