Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerrys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever, maintains quality procedures for key performance indicators that ensure consistent product quality for every pint produced. To track quantitative data, the company had previously been using a paper based system, which was not only slow and inflexible, but also costly in terms of man hours required for calculation and analysis. Ben & Jerrys needed a fast and reliable way to collect and analyse the vital quality data of its products.

It decided to deploy the InfinityQS ProFicient enterprise quality hub to streamline its quality control procedures. Powered by a statistical process control analysis engine, the system easily automates data collection and integration from terminals on the shop floor, while its real time monitoring and analysis functions enable the quality department to acquire manufacturing intelligence by tracking variability across each production line.

By measuring, monitoring and controlling four main product attributes – weight, volume, air addition and inclusion amounts – as the pints come off the production lines, quality teams can work with production to quickly make adjustments in real time as products or processes approach specification limits.