Recipe
A recipe is a complete set of instructions for a process line that specifies exactly what it must do to make a particular product. It defines which ingredients to add and in what quantities, in what order, to what temperature the product should be heated or cooled, at what speed it should be mixed and how long each stage lasts. Everything is expressed in numbers, leaving no room for guesswork.
The recipe is stored in the line’s control system. The operator does not have to remember or manually set dozens of parameters. They select the product to be made and the batch size from a list, and the line carries out the steps on its own: it opens valves, starts pumps, measures out ingredients, heats, mixes and cools exactly as written in the recipe. Throughout the process, the system monitors whether temperature, time and speed match the instructions, and raises an alarm if anything deviates from the norm.
Each product has its own recipe. This means one line can make many different products, and changing the product comes down to selecting a different recipe. Recipes are created and modified by process technologists, the people who know how the process should run. The system records who changed what and when, as well as which recipe was used to produce each batch. If a customer makes a complaint, it is possible to check whether production followed the instructions.
The most important benefit is repeatability. Every batch is produced the same way, regardless of the shift or the operator, so the product always has the same taste, consistency or colour.
Example: A plant produces wet cat food in several varieties. The recipe for the chicken variety sauce tells the line to:
- add 1,500 l of water to the tank,
- heat the water to 60°C,
- add 80 kg of starch and mix at 60 rpm for 5 minutes,
- add 15 kg of poultry flavouring,
- heat to 85°C and mix at 40 rpm for 20 minutes,
- cool to 60°C,
- pump the sauce to the dosing tank.
The operator selects “sauce – chicken, 1,600 kg” on the screen, and the line carries out all the steps on its own. When production switches to the beef in jelly variety, the operator selects a different recipe, and the line changes the ingredients, quantities, temperatures and times.