White Paper: How To Build An IT Infrastructure For Net Weight Control

This white paper explores the key Information Technology(IT) issues that engineers and quality professionals should consider when developing a net contents or weight control program. The intent of this paper is to give non-IT specialists the background they need to better communicate with their IT counterparts and other business leaders, and thus have more effective conversations.

A modern weight control program cannot operate as a stand-alone point solution. It must span geographic space, hosting data from multiple lines and even divisions. Because of the proliferation of co-packers it must sometimes also span company boundaries. It must support data entry from humans, as well as direct acquisition from a wide range of weigh scales and devices. And it must connect and interoperate with other business applications.

The ideal system is inexpensive, using 'off-the-shelf' hardware and software. No components can be proprietary, and there should be a minimum amount of software customization. At the same time, the system must be impervious to harsh environments such as high temperatures or wash down protocols and offer the flexibility needed to support such a diverse environment.