Factory floor efficiency specialist Marco has completed a TRAC-IT-MES packhouse solution for top-fruit and grape importer and packer Griffin and Brand (European) Ltd at its packhouse in Ashford, Kent.

Marco has extensive experience in the fresh produce packing industry and works closely with clients to ensure each system meets their full operational and fiscal requirements. It recognises that the capture of real time factory-floor data, and the ability to act upon it, is integral to the efficient and profitable operation of businesses in the fast-paced fresh produce sector.

The Ashford model is based on Marco’s TRAC-IT software and hardware modules, and includes LineMaster portion control scales, flow wrappers with auto-loading systems and a comprehensive conveyor system, incorporating soft touch accumulation end-of-line packing conveyors.

Marco said: “The system is designed to optimise packing flexibility to meet Griffin and Brand’s (G&B) changing customers’ requirements, while dramatically reducing waste and giveaway. Manual packing is a vital part of the packhouse process, dictated by the diverse nature and size differences of the fruit.

“Speed is of the essence to remain competitive, placing contrasting demands on line operators. Not only [does G&B] need to ensure packs meet the packers code for ‘e’ weighing, but it also needs to minimise expensive product giveaway.”

Marco has pioneered the development of its Automatic Optimisation (AO) software, which continually fine tunes pack target weights based on real time factory floor data. Results from dozens of Marco installations demonstrate that giveaway can be reduced to fractions of a gram per pack without affecting line speed, the company said.

“The modular nature of TRAC-IT MES ensures that packhouse systems, such as the one installed at G&B, can be readily expanded to meet future requirements,” added Marco. “One of the available modules is the LCM Line Control Module, which provides a comprehensive line set-up capability. This allows supervisors to set and check all crucial line parameters for any particular pack run from a central PC.”

PA AIDS WILSON VISION

Packaging Automation Ltd (PA) has installed a second high-speed Vision 400 tray sealer at Wilsons Country in Craigavon, Northern Ireland.

In doubling production capacity at its £5 million factory, Wilsons Country, Ireland’s fastest growing potato-packing and fresh-cut fruit processor, can now pack 40,000 kilos of fresh-cut fruit each week - twice as much as before - with an additional 5,000kg a week now available, because of the Vision 400’s greater flexibility.

The new machine also provides the facility for longer-term expansion.

Wilsons peels, cuts and packs fruit in two different square or rectangular 200g trays (with plastic fork attached, for the snack market) and 400g trays. PA also supplied two new tooling sets to accommodate high-frequency product changes, adding to the three tool sets originally supplied with the first Vision 400 in 2005.

Wilsons Country managing director Lewis Cunningham said: “We often undertake up to 20 product and film changes a day. With the added flexibility provided by the second Vision 400, we can react rapidly to short order call-offs and varied requirements, while downtime can also be minimised.” Tooling set changes can take just two minutes, with very quick replacement of cutting blades and heater mats.

With four fruits per pack as minimum content, Wilsons Country’s products include Luxury Fruit Salad, Melon Medley, Breakfast Fruit Mix, Fresh Fruit Salad and Fruit Pots. However, Fruit Fusion is a complicated blend of 10 different fruits - red and green apple pieces, orange segments, Honeydew melon, pineapple, watermelon, red and green grapes, cantaloupe melon and kiwi.

“The performance of our first Vision 400,” Cunningham added, “and PA’s support and responsiveness have been impeccable, which meant that when we needed to expand our packing operations we had no need to research the market for a system or alternative supplier. The reliability of our packing operations is maintained, which is vital when our customers expect daily fresh deliveries.”

With products delivered by an extended in-feed conveyor, Vision 400 seals trays at speeds of up to 72 packs per minute and its touch-sensitive control screen, which can be rotated to allow use from either side of the machine, permits recipe pre-programming. Its hygienic construction includes stainless steel guarding and a sealed machine bed that can be washed down.

