The Stevens Group are proud to announce that Arthur Chatwin Ltd have chosen their ‘Vantage’ Recipe Weighing & Stock Management System to help ensure 100% Traceability for their ingredients and improved consistency for their finished product.

Since their inception in 1913, Arthur Chatwin Ltd have grown an enviable reputation for high quality products which have found their way into some of the best known coffee lounges throughout Cheshire and Staffordshire.

Founded originally by John Chatwin, the company now has 19 shops and 5 coffee lounges and features an excellent team, including ‘Baker of the Year 2006’ winner Production Director Trevor Mooney. In addition to supplying their own coffee lounges and high street shops, Chatwins have a strong wholesale business and perform a sandwich run to supply local businesses with their delicious sandwiches, pastries, cakes and desserts. Keeping with the diverse product range theme, Chatwins also create beautifully crafted wedding cakes and fulfil the requests of even the most discerning of tastes!

So, with product quality being the key theme at Chatwins, it was necessary for the bakery to control the recipe consistency at their Nantwich Craft Bakery. Paul Mooney – Assistant Bakery Manager, contacted Stevens after seeing the installation at The Village Bakery near Wrexham which features a Stevens ‘Vantage’ Recipe Formulation & Stock Traceability System, installed during 2006.

The System enables raw ingredients to be received into the loading bay where the Suppliers Lot Number is recorded together with the expiry date, storage location, Ingredient Code, bag weight or total weight as well as any QA information which relates to the incoming Ingredients.

QA information is ingredient specific and ensures that all the correct questions are asked and if the questions have pre-recorded answers, they will be present for the Operator to select from. A label is then produced to identify the incoming ingredients which in turn can then be scanned at the ‘Vantage’ Recipe Weighing System located on the production floor where the recipes are weighed and formulated prior to being mixed.

On the production floor are located two ‘Vantage’ Touch Screen Recipe Control Systems, interfaced to a built in Platform Scale (30kg x 5g). The units are fully wash down protected and communicated to the Stevens Traceability Software Suite through the already present local area network.

In principle, the software enables production orders to be sent to the ‘Vantage’ Recipe Control Systems on the shop floor for the Operative to execute.

Each Recipe is sent to the shop floor with the available stock quantity, then the Operator is guided through the recipe weighing process ensuring that the necessary weighing tolerances per ingredient are enforced (to guarantee product consistency), together with any SOP, HACCP or COSHH data required for the quality of the recipe.

Critical to the management of the operation is the rotation of stock. Before any ingredient is weighed out, the lot number is entered by the Operator. The Lot number is then validated by the ‘Vantage’ terminal and the system checks that the Lot Number has been through the FEFO rotation process (First Expired, First Out).

The quality check on the Lot Numbers also enables the stock levels to be managed automatically. After each ingredient is weighed, the amount consumed within the recipe is deducted from the Stock level in real time. This means that stock level information is accurate and up to the minute.

A benefit of prompting for a lot Numbers and then recording the usage is the paperless ‘worry free’ traceability. The system reports accurately on Ingredient Usage, Operator Performance, Recipe Batch Data (Lot Numbers and QA & HACCP data captured), Production Ingredients (a list of ingredient required for the daily production – so Chatwin’s know in advance if they have the necessary stock levels to fulfil the production , Stock Level, Stock Movements data and more.

Paul Mooney, Assistant Bakery Manager explains his reason for choosing Stevens; “Stevens have always been known for being the last word in Bakery Weighing & Traceability Solutions and we’re delighted to have their system in place at our Bakery. I was very surprised that they offered a solution which, as standard, met my exact requirements (without customisation) and we’re seeing a real benefit in our raw ingredient control.“

Stevens’ UK Sales Manager Toby Hawkins is very positive about the benefits of the ‘Vantage’ Recipe Weighing Systems: “Although we have extensive experience in a broad range of weighing equipment and systems, we have specialised in the Plant Bakery Market on a National Basis since the mid 1980’s.

Chatwin’s have a forward thinking attitude and this mirrors the attitude of the team members at Stevens. We have a nation wide team of field service engineers and this support network across the UK, together with the robust and versatile features of our machines, ensures that our customers no longer have an unacceptable weak link in their weighing process.”

In addition to the well renowned and market leading ‘Vantage’ Recipe Weighing & Traceability Solution installed at Chatwin’s, Stevens also handle applications for In-Line Checkweighing, Average Weight Legislation and a wide range of Label Printing and ERP Integration Services. Factory wide Traceability is now here.

Feel free to call =44(0)1254 685200 for details!