What causes recurring chocolate blockages on a new production line and how do you fix it?
About the client
An international protein bar manufacturer in North America that coats its bars in chocolate for major brands, currently starting up a new production line as part of a wider expansion of its manufacturing network.
Problem statement
During the start-up of a new production line, the chocolate system turned out to be one of the two biggest obstacles to reaching consistent output. The melter had already failed once before our audit and failed again during the visit, taking the melter fully out of service. A recurring pattern of unmelted chocolate on the melter’s heating grid pointed to uneven hot water distribution as the likely root cause. A pattern we had already encountered at other projects.
Both enrobers were experiencing chocolate blockages, the cause wasn’t a single fault but several smaller issues compounding one another. Filter issues, chocolate running too cold, missing features, all made blockage more likely and seeding harder to spot. The result even has an effect several meters downstream.
Our solution
PX Consulting audited the full chocolate system on site (equipment, auxiliaries and piping). Tracing each fault back to a root cause rather than treating the symptoms individually. For the melter, we recommended inspecting the hot water circuit’s flow, based on the same imbalance pattern already seen and resolved at similar projects.
Our highest-priority recommendation was new to the client and new to the industry. It addresses multiple problems with a single investment. It resolves the chocolate issues and it prepares the line to run future, mutually incompatible coatings such as white chocolate or compound with less additional equipment. We also recommended other smaller improvements to make sure the line can run at a high output.
Several fixes needed no investment at all and could be actioned immediately because the equipment was installed but not used properly. Together with the client’s own maintenance team, these findings were consolidated into a single prioritized action plan for the chocolate system, alongside PX Consulting’s wider review of the new plant’s production line.
