Software

Emydex expands in the Land of the Long White Cloud

21st June 2021

Emydex’s international reach has extended beyond its base in Brisbane Australia setup in 2016, to the Land of the Long White Cloud or Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand.

Incorporated in November 2020, Emdyex New Zealand today includes a headcount of six full-time employees, currently all working remotely from home during the pandemic, although this likely to continue beyond Covid given the employees are spread over the four corners of the two Islands.

Emydex’s Team New Zealand, is a cross-functional team, with in-country expertise to service and support all our local NZ customers that currently includes Silver Fern Farms, with its head-quarters in Dunedin, South Island, as well as Wilson Hellaby with multiple processing plants operating in the North Island. Other new customer signings are also in the mix, some in other industries outside of beef, lamb and pork processing but too early to announce at this time of writing.

The Emdyex New Zealand team is lead by Hermien van den Berg, originally from South Africa, who has over 10 years of Project Management experience in leading project teams throughout the project lifecycle. Hermien is supported by a team five technical resources working on development, implementation and support for our New Zealand customers including:

Vadim Shegay – Vadim has more than 15 years experience in software development and has considerable experience in C#, SQL, Web API. MCP SQL programming. Vadim joined Emydex New Zealand in January 2021 as Senior Solutions Engineer.

Wayne McRae - Dr. Wayne McRae graduated with a PhD in physics from Otago University, New Zealand in 2000. He joined Emydex Technology in 2021 as a Solutions Engineer, building on his previous experience with C#, Azure services, and SQL

Sian Larcombe - Sian has 10 years experience as a .Net software developer, and has worked across various sectors in the NZ technology industry. She has a bachelor’s in information technology from Whitireia Polytechnic.

Kern Carboni - Kern has 25 years of experience in Information Technology throughout various industries worldwide, including several years within the meat processing industry in New Zealand. Kern joined Emydex Technology in 2021 as a Senior Solutions Engineer with experience in C#, Azure services and SQL development.

Carne de Vreede - Carne has 10 years extensive experience working in the red meat industry in various roles including boning room laborer, boning room knife-hand, boning room administrator as well as later roles including systems support and systems analyst. Carne is currently studying a Bachelor of Computer Science degree in the University of Auckland with the goal of becoming a Software Engineer on the Emdyex systems development team. He is currently providing systems testing & Support to Emydex’s customers in both New Zealand as well as Australia

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

How QK Coldstores put the competition on ice

24th May 2021

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

Automating factory floor production with Emydex DCI

13th April 2021

Emydex has recently completed a number of customer projects that have integrated on-floor equipment and machinery with the Emydex MES providing significant benefits ranging from reduced labour and cost, improved throughput and real-time reporting.

These projects range from fully integrated kill line systems where carcasses are managed from the beginning of the process through to the carcass chillers and dispatch to automated case weighing and labelling systems

Integrating factory floor has lead to innovations such as communicating customer requirements directly with cutting and trimming equipment on the kill line. This results in carcasses that meet individual customers specification leading to greater satisfaction. Other innovations include ‘hands-free’ case weighing, labelling and lidding, the labelling of products based on their chemical lean content and automated sorting of both case and carcass to the correct storage destination.

These projects have not only reduced the labour cost involved in these usually highly manual processes but have also lead to significant increases in throughput.

The Data Communications Interface (DCI.)

Integrating the equipment on the floor with the Emydex MES is a new module known as the ‘Data Communications Interface’ (DCI). This is the ‘intelligent hub’ that captures the data from the equipment and PLCs on the processing line and directs them as to how they are to act. Whether it is capturing the fat score from an in-line x-ray device and determining the final product code of the item, directing a robot to cut a carcass in a certain way or rejecting a carton for an illegible barcode, the DCI is the brains behind the process.

Using industry-standard communications protocols such as OPC or Telegrams, the system can be integrated into almost any existing production environment. Information collected from devices on the production line allows the Emydex MES to either manage a process or report on production in real-time. This allows production staff to react and manage the process during production rather than after the fact.

The Emydex Simulator

Production environments can be complex and high speed, production downtime is expensive and implementing new systems always carries risk. To reduce this risk and to allow modelling of the processes, Emydex has developed the Simulator module. This provides a graphical interface to the DCI and all the complex devices and control points in a production environment and can model the process from end to end. Each integration point in the process is replicated with the actual data that will be used in the live environment. This may be the output of a PLC or a piece of equipment used in production. This allows the end to end process to be tested without interrupting production thus providing full confidence in the systems ability to work in the live environment.

