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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Blendco's Automation Efforts Increase Production Capacity by 100%

With the help of: Mississippi Manufacturers Association Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MMA-MEP)

About

Blendco is a dry food blending and contract packaging company located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. For over 25 years, Blendco has developed dry food mixes to include biscuit, cornbread, batters and breading, seasoning blends and marinades, beverages, desserts, nutraceutical products- protein, carbohydrate, weight management, and meat replacement. Blendco is an example of private industry that has followed their vision, and created a niche market for business owners needing a complete source for information and production in making their vision a reality. Blendco’s research and development specialists offer services that include analyzing existing dry food products, breakdown components and analyze results and customize formula to exact customer specifications.

The Challenge

Blendco needed additional production capacity but there was none available on the vertical forming and seal line. Current production was averaging 300 to 500 units per day and, at that rate, Blendco was unable to meet additional customer production requirements. Their challenge was to somehow increase daily current production using existing equipment to a minimum of 1,000 units per day.
We were successful in upgrading our vertical forming and seal line with  help from the MMA-MEP Center at Pearl River Community Colleges’ technical support with the PLC and controls programming. We have a good working relationship with PRCC and will continue to call on them on future such projects for Blendco.
— Charley McCaffery, CEO

MEP's Role

With support from the MMA-MEP Center at Pearl River Community College (PRCC) workforce team, part of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association and the MEP National Network™, Blendco was successful in automating their process on the forming and seal line by upgrading the controls on the vertical forming and seal machine. This was accomplished by installing a variable frequency drive, a new PLC, and reprograming the machine to increase daily production. Production to over 1000 units per day, solving Blendco's problem and helping the company grow. As a result, Blendco added one additional large-scale customer of powdered milk.
Created October 15, 2021