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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The way the operation was set up became outdated and Emydex offered far more efficient solutions that were new on the market.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

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When Canfisco went fishing for an IT partner

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.

Meet the client

The Canadian Fishing Company (Canfisco) has sustainably harvested wild fish from the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest for over 110 years. The company operates the largest fishing fleet in British Columbia, over 850 vessels, that every year lands over 100 million pounds of mostly salmon, herring, rockfish, halibut and hake. Landed fish is supplied to the company’s nine processing plants located on the pacific coast in Richmond, Prince Rupert, Greater Vancouver, and Alaska.

The opportunity

Canfisco has grown both organically and through acquisition. As each new acquisition was moved into the Delta Pacific Seafood location, the software and processes were not consolidated into a single integrated process or software application. This left Canfisco with six different major applications and many Excel applications to compensate for the different systems at work throughout the group.

“Company acquisitions had left us with a patchwork quilt of components and old systems that were handling all of our processing.”
John Capling, Project Manager, Canfisco

However, the greatest risk to the business came from the out-of-date applications running on an over 25-year old Unix platform with limited hardware support. This environment left a very disjointed operation that only worked due to the efforts of staff acting as the glue to keep everything working together. Before Emydex came on board, Canfisco had at least five BOM process, four box labelling process and three separate financial applications in place in the organization.

What we did

Canfisco needed a new IT system that could provide a single source of the truth for the organization, providing improved visibility and measurement throughout the business, streamlining administration and, ultimately, improving the performance of the company.

The consensus within the various departments and plants was that any new software solution should be able to replicate what they were already doing, process-wise, i.e. it should keep the good things that worked well and with which everyone was familiar. To this, we should add some magic in the form of some low-hanging savings improvements, whilst at the same time providing the foundation for a software system that can grow into a more advanced solution over time.

Although we are replicating Canfisco functionality I was impressed to see how the Emydex team automated the link between the plant’s recorded catch of fish to actual sales, to ensure Canfisco sales can presell the fresh fish. This ensures they can get maximum value for the catch versus having to freeze the fish for less profits.
Terry McCorriston, Sales Manager/Business Analyst, Emydex North America

Going Live

Canfisco understood that they needed to address the highest risk area which was the groundfish applications running on the old Unix system so a phased implementation was taken to minimise any operation interruptions. After initial consulting and analysis, it was decided to go live with the ground fish box labelling and fillet line in December 2019 and bring on the port receiving in spring of 2020.

The Results

Key to the success of this project was to ensure it would be a gentle evolution and not a revolution. Keeping staff at all levels throughout the operation happy was very important and Emydex was careful to tread lightly. The most obvious improvement has been the elimination of the major risk of running the business on antiquated unsupported Data General (DG) Unix equipment. While there are a few minor applications still on the Unix platform, the team is working to quickly migrate them in the next phase.

Phase one has been completed but already administration efficiency has improved, as expected, thanks to reduced duplication of entry into multi applications and processes. Time consuming consolidation has been reduced and as other fish species are migrated to the new system in upcoming phases, staff will see all of the improvements fall into place.

“Emydex combined a bunch of old systems into one to handle all of our processing. Now everything is processed and tracked through one piece of software. Phase one went very well and so far, it is looking very good and the great thing is there wasn’t a steep learning curve for our people on the floor. Visibility has improved greatly, and we know real efficiencies are coming down the line.

Emydex took what we liked from the old systems and mirrored it, especially with scales and processes – things are labelled now and tracked automatically as opposed to manual entry of old.”
John Capling, Project Manager, Canfisco

There is now better traceability of fish from catch, through processing, to the end sale. Operational performance has improved too due to reporting on giveaway and production yields (with a potential of 2% improvement in raw material utilization) and, of course, Emydex has provided the foundation to build the operational performance measurements over time.

