Since the early 1990s, Carlisle Technology has had experience implementing systems for producing GS1-128 bar codes for serialized cases. Bill deVries of Carlisle Technology was a contributing member of the ECCC – Electronic Commerce Council of Canada (now GS1) bar code sub-committee that helped develop the Application Identifier standard for the GS1-128 bar code format.
It was in 1992 that a company in the U.S., Gordon Foodservice, with direction from the Uniform Code Council (now GS1) began to utilize a bar code solution that would best serve their needs, the first commercial use of the UCC/EAN-128 (now called GS1-128) bar code.
Then in 1993, Loblaw Company in Canada issued a requirement to their then 127 suppliers of meat, poultry and cheese across Canada to implement the GS1-128 bar code on all their cases that contained variable weight products.
Sample Labels on the 1994 version of Carlisle's Omni-Weigh Flyer
Carlisle Technology had by then already developed an industry leading program for weighing and labeling in the harsh wash-down environments of food processing facilities with installations in companies with names like Canada Packers, Fearman’s Fresh Meats, and J.M. Schneiders.
The Omni-Weigh solution from Carlisle Technology became the world’s first weigh/label program with touch screen control and configurable label formats. Furthermore, Omni-Weigh included fully-compliant support for the GS1-128 bar code. The program worked with dozens of makes and models of weigh scales and bar code label printers (wash-down printers such as Fargo MTL and MTL-660, as well as Datamax desktop printers with wash-down enclosures manufactured by Carlisle).
The world's first configurable weigh/label solution, touch screen controlled. Manual, wash-down version.
Within a short period of time, Carlisle Technology became the vendor of choice for the majority of meat processors across Canada as well as a growing number in the U.S., and developed a good reputation with their configurable solutions for weighing and labeling cases (both manual and automated in-line weigh, print and apply solutions handling mixed cases of catch weight product).
With a great deal of experience in the meat and poultry industry, Carlisle’s software meets requirements for many in-plant operations including yield and production monitoring in slaughter areas, cut floors, recipe and product transformation.
Over the past 20 years Carlisle Technology has continued to upgrade their solutions and to add functionality for identifying and tracking products through the entire process from receiving to shipping. This includes live animal receiving and related process steps, work-in-process tracking, finished goods pack-off, inventory control and shipping.
With a unique blend of software development, equipment manufacturing and sourcing, along with consulting, engineering and support services, Carlisle Technology continues its reputation as a total solution provider for integrated plant productivity and traceability systems for the food industry.
Carlisle has built on their large company experience and consolidated their various software solutions into the Symphony – Plant Productivity Suite which tracks all physical entities through the entire process, offering visibility and complete internal traceability. The Symphony program meets the needs of large multi-enterprise organizations as well as offers required functionality for small and medium-sized companies at an affordable price. As a standard, configurable solution, Symphony can be implemented quickly and is well-supported.
Clients who use Carlisle Technology’s solutions realize significant payback and return on investment through increased productivity, quality, efficiencies, and yields.
