Inspection of berries standardized using OHAUS Trooper Compact Bench Scale
To most people, picking berries is simply a fun way to
spend an afternoon outdoors with family. To the world's
agricultural industry, however, it is much more than that - it is
very big business.
Growing, harvesting and selling berries - especially in
California, the leading producer of strawberries in the US - is a
billion dollar a year industry.
So to Driscoll Strawberry Associates Incorporated - the world's
leading berry company - picking berries is quite obviously more
than just a day outdoors. Founded in 1944, this family-owned
company produces, grows, and distributes premium strawberries,
blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries to locations across the
globe. In fact, more than half of all the raspberries consumed
worldwide are grown and distributed by Driscoll's finest
growers.
Partnering with independent farmers all around the world,
Driscoll's premium berry varieties are grown under strict quality
guidelines to ensure each tray meets Driscoll's premium product
standards. Growers are also required to meet tough food
safety standards established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Driscoll's also
requires all of its independent berry farmers to become Eurepgap
Certified, ensuring care for the land and berry harvesters.
To the world's agricultural industry, berries are very
big business.
Until recently, Driscoll's, like many in the agricultural
industry, relied on lesser-quality scales to handle the essential
task of manually weighing crates of berries during product quality
inspections. These inspections determine how growers get paid
- the higher the quality of the product, the more the growers are
compensated. These quality checks are imperative to the
entire Driscoll's process. Driscoll's, known to be
"sticklers" for quality, will often turn away baskets of berries
from growers if they are continually underweight or
less-than-perfect quality. However, with the limited weighing
technology they used previously, Driscoll's was only able to
collect inspection weights on a small percentage of their total
berry crop. They also faced the possibility of human error,
with all weight information being input into Driscoll's system
manually by inspectors operating the scales.
But all that changed when Driscoll's Quality Assurance
department introduced the Trooper® TR6 RS Economical Compact
Industrial Bench Scale into the process in their Watsonville,
California receiving facility. The design of the Trooper is
optimized for economical weighing applications, making it the
perfect choice for Driscoll's. With a concave stainless-steel
weighing pan, simple menu operation and an easy-to-read backlit LCD
display, the Trooper has proven to be a profitable weighing
solution for Driscoll's and their growers alike.
Driscoll's implemented the Trooper in early 2005 and customized it
to best serve their needs. Using Microsoft Windows for Weights,
Driscoll's inspectors were able to completely automate the process,
both weighing product and entering quality data seamlessly using
touch screen computers, further eliminating the possibility of
human error. Since replacing their manual weighing technology with
state of-the-art electronic bench scales from OHAUS, Driscoll's is
now able to inspect and weigh 85 percent of their total product,
creating a trustworthy process for assessing product quality and
overall value for both the company and the growers.
Driscoll's consistently puts quality first. Therefore, this
new quality check system - enabled by the implementation of the
OHAUS Trooper scale - is now an extremely important part of the
process.
OHAUS Trooper Series
In fact, Driscoll's has had such phenomenal success and
satisfaction with the OHAUS industrial bench scales, that they have
decided to convert five additional production areas in the United
States to the Trooper computerized system within 2006, with the
hopes of increasing quality assurance in every aspect of the
production process. Given the tremendous success of the
project, Driscoll's continues to evaluate new opportunities to
create new efficiencies through the implementation of new
technology. Whatever new solutions they develop, it is likely
that the OHAUS Trooper industrial bench scale will be a major part
of Driscoll's operations for many years to come.
For more information on Driscoll, please go to www.driscolls.com
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