Case Studies
Greenlea Premier Meats embrace latest beef boning hall system
New Zealand company, Greenlea Premier Meats, is constantly looking to find new and better ways to work. Thus for some time they had been looking for an intelligent deboning and trimming system that would improve efficiency and give better results – when they got introduced to Marel’s StreamLine system.
Exporting approximately 90% of its products, and working in a highly competitive industry with unfavorable exchange rates, it is necessary to always work on finding efficiency increase internally inside the plant.
Monitoring and controlling the production
The StreamLine system was installed at Greenlea Premier Meats in September 2009. The throughput was soon reached and the staff got a system with less hard manual work, meaning that strain injuries are reduced. Tim Aitken explains, “Our staff learned that they go home at the end of the day feeling much fresher than with the traditional system."
Carcasses from stock are weighed-in on an over head track scale at the entrance to the deboning hall. The information about each animal such as animal ID, slaughter date, etc, is captured by the Innova production control system. The carcass is then cut down according to individual specifications and weighed before entering the StreamLine for deboning/trimming. Primals are distributed to one of the work stations on the StreamLine, based on operator availability, where they are deboned and trimmed according to customer specifications.
The weight of the trim, fat and finished product is registered and compared to the incoming weight. The finished products are sent to packing, manual or vacuum, after which they are led to a finished goods stock. Yield, throughput, quality and other KPIs are registered and monitored online.
Innova, the heart of the system
The cutting performance of the operators at the line is automatically measured and monitored via Innova, Marel’s intelligent control software.
Graham Green, “Operations Manager at Greenlea is highly satisfied with the results. We utilize the info from Innova – such as pivot tables and reports, by which we are able to track yield, throughput, orders, etc.”
The software of the StreamLine system was a bit of a concern to Greenlea, but they soon found that Innova is very user-friendly and no IT-personnel are needed to maintain the day-to-day operation.
Aaron Craig, Plant Manager is one of the persons who were involved in the project from the start, “The key to overcome the “IT-fright” was that some of us production managers were sent to Iceland to learn about the system and the IT-set-up e.g. making cutting patterns, etc – as well as analyzing the info online. It was really beneficial to learn about Innova and its potential.”
Partners in processing
Greenlea has been most impressed and satisfied with the way Marel has handled the entire project from initial talks about the system right through to the final hand over. Graham Green explains, “We feel that we are partners in processing. Marel have listened and adapted the system according to our needs. They have great integrity and show immense responsibility,” and he concludes, “That is simply the reason why we have even entered into this project.”
Greenlea invested in the StreamLine system after having seen it run in Europe. Seeing it in other plants, Greenlea became confident that the system would achieve what Marel promised it would.
According to Graham Green, “It was rather critical to us that we saw a system similar to what we were looking for. If these reference site visits had not taken place or been convincing we would probably not have made the decision to go ahead.”
Process Consultancy makes a huge difference to the success
As part of the package a Marel Process Consultant was on site at Greenlea for several weeks after installation to help the operators understand the finer details of the system and fine-tune the cutting patterns that the company is working with. “In addition to the training, the process consultant would point out some of our critical areas of processing and recommend how to make them more efficient.” says an impressed Graham Green, and continues, “We feel that he did his utmost to understand and maintain our specific way of processing, yet still improving the ways we would work”.
Greenlea company profile
Greenlea Premier Meats is a family owned business with a wealth of experience in the meat industry. Operating since 1993 the company has developed an international reputation for the consistent quality of their products and the high level of service they provide. Greenlea takes pride in being a company focused on people and have built strong relationships with both customers and suppliers. Greenlea’s two processing plants are located in the heart of New Zealand’s Waikato region, an area renowned for its pastoral industries. Both the Morrinsville and Hamilton based plants are of similar size and capacity and process 80,000 cattle per year (165 heads per day).
For more information about Greenlea please see www.greenlea.co.nz