JUST IN TIME POULTRY PACKAGING
Plukon installs most sophisticated weigh price
labelling line in Europe
Plukon is one of Holland’s leading processors of fresh poultry,
supplying major retailers, such as supermarket giant Albert Heijn, with
variable weight products ranging from whole birds to small 100gm poultry
product trays. The company also offers a range of chicken and turkey added
value items, including marinated products, pre-packaged microwave dinners,
cold meat specialities and deep freeze products.
At its plants in Wezep (NL) and Storkow (Dui), Plukon has invested in
the development and installation of the latest processing and packaging
equipment. Their objective was to create a ‘state-of-the art’
facility with the flexibility to provide cost-effective ‘just-in-time’
order processing and fulfilment.
Rather than pack and store product in anticipation of orders to come,
the company wanted the ability to fulfil individual customer orders –
however small or large – on an hourly basis. As a result, the new
processing and packaging equipment specified needed the capability to
accommodate varying products and specifications with minimal changeover
time. With a typical run of just 10 to 20 packs, the potential changes
each day between different customers, products and specifications, were
huge.
Producing all variable weight product, the success of the new Plukon plant
depended on an efficient – and sophisticated – weigh price
labelling system.
This needed to operate at a line speed of 60 packs per minute, with a
changeover time of less than one second, ensuring no effective loss of
throughput.
Unique Delford 8060 Weigh Price Labelling Installation
The weigh price labelling system chosen for the 14 new lines was the
Delford 8060, with individual machines networked to a CSB host
controller.
As one would expect from such an experienced leading manufacturer of weigh
price labelling equipment, Delford was uniquely placed to develop such
a system, thanks to its substantial in-house software capability. Delford’s
experienced software engineers worked closely with Plukon’s production
and engineering team and engineers from CSB-System to develop and fine
tune an all new networking and software system that would satisfy the
plant’s challenging operational requirements.
Each individual Delford 8060 machine has multiple labelling
heads, with the facility to accommodate up to 6 different labels. These
heads can be used for traditional variable weight information or for secondary
flash labelling with pre-printed or variable data, including logos and
bitmaps. Over the 16 lines (10 in Wezep and 6 in Storkow), this gives
a combined resource of 84 different labels to access during any production
period.
Thanks to the sophisticated software system and special features, such
as height detection, the Delford system can accommodate even the widest
changes in product specification without downtime or pack wastage. A height
detector ensures accurate label placement, whether it’s for a high
whole bird pack or a small, flat 100gram tray.
For maximum system efficiency, the host controller accepts real time orders
and allocates them to one of ten production lines in Wezep or six in Storkow,
maintaining running production and yield data. The tenth line in Wezep
and the sixth in Storkow are reserved for production emergencies/peaks
and staff training.
Plukon is pleased with the weigh price labelling installation.
Ray Mennink, Project manager and IT Manager says “The Delford
implementation and interfacing with CSB was a very demanding project
with many ups and downs. It was not just an implementation project but
a complete restructuring of our labelling process. In co-operation with
Delford & Sortaweigh, IFS and CSB-System we have built an ultra modern
system that has given us a definite competitive edge in a very competitive
market. The system gives us maximum flexibility when catering to our clients
labelling/pricing needs. This system has made it possible to package and
price the same volumes as before but with a considerable reduction in
the number of required processing personnel”.
