METAL detector specialist Fortress Technology has launched a new tool the firm said looks set to “transform” production quality assurance for food manufacturers.
The business has developed a solution that enables production managers to monitor the performance of their entire fleet of food metal detectors through a single web-based gateway. Remote Management Software (RMS) works by allowing factories to manage operations from anywhere in the world from smart phones, tablets and laptops.
Fortress said RMS, which they believe is the ‘first-of-its-kind’ web-based inspection machine browser, connects multiple Fortress metal detectors by utilising wireless machine-to-machine communication.
Phil Brown, MD of Fortress Technology Europe said, “I think it’s fair to say that many food plants, even in westernised economies, still make do with manually monitoring machine performance which can be extremely labour intensive and impact productivity.”
Rather than creating an app, RMS gives customers secure access to a web-based browser that connects to each metal detector installed with the software.
Once the software is installed, users simply log into the RMS browser and can troubleshoot a performance issue without having to be physically in front of the machine.
The quality assurance information details what and when an event occurred on a specific unit. To comply with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety management systems and principles, each event is automatically time stamped.
The tool allows one operative or production manager to monitor all their company’s metal detectors, analysing data for different inspection zones side-by-side.
Reports can be selected for a specific production line or time period. Event and performance information is stored remotely for a minimum of 10 years.
RMS is available as an option on all Fortress Stealth metal detectors. It is installed on the Interceptor range as standard.
“With RMS, comparable performance data is now readily available and this provides production decision makers with a benchmark to drive efficiency improvements,” Phil added. “Taking this to the next level, predictive models may then be applied in order to anticipate equipment failure and enable predictive maintenance.
“The thing that makes data valuable is how it is analysed and applied to business decisions. From a QA perspective, the level of surveillance RMS provides offers food factories valuable peace of mind. And from an operational viewpoint, production efficiency is enhanced. Most importantly, implementation of the software is quick and doesn’t divert a company’s in-house IT resources away from other projects. It’s functional, it’s simple and it delivers global machine connectivity.”
