Optimising your cheese production process

How a Partnership with a Third Party Optimized a Cheese Production Process Initial Situation ?

Initial Situation:

Servi Doryl supported a client in a project to improve its cheese production process for a lactose curd product (AOP). In the cheese-making process, the client combines milk and rennet in a 20-liter basin. After the coagulation phase, the transformed gel mixture is delicately taken by the dairy operators using a curd shovel and poured onto a distributor (aluminum, stainless steel, or plastic). It is then distributed into the molds’ compartments.

Client’s Problem in the production process:

The unit weights of the cheeses vary from one compartment to another, affecting yield and productivity. A too heavy cheese leads to a loss of profitability for the dairy, while a too light cheese risks rejection for non-compliance or downgrading. Given the current price of milk, dairies must avoid wasting raw materials.

Curd sampling is tiring and strenuous for collaborators due to its repetitive nature. This information is crucial since recruiting qualified molders is currently challenging.

Test Proposal for the production process:

Servi Doryl proposed changing the manufacturing process by replacing the 20-liter basin with micro-basins (1 compartment = 1 cheese). Each compartment would receive the correct amount of curd, ensuring uniformly weighted matured cheeses. Additionally, filling the compartments would be automated through a dosing system, eliminating the need for operators to perform a strenuous and musculoskeletal disorder-inducing task.

Test Evaluation:

Prototypes and a test protocol were designed and approved by various project stakeholders (client, Grunwald, and Servi Doryl). During different test phases, technical and commercial representatives from the project were on-site alongside the client to ensure the proper adherence to the protocol.

We compared the results obtained with the two different methods:

The standard method shows weight discrepancies of up to 7g between cheeses.
The micro-basin method reduces the discrepancies to 1g between cheeses.

The micro-basin method, combined with precise dosing, fully meets the client’s needs. After maturation, the cheesemakers confirmed that the cheese quality (crust and taste) is not affected. In fact, due to delicate transfers and mastery of the shapes and internal surfaces of micro-basins, certain recurrent appearance defects in the current production have been improved.

For the industrial implementation at our client’s facility, modifications will be necessary:

Technological Evolution: Since this involves revising the entire transformation of milk into cheese, this complete change of technology is significant. Given the associated risks, custom support and test phases will still be required. Change management for operators will be particularly essential.
Building and Infrastructure Modification: The space required for coagulation in 20-liter basins or micro-basins is equivalent, but space utilization is different. Our client will need to remodel its workshop simultaneously to adopt this new production method and expand it to allow a transition between the two technologies.
Mechanization Change: The stacking of block molds will need to be modified to advance micro-basin by micro-basin to properly dose each compartment. This will result in changes on the production line.

Conclusion:

Servi Doryl has been supporting cheesemakers for over 50 years with innovative and customized solutions. Our team has unparalleled expertise, with technicians guiding you from mold design to production and commissioning on your production line.

For this project, we worked closely with our client and partners to jointly design the best response to their needs. By mobilizing our R&D teams, constraints of each part of the process were identified to determine the technical optimum of the overall solution. The testing phase validated the performance of our joint offerings, which will be implemented after project approval.

We would also like to thank Alpma SAS, distributing Grunwald’s products in France, for its efficiency and reliability in dosing. We appreciate being able to combine our skills with those of diverse partners to offer our clients a complete and quality solution.

Do you have ideas for new products, or do you want to improve your production process for increased productivity? Our teams are here for you. Servi Doryl accompanies you with its design office located in Langeais, France, and its sales representatives present on all 5 continents. Benefit from our proximity and innovation capabilities to bring your projects to life.