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// Food manufacturing case study

Chelten House: a plant-floor data app for a fourth-generation food manufacturer

Chelten House Products makes sauces, dressings and condiments. This manufacturing data app case study covers what we built for them: a custom application where operators record production performance, product traceability and equipment downtime. It distinguishes planned from unplanned downtime, records causes and durations, and stores its data in SQL Server, where it supports their Tableau reporting.

Talk to an engineer about your plantSee what we build for plants

What the app covers

  • ✓Production performance, recorded by operators
  • ✓Product traceability
  • ✓Equipment downtime, planned vs unplanned
  • ✓Downtime causes and durations
  • ✓Administrative controls
  • ✓Data in SQL Server, supporting Tableau reporting

// The client

About Chelten House and the manufacturing data app we built

Chelten House Products is a fourth-generation food manufacturer (sauces, dressings, condiments). We built them a custom manufacturing data-management application for operators to record production performance, product traceability and equipment downtime.

The questions behind an app like this are general manufacturing ones. What did the line produce? What went into the finished product? When the line stopped, was that on the schedule, what caused it and how long did it last? Consistent answers come from recording them in one place, in the same format, by the people who run the line.

This case study covers scope: what the app records and where its data goes. It has no results or figures, because we don’t publish numbers a client hasn’t given us.

Manufacturing · Data collection

Production, traceability and downtime data from the plant floor

A custom application where Chelten House operators record production performance, product traceability and equipment downtime (planned vs unplanned, with causes and durations), stored in SQL Server to support their Tableau reporting.

Custom softwareSQL ServerTableau
Read the case study →

// What we built

What we built: a manufacturing data app for production, traceability and downtime

Production

Production performance

Operators record production performance in the app. Because it sits in the same application as downtime, production and downtime records are stored together in SQL Server and can be reported side by side.

Traceability

Product traceability

Operators also record product traceability in the app. Traceability records generally connect a finished product to what went into it, which is the record a food manufacturer needs when a product has to be traced. More on software for food manufacturers.

Downtime

Planned vs unplanned downtime

The app distinguishes planned from unplanned downtime. Keeping scheduled stops apart from breakdowns and other surprises means neither gets counted as the other. Our guide to planned vs unplanned downtime covers the gray areas.

Downtime

Causes and durations

Downtime records include the cause and the duration. That pair is what downtime analysis runs on: total the minutes by cause, sort them, and the causes costing the most time rise to the top. Try it with your own log in the downtime Pareto analyzer.

Admin

Administrative controls

The app has administrative controls. In plant software, that’s how a few people manage settings and lists while everyone else enters data, which keeps the record consistent as lines, products and people change.

Data

SQL Server data for Tableau reporting

The app stores its data in SQL Server, and that data supports Chelten House’s Tableau reporting. A structured database is what lets a reporting tool query production records.

// Data flow

How the plant-floor data in SQL Server supports their Tableau reporting

The app is where the data starts and SQL Server is where it’s kept. That SQL Server data supports Chelten House’s Tableau reporting.

Layer
Role
Custom application (built by Effortless Presence)
Operators record production performance, traceability and downtime. Administrative controls live here too.
SQL Server
Stores the data the app collects.
Tableau
Chelten House’s reporting, supported by the data in SQL Server.

Why that order matters for any plant

Reports are only as consistent as the records underneath them. When categories such as planned vs unplanned, and the cause of each stop, are captured as structured fields at entry, a reporting tool can group and total them directly, without someone cleaning up free text first. Capture at the source, store in a database, report from the database: that’s the general pattern we recommend.

Designing your own downtime database?

Our guide to a SQL Server schema for downtime and OEE data lays out a general pattern Tableau can report on: production runs, stop events, reason codes and shifts. It’s our recommended starting point for any plant, not Chelten House’s schema.

// Your plant

Planning a downtime tracking or production data app for your plant?

“We need better production data and visibility into downtime.” If that’s your plant, these are the decisions to rough out before anyone writes code. Draft answers are enough; working through the details is part of the project.

Bring what you have to your first call, which is with an engineer. Our downtime tracking software page goes deeper on reason codes, planned vs unplanned rules and reporting.

  • ✓Which stops count as planned, and who makes that call
  • ✓The list of downtime causes operators choose from, and who can change it
  • ✓What production performance means on your lines: counts, rates, waste or all three
  • ✓What you need to trace, from inputs to finished product
  • ✓Who enters data, who manages settings and who only reads reports
  • ✓Where the data should live and which reporting tool reads it

Talk to an engineer about your plant

Tell us how stops and production are tracked today and what you want your reports to show. The engineer on the call will tell you plainly what a custom app would involve.

Talk to an engineer →

// Next steps

Building a similar manufacturing data app? Start here

Service

Manufacturing data collection software

What we build for plants: operator entry screens for production, downtime and traceability, admin controls, and data in SQL Server for your reporting.

See manufacturing software →

Service

Custom downtime tracking software

Downtime tracking built around your reason codes and your planned vs unplanned rules, with every stop stored for reporting.

See downtime tracking →

Free tool

Downtime Pareto analyzer

Paste your current downtime log and see which causes cost the most time, with a planned vs unplanned split. It runs in your browser.

Use the free tool →

Guide

Planned vs unplanned downtime

How to classify every stop consistently, including the gray areas: changeovers, sanitation and maintenance that runs long.

Read the guide →

// Questions

Questions about the Chelten House manufacturing data app

What did Effortless Presence build for Chelten House?

A custom manufacturing data-management application. Operators use it to record production performance, product traceability and equipment downtime. It distinguishes planned from unplanned downtime, records causes and durations, has administrative controls, and stores its data in SQL Server, which supports Chelten House’s Tableau reporting.

Why doesn’t this case study include results or numbers?

We don’t publish figures a client hasn’t given us. For Chelten House, this page covers the scope of the application we built: what it records and where its data goes. See all of our case studies.

Is an app like this only for food manufacturers?

No. Production performance, downtime with causes and durations, and traceability records apply to many kinds of production lines. See what we build on our manufacturing software page, or the food-specific version on food manufacturing software.

// Keep exploring

More for plants collecting their own production data

Guide

Track production downtime

How to track production downtime: what to record for every stop, who records it, manual vs automatic tracking, and how to turn the log into weekly decisions.

Read more →

Guide

Downtime reason codes

A free starter list of downtime reason codes, split into planned and unplanned stops, plus rules for a code scheme operators will actually use.

Read more →

Guide

OEE for food & beverage

How to calculate OEE on food and beverage lines: changeovers, sanitation and allergen cleans, multi-SKU run rates, and a worked hypothetical example.

Read more →

// Bring us in

Tell us about the software your business runs on.

A new build, a system that’s hard to use, a stuck project or a prototype that needs to go live. An engineer, not a salesperson, will get back to you.

Talk to an engineerCall (202) 886-2442

202-88-MAGIC · or email info@effortlesspresence.com