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Emydex Software: A Game-Changer for Beef Processors

Emydex, a leading provider of software solutions for the meat processing industry, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024.

For over two decades, Emydex Beef Processing Software has been transforming how leading meat processors operate across the globe. Trusted by industry leaders like Dawn Meats, Central Agri Group, and Ashbourne Meats, Emydex delivers robust, adaptable solutions that improve efficiency, traceability, and productivity throughout the beef supply chain.

Ashbourne Meats in Ireland, an Emydex customer for eight years, praised the Emydex team for their reliability, friendliness, and professionalism. Donal Houlihan, Operations Manager, said, “The Emydex team have an excellent understanding of the Meat Industry. The system is extremely user-friendly, allowing a smooth working environment across all our production lines. Their technology constantly meets our needs in an ever-evolving industry.” read full story.

 

Central Agri Group in Victoria, Australia, has been an Emydex customer for eight years. The Managing Director, Rami Koyu, commended Emydex for its smooth rollout and the positive response from operators. He said, “The Emydex roll-out was one of the smoothest IT system rollouts I have ever been involved in.” read full story.

 

Dawn Meats Group in Ireland, an Emydex customer for twenty years, praised Emydex for its agility. Shane Slattery, Group CIO, said, “For twenty years, Dawn Meats and Emydex have been in a symbiotic partnership, during which time the Emydex solutions have been able to be quickly adapted to changes within both our industry and business.” read full story.

 

Eurofarm Foods in Ireland, an Emydex customer for fourteen years, commended Emydex for its ‘can-do’ attitude as well as excellent helpdesk support. Ciaran Boyle, General Manager, said, “More recently, Emydex were also there to support our business in the immediate aftermath of a cyber-attack on the business in Sept 2021. This was a phenomenal result to say the least.” read full story.

 

Harvey Beef in Western Australia, an Emydex customer for nine years, praised the Emydex team for their willingness to understand their problems and look at solutions. Mike Stephenson, Head of Technology, said, “The team are great to work with and always willing to understand our problems and look at solutions to improve the way our Emydex is integrated with our business.” read full story.

 

Kepak Group in Ireland & UK, an Emydex customer for seventeen years, commended Emydex for its support in their business growth. Jeremy O’Callaghan, Group CIO, said, “Emydex has been an integral part of the system delivery team for Kepak Group for almost two decades, supporting us in our business growth across multiple sites in both Ireland and the UK.” read full story.

 

Liffey Meats in Ireland, a customer operating Emydex in two of its plants, commended Emydex for its ‘can-do’ attitude. Derek McDermott, Chief Financial Officer, said, “Having worked with Dave and his team for the past fourteen years, I can say the key difference with Emydex is their ‘can do’ attitude.” read full story.

 

MeatCo Namibia, an Emydex customer in Southern Africa for thirteen years, praised Emydex for its fit-for-purpose product. Grant Mitchell, IT Manager: Production Systems, said, “Emydex is a Fit for Purpose product, which complements our Business.” read full story.

 

Silver Fern Farms, operating fourteen plants in New Zealand, has been an Emydex customer for four years, currently operating Emydex in two of its plants with further plant rollouts in progress. Matt Ballard, Chief Transformation Officer, highlighted Emydex’s ability to provide greater traceability and process controls, saying, “Emydex has shown it can provide greater traceability and process controls that are positive in meeting Silver Fern Farms needs over the longer term.” read full story.

 

Wilson Hellaby Ltd, with two plants in New Zealand, has been an Emydex customer for three years. Justin Lee, Chief Financial Officer, commended Emydex’s innovative approach to software development, saying, “In both instances, we were able to employ Emydex’s innovative approach to software development to solve challenges within our industry where off-the-shelf solutions just don’t exist.” read full story.

 

These testimonials from just ten of Emydex’s global beef customers highlight the significant benefits that Emydex software brings to beef processors, including smooth rollouts, greater traceability, innovative solutions, and excellent support. These customers have been working with Emydex for 119 years collectively across 36 plants.

