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Emydex expands in Canada: a game changer for Food Traceability

Emydex expands in Canada: a game changer for Food Traceability

Customers

It has been a busy year of expansion for the Emydex Team in North America. We started deploying our solution to a prominent multi-plant poultry provider in the region, initiating with a Packing and Labelling Solution for their key facility in Waterloo, Ontario. We are eager to commence integration with their enterprise-wide ERP system and to launch enhanced features in Waterloo and additional sites.

In the Seafood sector, we've been collaborating with a leading seafood company in British Columbia for a few years now, focusing on tailored solutions for their distinct Roe Herring processing. At the same time, we are enhancing their utilization of our standard features across various fish species processing operations.

Our inaugural client in North America, a major pork processing company that has been with us since 2017, is planning to be extend their existing three production operations, to a fourth plant, a state-of-the-art Sow Processing Facility in Saskatchewan, with Emydex delivering the factory floor MES solution. This project brings unique hardware and software challenges, and we are thrilled to customize the Emydex system to meet their operational needs.

PEOPLE

Our Emydex team of people in Canada has been growing along with our business. This year we are pleased to welcome Franzreved Vendiola to the team, working out of Sakatchewan. Franzreved has been a valuable addition to the team, supporting our customers in British Columbia as well as Ontario. We also look forward to welcoming Alistair Walmsley, who recently joining our growing team in Canada, working from his home office in British Columbia.

The addition of Fransreved and Alastair means Emydex engineers are available to communicate and support our customers from East to West Coast North America, also well placed resources for our 24/7 global support coverage system, which leverages our staff in timezones around the world, including locations such as Auckland, Brisbane and Perth, as well as Dublin and Europe obviously.

BAADER

With the recent news of our strategic partnership with BAADER, headquartered in Germany, Emydex had the pleasure of joining some BAADER executives for customer visits in British Columbia, where we were able to introduce the partnership to many of our customers, some of whom are already customers of BAADER also. Soon after that successful trip we were pleased to host a visit from Mrs. Baader, CEO of BAADER Global, in our Canadian base area of Waterloo Ontario.

In the market we are seeing a lot of interest in Emydex's newly released Kill Line and Payment Modules. The process of managing a Meat Packer’s harvest floor has gotten much more complicated. Meat Packers must track and process different breeds, different raising methods (eg. Antibiotic Free, Organic, free-range, etc.). These additional tracking requirements are stressing the Meat Packers' existing Kill line and Payment Management System. Emydex provides a parameter driven Kill Line and Payment Management System, to allow Packers to migrate very quickly to a solution that allows them to be more efficient and manage the payment process.

If you want to learn more – contact Emydex in any of our global market offices in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or North America

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Emydex CEO Update – 2022 Review

Emydex CEO Update – 2022 Review

Looking back on 2022, last year continued with the trend of challenging global trade conditions with the War in Ukraine fuelling a global energy crisis and rapidly rising inflation.  Not much of a break in the weather post the Pandemic that overshadowed most of 2020 and 2021.

Despite these challenges, Emydex continued to grow and expand in 2022 with double-digit revenue growth over 2021.  The company continued to grow in our key overseas markets, with a team of over fifteen full-time employees now employed across our two subsidiary companies in Australia and New Zealand.

Project work continues at pace with our New Zealand customers, Silver Fern Farms, Wilson Hellaby, as well our newest customer in NZ, Open Ocean, an indigenous mussel processing factory in Opotiki, North Island.

Our Emydex team in Australia was boosted by the arrival of some highly experienced Emydex employees including Jeffrey Macer Wright (Emydex South Africa) as well as Carl Brennan (Emydex Ireland) who both permanently relocated with their families to Australia, to work out of our Emydex office, located in South Brisbane.

Jeffrey and the Emydex Australian team are busy working on system expansions and upgrades with several customers in Australia including Harvey Beef, Junee Lamb, as well as new customers Mort & Co and WAMMCO.

New product developments completed by Emydex Australia include a new Meat Messaging system, developed in conjunction with the Australian Meat Processor Corporation (AMPC).  This new system enables Emydex customers to electronically send a list of GS1 labeled carton records (for export shipments, including export certifications) to a centralised cloud storage system, which virtually eliminates the potential for rejection of cartons due to port mark errors or omissions.

The Emydex team in North America has also grown on foot of some significant new customer wins, including a large multi-plant poultry processor with over ten primal and further processing plants spread across Canada.

