Powerful solutions

for full line integration

Marel’s poultry processing systems are known for high yields, reliable performance, ease of operation, low cost of ownership and excellent maintenance models. Maryke Foulds digs into how the company can assist in retrofitting existing plants, turning them into state-of-the-art processing facilities.

REGARDLESS OF THE desired production capacity and the type of end products, Marel has effective, reliable, profitable and quality solutions. Whether processing 500 or 15 000 broilers per hour, poultry companies can always find tailor-made automation for each process step – from live bird supply, anaesthetising, plucking, evisceration, cooling, cut-up, deboning, sorting, packing and labeling to convenience food processes.

The company invests 6% of its revenues in innovation and research and development every year. This translated to €82m in 2019. Innovation projects are often conducted in collaboration with renowned research and scientific institutes, resulting in groundbreaking advances. Many of these solutions have set new standards in the industry, allowing processors to maximise yield, quality and throughput.

Marel pays also considerable attention to important themes such as animal well-being, traceability, food safety, sustainability and CO2 footprint.

INTEGRATION INTO EXISTING LINES – SOFTWARE Adding ‘intelligence’, in terms of software, is the best way to integrate new options into an existing processing line without having to make big investments. Food processing is a highly-dynamic industry and it would be very difficult for food processing companies to operate without the support of an intelligent software platform. In such a complex environment, Marel’s plant-wide Innova solution makes it possible to think smart and act quickly. Data-driven processing is critical to make informed decisions that can be implemented with very little notice. Marel offers all the tools required for the resilience and speed-to-market processors to be competitive in the industry. Across all the departments in the poultry processing plant, modular Innova software solutions connect and serve the needs of the staff on the factory floor or in the control room.

Marel’s Innova software system is fully prepared to be integrated into existing lines. It offers a highly-flexible and fullyscalable production control software suite that empowers processors to efficiently control, monitor and improve every aspect of the production process, from live bird handling up to the dispatching orders and QC processes. It’s a completely modular platform to which modules can be added according to the processors’ needs and requirements. It’s possible to start controlling the weighing, packing, labelling, pricing and palletising processes with end-of-lines modules such as final goods manager, inventory, weighing and labelling and packing. Using these software solutions, food processors can take complete control of their value chain: they can maximise yields, throughput and uptime while reducing costs, stock and give-away.

This software package can be extended with modules such as traceability, order management, quality control and IMPAQT

The inventory department at a major chicken supplier