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Today, Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company. Nestlé has operated in Finland since 1973 where it has more than 140 employees. The Finnish head office is in Helsinki and the production factory of baby food is located in Turku. The Turku plant produces approximately 10,000 tons of baby food annually. This means about 70 million cans in finished products. The factory produces baby food for all Nordic countries.
Each year calibration becomes increasingly more relevant for the production of baby food. The most important reason for this is the constant tightening of quality standards. The Turku plant of Suomen Nestlé Oy has collaborated with Beamex since the beginning of the 1990s. Juha Elonen (Suomen Nestlé Oy, Turku plant, Finland), who works in the maintenance department, has been involved in the collaboration since it began. He has witnessed how calibration and its relevance has developed during these years. His areas of responsibility are both electrical and mechanical maintenance.
When it comes to producing baby food, maintaining and meeting high quality standards is a must. Audits are a part of everyday life in a baby food factory. A baby food factory must follow regulatory requirements to the letter and all documentation must be complete and kept up-to-date. The Turku plant of Suomen Nestlé Oy considers calibration a part of maintaining product safety. Calibration helps in preserving high and consistent quality in the production of baby food. “Product safety is the number one issue”, Juha clarifies the meaning of calibration for the production of baby food.
The fundamental rule is simple: all equipment used in the plant must give accurate values. For example, measuring temperature takes place in many different places and it is an absolute necessity that all the values are accurate and correct. Most of the factory’s calibrations concern calibrating temperature and pressure units.
The calibration system at the Turku plant comprises Beamex’s portable multifunction calibrator and calibration management software. The factory has its own quality system, which includes among other things calibration intervals, criteria, accuracy and what to calibrate. All calibrations are performed on site with a portable calibrator, and for this type of use Beamex’s MC5 Multifunction Calibrator is perfect. All calibrations can be performed during production. Usually there is a maintenance day at the plant once in a month. At that time it is possible to perform larger amounts of calibrations at the same time, if necessary.
Aside from maintaining product safety, there are other benefits from using the Beamex calibration system as well. The documentation that meets regulatory requirements is easily and safely stored in electronic format on a database. The seamless connection between a Beamex calibrator and Beamex calibration management software offers practical benefits that are related to making calibration work both easier and more efficient. “Eases the workload, leaves out unnecessary work phases and all documentation is ready immediately”, Juha lists the benefits of using a Beamex calibration system. Because there is no longer a need to document calibrations manually, it is possible to perform several calibrations during just one tour in the plant. “The fact that we have been able to completely leave out paperwork in the field is what makes us satisfied”, Juha summarizes.
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