Interestingly, most of the implementation was done remotely which saved costs for the client and also worked out perfectly as the Covid-19 pandemic struck right in the middle of the project and had little effect on our timelines.

“I was happiest with the Emydex team’s flexibility to work with Canfisco to adapt (the software) to allow a phased implementation. I was also impressed that Emydex was able to handle the volume of transactions from day one of going live.”
John Capling, Project Manager, Canfisco

What's Next?

This is the first phase of the implementation – the next phases will cover other fish species – and it builds the foundation 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). Improvements in dry goods control will come next as will the automation of HACCP and QC processes and cold storage invoicing.

In other's words

“Emydex spoke our language, much more than Microsoft… they understood our industry and our business. The (Emydex) system is friendlier, easier to use, intuitive and when the warehouse guys saw it they gave us their blessing so the decision to run with it was a no-brainer in the end. It has replaced very old legacy systems that weren’t integrated and left us very exposed to risk. The result is a solution that’s much more efficient and customisable so that we can add functionality as people have requested it.

The Emydex team were great – very responsive and easy to work with, despite the time difference… very professional and they really know their business. I’m looking forward to Emydex expanding further into our other processes, cold storage, our warehouses and beyond”
Mark Cornell, Senior Vice President

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Improvements by the country mile

How traditional, community-oriented company Ashbourne Meat Processors embraced change through Emydex

Meet the client

Ashbourne Meat Processors is one of Ireland’s most successful exporters of premium chilled beef products. Founded in 1985, the company exports high quality products all over the world and is proud to be recognised as a family whose expertise and knowledge is passed down from one generation to another. There are nearly 200 people in the company family working in two facilities in the centre of Ireland – Roscrea (slaughtering and cold-storage facilities) and Naas (deboning and cold storage).

Ashbourne Meat Processors is a firm believer in leveraging advanced technology and production facilities.

The opportunity

Ashbourne Meat Processors’ two plants were essentially working in isolation from each other on outdated systems that required a lot of manual input and data entry. The abattoir in Roscrea would take in livestock and create the relevant paperwork. When the carcases were transferred to Ashbourne Meat Processors’ facility in Naas (and to other facilities operated by the company’s clients all over the country), new paperwork would have to be created. This was extremely inefficient and left the company open to human error, duplication and lack of visibility and control.

There were also issues with compliance as the legacy systems used in both operations were not integrated with the Department of Agriculture systems and so there was a need for even more data entry.

“One of the biggest problems is we didn’t have integration with the Department of Agriculture. We knew we had to move on, to integrate and put all of this technology to work for us. Emydex came on board and handled everything. 95% of the carcasses go from Naas to Roscrea and all the paperwork is now electronic and automatic and we can monitor everything remotely which, as the pandemic has proved, is more important than it was.”
PJ Butler, Roscrea Plant Manager

What we did

Emydex is the acknowledged leader when it comes to process development for the food industry and when Ashbourne Meat Processors decided to overhaul the IT infrastructure and embrace the latest processing technology, they called Emydex.

Following a project scoping exercise, the team agreed to divide the job into two phases – one for the slaughter plant in Roscrea and the other for the Deboning operation in Naas. Connecting the two facilities was an obvious but important improvement.

In phase one, The Naas Deboning operation was upgraded by Emydex to deliver an end-to-end factory floor solution. Today Emydex handles the entire processing procedures within this plant, from Intake, Into / Out of Boning, Packing, Dispatch and Warehousing. Emydex also generates all the appropriate Dispatch Documentation, transfers traceability data to customers and allows for full forward and backward traceability. Prior to Emydex’s introduction, Work Orders were paper-based and were phoned down to the operators. Now this is all controlled within Emydex which means there is less likelihood of human error and the whole process is now more streamlined and controlled.

