FMCG
Introduction
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) is the phrase used to describe a wide range of consumer goods. Examples would include chocolate, hair spray, show polish etc. They are characterised by being manufacturing on production lines that consist of mixing/formulation, filling and packaging. No reaction is involved. The production lines operate at high speed with frequent changeovers to accommodate different products, grades, colours etc. Efficiency is normally measured by OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) and the wide rang of world class manufacturing techniques such as Kaizan, SMED etc are applied to improve performance.
The challenges they face arise from the customers they serve which are the supermarkets. These are some of the most demanding customers who expect a 10% delivered cost down every year. Satisfying this challenge demands continuous improvement in operations. In part this is supported by improvements in measurement to remove the time potentially lost by off-line analysis.
Solution
Process tomography can provide valuable information on end points of many reactions, in particular batch and in-line / continuous mixing. This can be used to reduce the cost of maintaining quality by better management of high cost ingredients.
Process tomography can also be used to characterise multi-component systems, such as emulsions and foams.
