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Electronic Quality Management Systems for the Food Industry

24 September 2018

Quality Management Systems (QMS) are essential in each sector of the Food Industry, to ensure safe, quality food for the consumer. Food Safety and Quality audits are commonly used across the food industry to evaluate management systems, obtain certification from certain food and quality standards, assess the conditions of premises and products, and so on.

More and more Food Processing Plants are adopting Electronic Quality Management Systems to enhance their competitiveness on the global market and in response to growing pressure for consistent product quality, as well as the need for companies to demonstrate their quality management practices in order to meet the requirements of both legislation and the quality assurance practices of their customers.

After two years of continuous development and testing with significant input and validation from some of our largest food processing customer, Emydex in April 2018 released their Version 5 Electronic Quality Management System for Meat, Fish and Food Processors. The new Emydex EQMS stores all quality data in one centralised location, whether hosted in the cloud or installed locally on premise, depending on customer preferences.

The system provides Quality and Technical managers with accurate and holistic view of all Quality metrics and performance data as it happens in real-time across the organisation.

One core feature of the system is the ability to build and run in-house configured Quality checks and audits (workflows). By ‘in-house’ we mean QC workflows designed and built by QC staff, not the organisation’s in-house IT department. QC workflows are a series of Quality checks, questions and processes all wrapped into one.

The workflow builder offers QC users the ability to add conditional pathways, whereby the following questions presented are based on previous answers received from the operator i.e., if answer is A then 1, if B then 2. It also offers the ability to raise and track completion of follow up actions arising during audits and quality checks via email notifications. Any quality workflow in the system can be allowed to run at any time or can operate to a pre-defined schedule e.g., a pre-operation check, post-operation check or interval production check every two hours.

There are a number of major benefits arising from creating and assigning pre-defined schedules to QC workflows, including allowing management to identify when a QC workflow was:

Missed
Not started or completed on-time
Completed in a time much faster than the average taken by other QC users, indicating that perhaps the survey was completed without adequate care and attention.

There are no hiding places in summary. The system also provides users with the option to indicate the reason why the check was missed, and automatically triggers follow up actions.

The Emydex EQMS provides the ability to create an electronic view (‘grid view’) for QC operators and managers to review and analyse QC data captured on the plant floor in detail. It also provides the option to generate in-house designed formatted reports that can be saved as a PDF, printed or sent to 3^rd Parties, Auditors or emailed internally.

Additionally the system includes a fully functional document management and version control system, meaning documents can be uploaded to the EQMS system and readily made available to users as they complete workflows eg. retrieving details of a product spec during a product check and comparing the product on the line to the image in the documented product specification.

All documents and workflows can be managed via version control. This allows the back-office users to ‘check-out’ documents and workflows to make changes without affecting the Quality operation on the floor. Once they are happy with the changes, they can submit the document or workflow for approval and once approved, it becomes the active version on the floor.

For any Food processors that have already implemented the Emydex Production control and Traceability reporting modules the factory floor, a major advantage of the Electronic Quality Management System, can run the EQMS in tandem with their Emydex production system giving the ability scan product bar-codes, retrieve traceability details from Emydex’s production system database, and perform validation from the Electronic Quality Management System against production data stored in their Emydex Production system, something not possible with independent 3rd party QC systems.

The system incorporates both photographic as well as video evidence data capture.

To date the EQMS system has been implemented in numerous meat, fish and food processing plants, with both existing as well as new Emydex customers in Ireland, UK, Namibia and Australia with processors including Dawn Meats Group, Kepak Group, MeatCo Namibia as well as Dawnfresh Seafoods in Scotland. Dawnfresh currently operate the system on over 30 factory floor QC tablets spread over their two production facilities in Uddingston and Arbroath in Scotland.

A summary of some of the main features included in the system is below. If you are interested in an on-line demonstration or running a one-month free trial, please contact Shane Hayes, Emydex Technical Sales Manager on +353 1 8855990 or email shane.hayes@emydex.com

EMYDEX QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEMO VIDEO

Summary features include:

Production Calendars and Schedules

Create calendars to keep track of scheduling
Define operating hours/days
Specify hourly, daily, weekly & monthly workflows
Checks to be completed pre, post or during production
Missed workflow notifications – automatically notify when a workflow is missing or not completed

Schedule Workflows

Schedule Workflows with a click of a button. Apply zero, one or many schedules to a workflow as required

Roles & Responsibilities

Assign QC Workflows only to those responsible for them.
Assign Actions only to those with authority to complete them.
Email notifications for assigned actions.