In phase two, the abattoir and cold storage facility 100 kilometres away in Roscrea, County Tipperary, was completely overhauled with everything from animal intake, supplier POs, inter-company paperwork and all procedures – from processing to packing, including sales picking – newly streamlined and automated. Labelling from boning through storage and out in orders was part of the specification as was the automatic electronic generation of all documentation. Real-time data is now updated constantly between the two plants and a new dispatch system created.

Going Live

Emydex systems went live in Naas in January 2019 and Roscrea in October 2019.

The results

Animal intake at the abattoir is now seamlessly and automatically integrated with the Government’s veterinary body, AIMS. Ear tags are scanned and all animal data is confirmed and registered and the Department of Agriculture is notified automatically. This improvement alone saves thousands of man hours every year and completely eliminates human error at the intake point.

“The old system was labour-intensive and setting up jobs needed a lot of work. Emydex brought in a lot of standardisation which has helped us to complete jobs quicker, weigh boxes quicker and see yields a lot clearer. We became 8% more efficient overnight… we highly recommend Emydex.”
Donal Houlihan, Naas Plant Manager, Ashbourne Meat Processors.

There used to be two separate systems and all sorts of mistakes were created by so much manual data entry. This led to delays in cattle payments and problems in registering the passport details of some animals. Now there is just one system and those errors have been eliminated.

Everything from animal intake to carcass dispatch and box generation is automated, tacked, reported and visible all the way from start to finish.

Overall, and almost immediately, efficiency was improved, paperwork virtually eliminated, errors drastically reduced, and profitability increased throughout the company.

In other's words

“The savings in administration were immediate – we saved a labour unit in the office immediately – and the piles of paperwork and stacks of files are a thing of the past. We’re almost paperless now, except for the cheques which some of our more traditional farming suppliers prefer over electronic payments. I estimate that actual physical paperwork has decreased by 95% and that’s a huge achievement.”
PJ Butler, Roscrea Plant Manager, Ashbourne Meat Processors

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Forresters takes off

How a family business scaled up to become an industry powerhouse

When independent, family-owned business Forresters wanted to take the business to the next level, they turned to Emydex and we were with them every step of the way.

Meet the client

Established in 1972 and based in Cheshire, Forresters is one of the largest suppliers of cooked, raw and coated poultry in the United Kingdom. The company supplies retailers, food services, pub retailers, manufacturers and catering butchers with a variety of frozen and chilled branded and own label chicken products.

The opportunity

Forresters had the expertise, the market and the reputation to help them to take the business to the next level. The issue was with operations and one of the biggest hurdles was the fact that their existing production and billing systems were built in-house and not integrated to their back-office ERP system. In practical terms, the production lines couldn’t handle any more as they were currently configured.

Maintaining and updating the systems was costly with little support, resulting in an over-reliance on a few key individuals. In addition, Forrester’s was unable to report in real-time on their daily production, stocks, traceability, yields and costs.

What we did

Forresters managers and Emydex specialists worked closely together to work out how to blend the best technology with the company’s own expertise to create an operation that could upscale as needed. Forresters commissioned Emydex to develop a production management and traceability reporting system which would operate on the shop floor and in the back-office for data maintenance, analysis, trending and reporting.

We began with phase one which was the installation of our packing and processing module on a dozen shop floor weigh-price labelling packing terminals. The Emydex weighing and labelling software system for finished products features easy-to-use label design, compliant with all EU regulations.

With that up and running we moved on to phase two which covered the roll-out of a factory-wide solution that covered the entire line. It was designed to give full traceability from start to finish, from intake of the raw material by purchase order, defrosting, cooking, production work orders, marination, packing, analysis by retail line, full stock, yield and dispatch control and then on to Sage 200 accounts for invoicing.

Vision System

A part of the project which was not in the original scope was the introduction of a Keyence vision system and barcode reader, that we fully integrated into Forresters’ Emydex solution. The Emydex software communicates with the Keyence vision and barcode reader, automatically checking for the correct batch number, use by date, product code, label layout / structure and barcodes on packs as they move down the packing line. If they are as they should be, the system triggers the printing of the correct box label for the product, rather than requiring the operator to press a button to print it. If either the label or barcode is incorrect, the Emydex system lets the operator know. The benefits of this system include more accurate product labelling, with less errors and potential recalls.

