Beyond Slicing Efficiency
For cheese manufacturers, investment decisions have become increasingly complex. Rising energy costs, labor shortages, growing quality requirements and increasing competitive pressure mean that every capital expenditure must create measurable value.
Today, the focus is no longer solely on the purchase price of a machine. More important is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over the entire lifecycle of the equipment. Factors such as product giveaway, energy consumption, labor requirements, maintenance costs and production uptime have a significant impact on overall profitability.
At the same time, manufacturers are expected to launch new products faster, maintain the highest quality standards and ensure compliance with increasingly demanding food safety regulations.
This is where the Natec Network FreeSlice system comes in.
The Next Generation of Cheese Processing
FreeSlice is a highly flexible production system originally developed for Slice-on-Slice (SOS) cheese production. Depending on the selected line configuration, the system can also produce cubes, shreds and sticks from processed cheese, pasta filata, analogue cheese and hybrid cheese products.
The system combines hygienic design, process reliability and operational flexibility in a single solution.
The result is a solution that supports manufacturers throughout the entire product lifecycle, from initial product development to efficient large-scale production.
Reducing Total Cost of Ownership
When evaluating production equipment, the largest costs often occur during daily operation rather than during the initial purchase. FreeSlice has been developed to reduce these costs across multiple areas.
- Minimized Product Giveaway
Even small deviations in product weight can result in significant annual losses. With a weight accuracy of approximately 0.03%, FreeSlice helps manufacturers minimize giveaway and optimize raw material utilization, creating substantial savings over time.
- Lower Energy Consumption
The optimized cooling concept can reduce energy consumption by approximately 40% compared to conventional production approaches, supporting both cost reduction and sustainability goals.
- Reduced Labor Requirements
Automated operation and the integrated CIP system significantly reduce manual workload. As skilled labor becomes increasingly difficult to find, this helps manufacturers improve productivity while lowering operating costs.
- Low Maintenance and Service Costs
FreeSlice is designed for reliable long-term operation. Typical spare parts costs amount to around 3% of equipment value, while annual service costs, including remote support, are approximately 1%.
By combining savings in product accuracy, energy consumption, labor requirements and maintenance costs, manufacturers can achieve significant annual cost reductions. In many cases, the investment can deliver a return on investment (ROI) within approximately 3 years.
Improving OEE and Line Availability
Beyond cost savings, FreeSlice is designed to maximize operational performance and support production teams in achieving higher Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
- Proven High OEE Performance
At Hochland production site, OEE levels of more than 95% have been achieved. For customers, an OEE level of 85% is guaranteed. This performance is supported by optimized product feeding, stable cooling conditions and a hygienic machine design that helps maintain consistent production.
- Extended Production Runs
FreeSlice enables production periods of 5 to 6 days of continuous 24-hour operation without CIP cleaning. Longer production runs reduce interruptions and maximize productive manufacturing time.
- Production Pauses Without Rework
Unexpected production stops are part of everyday operations. FreeSlice can handle pauses of up to 15 minutes without generating rework, helping operators resume production quickly while minimizing waste.
- Efficient Maintenance and Remote Support
Easy machine access, simplified maintenance procedures and remote support capabilities help reduce downtime and ensure reliable operation over the long term.
- Simplified Processes
The efficiency gains become even greater when FreeSlice is combined with inline shredding technology. In this setup, the production process can be reduced from 8 individual process steps to just 2, representing a 75% reduction in process complexity.
Fewer process steps mean:
- Lower production costs
- Reduced handling and material movement
- Less product loss
- Shorter processing times
- Improved process reliability
Accelerating Product Development and Innovation
Efficiency alone is not enough in today's rapidly changing market. Manufacturers must continuously develop new products, respond to consumer trends and bring innovations to market faster than ever before. FreeSlice supports R&D teams throughout the entire product development journey, from initial testing to commercial production.
- Consistent Product Quality
Advanced product tracking and automated parameter adjustments help maintain stable processing conditions throughout production. This supports recipe consistency, repeatable production results and reliable product quality throughout development and production.
- Precision That Supports Product Excellence
FreeSlice combines precise forming, dual-sided cooling and accurate cutting technologies for both Slice-on-Slice and shredded products. The result is smooth product surfaces, consistent textures and minimal fines, helping manufacturers achieve high-quality end products.
- Scaling from R&D to Industrial Production
One of the biggest challenges in product development is transferring successful laboratory or pilot trials into full-scale production. FreeSlice addresses this challenge with a highly comparable machine concept that scales from R&D production to high-capacity manufacturing lines. This helps reduce development risks and simplifies scale-up process.
- Flexible Product Trials
FreeSlice enables efficient testing of new cheese formulations, formats and product concepts. The option to operate cooling belts at partial width helps reduce product consumption during trials, making testing more efficient and helping to lower development costs.
- Faster Time-to-Market
Speed matters when responding to changing consumer demands. With FreeSlice, completely new product formats can be implemented within a few weeks, while changeovers between existing formats can be completed in approximately 10 minutes. This flexibility allows manufacturers to shorten development cycles and react quickly to new market opportunities.
- From Product Idea to Scalable Production
Whether developing a new Slice-on-Slice application, testing innovative shredded formats or commercializing a completely new product concept, FreeSlice helps bridge the gap between development and industrial production.
By combining product quality, flexibility, scalability and efficiency, the system enables R&D teams to move from concept to commercial production faster and with greater confidence.
Built for Quality, Food Safety and Compliance
In modern cheese production, efficiency alone is not enough. Manufacturers must also ensure that food safety, product quality and regulatory requirements are consistently met throughout the production process.
FreeSlice was developed with these requirements in mind, integrating hygienic design principles and process control features directly into the system.
- Hygiene by Design
FreeSlice is designed according to high European hygiene standards and utilizes food-grade materials and components throughout the production process. The hygienic machine design supports easy cleaning, minimizes product accumulation areas and contributes to maintaining safe production conditions.
- Food Safety at Its Core
Protecting the product throughout production is a key principle of the FreeSlice concept. The machine design helps reduce the risk of contamination, while the integrated climate control and laminar flow systems support controlled and stable production conditions. This combination contributes to a safe manufacturing environment and helps manufacturers meet demanding food safety requirements.
- Consistent and Reproducible Processes
Consistency is essential for both product quality and regulatory compliance. FreeSlice allows recipes and individual process parameters to be stored, recalled and managed efficiently. This supports highly repeatable production processes and enables manufacturers to achieve consistent product characteristics batch after batch.
- Greater Process Transparency
Customer-specific dashboards provide live access to production data and key process parameters, creating greater transparency across the production process. This allows quality assurance and production teams to monitor performance more effectively, identify potential deviations earlier and make data-driven decisions.
- Supporting QA and Regulatory Teams
By combining hygienic design, food safety-focused engineering, process repeatability and production transparency, FreeSlice helps quality assurance and regulatory teams maintain greater control over production processes. The result is a manufacturing environment where quality, consistency and food safety are built directly into the process.
More than a Slicing System
FreeSlice is much more than a Slice-on-Slice production system. It is a platform designed to support the needs of multiple stakeholders across an organization.
- For Management Teams
FreeSlice helps reduce total cost of ownership and improve ROI.
- For Operations Teams
FreeSlice supports higher OEE, longer production runs and greater efficiency.
- For R&D Teams
FreeSlice enables faster innovation and smoother product scale-up.
- For QA & regulatory teams
FreeSlice delivers the transparency, consistency and food safety required in modern food production.
Interested in learning how FreeSlice
could support your production goals?
Contact our experts to discuss your requirements
and discover the potential benefits for your operation.