Food processing
On a food line, the diagnosis races the product.
A coupled line on a clock, a changeover every few hours, and a metal detector that is also a critical control point: in food processing the same machine carries the stop, the format and the audit. Norlan keeps what was done on it, so the next fault starts from the last fix instead of from a search — while the product is still worth saving.
Packaging line 3 · night shift
Stop at 02:14 · restart 02:27
- 02:14
Case packer CP-12 stops
Flaps not sealing after the 1 kg format change. Product accumulating on the infeed.
- 02:16
Norlan cites the last fix
Same fault, same format, 3 weeks ago on this unit. Hot-melt temperature reset after the changeover · verified by T. Walker.
- 02:24
Fix applied and verified
M. Solans confirms on the machine. Closure: problem, root cause, solution.
- 02:27
Line restarts
Product held 13 minutes. Hold limit for this SKU: 40. Nothing dumped.
The diagnosis took two minutes because the last one was on the machine. The repair took eight.
The coupled line
A stop on the case packer is measured in product, not in minutes
Filler, checkweigher, metal detector, case packer, palletiser: one chain, running in lockstep, with product moving through it that does not wait. When one machine stops, what the hold limit allows is spent first on finding out what is wrong. Norlan puts the last closure on that unit in front of the technician at the moment the thread opens — the same fault, three weeks ago, with what fixed it and who verified it — so the minutes go to the repair, and the product goes to the pallet.
- The earlier closure on that unit, cited before anyone is phoned
- Causes that come from the machine upstream, because the line is drawn
- The manufacturer's engineer in the thread when the fault is theirs, briefed by the record
Packaging line 3 · 02:16
One stop, five machines
Filler
feeding
Weigher
held · 9 min
Detector
held · 11 min
Packer
flaps not sealing
Palletiser
idle · 02:15
stoppedproduct accumulating, hold limit 40 minstarved
Case packer CP-12 · same fault after the 1 kg change, 3 weeks ago · hot-melt reset · verified by T. Walker. Open the closure.
The format change
The fault that follows every changeover has a setting, and the setting lives on the model
False rejects in the first hour after the 500 g tray, belt slack after the 1 kg bag, weight drift on the promo pack: these are not breakdowns, they are the line telling maintenance what each format needs. Norlan keeps that per format, on the model, from the closures that found it. At the next changeover the assistant gives the setting and the manual page, and when a format has never been closed on, it says so instead of guessing.
- One setting per format, taken from the closure that found it, validated by a technician
- Saved on the model: every unit on every line gets it at the next changeover
- A format with no closure yet is shown as such, not filled in from the trade
Metal detector MD-3000 · by format
What each changeover needs, from the closures
500 g tray
False rejects, first hour → Profile reload · p. 42
Saved on the model · validated by T. Walker
1 kg bag
Belt slack after change → Belt 45 N · reseat K4
Saved on the model · validated by T. Walker
Promo 3×500 g
Weight drift at start-up → Tare after 10 min warm-up
Saved on the model · validated by N. Bermúdez
2 kg catering
No closure on this format yet. The assistant will say so.
Settings live on the model: every MD-3000 on every line gets them at the next changeover.
The audit
When a critical control point failed, the record says what was done, by whom, and when
A metal detector or a checkweigher is not only a machine: it is a control point the auditor will ask about. What they want is not the work order's hours but what happened, the root cause, what was done, and who verified it on the machine. Closing in Norlan writes exactly that, at the time it happened, from what the technician said and photographed — and it exports as a document or as data, attached to the unit and to the thread.
- Problem, root cause and solution, written at closure, not reconstructed for the audit
- Verified on the machine by a named person, with the time
- Exportable per unit and per window, with the photos and the voice note behind it
Maintenance record · export
From the closure · nothing typed up afterwards
- Asset
- Metal detector MD-3000 · line 3 · CCP 2
- Window
- 14 Aug · 02:14 – 02:41
- Problem
- False rejects on good packs after the 500 g format change; one in forty within the first hour.
- Root cause
- Detection profile not reloaded at changeover; sensitivity left on the 1 kg setting.
- Solution
- Profile reloaded (manual p. 42), twenty packs run clean, test piece passed at 02:38.
- Verified on machine
- T. Walker · Maintenance · 02:41
Attached to the unit and to the thread it came from, with the photos and the voice note.
Where the line is today
Norlan is not a food safety system.
It holds no HACCP plan, no CIP log, no temperature monitoring and no allergen control. Those systems stay where they are. What Norlan holds is what maintenance did on the machine and whether it worked — which is the part those systems do not have, and the part an auditor asks for the day a CCP machine failed. It runs on the phone the plant already allows on the floor, with voice for the gloves and a photo for the guard.
Questions from food plants
Is Norlan a HACCP or CIP record system?
Can the record of a CCP machine be exported for an audit?
Do changeovers count as incidents?
The line's equipment comes from six manufacturers. Does that matter?
Does Norlan replace our CMMS?
Book a demo
Bring the fault that follows every format change. We will show what the line would already know.
We start with the operation — which failures repeat, who gets called when something breaks, what the CMMS does not hold — and then show how Norlan would work on it.
What we usually cover
- How an incident flows today, from detection to fix
- Where the conversation actually happens: the systems, or calls and WhatsApp
- What takes longer — the diagnosis, or getting the right people and information together
- How much of what a technician knows is written down, and what happens when they are away
- Which tools are really in play: CMMS, ERP, mobile, paper
- What a pilot would measure, and how
Pick a time that suits the plant. Bring one failure that keeps coming back.
The call is with the people who build the product, with no qualification call first. Norlan is pre-general-availability and shaped with maintenance teams in pharma and food processing.