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The Jersey Royal Company, located in the British Crown Dependency of Jersey, is the producer of the internationally recognized Jersey Royal new potato in the Channel Islands. This business grows, washes, grades, packs, and supplies approximately 20,000 tons of potatoes every year. After a trial period the company has now committed to a full subscription service.
Four sorters, one dashboard
Four of the company’s sorting machines – one Halo and three TOMRA 5A’s – have been connected to TOMRA Insight for more than six months now and have convincingly proven the data platform’s effectiveness. By pulling near-live data from all sorting lines simultaneously, and having it available on their computers, tablets, and smartphone, Jersey Royal took tight control of customer-specific quality allocation, operational cost control, and runtime planning for their washing and packing lines.
More information for better management and performance
Andrzej Kopacz, Operations Manager at The Jersey Royal Company, commented: “TOMRA builds ‘the Rolls-Royce’ of sorters, and TOMRA Insight is a strong addition to these machines. Using the information we are getting from TOMRA Insight, we are now managing product-quality more precisely to meet customer expectations, improve product control and allocation, see where we need to help sorters meet targets, reduce waste, and make better use of the equipment with less downtime.”
A firm grip on product quality
With the Jersey Royal potato being a unique product that continuously has to meet very stringent customer specifications, the quality control team has been closely involved in the implementation of TOMRA Insight. By matching detailed sorting data to product batches, the company can now supply retailers with the exact product they require, and document this with undisputable metrics provided by the sorters.
Future possibilities
TOMRA’s team of digital specialists is working closely with Jersey Royal to realize future possibilities such as full system integration and customized defect reporting as well as a crop health management tool.
Andrzej Kopacz: “We are now also able to give better feedback to our growers. For example, we can flag-up very quickly if there are too many unwanted green potatoes coming through for processing, and decide to postpone harvesting. In a similar way, I believe it will soon be possible to match live and customized defect reporting to certain fields and intervene quickly when a crop health issue appears to arise. To us, it’s clear that TOMRA Insight is well worth having.”
