Software optimizes compliance with food safety requirements

The software selected was TrackSYS from Parsec. An added bonus: Without having to modify existing infrastructure, TrakSYS was quick to deploy and easily gained access to operation-wide real-time data.

“For us, it is important to maintain accurate Electronic Production Records (EPRs) and keep track of critical process values to comply with the regulatory requirement related to food safety,” says a Production Manager at Eckes Granini. “With TrakSYS, we have been able to achieve both while improving the productivity and performance of our operations. The acceptance of the solution by the operators, production managers, and the quality department has been great.”

With production locations spanning the European continent, Eckes-Granini has a large operation with many systems and regulations in place. They needed something that could maintain their high level of quality and compliance while meeting production goals. Among the challenges they faced were these:

• Wasted raw ingredients
• Lack of real-time visibility into operations
• Production interruption and unplanned downtime
• Lack of accurate real-time information to help operators with value-added operations
TrakSYS was deployed on a single server with operator interfaces for four production areas. Eleven EVENTTrak operator interface nodes were placed throughout the facility to enable interaction with the systems (for example, visualization of KPIs and losses, downtime management, root cause analysis, quality data entry, safety check forms, and data contextualization). Plant-wide user workstations make it possible to view operations and performance information via standard browser technology.
One of the major TrakSYS advantages that Eckes Granini took advantage of is its ability to readily exchange data with the existing applications (SAP, WMS, SSCC, ETC.) without having to modify the infrastructure. This made it possible to quickly deploy and gain access to operations-wide real-time data. Additionally, the team responsible for selecting the solution was impressed by the configurability of TrakSYS and the support provided by Parsec and its certified partner, YPSYS.
Other key results:
• Operators bought in quickly and became advocates of TrakSYS as it clearly made their jobs easier to perform.
• TrakSYS facilitated communications between shifts and crews, which has enhanced continuity of operations by eliminating unnecessary shift-change adjustments.
• In the daily production meetings, paper-based reports have been replaced by real-time and historical dashboards from TrakSYS. This significantly reduced time spent on meetings since all needed production information is readily available.
• Inconsistencies in quality-related data have been almost entirely eliminated.
• TrakSYS is now managing all daily quality checks for regulatory compliance with complete electronic transaction records to ensure such tasks are completed correctly and in a timely fashion.
• Overall production performance was improved by more than 10 percent, while the percentage of overweight products (costly giveaway) was reduced by 30 percent.