Back home in Ireland, the Irish team are also busy on several large customer upgrades to our latest Version 6 software, as well as New Product Developments including:

Android Scanning (XDA)

A new Android-based Emydex application running on handheld scanners used for Warehousing functions including Stock management, Issue to production, QC Hold, Containerising, Palletising, Sales Order picking and Dispatch.  Feedback from early adopter customers includes “I have been so impressed with the new Emydex XDA.  The speed at which it works is fantastic even with the database being in the cloud” Operating on Android devices means Emydex customers can source devices, from a wide range of manufacturers, at a lower cost compared to previous Windows mobile devices.

Central Animal Payments (CAPS)

A complete rewrite of our widely used Animal kill line payment system.  CAPS provides the core ‘engine’ which is used to not only generate payments to livestock suppliers but also to those other entities involved in supplying livestock such as buyers, agents, and transport companies.  In addition to generating payments, the system can produce accounts receivable invoices for service processing allowing suppliers to be paid.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Portal

A new web-based application that enables Emydex customers to manage their supplier audits over the web.  Suppliers securely log into an Emydex web portal to complete self-assessment questionnaires/assessments (SAQ), collect relevant documents, submit product specifications, and manage contacts.  The supply chain manager will be able to manage everything related to suppliers completing SAQs and managing their supplier’s approval status & risk rating.  As well as this, they will be able to receive notifications a view all information submitted by the supplier.

Other new products in the Pipeline for 2023 include further development of our new Enterprise Management System (EMS), a corporate-level suite of software applications targeted specifically at maintaining data integrity, reducing data entry, and improving control across multi-plant businesses.

If you want to learn more – contact Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or North America offices

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Enterprise Management Software

A New Era In Food Enterprise Management Software Applications

Emydex’s new suite of Enterprise Management Software (EMS) applications are designed specifically for multi-faceted food processing companies, those which are mainly multi-plant operations, usually overseen by a group HQ plant. Typically, these plants are spread geographically across a country or several countries and would be large food processing organisations. 

It is difficult to maintain data integrity across these often-complex businesses, is often labour intensive and prone to human error with the duplication of information across multiple systems. 

Emydex Enterprise Management System (EMS)

Emydex’s answer to this problem is the Emydex Enterprise Management System (EMS) suite of software which comprises a series of web apps targeted specifically at maintaining data integrity, reducing data entry, and improving control across plants. 

Emydex Enterprise Management System

From a system architecture point of view, the EMS layer resides between the customer ERP system and the various operating plants.

The EMS layer of the Emydex software stack is made up of several web apps tailored toward solving these problems for multi-plant customers.

 

Business Intelligence (BI)

Emydex BI is the latest app of the Enterprise layer allowing customers to surface data to provide visual real-time and trending analytical dashboards. Sitting at the corporate level allows integration to multiple plants to surface data as well as other third-party systems such as ERP & financial systems.  Find out more here

 

Master Data Management (MDM)

Master Data Management (MDM) is designed to control data integrity to ensure it is consistent across all plants. The Master data management module allows customers to centrally manage master data such as products, label designs, kill line destinations as well as other required data.

This removes the effort needed by plant staff to replicate data into each instance of Emydex which instantly reduces the risk of human error. With EMS MDM, corporate users can centrally control all aspects of master data which creates consistency across the business. An example of this is that if a label design is managed centrally, the label will look identical, no matter the plant it was produced from, which from a customer's point of view can be critical. This can also reduce incorrect labelling which can cause product recalls and market rejections, impacting the business brand and reputation.

 

EMS App Deployment

This app empowers the Emydex customer's IT department to take control of deploying the Emydex applications out to the plants. This increases IT security and allows the IT department to pull updates into the business network to then choose when to deploy to the individual plants. This in turn allows the customer to be more self-sufficient in relation to updating plant's MES software outside of production.

 

EMS Exchange

EMS Exchange is Emydex’s newest approach to integration between the plants and third-party systems such as ERP systems and cold stores. It allows for the configuration of rules to route data from one system to other(s). This reduces the customisation required to integrate the Emydex applications into other third-party systems

 


Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS)

Emydex’s first Enterprise module was the Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS) which allows customers to centrally control, capture, store and report on various quality & technical aspects of their operations.
Find out more here…

 

The Future of EMS

The Emydex new product development team are busy working on new apps and features to further extend and enhance our offerings, including additional EMS modules such as Centralised Product Specifications, Production Planning, Payments, Livestock Appointments and Yield Costing. 

Watch this space!

