Cherkizovo Kashira: 15 facts about the Company’s most advanced facility

Five years ago, Cherkizovo Group launched its fully automated dry sausage plant in Kashira near Moscow. To this day, its level of automation is still unrivaled in Russia's meat production industry. On the occasion of the plant’s 5th anniversary, we would like to share with you some fascinating facts about it.

1. Cherkizovo’s plant in Kashira produces up to 100 tonnes of sausages per day using only meat supplied from our own farms (pork ham, pork belly, and chicken).

2. The facility currently manufactures over 100 products, including Russia’s best-loved Salchichon, Astoria, Flamenco, Borodinskaya, Bogorodskaya sausages, etc.

3. Cherkizovo Kashira is one of the most technologically advanced facilities both in Russia and in Europe. By leveraging the Industry 4.0 vision, it successfully integrates robotic solutions with control and monitoring systems. Robots control the entire production process from the moment raw materials enter the facility to the shipment of finished products.

4. The plant employs TechnoFerrari shuttle robots. They transport sausage racks (each weighing more than 1 tonne) and handle all production processes, recording the weight of the products, monitoring their drying and ripening, and ensuring their movement through various production stages.

5. The shuttles can operate non-stop for up to 12 hours. In absence of active tasks, they automatically return to the charging stations just like robotic vacuum cleaners. The shuttles move along the track of over 15,000 magnets embedded in the plant’s floor and receive tasks via Wi-Fi.

6. The total number of employees at Cherkizovo Kashira is below 200 vs at least 600 workers at its peers.

7. Thanks to the production automation, the journey from raw meat in crates to sausages hanging on the racks takes as little as 20 minutes.

8. The full production cycle is certainly more extensive: it includes raw material acceptance and processing, sausage stuffing, as well as fermentation and drying in chambers, where the products get their final look.

9. The fermentation chamber is where the key biochemical processes take place, resulting in the ripening of the meat and the development of the taste and texture of the sausage. A total of 30 fermentation chambers and 60 drying chambers are installed at the plant.
10. The fermentation process takes from four to seven days depending on the type of the product, while drying takes two to three weeks. Therefore, the average sausage production cycle at the plant ranges from 21 to 25 days, after which the product is packaged and shipped to consumers.
11. The maximum storage time for sausages in the finished product warehouse is two days, ensuring that stores receive only the freshest and highest quality product.
12. Each sausage variety requires a specific combination of ingredients. The plant's software automatically identifies the location of the necessary raw materials for a given recipe in the warehouse and sends a signal to the robots to transport them to the production line.
13. The most popular with consumers today are sausage half-cuts. In response to customer demand, the plant producers 70% of its sausages in half-cuts and only 30% in whole pieces.
14. The entire production process is closely monitored by technologists and operators, who do not have direct contact with the product. Human intervention is required mainly for raw material acceptance, control, and shipment of finished goods, thus ensuring stringent biosafety levels and high product quality.
15. In addition to being popular throughout Russia, Cherkizovo-Kashira’s products also enjoy strong demand from abroad, particularly in the CIS countries and Vietnam.