subject: Buffalo Trace Distillery Safeguards Profits With Vision Inspection [print this page] Following Tradition, Ensuring Quality Following Tradition, Ensuring Quality
Since 1787, Buffalo Trace Distillery has been perfecting its reputation as one of America's finest bourbon producers using time-tested distilling traditions. From milling to bottling, the most stringent quality control standards guarantee the taste and character of its spirits. As part of a robust quality control program, Buffalo Trace chose METTLER TOLEDO CI-Vision Inspection to further safeguard product quality and their strong corporate legacy.
Vision Inspection-an Ideal Solution
When Buffalo Trace opted to automate its quality control processes, vision inspection seemed an obvious choice. Vision inspection can easily cover 100% of products even at brisk line speeds. In addition, automated quality control offers consistent, repeatable performance over an entire production period. Buffalo Trace's four-camera inspection system continuously checks cap seal and fill level as well as neck/front/back label correctness and barcode readability on un-oriented glass bottles. Reworked costs are reduced because inaccurately manufactured bottles are detected early on, preventing additional value from being added to an already nonconforming product. Also, because CI-Vision's robust design is built to perform continuous high-speed inspections and facilitate automated product changeovers, the new system has minimized line downtime, resulting in productivity increases far exceeding management expectations.
Accurate, Repeatable Quality Control
According to Dale Mason, distillery engineer for Buffalo Trace, One of the biggest benefits of a vision inspection solution is the assurance of repeatability, with the machine's ability to measure in the same way day-to-day. Mason remains pleased that repeatability is maintained throughout automatic product changeovers and a wide variety of packaging options. This is because Buffalo Trace runs a demanding schedule of 13 different products with 24 label variations on a line that manages an impressive 300 bottles per minute.
CI-Vision's Intuitive Operation
CI-Vision also offers the software ease and usefulness Buffalo Trace sought from an automated solution. CIVCore, CI-Vision's standard software technology, not only captures and eliminates defective products from the line-it also provides statistical feedback to support Buffalo Trace's process optimization. Additionally, CIVCore's intuitive operation virtually eliminated any software learning curve, allowing Buffalo Trace's label operator and line technician to take near-immediate and productive internal ownership of the new system.
Better Spending of Labor Dollars
Buffalo Trace was able to reduce four manual inspectors to one line operator and in today's economic climate, any reduction in labor costs is a competitive advantage, noted Mason. In addition to labor cost savings, CI-Vision also freed remaining head count to cover other critical quality control tasks. Getting people off the line and eliminating the variable risk that exists with manual inspections has been a huge help, Mason concluded.