The results

This system is now live on the factory floor, door-to-door including all of Forresters fixed weight lines. The biggest and most immediate benefit of the new Emydex system is the reduction of manual input which has eliminated the risk of human error. Packing is now fully automated and labels are printed automatically when the correct number and type of packs are in the box, saving time, resources and money.

Forresters now has complete visibility over their entire production management process. They are no longer reliant on key individuals to manage in-house systems and they have a full support team on hand should any issues arise.

Most importantly, the Emydex system provides management and supervisors with real-time and accurate reporting on factory stocks, production, as well full traceability reports.

Profitability is up, human error has been eliminated and the factory has scaled up as a direct result of the improvements in efficiency and production brought about by the Emydex solution.

Commenting shortly after go-live Heidi Dilliway-Nickson, Director with Forresters said “the Emydex system is very efficient, easy to operate and works well for us. The full traceability we have gained saves masses of time - what used to take the QA department days to analyse is now instant. Emydex never say they can’t do something: they’ll listen and go away and come back with an answer, they always find a way.”

John Acornley, Finance Manager with Forresters added “We packed over one million packs last week and we have thirteen production lines where we used to have two: the company has expanded massively, and we couldn’t have done it without the Emydex system in place. It helps us to drill into products and see what’s happening in real-time, following every chicken through every step and that means stock rotation is perfect, quality is perfect. That means we can see issues and potential problems and react before they have an impact. The savings in time and paperwork alone have made it all worthwhile and the traceability reporting is brilliant – we can make important decisions on the fly. QMS is coming soon and will replace the last troublesome bits of paperwork in the factory.”

What’s next?

Next comes the QMS system and rolling out the solution to the factory’s remaining multi-pack lines.

For more on Emydex’s Quality Management system, read:

 

Electronic Quality Management Systems for the Food Industry

 


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Coldstore Management systems for 3 South African Customers

Following on from previous successful implementations in Southern Africa, together with Summit Process Solutions, Emydex has rolled out three additional cold store projects for three new customers in South Africa.  These include the Emydex Cold Store Warehouse Management System to QK Cold Store South Africa, located in Johannesburg, as well as to Table Bay Cold Storage and GPS Food Group RSA, both located in Cape Town. Over the past 18 months, the Emydex development team have added new functionality to the Cold Store module such as a Web Client, Stock Maps and EDI Integration.

QK Cold Stores

QK Cold Store SA offers a wide range of solutions from case picking to blast freezing, tempering, re-palletising and container loading on the deck, as well as offering a primary transport solution.

QK Cold Store SA had a requirement for a Full Warehouse Management System, capable of covering their four operational warehouses.

In phase one, Emydex implemented its Warehouse and Production Management modules, providing QK SA with a full solution from intake right through to dispatch. The project went live in October 2017, streamlining its operational processes. They now have functionality for operators to use handheld scanners to catch all movements of stock in real-time, allowing them to track all stock in their Cold Stores.

Further phases are scheduled for 2019 and will include integrating with customers’ systems, through EDI functionality, giving customers more visibility over stock sent to QK, stock being held in the Cold Store and stock that has been dispatched, in real-time.

GPS Food Group RSA

GPS Food Group provides sales, marketing, and stock control services from the UK for the sale of BMC, MeatCo and additional customer products in Europe.

GPS Food Group UK, an existing Emydex client, acquired a facility in Cape Town, with plans to build a Cold Store and later extend to a Value-Added Processing Plant.  GPS approached Emydex in 2017 to advise of the project requirements which were to be broken into two phases.

