Case Studies
Discover how OAL has helped market-leading food manufacturers automate.
Autocoding & Label Verification
As a fast-growing leader in the high-quality convenience meats industry, Edwards needed to ensure the correct application of labels and date codes on its expanding range of award-winning products. OAL automated their manual processes with a state-of-the-art, AI-driven label and date code verification system that has been critical in Edwards growth plans.
Worldwide Fruit is a growing £200+ million turnover fruit marketing and distribution business. Quality is critical to their customers, and they wanted a solution that could scale across their complex operations handling thousands of SKUs from over 1,000 global growers. OAL has helped Worldwide Fruit automate to ensure all its products have the right date code, right packaging and country of origin.
Wealmoor has built a reputation for specialty fruit and vegetables, supplying high-volume, high-quality produce every week. Across their UK factories, they have automated their date coding and packaging processes with the OAL Connected system including Autocoding and APRIL Eye functionality. Going digital has enabled them to eliminate product packaging and quality issues and significantly reduce food waste.
Pioneer Foods produce a range of breakfasts cereals for many of the UK’s leading retailers and brands. OAL helps protect their 280 SKUs from packaging errors with automation.
Blue Earth is a major supplier of chilled seafood products to supermarkets throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. When choosing an automated solution, a key requirement was to avoid downtime during installation and OAL Connected rose to the challenge.
Ichiban UK (the UK’s largest Sushi Manufacturer) comply with retailer codes of practice thanks to automation and support from OAL.
Heinz secures infant formula packaging integrity with OAL automation system scanning spinning cans at 97ppm.
Automation & System Integration
ADM Milling is a market leader for flour and bakery ingredients with a strong reputation for product quality, technical support and customer service. At their Corby mill, OAL has seamlessly upgraded and modernised production-critical control panels, achieving zero unplanned plant downtime - a notable achievement given the complexities involved.
Agrana Fruit is the global market leader for fruit preparation, with 25 production sites worldwide. At their Mitry Mory site in France, they have automated their powder pre-mix preparation with an APRIL Robotics Weighing System. By automating their previously manual process, they have achieved a step-change in safety, quality, accuracy of weighing and efficiency.
OAL has helped one of the UK’s largest fresh salad operations reduce wastage and increase the efficiency of their packaging line with automation.
OAL has replaced an existing SCADA and recipe tracking system across 6 bakery sites improving resilience and providing the tools and date visibility to grow and improve operational efficiency.
OAL designed, installed and automated a new dry material handling system comprising silos and big bags to increase doughnut production to 50,000 per hour at market leading food manufacturer.
The largest flour mill in the UK has upgraded its control system to improve performance, productivity and reporting with support from OAL.
Fully integrated ERP and plant visualisations and reporting deliver an impressive 26% improvement in average throughputs at Premier Foods Ashford as five factories are combined into one.
APRIL Robotics
Go-Tan is a producer of Asian-inspired foods. They introduced Steam Infusion and the APRIL Robotics Batch Processing System into their sauce production to improve production efficiency and flexibility, as well as to achieve net zero. The modernisation of their cooking processes opened up opportunities for new product development, energy efficiency measures, and further growth.
Agrana Fruit is the global market leader for fruit preparation, with 25 production sites worldwide. At their Mitry Mory site in France, they have automated their powder pre-mix preparation with an APRIL Robotics Weighing System. By automating their previously manual process, they have achieved a step-change in safety, quality, accuracy of weighing and efficiency.
Steam Infusion
SENNA, a renowned Austrian condiment manufacturer, has successfully implemented steam infusion cooking in their ketchup, sauces, and dressings production processes. This cutting-edge method has improved the quality, sustainability, and flavour of their existing products and allowed SENNA to develop new offerings, such as sour cream, to target untapped markets.
Larco Foods, a specialist Dutch soup manufacturer, use Steam Infusion to cook a range of stocks, broths and soups efficiently.