No More Pickers!

The last of the remaining manual (read: people) applications for quality control in potatoes are going the way of the Edsel.

In both frozen potato products and chip/crisps segments, people are still commonly used as a last defense to control quality, most notably to remove foreign materials. These workers sit on stools over conveyors, scanning the product flow just before packaging, looking for anything out the ordinary. Of course, since foreign objects actually are found very rarely, these employees pick out some defects (and not uncommonly, some good product as well) in an effort to look busy and useful. When a supervisor or manager walks by their area, watch their hands speed up to remove more product! And once the supervisor/manager leaves... their eyes slow down and become glazed... their hands move ever more slowly... and frequent glances as the clock increase, so they will know just when that next break occurs.

Not a job that I would envy!

Often the product is flowing multiple layers deep at that point. Even if the worker stirs the pile a bit with their hands, they are able to scan only a small part of the overall flow. And the foreign materials that often settle to the bottom of the stack? They usually pass unseen.

Most chips/crisps today use optical sorters to remove color defects in this same area of the plant: scorched areas, excessive peel, bruise, green/sunburn, etc. But still the worker remains downstream.... why?

To at least attempt to keep foreign materials out.

Much of what we do in most areas of life, at any one point of time, is an artifact of what has become standard practice in the past. If we really considered what is possible, change could come, often at relatively low cost in time and money.

"Color" sorters were historically "black and white" (or, grayscale) devices for potato products: They simply looked for areas that were darker than the chip and puffed them out. Modern true color sorters are much more capable, able to highlight green areas and those of other colors to detect more subtle variations than the old monochromatic systems could. And they can categorize non-product colors uniquely, performing different ejection functions based on the specific category identified.

Bottom line: color cameras can now remove foreign materials in ways monochromatic systems could not. They have long been able to distinguish between belt (background), good product, various known defect colors. Now color sorters can categorize "all other" colors, the colors of foreign materials. And get them out, all where color can be distinguished.

Plus, laser technology can distinguish most objects that are the same color as good product or belt/background, but having different translucence than the good product. With the combination of cameras and lasers, most all foreign materials can be removed. At a radically high rate.

Quality control labor is nearing an end.

More on frozen potato products and whole potato applications next time.

Tim

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