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Digital Recorder Replaces Cumbersome Paper Charts

With its Paperless Process Recorder and cloud-based Legendary software, Anderson-Negele aims to digitalize—without necessarily reinventing—the recording of process parameters in food and beverage plants.

The Paperless Process Recorder records process parameters like temperature, flow, and pressure, and uses the Legendary cloud-based software to securely store those records.
The Paperless Process Recorder records process parameters like temperature, flow, and pressure, and uses the Legendary cloud-based software to securely store those records.
Photo courtesy of Anderson-Negele

Paper chart recorders have been around for more than 100 years, with one of the earliest examples patented in 1915 for use in environmental monitoring. The chart recorders used back then—colored pens scratching out process data onto a circular paper—are not drastically different than the charts still prevalent in food processing plants today, according to Natalee Kauffman, sales manager for Central States Industrial (CSI). “While modern-day recorders use digital sensors for more accurate reporting, the evolution of the tech has not changed remarkably,” she says.

CSI is an authorized distributor for Anderson-Negele’s Paperless Process Recorder (PPR), a digital recorder system that can be used in pasteurization, clean in place (CIP), clean out of place (COP), raw silo monitoring, or any other food or beverage application that would typically use a paper chart recorder to monitor process parameters. With the Legendary cloud-based software, the records from the PPRs are securely stored in one location, enabling quality managers or other authorized users to conveniently access, review, annotate, and approve records remotely.

Kauffman joined Neil O’Connor, national key account manager for Anderson-Negele, and Nathan Collins, regional director of sales for Anderson-Negele, to explain the need in the food and beverage industry for a digital version of the traditional paper chart recorder, and also how the PPR and Legendary software work.

PFW: With as much that has changed in food processing over the past 100 years, why are these paper chart recorders still so much in use today?

Kauffman: When you think about the advancement in food processing, and the implementation of FSMA, the Food Safety Modernization Act, to think that we’re still using this tech that is from 1911 is surprising.

I think that in many cases, we’re all just victims of ‘If it ain’t broke…’ But what’s sad is that it really is broken. Paper chart recording is very time-consuming and operationally cumbersome.

Collins: What I’m seeing is that, in this industry, anytime you change something, there’s a certification process that you’ve got to change along with it. If you’ve been using paper charts for a long time, there’s an existing workflow in that process. And to suddenly change this process, it’s not just a single person that’s got to buy into this, it’s an entire company. So, what is that process for change? What are the requirements?

One of our campaign slogans is ‘It’s easy.’ It’s so easy, it really is. But it’s change. Is change really ever easy?

PFW: Help me understand how a paper chart recorder typically works.

Collins: If everything was running 100% perfect all the time, you would see what appears to be a straight line coming through on the paper chart. Then when you see a deviation in that line, that’s going to indicate a change in the operating condition. Every time you see a change in that operating condition, somebody’s got to make a manual note on the chart, explaining what the deviation is and why it happened.

A paper chart records for a period of time, let’s say 12 hours, and is taken to a quality assurance supervisor once this period lapses. The quality assurance supervisor goes through the chart and makes sure all the annotations are correct. A lot of times they’re not. If this is the case, the quality supervisor then has to take the chart back out to the line supervisor or whoever’s running the line to make the correct annotation. The quality supervisor can’t make those annotations for the operator; that’s something the operator has to do. Once the chart is fully annotated, the quality supervisor puts their stamp of approval on it. The charts are then stored away for audits. I believe they have to be stored for seven years. So you can imagine—one chart every 12 hours for seven years.

Now, what happens if you’re out collecting charts in a dairy or juice plant and you drop a chart on the floor? The ink smudges, right? The ink disappears and the chart might even tear. The workflow alone of going back through the process and getting all of these charts annotated correctly is a feat in itself. And then what happens if you’re audited? So now, I’ve got charts for seven years, and somebody wants to see what happened six months ago. What’s the process that I have to go through—storage boxes, literally storage units that somebody might have to go through to find a particular chart is an overwhelming task

Kauffman: And those are just the results of human failure. There’s lots of mechanical failure. If the pen arm breaks, if the markers don’t work, or they’re dry, then the charts are worthless. Mechanical failure is constant. Or a plant might run out of charts. Or worse, they order the wrong charts—for the wrong timeframe.

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