Phase one of the project kicked off with Cold Store functionality including stock intake, SDA Warehouse functionality, Dispatch and Client Invoicing. Later in the year phase two began, implementing the Emydex Production and Traceability reporting modules which covers their Value-Added processing operations in the same plant. This included adding functionality to cover 3rd party raw materials intake, de-boxing, de-frosting, processing, ingredients dispensing, recipe formulation, tumbling & injecting, cooking, packing, order picking and dispatch, all with full product traceability and yield monitoring.

Web Client – Distribution Warehouse System

Emydex, in conjunction with cold store customers in Southern Africa, developed a web interface that links directly to the Emydex customer database.

As a part of the DWS application, customers will be able to create Advance Shipping Notes (ASN) remotely. These ASN’s are then able to be allocated to a purchase order and will help to eliminate human error and increase the efficiency of the intake process at the Cold Store.

Additionally, their customers will also be able to create dispatch orders remotely, enabling them to create work orders, directing the cold stores to dispatch products. These work orders specify which product, how many, when and what destination the product is to go to.

As well as this, their customers can drill down into their stock that is on-site, enabling them to look at quantity of product(s) they have, batch numbers and other relevant traceability information. Emydex will also be implementing functionality to allow their customers to put product onto Quality Control hold, meaning that when a recall occurs product can be put on hold instantly and remotely as required.

Stock Maps

Some of the Cold Store systems delivered also include the latest version of Emydex’s Stock Maps functionality, enabling Cold Stores to view and search against a visual representation of their stocks, by drilling down through areas and warehouse locations, and interrogating stock via graphical views of racks, rows and bays. This latest version of Emydex Stock Maps system enables Emydex customers to configure, build and maintain Stock Map views themselves in-house via an easy-to-use Stock Map configuration editor. This allows the virtual representation of the cold store to be able to mimic the physical layout of the customers actual warehouse.

EDI Integration

Customer files containing high levels of detail of stock sent to the cold stores, are imported into Emydex, in order to let managers, see purchase orders, inventory levels and product details such as quantity and weight coming into the Cold Stores. Operators can validate that they’ve received the correct stock using handheld scanners, which feeds the information back into Emydex, speeding up the process of data exchange and eliminating the need for paperwork or phone calls.

Summit Process Solutions Hardware & Aftersales Support

Together with SPS’ industrial waterproof hardware such as the reliable PT9000 – 17” Touch Screen Waterproof Shop Floor Computer and Industrial Stainless-Steel Smart Scales, integration is seamless and simplifies while speeding up operations to our customers’ maximum benefit.  SPS have been a loyal partner when it comes to supplying either – hardware, training of customers, aftersales service or supplying of relevant information, to Emydex and its customers and always puts service first.

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Harvey Beef live with Emydex in Western Australia

In operation since 1919, Harvey Beef is located in the town of Harvey, south of Perth in Western Australia. Part of Harvest Road Group and privately owned by the Minderoo Group, Harvey Beef is Western Australia’s leading beef processor. Stretching across 1.2 million hectares of pastoral farmland, Minderoo cattle stations are dedicated to producing high quality beef for both domestic and export consumption.

Harvey Beef were previously using a legacy factory floor software system comprising a number of software modules including data capture, labelling and 3rd party barcode scanning, that were integrated to their back-office Microsoft Dynamics Nav ERP system.

Full end-to-end Factory Floor Processing System

Due to the aging of the current system, difficulty of upgrading, and rapid growth within the business, a review was undertaken to determine the best course regarding their future IT systems, whether to upgrade or invest in a new system. Opting for the latter option Harvest Road, in December 2017, invited Emydex to submit a proposal to supply and implement a software system which would improve their ability to address their current issues and support growth plans. After the publication and evaluation of an RFP, and a competitive tender process, Emydex was selected to provide the full end to end factory floor processing system, in tandem with Empired being selected to implement Nav 2018 as their choice of back-office ERP system to cater for Harvest Road’s core financials and non-meat inventories.