CAPA + RCA + PM Faults

Construct your own Corrective/Preventative Action path to ensure you collate all data against the record that was non-conforming

Document Management Storage

Upload, store and maintain your documents within the system. access these documents during your workflows on the production floor
Procedures documents can be shared / accessed across multiple sites / plants

Version and Revision Control

Build your various version and revision control for all documents and workflows. Know who changed what, when and why.

Organisational Set-Up

Setup the company’s organisational structure within the system to control user access.

Kill Line Live in Central Agri Group, Victoria, Australia

21 August 2018

In 2016 Central Agri Group, formerly Central Meat Exports, re-opened their newly refurbished beef plant in Trafalgar as Victoria Valley Meat Exports. This is a state of the art, fully integrated, beef processing plant in Victoria, Australia. As part of the Central Agri Group of companies, VVME is focused on major export markets including the Middle East and South East Asia.

Having been in operation for several months, it was determined that the current systems did not meet the needs of this modern, export focussed business, as the various modules were not integrated and lacked the features found in a modern, integrated system. Processes such as interfacing to the NLIS database, preparing the kill agenda, generating payments and reporting were all complicated and in some cases completely manual.

In light of these requirements, VVME contacted Emydex with a view to replacing their existing system, starting with the slaughter floor and then moving on to the boning hall including stations for into-boning, offal packing and carcass dispatch, with carton dispatch to follow.

Kill Line Software

The kill floor went live recently with Emydex’s kill line software systems running on four on-floor data capture computers starting from an NLIS scanning station that checks the animal status in real -time against the NLIS database through to Dentition, Carcass defect and Weigh-Grading stations.

The Emydex back-office system allows for the kill agenda to be generated from bookings made earlier, many of which are themselves created by a direct import of the XML ‘purchase advice’ from the various sale-yards, with all associated costs and individual animal RFID details attached.

Data from the slaughter floor is approved, which then generates a payment invoice (recipient created tax invoice) to the supplier with very little manual manipulation using flexible payment grids. The kill data is loaded directly from Emydex to the NLIS database again streamlining the processes and adding efficiencies.

Electronic Quality Management System

With the slaughter floor fully live, the company is now moving ahead to implement the next phases over the next few months. The final step will be to incorporate the Emydex ‘Quality Management’ system which will integrate the Production processes with a Quality system which, being Cloud based, could potentially be expanded to include Central Agri Groups other processing facilities in other locations.

Commenting shortly after the initial Emydex system go-live at the plant, Colin Reidy, IT and QA Manager for the Central Agri Group stated:

“To be honest, that was the smoothest rollout I have ever been involved in. Even if you take the minor changes performed today, the system worked as intended with little to no intervention.

Ian’s knowledge combined with Carl’s skills made the last few improvements today practical and worthwhile.

The operators all responded positively and actively engaged with both the Emydex team and the software system.

As for the office, I walked in at 5am as normal and 5 mins later I ran out of things to do. Normally I am hard pressed to have the agenda out by 6:15 let alone get any QA checks done. Then this afternoon, after a couple hours playing with the pricing we had the final feedbacks done by 2:30pm - a task that quite easily takes me to 6pm most nights.

So to say I’m happy is an understatement.”

Keeping up with demand in North America

13 June 2018

Over the past 2 years the meat, poultry and seafood industries in North America have seen positive production increases for all protein sectors. There is a general sense of optimism about the industry as they look forward to the future. Consumer consumption rates for meat, poultry and seafood continue to increase, creating increased demand in both domestic and international markets.

These increased demands have created a culture of unrelenting focus on operational efficiencies in processing plants. Companies are looking to technology to support measurement of current processes to support continual improvements.

Processors were pushed to make the most of good economic conditions in 2018 and into 2019, sales projections are up, acquisitions are occurring more frequently, and expansion is happening in the meat, poultry and seafood industry.

As baby boomers retire and millennials move into and up the organisation, protein processors need to rethink their approach for managing and measuring the efficiency of their production lines. As the labor market continues to tighten, protein processors will need automated measurement of their line results to minimise manual labor required and to be able to provide the instant feedback across the organisation.

Emydex Software enables processors to get continual feedback from the production floor and allow some of the management positions to work remotely, through access to the Emydex tools.

Running the right shop floor solution can streamline your processing and packaging operations, expedite recalls and accurately predict yields and cost productions. The current ERP solutions lack this functionality and require a solution like Emydex to address those deficiencies. North American Meat Processors are recognising that most ERP applications support the office needs but they do not meet the unique shop floor needs of a meat processor.

Emydex Technology specialise in Factory Floor Software for Food Processors and are focusing on North America as one of three core export markets. Having secured its third customer in the North American market, this latest contract brings to 120 the number of processing plants using Emydex software worldwide, in 14 countries. The company secured its first North American contract in Canada two years ago with pork processor Donald’s Fine Foods and has since closed a deal with Canadian Fishing Company (Canfisco).