Over the past two years, a dedicated team at Emydex HQ in Dublin, Ireland, has collaborated with numerous longstanding beef processing customers to develop a new Industry Standard software solution for the Beef Processing industry. This Vexillum (Latin for ‘Standard’) project aims to create a comprehensive, ready-to-use Manufacturing Execution System (MES) tailored for beef processors. The initial rollout of this system will be undertaken by four Emydex beef processing customers, deploying it across more than 20 beef primary processing facilities in Ireland and the UK.

As Emydex celebrates its 20th anniversary, it looks forward to continuing to provide top-notch solutions for the beef processing industry.

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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Forresters Chicken Celebrates a Decade of Quality Management with Emydex

A Decade of Quality Management Excellence​

Over the past ten years, Forresters Chicken has leveraged Emydex’s Quality Management system to enhance accuracy, reduce human error, gain real-time insights into quality data, and improve traceability. This collaboration has significantly transformed Forresters Chicken’s operations, ensuring the highest standards of quality and efficiency in their processes.

Meet the Client

Established in 1972, Forresters is one of the largest suppliers of cooked, raw, and coated poultry in the United Kingdom. Based in Cheshire, the company provides retailers, food services, pub retailers, manufacturers, and catering butchers with frozen, chilled branded, and own-label chicken products. To maintain its reputation for high-quality standards, Forresters set out to enhance its quality management processes.

The Opportunity

With a growing client base and increasing production demands, Forresters required a more streamlined and robust approach to quality management. Existing manual quality checks were resource-intensive and prone to human error, especially as production volumes rose. Furthermore, limited real-time access to quality data hindered swift decision-making and posed challenges in meeting regulatory standards.

Forresters needed a comprehensive Quality Management System (QMS) that could automate quality workflows, provide real-time data, and integrate with their ERP system for seamless traceability and compliance tracking. Forresters had been operating an Emydex factory floor MES (Manufacturing Execution System) for production control, yield management and traceability reporting for many years, so it was a straightforward decision to extend our Emydex software footprint to include all of our Quality, Compliance and Food Safety Management processes.

What We Did

Working closely with Forrester’s management, our team worked with Emydex to develop and implement a customised QMS solution that aligned with Forrester’s operational goals. The implementation process was structured in two main phases:

1. Phase One – Digitalising Quality Checks
Forresters began by introducing automated digital checklists across the production floor, replacing paper logs and allowing quality checks to be completed via tablets at each workstation. Data is now collected on tablets running the Emydex Quality system in real-time, and any deviations from standards trigger instant alerts, allowing issues to be addressed immediately.

2. Phase Two – Comprehensive Quality Dashboard
In the next phase, Forresters deployed an Emydex quality system dashboard for management and supervisors, providing a centralised view of quality metrics across production. The dashboard consolidates data on batch compliance, audit trails, incident reporting, and corrective actions. Fully integrated with Forrester’s ERP system, it links directly to purchasing and inventory data, ensuring traceability from raw materials to finished products.

3. Automated Audit and Compliance Reporting
A key feature of the Emydex EQMS is its automated compliance reporting. The system generates real-time, auditable compliance reports accessible from any device, dramatically reducing the time required for internal and external audits. Issues are flagged and assigned for resolution, enhancing accountability across departments.

The Results

Since implementing the Emydex Quality Management system, Forresters has significantly improved operational efficiency and quality compliance.

Enhanced Accuracy and Reduced Human Error: Automated digital checklists have replaced manual entries, reduced errors and ensured consistency in quality checks across all lines.

Real-Time Quality Insights: Managers and supervisors can now view quality metrics instantly, enabling quick decision-making and proactive quality control.

Efficient Compliance Audits: Compliance reporting, which previously required days of preparation, is now generated instantly by Emydex, saving time and resources. Audit readiness has also improved, as records are automatically archived and easily accessible.

Improved Traceability: The QMS enables complete traceability from raw material intake to finished product distribution, facilitating stock rotation and maintaining quality at every stage.

Feedback from Key Stakeholders

Dwayne Chin, Head of Technical at Forresters, noted, “The Emydex QMS has been transformative for our business. Our team no longer spends hours sorting through paper logs; we can spot and address issues immediately. Compliance reporting that once took days is now ready in minutes, giving us more control over quality and peace of mind.”

John Acornley, Finance Director, added, “With the Emydex Quality system in place, Forresters have significantly reduced errors and improved our response times. The Emydex automated alerts keep our team informed, and the dashboard makes it easy to stay on top of production quality. It’s been a huge upgrade.”

