How Worximity helped Amalgamated Dairies boost productivity by 14%

Created in 1953, Prince Edward Island’s Amalgamated Dairies Limited (ADL) is a producer-owned co-op of more than 250+ employees who processes nearly 26 million gallons of fresh island milk each year.

ADL operates a cheese plant in Summerside PEI where 70% of the Island’s milk is processed into over 25 different varieties of cheese.

Dairy may not seem like a particularly innovative category within the food space, but when it comes to cheese, there’s much to be savoured. Driven largely by a growing interest in specialty products, the sector has experienced perpetual growth over the years. As a modern dairy co-op where cheese is at the heart of operations, ADL recognized the importance of keeping pace with evolving consumer tastes.

Following a strategic planning exercise, the company chose to make significant investments across its plants with the goal of reducing production costs, increasing processing and storage capacity, and supporting new product development. Facing fierce competition from local and European cheese makers, ADL knew that remaining competitive meant guaranteeing top priority was given to gaining efficiency without compromising quality.

With so many upgrades taking place across manufacturing facilities, ADL opted to integrate a smart factory solution at its primary Summerside cheese plant. In search of a turnkey solution with minimal resource requirements and one that could easily scale with them, ADL turned to Worximity’s Smart Factory solution. Ensuring alignment across all departments from shop floor workers to management was a key priority for Tyler Kowalski, Operational Improvement Coordinator at ADL.

Recognizing that establishing realistic production targets hinged on collecting reliable and accurate data, Kowalski used Worximity’s technology to help the company with its expansion efforts.

Worximity’s solution was installed on five packaging lines which varied in product type and packaging, ranging from wholesale and retail feta cheese, along with specialty cheeses such as Cheddar and Havarti, as well as grated cheese. The software was configured to capture downtimes and production speeds for specified products, all of which has given ADL more insight into their equipment availability and efficiency as well as shop floor performance.

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Within a few short months of implementing Worximity’s solution, ADL succeeded in increasing productivity by 14% while significantly reducing costs such as overtime. "Worximity allows ADL to see what’s truly happening in terms of production in real-time each day. We can now view downtimes and production speeds, which helps us continuously improve all our production lines," stated Kowalski.

Thanks to Worximity’s help, ADL continues to ensure its dairy producers are maximizing their on-farm investments by ensuring adequate capacity to process additional milk production now and in the years to come.

Empowering operators with clear performance objectives and the ability to monitor progress has allowed ADL to respond faster to downtimes while reducing their length and frequency. As a result, ADL has achieved a:

• 7% increase in uptime
• 15% reduction in downtime (monthly savings of $1800)
• 23% decrease in labor cost per unit (savings equivalent to $0.15/unit)

“Automated performance monitoring allows everyone to work more efficiently and focus their attention on what needs improving instead of collecting data or sifting through reports looking for anomalies. No more notepads, spreadsheets and hand-written reports trying to discover problems and implement changes. Everyone is at the same page at the same time,” concluded Kowalski.

Thanks to Worximity’s help, ADL continues to ensure its dairy producers are maximizing their on-farm investments by ensuring adequate capacity to process additional milk production now and in the years to come.