The key objective of the project was to deliver an integrated system where data is entered only once, with users having access to real time, accurate inventory. Visibility of information across the organisation, along with visibility of stock produced to orders and availability of stock for dispatch, were all key requirements. The system also needed to be able to support new and changing business requirements, increase productivity, reduce inefficiency, and facilitate options for automation and cost savings.

Front row (L-R) - Ian Carson, Emydex Australia, Heather Humphreys, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, & Wayne Shaw, General Manager Harvey Beef, signing contracts. Back row (L-R) Kevin Sherry Executive Director Enterprise Ireland and David Eccles, Director Enterprise Ireland A/NZ, were present in Australia for the signing.

The project schedule was spread over five separate phases covering Cattle Processing Line and Payments, Boning Hall and Finger Scanning, Warehouse Management and Nav Integration, Retail Ready and Production Planning.

Kill Line and Payments

Phase one went live in June 2018 and comprised Kill Line and Payments including Livestock Delivery. This automated process allows livestock to enter through an RFID gate and to be scanned into the Emydex kill line system. NVD (National Vendor Declaration) details are recorded and links lot details to appointments, providing traceability and consistency of data from appointments through to grading and payments.

Commenting soon after the kill line go-live in June 2018, Wayne Shaw, General Manager of Harvey Beef said “I think we can say the kill line go-live went pretty well. On week 1, we achieved within 100 head of our maximum capacity which is a good effort for a change this big. The staff are very positive with the result. Everyone can see it is a better system. By weeks end the system was having no negative impact on throughput speed with the kill line system operating at speed, and operators up to speed with using it. Overall a great outcome.”

Boning Hall System

Work on Phase two of the Emydex project commenced soon after, with a subsequent go-live in September 2018, that consisted of Boning Hall, covering Carcass Management and Packing & Processing.  As part of this implementation phase BRI (Boning Room Input) delivers better control over which carcases go into each Boning Work Order (WO). The WO has a set of Rules each carcass must adhere to to be eligible for the Work Order. This gives more control to the planner on what is required for the Work Order.

Warehouse Management and Dispatch

Most recently Phase three of the project, the largest phase of functionality delivered to date, went live in January 2019 and included Warehouse Management, Dispatch as well as Dynamics Nav 2018 Integration. This project phase also delivered intake of third-party raw materials, transfer between internal entities in Harvest Road, transfer out to Cold Stores, and the ability for the Cold Store to dispatch on behalf of Harvest Road. It also included BSM (Buy, Sell, Move) integration, reducing manual entry for producing export documentation.

Commenting on the Phase 3 Go-Live,Wayne Shaw from Harvest Road said  “The feedback has been positive. The rollout has gone better than expected, and I have had a lot of positive comments about functionality being really good. BSM Integration is saving a lot of time that previously was spent manually entering information into BSM, so the integration back and forth between the two systems has saved a lot of time and is a real plus. The scanning inventory in real-time has meant that stocks are correct, which is also saving on average, four hours a day. The feedback on the sales functionality is very positive, with users saying it has exceeded expectations. So well done. The team has done a great job.”

Upcoming Phases

The next phase of the Emydex project beginning shortly, is Retail Ready, which will see the Emydex Retail Packing Software module being implemented. This will be followed by the final phase, Production Planning, which will begin later in the year.

Commenting on the project phases delivered to date, Lorna Daly, Head of Emydex Australia operations said “Following the Emydex roll-outs over the course of 2018 and early 2019, Harvest Road today have a robust end-to-end Factory Floor data capture system that delivers data on-time and accurately. They have more control over data going through the kill line as data is consistent between appointments, delivery and graded information. Real time data for inventory, yields and market pricing, allows for better decision making and view of stock coming close to being out of date. This has led to increased confidence in key metrics, such as stock on hand. Staff now have a modern system and direct access to data, meaning Traceability reports are easy and quick to run.”

 

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