 

If you want to learn more – contact Ireland, Australia, South Africa or North America offices

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Emydex CEO Update

A note from Emydex CEO, David McMahon

After the year of uncertainty, travel restrictions and lockdowns that was 2020, this year 2021 has seen a gradual return to normality, albeit with the markets we serve being in different stages of recovery, with Europe ahead of our colleagues in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand in terms of numbers vaccinated.

The Emydex country teams, still mainly working from home, are busy working on a number of large customer projects. These include Emydex V5 system upgrades for some of our larger multi-plant customers in Ireland, as well as continuing to build ‘group standard solutions for some of our newer multi-site processors in Europe, Canada as well as New Zealand

Throughout 2021, Emydex has continued to solidify its position as a global provider of MES solutions by building out our people and bases in the further stretches of the world including New Zealand and in North America, where new customers and new employees have been added to both Emydex companies established at the end of 2020

On the Product Development front, our software has evolved from our traditional 3-tiered software stack comprising the core platform, software modules and business logic, to add two new layers of software.

Our new Automation layer includes a suite of software modules such as the DCI (Data Communications Interface) that enables Emydex software to connect to factory floor automated machines and robots via standard protocols (OPC) as well as a new Simulator module that enables our customers to conduct scenario planning, as well as to test Emydex software in advance of the installation of factory floor machinery and to train operators in advance of go-live

Our new EMS layer of software developed for our enterprise-level multi-site processing customers, includes software modules such as Master Data Management, Emydex BI, EMS Exchange, Centralised Reporting as well as App Deployment, a suite of software applications designed to facilitate the central creation and dissemination of data files from group HQ to remote plants, as well as consolidated analysis and reporting.

Finally, our technology mix has expanded beyond our traditional windows desktop applications running on-premise, to complement these with new web-based applications (Blazor) as well as Android applications (Xamarin) such as our new XDA for handheld scanning applications, a replacement for our legacy SDA application running on the end-of-life windows mobile operating system.

Looking to the future, Emydex plans to continue to grow our teams of people in Ireland, North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as form new strategic partnerships with global providers of Industrial equipment, ERP integrators and MES consultancy firms with specialist knowledge of the workings of the meat, fish and food processing industries.

If you want to learn more – contact Ireland, Australia, South Africa or North America offices

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How QK Coldstores put the competition on ice

How QK Coldstores put the competition on ice

Serving some of the biggest food companies in South Africa, QK Coldstores wanted to replace their legacy Cold Storage management system with a state-of-the-art solution and become the most advanced cold storage and distribution operation in the country. They turned to Emydex, and we helped them to leave their competitors out in the cold.

Meet the client

With over 150,000 pallet spaces, QK Coldstores is the leading commercial cold storage operation in South Africa. The business began in 2006 at a facility in City Deep, an industrial suburb of Johannesburg. Initially it had the capacity to accommodate 7,000 pallet positions, divided across a broad spectrum of products, including dairy, poultry, fruit pulp, frozen vegetable, beef, pork, lamb and ice cream.

By 2010 the business had grown to the point where it needed additional cold storage facilities. These were added in the Midrand campus nearby. The facility now hosts 150,000 pallet spaces and specialises in a whole range of storage solutions, from specialised confectionary at -14 degrees and ice-cream at -25 degrees to standard storage temperature of -18 degrees.

The company offers a wide range of solutions to a variety of blue-chip customers, from blast freezing, tempering, re-palletising and container loading on the deck as well as offering a primary transport solution. They also offer case picking and currently exceed 300,000 cases per month.

The opportunity

QK Coldstores approached Emydex to assist it move to a higher level of service to its clients. The company wanted a computerised warehouse management system (WMS) that could be tightly integrated with the EDI systems used by some of their largest customers, which included various world-leading food manufactures. This was to help them conduct their core business activities more efficiently, including case picking, blast freezing packing and distribution of dairy, poultry, ice cream and confectionery products.

The way the operation was set up became outdated and Emydex offered far more efficient solutions that were new on the market. That is automated stock allocation, scanning in and out of customer products, online ordering system, live alignment of stock with clients, stock movements and stock balancing are communicated more timeously through an automated system ( its real time and as the transactions are completed)

“The Implementation of Emydex was a big changer that brought tremendous improvements. This Speeded up receiving and dispatches processes, stock taking, cycle counts and tracing stock forward or backwards, whilst reducing the need to use a lot of paper which is friendlier to the environment”
Kelvin Mushure / IT Manager / Project Manager QK Cold Store

What we did

Following an initial discovery engagement, Emydex’s business analysis team proposed that a tailored version of the Emydex warehouse management, configured specifically QK’s Cold Storage operations would answer the brief perfectly.