CONTROLLING YOUR FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS

Anglia Business Solutions explains why access to detailed financial information has never been more important.

When selecting a business management application, there is a tendency to focus on the operational facilities of a system and take the financial aspects for granted. After all, the assumption is that one set of ledgers is much the same as another.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that, in today’s environment where margins are being unmercifully squeezed, access to detailed financial information has never been more important.

One of the major criticisms of some proprietary legacy systems is the inability to rapidly extract meaningful management information. The usual complaint is “we spend a lot of time putting the information in but cannot easily get it out in the format we want”. In the fast-moving, low-margin fresh produce business, this puts the management team at a serious disadvantage. After all, if you don’t know whether a contract, consignment or product line is yielding an acceptable profit or even a loss, it is difficult to take rapid corrective action if necessary.

This can be symptomatic of a lack of functionality within the core accounting facilities. It could also be that the detailed information captured within the operational system is not linked to the financials. “Home-grown” financial applications are usually fine when it comes to double entry bookkeeping. However, they were never intended to provide the level of detail required to cope with today’s global businesses.

A simple example of this is the question of multicurrency. Global systems are designed to cope with any currency as well as dealing with fluctuating exchange rates. Failure of an importing company to deal with these changes can be damaging financially.

Then there is the thorny question of the regulatory environment. For example, in the US, publicly traded companies have to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on accounting practices. This demands full traceability of all financial transactions, with wide-ranging implications where a lack of transparency is evident.

While these regulations do not yet apply to the UK, the larger software authors ensure that they are compliant with the following:

• Basel 11: Systems that are Basel 11 compliant cope with the increased demands for financial information by institutions involved in credit lending.

• IAS/IFRS: Since January 1, 2005, all listed companies in the EU must prepare consolidated financial statements compliant with international accounting standards.

• BASDA: This is not a regulatory requirement but a code of practice that covers product development, testing, quality assurance, documentation and product support. BASDA represents more than 200 of the world’s leading software authors.

The green agenda is also driving further regulatory requirements to periodically report on waste outputs. Collating the required data from disparate information sources can be a labour-intensive and time-consuming process. Modern financial management solutions are designed to automatically calculate waste output figures and produce the necessary reporting.

Leaving compliance aside, the key issue on a day-to-day basis is easy access to relevant customer and product information. Modern systems from major authors make it easy to find such information with a few mouse clicks, as without them, they would not be able to compete in the global marketplace. Such facilities can provide the customer with a significant commercial insight as well as a competitive advantage. A simple example is being able to access sales and profitability statistics on any customer, supplier or product at the touch of a button.

Other financially oriented facilities that can be rare in legacy proprietary applications include the following:

• Consolidation of multiple companies into a single entity

• Automatic updating of multiple budgets

• Automatically split costs across various headings

• Setting up of profit centres and the automatic posting to revenue and costs to those centres.

• Easy financial reporting by the criteria set up in the schedules

• XBRL - an XML-based specification that uses accepted financial reporting standards based upon standardised, underlying data tags.

• The ability to manage and reconcile multiple bank accounts in both local and foreign currencies

• Intrastats for reporting purposes to the statistics authorities

• The ability to generate predictions of a company’s liquidity in a timely manner is becoming crucial.

The reality is that few companies assess these vital financial aspects when evaluating their choice of system. Yet as businesses become larger and operate across international borders, the financial reporting and compliance elements loom larger in the selection criteria. With larger software organisations competing in the global market, these facilities have to be inbuilt. Such organisations simply have to be on the ball with upgrades when compliance or fiscal regulations change.

This article highlights the fact that very few organisations carry out extensive due diligence on the financial elements of a system as part of their selection process. Apart from the regulatory compliance aspects, there are very good business reasons for paying close attention to the detailed financial facilities incorporated in a prospective system.

After all, money is at the core of every commercial business. If your selected system fails to help you to efficiently manage that vital resource, the rest of its functionality may not matter.

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