“Thanks to IMPAQT, we have no more miscommunication”

Why did you feel you needed the IMPAQT software package?

“We didn’t have a clear view of the performance of our equipment. The technical department and the production leaders of the primary line often had different opinions about the efficiency of the process. With performance changing from flock to flock, even from minute to minute, their judgments were subjective and depended on when they looked at the process. Now that IMPAQT checks every shackle individually, our reports are objective, based on a well-defined interval and on overall production. Therefore, we have no more miscommunication.”

What kind of issues did you want to solve by implementing IMPAQT that couldn’t be solved before?

“IMPAQT gives us a realistic, real-time overview of the performance of the primary line. But it is more important that it can also help us focus on a certain problem, gather all the necessary data and thereby find the root cause of the problem in real-time. Having several product detection points in the line, we can see where most product losses occur. We can decide how to prevent this loss. We can verify the results of our preventive measures.”

How do you use IMPAQT in your processing plant?

“IMPAQT is not a tool to solve sudden incidents. We prefer to use it as a monitoring tool for trends, which alerts us if performance drops in a particular area. This means we can react faster and more efficiently. At the moment, our technical department benefits most from IMPAQT. They are really enthusiastic and use it frequently. The Nuova, LineLink DE and EC dashboards are a continuous help for them. They constantly keep their eyes on these dashboards, spot the issues and can react quickly if the performance of any unit drops. But as IMPAQT can monitor many other things, we are still creating processes that will lead to higher uptime. For example, the line-stop report we use now is not 100% accurate. We would like to use IMPAQT data to restructure this report. The Event Editor enables us to see the exact time and length of each stop and the reason for it. In this way, the line-stop report will be more accurate. It will take less time to record downtime. We will be able to see downtime statistics too.”

Has IMPAQT already resulted in a better performance?

“Yes, definitely. Gizzards, hearts and livers are very important products for us. We always pay a lot of attention to preventing the loss of these products. As this process starts with the Nuova eviscerator, it is crucial that we can closely watch its operation. With IMPAQT, our technical team can keep a constant eye on this machine by checking the Nuova performance dashboard. This screen not only shows them overall performance but also tells them straight away which unit is not performing well and needs to be repaired or replaced as soon as possible.”

Is IMPAQT making your life easier?

“Yes, it is. Especially when I look at maintenance. Besides the dashboards already mentioned, the Bad Shackle report is also a ‘must see’ report. Every shackle transfers many birds every day. One defective shackle will cause a loss of product each time the conveyor goes round. It’s therefore important to recognize which shackles are broken or damaged. In the so-called Bad Shackle report, our maintenance department can easily identify bad shackles in the line and replace them as soon as possible.”

Do you have some wishes for the future?

“There are still areas of IMPAQT we don’t use yet, while in other areas, we’d like to have more options. For example, it would be useful to see whether a one-legger is missing its left or right leg. Thanks to fruitful meetings with the Marel team, we have already been able discuss our wishes. We hope they will be granted soon.”

Company website: mastergood.hu