Quality monitoring in a packaging line

A packaging line monitoring system apparatus, comprising a processor, a memory and input/output circuitry, said memory containing instructions executable by said processor whereby said processor is operative to control the packaging line monitoring system apparatus by:

• obtaining, from a package filling machine, information regarding sampling occasions in the form of a plurality of sampling records, each sampling record comprising a first time stamp for the sampling occasion, information that describes a trigger for the sampling occasion, a number of package samples taken at the sampling occasion, and a second time stamp that specifies when the package samples were taken,
• obtaining, from a package sample analysis system, analysis information regarding contaminated package samples,
• processing the sampling records and the analysis information, whereby information is obtained that links contaminated package samples with sampling occasions, and
• generating a table comprising, for each sampling occasion, the first time stamp for the sampling occasion, the information that describes a trigger for the sampling occasion, the number of package samples taken at the sampling occasion, the second time stamp that specifies when the package samples were taken, and a number of contaminated package samples at the sampling occasion
• obtaining auxiliary information regarding a contaminated package, where the auxiliary information comprises information that represents a point in time at which the contaminated package was filled in the filling machine,
• processing the sampling records and the auxiliary information, whereby information is obtained that links the contaminated package with the point in time at which it was filled,
• the generation of the table comprising the information that links the contaminated package with the point in time at which it was filled,
• the obtaining of the analysis information comprising obtaining the analysis information from the filling machine,
• the auxiliary information regarding the contaminated package being obtained from a location at which packages filled by the filling machine are stored and wherein said location is a warehouse, or the auxiliary information regarding the contaminated package being obtained from a location at which packages filled by the filling machine are stored and wherein said location is a retailer,
• the analysis information regarding a contaminated package sample comprising information that represents a point in time at which the package sample was filled in the filling machine,
• the processing of the sampling records and the analysis information comprises a comparison between the information that represents a point in time at which the package sample was filled and any of the first time stamp and the second time stamp,
• the information that represents the point in time at which the package sample was filled comprises any of a time stamp and a serial number,
• the analysis information regarding a contaminated package sample comprises detail information of a contamination classification scheme, and
• the generation of a table comprises the detail information of the contamination classification scheme.