TCS specialises in industrial product traceability, tracking raw ingredients through the process of the plant to the finished goods. Integration of management IT databases and plant floor automation needed to be tightly interfaced in order to achieve 100% integrity of data when it comes to tracking what ingredients have gone in to what products.
Through TCS’ many years of experience in plant automation, industrial communications and management database integration we are able to create a tailor solution you fit you tracking needs.
Some of the applications that TCS has provided to various industries have ranged from the very simple data entry through to the fully integrated systems.
Systems such as the Fonterra cheese plants that barcode track every 25kg block of cheese produced from each tower, when it was made, where the raw materials came from, what its weigh was, how long it was chilled for and what pallet it eventually was shipped on. The tracking systems log thousand of items integrating seamlessly to Fonterra’s onsite databases for long term storage of data. As well as tracking the blocks the system carries out tasks such as rejecting out of spec product and producing pallet labels and box labels for application.
In the CANPAC blending tower 13.56mhz RFID technology is used to track pallet kits of ingredients that go in to a blend batch. As ingredients are split into there exact quantity for each blend run in the dispensary the tracking system records the weights and produces a unique barcode that is applied to each bag of ingredients. Prior to tipping into the blender each ingredient pack is scanned and verified to ensure the blend is correct. A complete time stamped record is kept of ever stage of the process. The sytem is fully integrated with the management database system and every activity is available for remote monitoring and verification.
Throughout the entire CANPAC operation TSC tracking systems integrate plant floor activities with management information systems with a bilateral transfer of information from the production planning system for operators to know what the production runs are to be as well as real time production information for management to remain abreast of where any of the production runs are currently at. While carrying out these complex data transfers the system is continuously recalculating the raw material requirements to ensure that only the exact amount of product and components are bought from the stores. Information required to carry out a production run are sent directly to plant equipment or displayed on message displays to forklift operators and production staff throughout the factory.
At Canterbury Meat Packers in Rangatikei, the pinnacle of meat processing automation for integrated planning exists with a full integration of the slaughter floor, chillers, cutting floor and onto the packing area, giving unparalleled flow and traceability for every cut of meat through the plant.
TCS has provided a system of over 12 13.56mhz RFID readers to track individual animals from the slaughter floor through the chillers and on to the boning room. The carcase is then cut into three sections and each section transferred into a hygienic tray containing a unique RFID tag. The skid RFID information is then electronic transfer to the three trays.
A further 52 special designed conveyor RFID reader are used to guide the meat throughout the processing plant and eventually on to the packing area. The floor activities are completely integrated with the planning system and at moments notice the entire cutting pattern can be changed to meet the customers needs.