Summary

The Emydex Quality Management System implemented at Forresters has streamlined operations and reinforced its commitment to delivering high-quality products to its clients. By enhancing workflows, improving traceability, and enabling instant access to quality data, the QMS has empowered Forresters to meet regulatory standards and confidently scale its operations.

Don’t wait! Embrace the future of quality management with Emydex’s Electronic Quality Management Software (EQMS).

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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Dawn Pork & Bacon, 17 years on Emydex and counting

Dawn Pork & Bacon is one of Ireland’s leading Pork producers, operating out of Grannagh, Co Waterford in Ireland. May 2023 will see the 17th year Anniversary since Emydex first started working with Dawn Pork & Bacon, in 2006.

Emydex was founded in April 2004, so Dawn P&B was one of the very first customers to go live with an Emydex software system to manage, control and report on all their production, stocks, yields, and traceability requirements.

Continuous Improvements

Initially launched on Emydex Version 3 of the application, the system has been upgraded on a number of occasions to keep the software solution in check with the latest technical developments released by Emydex in both the core system, as well as the various industry modules in use. Industry modules operated by Dawn P&B cover their entire factory floor processes, door-to-door including pig kill line and payments, carcass stock management, into-boning, boning hall management, box packing and palletizing, sales order picking, and dispatch.

In 2009 the system was extended to add an Emydex weighbridge system for Dawn to manage truck deliveries to the plant used to verify dispatch weights against weights at the bridge, eliminating potentially costly mistakes.

24/7 Support

Alan Doocey, Dawn Pork & Bacon’s IT Manager at the time later relocated with his family to Australia, eventually ending up working for Emydex Australia, where he still works today on the Emydex Australia customer support team. Alan provides real-time technical helpdesk support to Emydex customers in Australia and New Zealand, as well as other Emydex customers around the globe who signed up to a 24x7x365 support agreement. The 24x7 team is made up of support engineers like Alan in Brisbane, in addition, to support staff in New Zealand, Canada, and Dublin.

Commenting on the successful working relationship between both companies over such a long tenure, Billy Leslie, Financial controller with Dawn Pork & Bacon said

We in Dawn Pork & Bacon are delighted to celebrate a very successful partnership of 17 years with Emydex in 2023. The Emydex suite of software plays an integral part in the day-to-day running of our business. The system is very user-friendly allowing production staff to fully engage with it. As a result, the information the system produces is extremely reliable enabling us to maintain tight control of our yields, stock management, and our supply chain.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with Emydex in the future. A future that will include increased regulatory control and sustainability reporting challenges within the Agri-Business sector. In partnership with Emydex, we are confident that these challenges can be overcome.

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

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Ensuring Quality & Compliance Across Four Continents

Emydex recently completed the upgrade of its Electronic Quality Management System (EQMS) to the latest Version 6 of the Emydex software suite.

 

A new product development project that started in 2018, working in conjunction with some of the largest food processors in Ireland and the UK who helped with system design, testing, and validation, the Electronic Quality Management System first went live with an Emydex customer, MeatCo Namibia, in late 2019.

Roll-on five years and the Quality Management System is today operating in over twenty meat, fish, and food processing plants around the world, including Emydex customers in Ireland, the UK, Canada, Namibia and South Africa.

One early-stage customer who adopted the Quality system and implemented it in their six Irish beef primal processing plants is currently extending their Emydex QMS roll-out to all their UK meat processing plants, with three UK plants live, another two currently undergoing commissioning, and a further seven to be completed by the end of 2023. In total over twenty plants will be running the Emydex quality management system, split across two country divisions.

This is very much at the core of the system i.e., the ability to centrally manage and control technical and quality data across multiple divisions, geographies, and plants, in a standard and consistent way.

At present, the system is being extended to offer capabilities for Emydex customers to perform Supplier Audits, and development is underway to offer data capture of Quality workflows, surveys, and audits, via a browser-based application running on Android devices, in addition to Windows OS devices.

Other new additions to the Quality system include product specifications & workflow planning.

