Meat buffer solution wins at Australian Supply Chain & Logistics Awards
Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd (NCMC) recently received the 2017 Information Technology and Management Award which recognised a company’s use of technology to provide significant improvements to its management of information and its supply chain processes.
Held at Luna Park in Sydney, the winners of the 57th Australian Supply Chain & Logistics Awards were announced by the Supply Chain & Logistics Association of Australia, in conjunction with Dematic, LMA, Xtreme Freight and Australian Border Force Programme.
Information is a crucial part of the supply chain, and NCMC was celebrated for its meat processing, buffering, sortation and sequencing solution. It also received two other awards in the Supply Chain Management and International Supply Chain Management categories.
The demand for Australian red meat in Asia motivated the company to develop a more efficient way for Australian meat processors to improve their complex distribution and dispatch processes. The solution — which was developed by Dematic in conjunction with Wiley — involves meat cartons leaving the boning room and being inducted into the Dematic Multishuttle Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). Integrated conveyors transport cartons through various production processes including lidding, labelling and plate freezing. When frozen, the finished goods are conveyed and inducted into the ASRS, which can accommodate up to 4300 cartons for automated buffering, order building and sortation.
All materials handling is fully automated and driven by smart location control and routing software, which minimises carton processing and retrieval time. The system has resulted in the elimination of manual handling of frozen cases, full track-and-trace capabilities, significantly reduced labour, reduced product damage and a smaller system footprint.
“The many benefits delivered by the new meat buffer solution have made the Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd more competitive and responsive to its customers, as well as improved working conditions for its team members,” said Soeren Schauki, business development manager at Dematic. “We congratulate them on this award.”
Other finalists included: Datapel Systems Pty Ltd, Go People, iCOS Live Australian Pty, IFC Global Logistics Pty Ltd, Sebastian Keith Chua, Health Promotion Board, SmartTrans and Vaibhav Dabhade, Anchanto Pte Ltd.
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