Carlisle Technology Solutions

Solution Overview

Need to control your mushroom giveaway and get full traceability back to the piece?

The Symphony™: Pack- off Manager is a net weight management solution from Carlisle that allows you to closely monitor and manage the net weight of trays before they are packed into cartons. Plus, it records all the information you need for traceability purposes.

Key Benefits

• Better weight control (tighter tolerances, less “give-away”, less rework)
• Streamline operator functions, improving productivity, and reducing training requirements
• Visibility – production monitoring, operator monitoring, and yield monitoring
• Traceability of pieces into cartons, cartons into pallets, pallets to customers

How it Works:

The Symphony: Packoff Manager follows this process:

Harvest Rooms

1. A facility may have numerous stations in the harvest room(s), each equipped with a CW-90 check weigher loaded with Carlisle’s software. The operator selects the product (a tray of mushrooms, or a bulk “lug” of mushrooms), and fills it until it is within the allowable tolerances.
   
2. Transaction recording: When the tray/lug is within tolerances, a label is printed on the attached Datamax-O’Neil E-class Mark III printer,  and the operator affixes it to the product (the label has a 2D barcode with all the transaction information)
   

Slicing Area

1. Product Transformation: using a scanner with a keypad and display, the operator can convert one product into another (eg: to convert whole mushrooms into a sliced mushroom product). New product labels are printed for affixing to each tray, and the relationship is recorded for traceability purposes
   

Production Area

1. Packaging: A workstation running Carlisle Technology’s iCap is used for building cartons. The operator takes the trays that have been previously weighed, and scans the barcodes (with the Motorola DS9808 scanner) as they are placed into a carton. When full, a carton label is produced on the Datamax-O’Neil m-class printer. For bulk products, the mushrooms are loaded into cartons, and a label is produced for the carton.
   
2. Yield analysis: Trays are randomly check-weighed for cooler shrink analysis reporting
3. Pallet labelling: When an operator is finished loading a pallet of product (either the pallet is full, or he/she runs out of product), a pallet label is printed and affixed to the pallet. The label has a bar code, which links the pallet to all it’s composing cartons.

 
Features and Functionality

• Centrally controlled product file (products, packaging tare weights) accessible via web browser
• Operators assigned to stations via web browser (used for measuring productivity of operators)
• Filling of product trays (pieces) can be in separate locations from the packaging of cartons

Efficiency Reports:

• Scale report: shows production for each station within a given time period. Report showis products, quantities, weights, and giveaway
• Product report: shows production for all stations within a given time period
• Operator reports: shows production for each operator within a given time period, including efficiency metrics
• Shrink Analysis report: shows weighing on scale v

Traceability Reports:

• Carton pieces report:  shows which pieces are in a particular carton, by either entering the carton ID, or by entering one of the piece IDs
• Tray Detail Information:  shows details about a particular tray (piece), including product #, picking date/time, packaging time/date, operator, carton it went into

Administration Reports:

• Pack-off Product Listing: shows all pack-off products, with their descriptions, weight target and tolerances, tare weights

The Produce Traceability Initiative (www.producetraceability.org) is an industry-wide effort to bring electronic traceability to the produce supply chain by 2012. Every case of produce must identify the brand owner, the Lot#/Batch#, and the pack or harvest date. Additionally, systems must be in place to record, store, and convey this information for all in bound cases as well as out bound cases. The goal of the PTI is to improve food safety by enabling product tracking throughout the produce supply chain. This is achieved by implementing the GS1 128 standard for labeling and recording producer and production information.

The timeline of the PTI is as follows:

Carlisle Technology supports the PTI

Carlisle Technology is well-equipped to help produce companies meet and exceed the PTI requirements, in order to provide expanded productivity benefits. With years of experience providing bar coding solutions for the food industry, Carlisle Technology is well ahead of the curve with regards to traceability solutions for produce. We have been providing bar code labeling, scanning, and traceability solutions for the meat and poultry industry in North America since 1988. Our first projects involving GS1 128 bar code labels were in 1993 when Loblaw Company, Canada’s largest grocery retailer, required meat and poultry companies to code cases of catch weight (variable weight) products with the brand new UCC/EAN-128 bar code (now called GS1-128).

Features

• Suite of mature products
• Designed using food industry best-practices
• Out of the box functionality for fast implementation
• Modular design to allow phased installation
• Expands to serialized product tracking when you are ready
• Integrates with external accounting systems
• Business Intelligence reports to improve productivity

Benefits

• Meet and exceed PTI standards
• Efficiently track product within facility
• Productivity improvements
• Yield monitoring
• Labour reduction
• Material cost control
• Quality control
• Brand Protection
• Risk Management
• Reduce impact of future product recalls

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