As part of the simulator integration, Emydex terminals can interact with the simulator and DCI allowing the terminals to run as they would in the live environment. This not only allows the human interface of the system to be tested but also proved a training environment for operators. With the simulator in place, operators can become fully conversant with the system before go-live.

The ability to test the ‘real’ environment in the back office ensures new systems are rolled out with the minimum of impact with staff fully trained and confident with the new environment.

Examples of the Simulator coupled with the DCI’s power include:

Lariage pen management which direct staff to the next pen to empty reducing the time required to manually identify pens from paper-based systems.
Kill line carcass processing robot control based on customer requirements or processing issues.
The use user defines carcass rules that allow carcasses to be managed before grading for increased kill line efficiency.
RFID gambrel tracking ensures carcasses are processed accurately and efficiently. Carcases can be directed automatically to retain/detail rails based on carcase faults, traceability is guaranteed and by automating sorting into the chillers, boning rooms can run more efficiently.
Chiller sortation rules that maximise chiller efficiency and automate the put-away process.
Carcase cutting and put away based on rules generated from the kill data reducing the labour required for cutting and storage. With information being passed to carcasses quartering or portioning system and the resulting portions being directed to the correct locations for boning or dispatch, manual sorting and pushing of carcasses can be removed.
The determination of the correct product code for an item based on its actual fat score reducing CL issues and customer claims.
Automated weighing and labelling of cartons and crates reducing labour and ensuring the consistency of barcode placement for subsequent scanning.
Automated carton sorting to reduce labour in manual carton handling.

Emydex Business Intelligence Reporting (BI)

Information is only useful if it is timely, relevant and easy to understand. This is where the new Emydex BI Reporting tool excels. This module allows end-users to extract data not only from the Emydex system but also from third party system and presents the information in a way that is meaningful, timely and clear. Reports can be run from a Web browser or back-office client allowing information to be available for all authorised staff anywhere in the world at any time.

Given the BI tool can report on any information in the Emydex MES and the DCI directly, it can display production information such as throughput speeds, real-time giveaway, production yields, grading scores, contaminant rates etc. and highlight to the Production team if an issue arises.

Information is also available from the sales, kill line payments, inventory, quality management and purchasing module, in fact, any area of the Emydex system. This allows users to generate their own sales analysis, livestock performance, inventory holding reports etc. and to display information in a way that is meaningful to them.

Reports can be automatically generated and published on a schedule allowing management to receive a summarised report of the day's activities based on key performance indicators with alerts to allow for the identification and correction of issues before the next day.

Summary.

With the integration of the production floor into the Emydex MES and the ability to control and report on production processes in high-speed environments, the Emydex MES has reached a class-leading status. Combined with the Emydex BI Reporting tool, production processes and any associated activities can be reported upon and managed real-time reducing reworks and loss.

For example, by reporting on contamination on a kill line or increased give-away on a high speed labelling line, changes can be made in the production environment to correct these to lessen the impact on the current production. This, combined with the reduction in labour and increased efficiencies in conjunction with the well-established ease of use and flexibility of the Emydex system mean existing Emydex user can gain immediate advantage from the introduction of these modules.

New customer will find the Emydex MES an extremely powerful solution for the management of their food processing environment.

Share the results easily with the ability to export the entire dashboard results, or an individual widget at the press of a button.

Individual dashboards can be set up with automatic refresh rates, meaning your data is always up to date!

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

An accurate diagnosis and treatment

10th June 2020

When South African medical device manufacturer Marlin Laboratory Manufacturing needed to replace a manual paper-based quality control system, they looked North to Emydex to advise and assist in implementing an electronic solution.

Introducing the client

Emydex has a strong presence in Sub-Saharan Africa working with their local market partner, Summit Process Solutions, with offices in Pretoria and Cape Town. Together Emydex and Summit have 10 customers spread across South Africa, Namibia and Botswana operating 17 separate plants, each operating Emydex at the core.

The partnership recently added Marlin Laboratory Manufacturing, based in South Africa, to their client base. Marlin Laboratories is a specialist in the design, manufacture, and implementation of reverse osmosis water purification systems for the renal industry in South Africa. The company’s service teams regularly provide servicing and measuring the quality of the water, to life-saving dialysis machines installed across South Africa.

