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Customer Case Study

 

Kagome USA Form-Fill-Seals the Deal with SEE Precision Yield Optimization

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ABOUT KAGOME USA  

As a global leader in sauce creation and production, the Kagome team works closely with customers to provide flavorful solutions to meet the demands and trends of foodservice and food processing operations around the world. As a global vertically integrated supplier of fruit and vegetable products, such as sauces, drinks, and ready-to-eat meals, Kagome is passionately devoted to their crops, customers, and communities they serve. 

 


CHALLENGE 

Located in the rich tomato country of Los Banos, California, Kagome develops customized sauces, soups, and spreads for global restaurant brands. By utilizing vertical form-fill-seal (VFFS) equipment with CRYOVAC® brand flexible packaging, Kagome can offer a wide range of pouch sizes to their customers. Like many other food processors, Kagome was challenged with managing the natural process variations that come with producing and packaging their quality products. In order to enhance consistency in package weights and reduce future rework, Kagome slightly increased the target fill to ensure they always met their customer package weights. This meant they were ultimately giving away product at times.

 

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SOLUTION 

Realizing the opportunity to improve its operations and uncover yield benefits, Kagome tapped into long-time partner, SEE. Together, the two teams worked through a development partnership to implement SEE Precision Yield Optimization. This digitally driven solution is designed to automatically adjust key parameters to compensate for natural process variations that can occur in aspects like film, product, heat, and viscosity. Equipped with a specialized dashboard, SEE Precision Yield Optimization helped the Kagome operations team turn raw data into meaningful and digestible information, resulting in improved visibility to the performance of their operations.

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AUTOMATION

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LABOR

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SUSTAINABILITY


“We were able to see a very significant change in a short time. We’re seeing more steady weight control throughout our runs, and it (SEE™ Precision Yield Optimization) gives us a tremendous advantage in consistency of our weights and reduction of our loss.”


Jeremy Ruiz, Operations Manager Kagome USA 


RESULT 

As a result, Kagome tightened performance around its target set weight to achieve more accurate fill weights. SEE Precision Yield Optimization improved efficiencies across all liquid food packaging lines by reducing the number of high and low weight kickouts while maintaining steady weight control throughout their runs. The collective effort resulted in a reduction of product giveaway by an average of 0.5 ounces per package, a lost revenue savings equivalent to $200,000. In addition to cost savings, preventing lost product, and unnecessary rework, SEEPrecision Yield Optimization provided the innovation and technology that the company is looking for in a long-term solution.

 

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