The fresh produce industry is an exciting space full of innovative businesses – big and small – that are making a difference in our industry.

To celebrate that innovation, Volm Companies is highlighting businesses that demonstrate industry leadership by embracing automation. This season, we're profiling Heartland Fresh Pak, which washes, grades and packages potatoes out of Winkler, Manitoba.

In this recent interview with Volm, here’s what General Manager Jake Krahn had to say about Heartland Fresh Pak’s growing production demands, its recent line upgrade and what changes they made to nearly double their capacity.

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Q: Tell us about your business – What do you grow and/or pack?

A: Heartland Fresh Pack is packing potatoes right now for two main entities, Haskett Growers and Schmidt Farms. We’re essentially a co-op for those two growers and we pack 50-pound paper bags and 50-pound boxes for them. To do this, we’re using a Volmpack MD10 XL weigher with a Carton Filler and AutoPack bagger. That’s the smallest pack we currently do. We also do big bulk totes and bulk loads. As far as varieties are concerned, we run about three to four different varieties of reds, two to three different varieties of yellows and usually about two varieties of Russets.

Q: Tell us about the recent project that was just completed?

A: The project involved installing an entirely new wash line for washing and grading potatoes. We were aiming at a 70 to 100 percent increase in production. At the beginning of the new line, we upgraded the pit elevator to a 48-inch elevator …. we were running with a 30-inch before. The same with the rest of the wash line – we're running 48-inch conveyors now, whereas we were running 24-inch conveyors before. After the elevator, the line splits into two new horizontal debris removers, which we didn’t have before. From there, the potatoes move over to our weigh conveyor to provide accurate real-time weight data. Next, they’re conveyed over a flume destoner and carried by flume to the veggie polishers, which are equipped with a water recycling system. After polishing, the potatoes travel to the flatbed dryers, each of which feeds a sorter. And finally, from the sorters, potatoes are conveyed over to our sizer.

Q: Why did you decide to do this project?

A: The project was undertaken because our previous line could no longer keep up with the growing production demands. The new system not only increases overall throughput but also incorporates equipment for debris removal that we did not have before. And there's also the water – a 50 percent water savings with the water recycling system. This upgrade improves efficiency, enhances product quality and positions our operations to handle higher volumes moving forward.

Q: Can you talk about the process leading up to your decision to proceed with the project?

A: We were going back and forth with Volm about this project, and we would shoot a bunch of different ideas at them, and it was amazing how fast they would always come back with something for us to look at. They would e-mail something over to me to make sure this is what we were thinking, and then we would go back and forth until we finalized the design that would give us the results we were looking for. At that point we needed to come up with a good time to shut down the plant for the installation. Remember, this plant usually runs 12 months out of the year so there really was no good time. We asked Volm and Wyma Solutions for a timeline, and they gave us a six-week timeframe right from the get-go that included the teardown and installation.

Q: How was the installation?

A: We shut down on September 22 and started tearing down – and the Volm/Wyma team showed up on September 29 to start the installation. Each day they would share their plan with me and give an outline as far as how far they wanted to be by the end of the day, and also the end of each week. It was quite impressive as they kept on schedule. Now there were a few hiccups along the way, but it just meant they stayed here until 10 in the evening a few times to make sure they stayed on schedule. The deadline was hit as we ran our first load on November 3.

Q: What did this new line accomplish for your company?

A: Among other things, we’ve almost doubled capacity. Currently we’re still running approximately the same number of potatoes through this shed each day as before but now it’s taking only 10 hours a day whereas before we needed two shifts totaling 18 hours a day. We now have room for growth. Once we’re ready, we can add back a second shift and increase the total amount of potatoes that are run through our shed. One of the remarkable things about this project is how they managed to fit all this large, upgraded equipment into the same space that previously housed the old wash line. It’s a little tighter walking around the line now, but it all fit in the same area and the production doubled. I thought this was very impressive.