Terry McCorriston, Emydex North American Business Analyst and shop floor software vendor for the meat and seafood industry, previously worked as the director of CSB-Systems, and was IT Manager at J.M. Schneiders Inc., a large meat processor in Canada. Terry has spoken at numerous international conferences on the importance of product costing in the meat industry.

Terry is certified with APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society), to be able to provide sound recommendations on supply chain and operational processes.

Terry has a passion for helping protein industry companies improve their operations with use of technology.

For more information on the Emydex system, contact local agent Terry McCorriston

Emydex Door-to-Door in Junee Lamb, NSW, Australia

10 May 2018

Emydex complete the system implementation with new customer in Australia, Junee Lamb, NSW

Junee Lamb is one of New South Wales’ leading sheep meat processors and exporters. With a focus on high quality chilled lamb for the domestic market as well as having significant export sales, Junee process over 3500 head of lambs daily. Junee also provides a service kill and boning operation for other customers such as major supermarket chains who wish to market their own product. All product is certified Halal and some product is processed as organic lamb.

Factory Floor Production Control System

Junee Lamb had a requirement to upgrade their existing factory floor production control system at the plant in Junee, as well as their Sydney wholesale and further processing systems, to a modern, flexible, user-friendly system which fully integrates all processes required for the procurement, slaughter, processing and sale of meat products.

Previously the company were operating with two separate factory floor data collection systems that were disconnected, and the company realised it would be more beneficial to their business to upgrade these systems to a single production management solution, offering one version of the truth, that could be tailored and customised to suit their specific business requirements.

Junee Lamb needed a system that would integrate with their existing back-office financial system, and also needed to incorporate an off-the-shelf label design system that allowed for the integration of foreign text in multiple languages, such as Arabic and Chinese.

Over the past 12 months, Emydex software engineers based in Australia, installed their Manufacturing Execution System (MES) across the entire business operations, including the lamb factory and wholesale centre. Emydex software modules implemented includes the Emydex Kill line & Payments module for stock procurement and payment, Carcass Management Module, Processing & Packing Module used for boning room production management, and the weigh-labelling of product, as well as the Emydex Warehouse Management module, used to manage and report on all factory stocks.

Many benefits have accrued from the implementation of Emydex, including the ability to cost stock purchased prior to processing, to determine a forward selling price. Another benefit is providing detailed costings reporting once skin returns, credits as well as all purchasing costs are known. Feedback to service kill operators and suppliers can be produced as soon as a lot is complete and emailed to customers.

For the domestic trade, the ability to quickly enter orders, and to produce consolidated production requirements and picking sheets, allows the orders to be accumulated during the day. Hanging product is weighed across an Emydex terminal, so invoices can be produced by delivery run from the terminal, as soon as loading is complete. This ensures accurate documentation is produced with invoices travelling with the deliveries. Similar functionality in the Sydney operation has allowed for significant growth with continued customer satisfaction.

Junee are a market-driven company who enjoy a reputation for top quality product and are seen as a market leader, especially into to the Asian market where the Junee Gold brand is recognised as one of the premier Australian brands. Consequently, virtually all stock is produced to order and is often labelled with customer order information (such as port marks) and often have complex, multi-language multi-label requirements.

Centralised Specification System

A key benefit of the system is having one centralised ‘specification’ system, where labels designs are stored with foreign text generated from the product specifications ‘real time’ using the actual text and thus not requiring images or conversion codes. All customer production requirements can be entered into a plan, which in turn generates the daily works orders, touch screen product buttons, all of which are linked to sales orders and labelling requirements. Order requirements eliminate costly over-production, and allow order fulfilment and shipping to be easily managed.

End to End Solution

By providing a fully integrated, ‘end to end’ solution Emydex have provided a platform where efficiencies have been gained in all areas of the business and allow for information to be readily available. Ease of use has ensured user acceptance has been high with minimal impact on the day to day running of the business as the system was rolled out. With 24-hour support in place, Junee can be assured that support is available 24x7 to provide comfort as the company goes ahead with plans to greatly expand the business over the next 12 months.

‘Having run the business across a number of disjointed systems previously, with little by way of fast-responding support, the business has greatly benefitted from have one, fully integrated, easy to use system. Testament to this is our recent and continuing smooth expansion, maintaining our reputation for top quality products and service. The Emydex system has provided significant benefits from its flexibility, ease of use and ability grow as we do. With Emydex now managing our ‘pasture to plate’ processes we feel confident we can meet the challenges as we expand into the future’.
Heath Newton, Managing Director - Junee Lamb

For enquiries contact sales@emydex.com or call Emydex on contact us

Emycon 2018

23 April 2018

To coincide with continued growth and expansion plans, Emydex held a company update day (Emycon), in Castleknock Hotel, on Friday 20th April 2018.

