How important is checkweighing? Do you really need it?

“What you don't know can’t hurt you” works for many things — manufacturing is not one. This quick Q&A will help you decide if checkweighing is a ‘nice to have’ for your business, or a ‘must have’.  

Q. What is a checkweigher?

A. Checkweighers check the weight of your products to ensure they are within specified limits. Any products outside the tolerance (so too heavy or too light) are rejected. They can also ‘count’ items, eg, a carton of 10 bottles should weigh X; if the checkweigher measurement is less, then a bottle can be added before the carton is sealed.

Q. How does this help me?

A. Taking out-of-spec products off the line, and preventing them from going out your door, reduces the risk for your business. Supplying the agreed product, fit for shelf, includes the correct weight. Your checkweigher can measure gross weight (total of contents and packaging) and net weight (just contents — based on the product). A checkweigher will ensure the ‘nominal weight’ (weight stated on the pack) is as close as possible to the actual weight.

Q. What if it’s overweight? Isn’t that better?

A. No — this is called ‘giveaway’; it is the portion of the product above the nominal weight. You can’t charge for it, so it’s just straight lost profits, and it’s deadly to bottom lines! Say if your nut-bagging machine puts 220 g into 200 g bags. If you sell 150 a week, that’s 3 kg you’re giving away — just in 7 days. Over 48 weeks, that’s 144 kg for which you’ll never earn any income. A checkweigher helps reduce giveaway.

Q. But isn’t it nice for customers if product is a little overweight?

A. Most customers appreciate ‘buy one get one free’ promotions. But if you’re giving away more product and they don’t even know, that won’t win loyalty. The more accurate your checkweigher, the more money you can save. Even with small packets of nuts, eliminating the tiniest amount of overfill can add up to massive savings.

Q. Can’t my staff do this?

A. The demands on manufacturing processes are intense: production lines are increasingly fast, yet portioning must still be accurate. Even for slower lines, the aspect of human error is too much to risk if your staff have to individually weigh each pack.

For more information, visit the National Measurement Institute, www.measurement.gov.au.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Ariwasabi