Category Archives: Check Weigh Scales

Restaurant Owners: Portion Control Is Very Important To Keeping Your Ingredient Costs Under Control

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If you are in the restaurant business then you understand how much your ingredients like cheese really cost, since you purchase them from your suppliers on a regular basis. Think about this for a second… Let’s say you’re making your best selling pizza or your most popular sandwich. What if you could cut back on your most expensive ingredient by just a smidgen. Actually, a better way to say it would be — what if you could develop a consistent way to add your ingredients so that every large pizza had exactly eight ounces of cheese or six ounces of pepperoni. The results would hopefully lead to more profitability and a consistent product your patrons could enjoy each and every visit.

This outstanding must read article that is referenced below goes into great detail about portion control and why it’s so important to a company’s bottom line.

“You can have the best pizza in the world. But you can lose your shirt if you’re not careful,” he said. “If you ain’t weighing it, you are winging it.” While many operators habitually weigh dough balls, nothing provides a pizza operator with more margin/cost control than weighing their cheese portions.

…. it’s important to keep cheat sheets for employees to remind them how much cheese to use, and even have the cheese pre-weighed in cups for them. This allows an operator to ensure consistency and to know the cost of every single pizza. The difference, for example, of 7 ounces and 10 ounces of cheese can be 60 cents per pizza. He also suggested adding a weighing scale that is easy for employees to use. Training and incentivizing is important for employees, who may free throw either through habit or to save time.

…. At the end of those 30 days, the concept saved about 200 pounds of cheese totaling $1,200, which was then split between the four employees as a bonus.

I like how the author wrote this article since it’s always great to see real world examples. As you can see from reading the entire article, your business can really benefit by adding some type of weighing functionality into your kitchen. Not only does this help control costs but it should also help restuarants increase their consistency. How many times have you gone to a restaurant and had one pizza with too much cheese or too little sauce, then you go back a couple weeks later and it’s the opposite problem. Customers love a consistent sandwhich or entrée (just ask my in-laws).

If you need some guidance on choosing the correct scale for your restaurant or prep kitchen please contact our sales department at 919 776-7737 or visit our site centralcarolinascale.com which has many scales posted for you to view. We also have a Youtube channel that shows a few of our scales in video format.

Fitness Equipment Company Gives Doran Scales a Workout

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Recently, a fitness equipment manufacturer was weighing a kit of parts and their current weighing system was still allowing an unacceptable quantity of quality control problems. The ideal product for the fitness company was a Doran 2200cw scale. Below is a summary of what was installed at their facility.

A system was proposed that would automate and simplify the process and retain the accumulated weight through the process of weighing several components of a parts kit. By connecting three Doran 2200CW over under accept check weigh scales together and using foot switches to activate certain push buttons, Doran was able to construct a system that allowed the employees to accurately weigh the kit of parts even though the weighing process took place across three workstations – all without pushing buttons on the scale front panel.

2200CW check weigh scaleThree 2200CW check weigh scales were set up using RS-232 cables so that scale number one sent weight data to scale two, and scale two sent weight data to scale three. The first 2200CW check weigher was set up for an over value of 1.2 lb and an under value of 0.7 lb. The employee weighs the items at the first scale and then presses the PRINT foot switch on the first scale. That weight is sent to the second 2200CW and would be automatically programmed as the tare value in the second scale.

The second 2200CW scale is set up with a target weight of 2.2 lb. A component is added to the kit of parts and would be weighed on the second scale and the GROSS/NET foot switch would be pressed to change it to gross mode. The PRINT foot switch is pressed and the total weight (including the tare value sent from scale one) is transmitted to scale three.

On the third and final 2200CW scale, another part is added to the kit. The GROSS/NET foot switch is pressed, to put the scale into gross mode. The weight of all the parts is shown on the display of scale three.

This is just one example of what is possible with Doran scales and the huge choice of available options. If you have a unique weighing application, contact us at Central Carolina Scale and we can get a Doran scale system quoted for you that will save you money and increase your efficiency.

Legal For Trade Price Computing Scales State Testing Info You Can Use

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legal for trade price computing scaleEvery year dozens and dozens of our customers either purchase new retail scales or they have their current legal for trade scale calibrated or certified. These are typically scales they can use at places like the farmers market to sell their fruits and vegetables by the pound. Basically any device used where items are bought or sold by weight is typically required by most state’s laws to be inspected and certified. This would include a counter top scale at a farmer’s market (or mechanical hanging scale) that is used to weigh produce that customers want to buy. Of course, inspecting a retail scale is an advantage to both the farmer and the customer.

I’ve mentioned this in the past but if you are buying or selling your items based on weight, you want to make sure that you purchase a scale that has NTEP approval. The certificate of conformance or CoC# should be on the side of the scale. The article below is also a good resource.

Keep in mind that no device is perfect and must be adjusted periodically. It is also recommended that you do not buy cheap quality scales that will likely not last. There are regional inspectors located across the state that will coordinate with the marketer to complete the certification. The inspectors have a set of standard weights calibrated annually for correctness. They will use these weights to test the marketer’s scales. Once you scale has been inspected you need to recertify every two years.  If the scale is out of tolerance (deemed inaccurate) a scale repair service must fix the scale or a new unit must be purchased. Click here to read entire article. Continue reading →

Mushroom Grower Increases Production Output By 5000 lbs a Day

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A large Mushroom grower needed a way to ensure that the tills of mushrooms were being filled to the proper weight and a means to verify the productivity of each employee. Since whole mushrooms vary in weight and size, the tills of mushrooms were filled by hand. They knew the weight of the bulk mushrooms and the total weight of all the mushrooms packaged that day and they realized that almost 4% of product was lost or unaccounted for during the packaging process. This needed to be improved to keep a healthy profit margin for this company.