The purpose of this event was to update employees on the new company vision and strategy the company will be focusing on going forward and bring them up to speed on where the company is currently at and what we are hoping to achieve. The day consisted of presentations from key staff members including the CEO, Technical Director, Project Managers, Customer Support Manager, and Overseas Partners.

David McMahon, Emydex CEO, presented the companies’ mission, vision and strategy for moving forward. He also announced plans to create new jobs both in Dublin and Australia in the coming months, along with a new office based in Brisbane.

Presentations took place throughout the day covering New Product Development, Framework Updates, Project Management strategies and Market updates (Ireland &UK, Australasia, South Africa and North America/Canada.

Our overseas partners dialed in via go-to-meeting and updated colleagues on their backgrounds, current customer projects, their pipeline outlook and future direction.

Overall the event was a huge success and one we will do again in the future.

Emydex New Product Development Survey

30 March 2018

Customer Survey Results

In March 2018, Emydex conducted a customer survey looking for feedback on New Product Development from key Emydex users within our existing customer community.

The survey queried customer interest levels in ten potential new products Emydex will potentially develop, to gauge interest in the products themselves and willingness to be part of the product design, validation and testing processes including:

Emydex Quality Management System (EQMS) – complete and live with customers
Emydex Product Specification System
Emydex Group-Wide Animal Payments System
Emydex Production Planning System – under development
Emydex Enterprise Master Data Management
Emydex Demand Planning & Forecasting System
Emydex Leaker Tracker System
Emydex Centralised Consolidated Reporting System
Business Intelligence & Data Analytics using MS Power BI

The survey results are highlighted below, summarising the products customers are most interested in seeing us develop in the future:

1^st place

EQMS system with 97% of customers who responded either (1) very interested/willing to assist with design and testing or (2) interested, please keep me updated.

Emydex have developed a centralised QMS solution providing for all quality & compliance needs in one place, suitable for single or multi-site operations.

Joint 2^nd place

Product Specification Management system and Business Intelligence with 93% of customers either very interested/willing to assist with design and testing or (2) interested, keep me updated.

Business Intelligence also had the highest single score for Very Interested/ willing to assist, with just over half of all survey respondents willing to participate in the design and testing.

Product Specification Management system – A centralised data storage solution for product specifications, such as raw materials, ingredients, packaging and finished goods, alerting internal and external partners of changes to the product spec.

Business Intelligence - Host & utilize the power of Power BI, that allows the creation of user-definable dashboards, pulling data from many sources and performing data analytics, accessing data via web based and mobile devices.

4^th place

Production Planning with 90% of all customer respondents either very interested or interested, keep me updated.

Generate Production Plans based on sales demands & stock levels, using multi-tiered Bill-of-Materials. Calculate material & packaging requirements, with scheduling, capacity planning and cost calculations.

5^thplace

Master Data Management on 84%.

Setup & maintain all master data in one location, such as Products, Label Designs & Bill-of-Materials, with full auditing & version control and management over publishing of master data to the group’s individual plants.

Joint 6^thplace

Cloud Animal Payments and Centralised Reporting, with 83% either very interested or interested, keep me updated.

Cloud Animal Payments - Cloud-hosted Animal payments system for multiple production sites, with central booking system & multi-currency support.

Centralised Reporting - Bring all plant level data into one place in a consistent and consolidated state to allow group wide reporting and data archiving.

8^th place

Demand Planning with 56% either very interested or interested, keep me updated.

Generate long term demand planning & forecasting for sales and material requirements, across multiple plants by looking at historical trends and strategic plans.

9^th place

Leaker Tracker System with 53% either very interested or interested, keep me updated.

A system that will give you the ability to record and report vacuum pack leakers in real time the way you want!
Capturing this data will allow you to find root causes of leaking vacuum-packed products, test and track new trail packing, save money on packaging waste and reduce claims from customers.

Apple iPad Winner

As part of the survey, we placed all customer respondents into a draw to win an Apple iPad. The winner (pictured below) was Paul Reid from Rosderra Irish Meats.

David McMahon, Emydex CEO (right) presenting Apple iPad to Paul Reid (left).

For more information on any of our products or if you would like to participate in any of the mentioned New Product Development projects please contact Shane Hayes in Emydex on:

+353 1 8855990 or email Shane on shane.hayes@emydex.com

Electronic Quality Management Systems for the Food Industry

EMYDEX QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEMO VIDEO