 

Product Specifications

Product specifications functionality allows the product definition to be used for various checks based on the check being completed. For example, by completing a check on the dimensions of burgers being produced (Formax check) the workflow can be configured to compare operators’ entries against the product’s configured height, width, and weight. Similarly, if a packaging tare check is being completed, a separate workflow can compare the tare values being captured by the operator.

 

Workflow Planning

The workflow planning functionality was developed on the back of Emydex customer requirements to be able to manage preventative maintenance checks in more detail. This allows a super-user to schedule in more granularity based on timings and users who will complete the workflow.

The Emydex quality management system enables Meat, Fish, and Food processors to manage their Food Safety and Quality Assurance processes. HACCP and PCP can be managed using the system which supports monitoring within the factory, such as Critical Control Points (CCP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s). In addition, the application includes a document management system where key documents can be uploaded and version controlled, meaning that operators in the factory are always accessing the latest approved documents.

 

Commenting on the Quality system roll-out previously, John Coleman, Group Technical Manager with Dawn Meats said

The result is that resources have been freed up, saving cost. Less paperwork, collection is instant, no errors, less time, no printing, archive space has been freed up, we have instant and easy retrieval of documents – everything has improved and is more accurate.

We got what we wanted which is improved collection, visibility, and use of our data. That instant visibility means we have real-time situation reports. The tangible savings are obvious – less paper and less ink, for example. The less obvious savings are evident too – less time and effort, fewer mistakes and corrections, reduced hold-ups, etc. I can see if people are making the required quality checks and if they are making them at exactly the right times.

 

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

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Farmer Bookings & Feedback via Livestock Portal

Farmer Bookings & Feedback via Livestock Portal

A new web-based appointment booking and feedback system, reduces paperwork, facilitates easier appointments, and provides transparent feedback to producers and farmers in real-time and accurately

Feb 2022

The supply of livestock from the producer to the meat processor is underpinned by the consistent supply of livestock of the correct quality, correct inspection and optimal grading of these animals while processing in meat processing factories. This is applicable to Beef, Lamb and Pork/hog producers and processors. 

This relationship can now also be built-upon and strengthened with the use of a transparent data transfer from the processor back to the producers via a new Emdyex web-based appointment booking and feedback system. This is achieved via Emydex standard APIs that interact directly with Emydex factory floor MES Solutions running on Kill lines in Abattoirs and Slaughterhouses around the world. 

 

Animal Health Feedback 

Farmers could have the ability to make bookings and appointments, receive Health feedback information, download their financial information, as well as receive their remittances digitally through the Portal, reducing unnecessary paper documentation and helping both sides work towards their sustainability goals.

To facilitate the seamless exchange of producer/Processor data, Emydex has developed a comprehensive suite of secure web APIs. These are designed to simplify the livestock supply from producer to processor and offer the ability to surface kill line and grade data about the supplied livestock back to the producer.

 

Farmer Appointments & Bookings

Authorised agents and suppliers can book appointments to supply their livestock to the processor directly using the API calls embedded in a web portal which can be run via a web browser on a desktop PC or mobile device. This makes the process of selling livestock to the processor far simpler than initiating a booking via other means, eliminating double handling of data and reducing the opportunity for errors in the process.

The Emydex Supplier WebAPI Module consists of several API endpoints that can be called to perform various operations, such as registering new suppliers and livestock delivery appointments directly within Emydex, providing details of any generated payments and retrieving relevant data collected on the Emydex kill line. 

 

Visibility of Grading & Quality Data

This can include the data from the Emydex veterinary inspection stations, grading data and if applicable data from chiller grading processes (MSA). The data retrieval from the kill line via the APIs can be performed at a per delivery or lot level or down to the individual sides of the carcasses forming part of a particular delivery or lot. This offers much greater visibility of the grading and quality data registered to each carcass by the processor and provides comprehensive feedback to the supplier on the condition of the livestock supplied to the factory. How each carcass was graded informs how each carcass was ultimately priced for payment. This can assist the supplier in improving the quality of supplied livestock to meet the producers’ requirements.

By combining the Emydex Kill Line, Central Animal Payments System and Livestock API modules in one wholistic solution, Beef, Lamb and Pork livestock suppliers and processors can achieve a higher level of digital integration when considering the supply of animals to the plant and also receiving performance feedback on the quality of supply and pricing calculations applied to the delivery.

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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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