All Emydex clients are important and an integral part of industry supply chains within the countries in which they operate. As specialists in the food supply chain, it was interesting to see how easily the Emydex software was customisable to support Marlin Laboratories. This was particularly sensitive to drive quality control, as it operates in the critical healthcare arena where Quality is a matter of life and death.

The opportunity

Marlin Laboratories, in addition to their manufacturing competence, have a team of 25 in-field service technicians working at over 200 sites in hospitals throughout South Africa. Increasing volumes, together with increased reporting and compliance requirements, created the need to evaluate a solution to address the challenges of their manual and paper-based process.

The manual processes were becoming a challenge for the field technicians as well as the back-office finance and administration head office team. There were various bottlenecks at month end caused by increased data gathering at each site, followed by regional consolidation of the data being sent to the Head Office, causing a challenge in responding to their client needs.

This was the initial motivation to consider a new approach, together with the many obvious benefits of moving from a paper based to a digital solution. The additional benefits envisaged improved data accuracy, consistency, predictable process efficiencies as well as integration logistics and finance systems.

“The drive to make this change came from a need to improve operational efficiency plus the heavy demands of evidence-based compliance within the medical industry bodies together with the needs for governance and risk management for our own clients.”
Mark Pretorius, CEO, Marlin Laboratory Manufacturing

Emydex and Summit Process Solutions were tasked to review the existing processes and to recommend the design for an advanced mobile technology-based solution that would simplify and standardise the business processes and business model.

What we did

Emydex and Summit worked closely with Marlin Laboratories Management and field technicians to examine existing processes, how they worked and how we could create improvements and streamline their existing processes and operations.

“The major challenge for Marlin Laboratories was the volume of paperwork created at every site visit. As we worked through that, we highlighted other opportunities to enhance training and skills by implementing a standardised technology based approach for Training and Operations, to improve the productivity of each engineer in the servicing of the more than 700 units across the country.”
Jeffrey Macer-Wright, Technical Director, Summit Process Solutions

This was precisely the sort of challenge the Emydex Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS) was built for. EQMS is a software system that allows various industry operations to be analysed and to be captured in process steps in consistent procedures. This approach not only covers steps for each individual, but also next steps and actions for other colleagues involved in the end-to-end process-based workflow.

With the workflow capturing the confirmation of actions and relevant data, complete results are then accurately loaded into the cloud based database for access by Head Office enabling real time response and reporting for completed tasks, replacing many manual tasks.

The application can run in either on-line mode or in offline mode with data synchronisation with the cloud at convenient times.

Going Live

The system went live, country-wide, toward the end of 2019.
Ongoing reviews of the new system and other back office legacy systems will continue to yield productivity and efficiency improvements with effective reporting and data analysis.

“Since going live, we have continued with ongoing process reviews of the new system as we further optimise productivity and take further steps for integration with our other back office processes for logistics and finance systems”
Mitch WIshart, Service and Training Manager, Marlin Laboratory Manufacturing

The results

The results and benefits from the introducing the new system are now being experienced in various ways. According to the team at Marlin Laboratories, the new Emydex tablet based EQMS has brought about several improvements:

Asset management has been enhanced
All completed workflows and reports are uploaded from the service locations eliminating paperwork bottlenecks experienced at month end.
Accuracy has improved, with proof through reports and evidence-based compliance
Immediate access to data in validating results of current and trend results
Visibility of team performance and where there might be areas for improvement
Logistics are being simplified, with tracking of spare parts and consumables feeding into parts management which helps planning and projections
Compliance and traceability has improved

In other's words

“Moving from a paper-based system to state-of-the-art technology is a business engineering project that involves everyone in the team. Technology in the workflows running on a tablet standardised everything for us. The team have embraced the transformation.

The team on the ground with varying skill levels have all benefited from the standardisation. It proves that Emydex can help small companies like us to leverage the cloud-based technologies previously only available to large enterprises.”
Jen Marques, Emydex systems Administrator, Marlin Laboratory Manufacturing

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

When Canfisco went fishing for an IT partner

16th April 2020

Following acquisition and growth, The Canadian Fishing Company (Canfisco) found themselves with a variety of different legacy IT systems, all working independently. They turned to Emydex to help land one system that integrated everything.