Packaged foods and beverages comprise over $400 billion in retail sales, making it a huge industry and snagging as much as 60% of each dollar Americans spend on food.  Other food industry segments such as school lunches, restaurants and fast food chains, make up part of a $350 billion food service market.  With all the players in the industry as well as the stiff competition for success, reducing waste can make the difference in profitability or failure.

Waste affects both the production and the consumption processes in the food and beverage industry.  Waste can exist in the plant itself (as when a batch of product is fouled), with packaging or shipping mistakes or launching a product line that doesn’t sell as well as expected.  Overproduction and inefficient inventory control is just as damaging as defective products, unexpected production bottlenecks, unnecessary handling, redundant inspections and other issues.

In some cases, waste is best managed by considering how the right equipment vendor can help eliminate product loss as well as reduce time to market.  For example, with a Komax carbon steel or stainless steel static mixer, fewer moving parts mean less fouling, faster processing time and a highly consistent product, eliminating waste from poor batch samples and even wasted labor and energy.  Fewer moving parts also mean that a machine will suffer less downtime for cleaning purposes – and that employees who clean the machines have fewer opportunities for injury.

There are so many opportunities for savings across the retail market – some sources estimate $30-40 billion – just be squeezing waste out of the chain.  If your business could use personal consultation to identify and minimize waste, consider Komax your ally.