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Emydex MES for Poultry Processors

Emydex MES for Poultry Processors

After two lengthy and competitive sales cycles, competing against other international suppliers of MES solutions, Emydex recently signed two-tier 1 multi-plant poultry processing customers in Canada and Poland.

In conjunction with a leading international hardware provider to the poultry primary and secondary processing industries, Emdyex is taking this opportunity to upgrade and further expand on Emydex’s Poultry processing software solutions. These customers looked to Emydex with two separate requirements, Group MES consolidation and increased production with investments in expanding capacity and offering to their customers.

Primary Processing

Quite often we find that customers have several providers of hardware & equipment across the business, capturing valuable data but not being able to easily access this information leading to manual, delayed & inaccurate reporting. This in turn leads to production inefficiencies.

With the introduction of Emydex’s Automation layer to our Poultry Processing technology stack, Emydex is able to work with a multitude of international hardware and machine providers to capture and collate information from across the entire process into one central system.

Emydex will now be able to capture data covering Primary Processing, including Transportation, Live Bird Handling, Kill Line & Defeathering & Evisceration and continuing into Secondary Processing.

Using the Emydex Automation layer, we can collect and store information such as temperature, humidity, stunning, etc, against a lot which assists to provide confidence in Animal Welfare practices at the plant. As flocks travel along with the chain, we monitor and report on the performance of individual machines assisting with preventative maintenance as well as tying all the data collected along the chain together to determine the overall OEE

 

Secondary Processing

Emydex MES for Poultry Processors

Further expanding the Emydex Automation layer into secondary processing, we are able to capture various information depending on the machines that the customers choose to implement. Whether customers have manual grading devices or choose to implement camera-based grading devices, we will collect the grading information, as birds travel through the distribution system, we will monitor and display in near-real-time key metrics about the distribution of the birds to different drop-off points.

Once birds enter the Cut-Up and deboning machines Emydex will report on the planned vs actual production which allows customers to monitor orders for completion to ensure no over or under-production. Using the Emydex Packing & Processing module, we can collect the output weights of the process and report on expected vs actual yields.

Being able to provide a solution to connect machinery throughout the entire Poultry Primary Process and automatically streamline and surface valuable information such as animal welfare, product quality, production efficiency and OEE whilst maintaining door-to-door traceability is essential for our customers
Shane Hayes – Product Manager

 

Further Processing

In another Emydex Market, a major Canadian Poultry Processor has grown through acquisition and plans to continue its expansion but recognized that they need to implement standardized shop floor processes across all plants and provide centralized visibility of Inventory. Current shop floor solutions were from multiple vendors, with varying degrees of integration, from all manual to partial integration with their current ERP vendor.

The poultry processor plans to start the implementation with the further processing plants and then expand the project to their primary processing plants later. Emydex systems would take over control of a portion of the product flow and gradually add other areas over time. Initially, Emydex will be deployed to handle finished good labelling, order picking, inventory control, and integration to the client’s ERP and 3PL Cold Storage.

In the next phase, the system would be expanded to receiving and production intake of raw protein ingredients. In the final phase, the system would incorporate receiving and production intake of dry and wet ingredients.

The Emydex system's rollout will be a significant undertaking and will be a multi-phase, multi-year project. At the full completion of each plant rollout, the goal is to achieve the following stated project objectives:

  • Standardize one corporate MES/WMS solution that will evolve with technological improvement and support Poultry Processor across all divisions.
  • Eliminate targeted manual data entry processes with enhanced automated data integration
  • Provide the foundation systems to connect to other third-party systems i.e. In-line scanning and auto labellers, robotic palletization, etc
  • Provide system-based 2-way, door-to-door traceability
  • Provide production yield tracking and reporting
  • Provide a modern user interface and strong reporting tools
  • Utilize out-of-the-box enhanced functionality
  • Centralize control of Finished Goods Box and Pallet labels across all plants. This will ensure consistent labels across plants and reduced internal administration with centralised control.
  • Emydex Enterprise Management System will provide centralised control of master data to the varying plants and tight integration with the ERP and external cold storage vendors.
  • Emydex will provide control and visibility of inventory of Finished Goods, Raw Materials, Packaging and Ingredients at the lot and best before date level.
  • The initial implementation will capture basic production yield but over time they plan to implement Emydex’s more advanced yield, BOM and costing solutions.

Closing Statements

“In today’s competitive market with continued labour shortages, poultry companies need to leverage technology to be as efficient and productive as possible. The way to accomplish those goals is with consistent processes across plants and an integrated shop floor solution that provides timely data to manage and control the operation”
Terry McCorriston, NA Sales Agent

 

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

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Central Animal Payments (CAPS)

Central Animal Payments (CAPS)

Emydex will be releasing its new Central Animal Payments System (CAPS) for user acceptance testing in the next few weeks.

As a complete redesign of the widely used kill line payment system, it now 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.