THE SOLUTION involved the Doran 2200CW Checkweigh Scale with Ethernet and Excelerator Data Collection.

10 Doran 2200CW Checkweigh scales with wired Ethernet were installed in each production line (Seven total lines). They were connected to a PC with Dorans CW Setup program which contained a library of all products with over and under tolerances. The scales require the operator to log in with an employee ID; this allows all of their packaging for the shift to be recorded. The line leader enters the product to be run in the CW Setup program which then uploads this information and over under tolerances to the 2200CW scales on that line. After the 2200CW scales are setup with the product information and tolerances the Doran Excelerator program starts to collect the data on each weighment from each scale and each packer.

There Is Even A Difference In The Keypad

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Rice Lake utilizes a piezo-type keypad in the CW-90X Checkweigher. These keypads are considerably thicker than traditional overlays and use piezoelectric principles, where pressure creates a mechanical charge within a crystalline layer of the product. You do not notice a tactile sensation of a dome being pushed as with many other keypads. But in the case of the CW-90X, there are certain good things about this.The CW-90X check weighing scale was designed to be used in challenging environments-factory floors, damp food processing type places, etc. In our advertising you might have noticed an individual using a chef’s knife to press a button on the CW-90X. If someone attempted that with a classic keypad, and they do, it will ultimately pierce the dome structure of the button, enabling debris into the keypad and creating failure in a very short period of time.A piezo keypad delivers superior durability. It’s chemical and weather resistant, there isn’t any moving pieces to collapse or break down, and that smooth surface area is very simple to clean. The piezo keypad is not entirely indestructible, however, if someone chooses to utilize their knife instead of their index finger, functionality won’t be jeopardized.

No Network Available for Data Collection? No Problem.

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Over the past several years Doran Scale has become a leader in scale communication and data collection applications. With the new advanced features on the 2200 series this system now offers more flexibility in real world data collection applications. While collecting data using Ethernet and a Local Area Network (LAN) is ideal in many instances, there are times when this is not practical because of complexity, facility restrictions or cost. An ideal solution when a LAN is not available is the Doran 2200 Scale with the Bluetooth option utilizing data buffering.

The 2200 with the Bluetooth option (EXOPT205 ) is set up with an appropriate data string which could include Product ID, Description, User defined fields for Lot ID, Employee ID or Location and scale information. Data buffering is enabled in configuration and the data output method is selected. This could be a manual output by pressing the PRINT button or one of several automatic outputs. When weight is on the scale and data is output manually or automatically, the configured data string is Continue reading →

Auditing Freight Bills

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In a world where every dollar counts, more and more folks are scrutinizing every bill and every charge their company receives. Freight charges are no exception, that is why more customers than ever are investing in a heavy duty NTEP 4×4 Floor Scale. When you do find discrepancies with your freight carrier, don’t be surprised if it has to do with the readability of their scale.

Recently, I stumbled onto something that at first looked coincidental. I was auditing freight bills for a customer and I kept coming up with corrected weights by the carrier and the corrected weights all ended in either a “5″ or a “0″. One shipment contained 8 pallets and each pallet had a corrected weight that ended in 5 or 0. That intrigued me. Coincidence? I then researched and found that of 170 corrected freight bills due to weight changes, all 170 ended in 5 or 0.

My hypothesis was that perhaps forklift scales had something to do with this. I knew that carriers had been using forklift scales for some time so I decided to do some research. I contacted a few carriers and the manufacturer and learned the following: Continue reading →

Common Questions Answered Regarding Counting Scales

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Counting Scales are very similar to other scales in terms of weighing, but the counting scale does two additional functions, by performing operations in division and multiplication based on the internal resolution.  Please continue reading below as Jim Daggon and Ann Crowley from Rice Lake Weighing Systems answer some of the common questions relating to counting scales like the Digi DC-300, Digi DC-190, DC-788 and the DC-782.

1. What is internal resolution?
The internal resolution of a counting scale is the number of divisions into which it divides the total capacity of the scale.

Example: A 50 lb counting scale with 1 million count resolution divides up the 50 lb into 1,000,000 parts. This means each internal resolution is translated to 50/1,000,000 or 0.00005 lb.All of the weights are calculated on this basis. For example, if some parts were placed on the counting scale, and the internal calculation was 210 internal counts, the weight to be displayed would be 210 times 0.00005 lb = 0.01050 lb. Since the weight display might only be five digits, then the weight display would be 0.01 lb. This is the external resolution. (rounded off).

The operator can key in the sample quantity—for example, ten pieces. The scale still “knows” how many internal counts are being used (210) and now divides that number by 10 to get the number of internal counts per piece (210/10 = 21). Continue reading →

Check Out the Latest Advanced Features of the Doran 2200 indicators

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Doran listens to their distributors and their needs.  Along with the 2200’s standard features such as Gross, Net, Tare, multiple product ID’s, full numerical keypad, accumulator, eight setpoints, two RS232 ports, Doran recently released the latest offering of advanced features for the Doran 2200 Indicator which include: Continue reading →

What you don’t know about your food manufacturing process could cost thousands of dollars

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Add one of our Doran Bakery Scales to your process to improve efficiency. Bakeries, snack food processors, foodservice, makers of cakes, muffins, brownies, tortillas, pizza dough, and donuts are realizing cost savings from adding digital portion scales to their process. Just read a few of the case studies about everything from Mushrooms to Margarine.

From scaling and mixing areas for minor and major ingredients, to the manufacturing and finishing area and to final packaging and shipping, these high quality Doran Continue reading →