Emydex installed numerous hand-held scanners at the loading bays so that stock could be registered as it arrives and as it leaves. Handheld scanners were introduced and it improved the accuracy of all stock transactions and movements (Stock taking, receiving, cycle counts and dispatches). Scanning was 50% more efficient than the previous processes we utilised in our previous MWS.

Emydex endeavoured to use existing QK Coldstores’ computers and network where possible reducing the need for any significant investment in new hardware. Emydex solutions engineers configured the software solutions to integrate with the company’s existing management and accounting systems. They also integrated everything with QK Coldstores’ customers systems, where requested, so that QK’s customers could gain accurate and real-time visibility of their stock and their orders throughout the distribution process.

“Emydex took most of the pain and inefficiencies away by giving us a warehouse management system with scanning for a total traceability and tracking no more manual receiving paperwork. They automated sending out receipts to customers by email for flexibility. Emydex worked with our hardware without having to replace and invest in a new IT network or system – we repurposed equipment, saving on capital expenditure and the need to buy new hardware. A big thank you to Dave and Eamonn and the Emydex Team for the help in implementing and understanding of our requirement to our clients which led to little or no disruptions to the operations whilst we carry out the implementation”
Brian Thompson / General Manager QK Coldstore

Going live

Following an extensive phase of system testing, QK’s new Emydex system went live in December 2020, with everything going smoothly and to plan. Emydex engineers were on standby remotely in Dublin HQ to ensure that any problems could be addressed immediately but, even before that, Emydex made sure that all of the QK Coldstores’ users and team members were fully trained in working with the new Emydex solution.

“Going live was smooth… we had the best of support... Everything was explained to help set up and full training. There were no hic-ups with the roll-out and since then all the changes and upgrades went smoothly. This has been the biggest game changer for us to date with lots of positive change – our customers love it.”

Kelvin Mushure / IT Manager / Project Manager QK Coldstore

The results

The results have been outstanding. QK Coldstores estimates that productivity has increased by more than 50% which by far exceeded best expectations for the project. Errors are down and QK Coldstores’ customers now have the ability to see their stock as it arrives, how much is held and where, make orders and track them, specifying pallet composition, delivery dates and time as and delivery locations. For some customers, QK Coldstores’ hands have been removed from the cold storage and distribution process altogether as those customers take complete control of their own stock.

Customers can also use the Emydex web portal to create sales orders online and view and review existing orders, see stock levels and avoid ordering more than is in stock at that particular time.

“The results are clear and obvious: the operation is at least 50% more efficient. It has brought huge benefits for our customers they get automatic stock reports, and they can see any change in stock levels, plus or minus, immediately. Throughout my career and with all of the experience I have had, nothing has even come close to the efficiency that Emydex brings with their ‘can-do’ attitude. They’ll use flexibility in their service and customised development – it’s the best I’ve seen. Seriously…. their integration capabilities are excellent and better than anything I’ve seen anywhere else. The Emydex business model is excellent – the system works well and does so much and completely seamlessly, securely, confidently and compatibly”

Kelvin Mushure / IT Manager / Project Manager QK Coldstore

 

What’s next?

We are working with QK Coldstores to expand the functionality of the Emydex web portal – it is an evolving solution with ideas coming from clients like this around the world. In the long-term, QK Coldstore’s clients’ customers will be able to initiate and see their orders. the customer will be able to order and track their own stock straight from QK Coldstores. We are looking to expand the fan functionality of the web portal it is involving solution.

“ The scanning system gives a clear indication of the condition of stock with a full audit trail – who did what, where and when. The ability to order online for our customers’ customers has taken away the admin headache of sending an Excel spreadsheet. Now the customer is in the driving seat via the web portal. They can choose quantities and delivery times and places taking our hands out of the creation.”
Brian Thompson / General Manager QK Coldstore

In other’s words

“For us this was a straightforward project for Emydex even though it has had a hugely positive impact for QK Coldstores, even if just looking at benefits in terms of the pure numbers alone. It’s an interesting one too because this customer deals with some of the biggest food providers in the world. Working closely with QK we are making the whole process efficient, streamlined, more carbon-neutral and faster. These are the success stories we live for.”
David McMahon / CEO Emydex

Contact Sales in any of our Dublin, Brisbane, South Africa or Toronto offices

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Growth in 2020 despite Covid-19

Emydex expands in 2020 despite Covid-19 with year-on-year growth in sales

New office openings in Canada and New Zealand. New hires in Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. New customer signings and new plant go-lives.