 

This redesign has incorporated years of learnings and expertise in delivering Animal Payment systems covering all species across all our chosen markets
Shane Hayes, Product Manager

The Engine

Key to this is a new rule-based calculation engine is that can use multiple inputs to generate both the ‘grid’ or ‘schedule’ calculations as well as the deductions and allowances (also known as charges and rebates) that can apply to a payment. These can be grouped as any number of ‘settlement schemes’ and applied to invoices based on supplier, supplier groups and other attributes to a lot. The tax calculations around making both payments and deductions on one invoice are fully supported allowing the generation of a ‘Recipient Created Tax Invoice’.

In addition to charges that can affect the invoice, other ‘non’ invoice costs (or revenues) that affect the cost of the livestock can be added and thus affect the true cost of the delivered livestock. These can include such items as processing fees, Government fees & schemes, feeding, transport, droving and other fees which a customer may have, to derive a cost to the processing facility. This allows individual carcasses to be costed into the boning room to assist with determining the cost of production.

Carcass costs can be calculated at the time of production to assist in processes where the carcass is consumed in production before the finalised payment can be determined such as in a hot boning process (actual costs can be ‘back stamped’ onto the carcass once payment has been finalised).

 

Multi Plant or Single Plant Compatible

Another major benefit of the redesigned system is to cater for a centralised payment system where data from multiple sites can be managed in one system. This allows processors who have multiple sites or who have processing done as a service, can collate and generate payments from one central system. This may be via a Cloud-based instance or an on-premises installation. To facilitate this and based on the fact the new core system is ‘independent’ of the user interface, versions of the system using a Web or Android front end can be deployed depending on the circumstance of the user. This will also allow for Web apps to be developed that interact with the system providing online farmer feedback as well as agent and buyer connectivity.

This new module, combined with our Enterprise Management Module for multi-site processors is all part of Emydex’s strategic plan to enhance the Emydex Manufacturing Execution System to become the leading solution for large multi-site enterprises whilst retaining the useability and flexibility to allow any primary producing company to quickly reap the benefits of such a powerful system. - Ian Carson -Regional Distributer

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

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Enterprise Management Software

A New Era In Food Enterprise Management Software Applications

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

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

Emydex Enterprise Management System (EMS)

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

Emydex Enterprise Management System

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

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

 

Business Intelligence (BI)

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

 

Master Data Management (MDM)

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

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

 

EMS App Deployment

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

 

EMS Exchange

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

 


Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS)

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

 

The Future of EMS

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

Watch this space!

 

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

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Eliminate costly carton rejections with Emydex and Meat Messaging

The international trade of food products has over time become highly competitive with many large multinational companies emerging to satisfy the demand for the supply of high quality, safe and affordable products.
 

In competitive market conditions, the access to export markets is being increasingly underpinned by effective and transparent traceability, quality and food safety compliance and proof of authenticity and origin. To better fulfil these requirements, innovative integrated software systems that can easily adapt to changing regulatory environments is key to securing access to these markets and increasing efficiency across the value chain.
 

Emydex factory floor software for meat, fish, and food processing, integrated with Meat Messaging is one such solution.


Meat Messaging was developed by the Australian meat industry including organisations such as AUS-MEAT, DAWE, AMPC, AMIC and MLA to increase the market access to the US for Australian meat exporters and to reduce the number of rejects caused by missing or incorrect port marking of cartons costing the industry an estimated AUD14.5 million per year.
 

What is Meat Messaging?

The system provides an electronic method to send a comprehensive list of GS1 labelled carton records, forming part of an export shipment including export certifications to a centralised cloud storage and indexing system and making that information available at the point of import.

Importers are presented with all the relevant traceability information through Meat Messaging to correctly identify cartons on a shipment and are now able to re-mark the cartons if any port mark non-conformances are identified. This process virtually eliminates the rejection of cartons due to port mark errors or omissions.
 

Key Requirements

Two key requirements need to be fulfilled to integrate with the Meat Messaging system. These are the creation of GS1 barcoded cartons and records, and also to have the ability to send the shipment details and carton records to the Meat Messaging platform.

By making use of the Emydex Packing and Labelling solution which allows for the creation of the GS1 labelled carton records and the Emydex Sales Order Dispatch functionality in conjunction with the Emydex Meat Messaging web service, both requirements are covered.
Emydex has worked closely with the AMPC and industry producers to fully integrate the Meat Messaging system into the Emydex Factory Floor software modules to provide an easy to use and efficient interface.

This ensures that our customers can capitalize on the latest technological developments in the market and ensure that their products have the best chance of reaching their destination, gaining full value from each export to the US.
 

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

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How QK Coldstores put the competition on ice

How QK Coldstores put the competition on ice

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

Meet the client

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

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

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

The opportunity

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

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

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

What we did

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

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

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

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

Going live

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

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

Kelvin Mushure / IT Manager / Project Manager QK Coldstore

The results

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

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

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

Kelvin Mushure / IT Manager / Project Manager QK Coldstore

 

What’s next?

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

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

In other’s words

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

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

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Automating factory floor production with Emydex DCI

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

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