Sales Growth

In a year dominated by the Covid 19 pandemic, global lockdowns, as well as restrictions on domestic and international travel, 2020 has seen another period of solid performance by Emydex, at a time when all staff in all market offices are working from home since mid-March.

In the first 9 months of 2020, Emydex recorded sales growth of over 10% compared with the same 9-month period last year. Emydex is pleased to see the business continue to grow throughout what are extremely challenging trading conditions.

Remote Working

Restrictions on the international movement of people have had the biggest impact on Emydex this year, with our customers and staff restricted in their ability to visit factories for business analysis engagements and project implementations in person.

South Africa

In September, Steynsburg Pork, a new Emydex customer, went live with the first phase of their Emydex system installation, at their new greenfield plant in South Africa. This new world-class farm and abattoir facility will process up to 4,800 sows per week once operating at full capacity.

Phase 1 of the project saw Emydex go-live with a “door to door” solution, including animal delivery, pig processing kill line, carcass management, into boning, case labelling, warehouse management and sales order picking.

The project was supported on-site by Emydex’s long-standing partner for the African market, Summit Process Solutions, and a special thanks to both Rodney and Jeffrey Macer-Wright for their help and assistance on the ground during the lead up to go-live, and several weeks post-go-live during the project stabilisation phase.

New Zealand

Around the same time, the Wilson Hellaby Group in North Island New Zealand went live with their first Emydex system, a state-of-the-art automated carton labelling system operating in the pack-off area of their beef and lamb boning halls of their Auckland Meat Processors (AMP) plant.

Unmanned labelling stations provide higher quality and consistency of labelling, eliminating errors, reducing reworks and recalls, whilst also reducing labour costs. Improvements in line speed and throughput mean that the automated pack labelling lines can process up to 18 cartons per minute. The system is fully integrated into the boning halls and provides real-time visibility of all stages of the production process for full traceability.

Emydex acknowledges the efforts of Ian Carson, Senior Consultant with Emydex Australia in our Brisbane office, who flew from Brisbane to Auckland and back during the lockdowns in both countries to support the Emydex go-live in the group’s Auckland Meat Processors (AMP) plant in Auckland.

Whilst onsite in AMP, Ian provided the eyes and ears for our system solutions and engineering teams working remotely on the project in our Dublin and Brisbane offices, relaying real-time video footage back to the engineers and testers working on the Emydex system solution on pre-go-live testing. Ian had to self-isolate for 2 weeks on both sides of the trip, going above and beyond the call of duty.

Canada

In Canada, the Emydex team have been working remotely with the Canadian Fishing Company (CANFISCO) to continue implementing Emydex functionality into the organisation remotely.

Having completed the first phase implementation covering Groundfish applications, the focus is now on applications for future improvements, including analysis of expected costs against actual costs, gross margin visibility at the different levels (including vessel, customer, and sales order analysis), as well as the automation of HACCP and QC processes and cold storage invoicing.

In addition, Emydex have also been completing requirements analysis for another multi-plant, major food manufacturing company in Canada. Although the first two factory requirements gathering visits were completed in person, the remaining factories have since been completed virtually using video conference technology again due to travel restrictions.

Expansion

To support growth in our two newest overseas markets, Emydex incorporated two new overseas companies in Canada and New Zealand in November and welcomed new hires to join both teams.

In Canada, Nathan Kelman joins the Emydex Canada team as a Senior Solutions Engineer. With over 8 years of programming experience working in software development roles around the Greater Toronto Area, Nathan will work on Emydex solutions development as well as support with our customers in Canada and the US

In New Zealand, Hermien Van den Berg joined the Emydex New Zealand team in September, as a Senior Project Manager, based in Auckland. With over 10 years’ experience working as a project manager for companies such as Coca-Cola in South Africa, Hermien will manage our growing New Zealand team, working remotely on customer projects including WHL and Silver Fern Farms.

(Jan 2021 update) Vadim Shegay and Wayne McRae also join the growing Emydex NZ team, both as a Senior Solutions Engineers working on ongoing Emydex projects spread over the North and South Islands in New Zealand.

Contact Sales in any of our Dublin, Brisbane, South Africa or Toronto offices

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