Meat+Poultry - January 2020 - 57

While the platform works well for
Lincoln Premium, the company faced a
unique challenge.
Typical greenfield plant construction
projects have some sort of model to look to for
guidance on design, process, equipment, etc.
Whether it's an existing facility in a different
location or a previous facility, certain aspects
already exist to at least guide those involved
in making decisions, but Costco and Lincoln
Premium had nothing prior to the new plant,
including operations software.

" We've got computers that
weigh it, allocate it, pack it,
ship it, create labels, and all
that's Innova. We use them
as a total solution on our
shop floor platform. "
- WALT SHAFER

" We didn't have a system that was working
somewhere else that just got put in, " Shafer
says. " We had to build everything from start
to finish. "
Shafer believes in the software package, but
as a seasoned veteran of the poultry processing industry, he understands the need of skilled
people to make it work efficiently.
" You have to put all your inputs into it in
order to make it work, you've got to tell it
what you want it to do. You've got to put all
that information into it, " Shafer says. " It takes
weeks and weeks and days and days and
people's time to put every detail into these
operating platforms to make them give you
what you want in the end. "
The decision to partner with Marel, and ultimately use the Innova software, was not made
in haste, and Costco played a role in figuring
out how to proceed.
" Walt [Shafer] went with Costco on
several European tours to find everything
they wanted, " says Jessica Kolterman, director of corporate and external affairs for
Lincoln Premium.
The process to set up the system is long and
arduous, and specialists must assist. Shafer
hired both a quality assurance director and a
plant manager a year in advance. The two positions spent a bulk of the time before the plant

Show how
On Nov. 14, in Copenhagen,
Denmark, Marel held its third Poultry
ShowHow. The event focused on the
theme, " Data-driven Xceleration. "
" The data control opportunities we showed for primary and secondary processing were right on target, " said Roger Claessens, executive
vice president of Marel Poultry. " All our customers here feel connected
to the theme Data-driven Xceleration, even processors not working at
the highest capacities. For them, this is a speck on the horizon. "
The events during the show focused on different people in the plant
working with their own part of software platforms; a technical
manager needs different dashboards than a quality manager or a
production planner. Two showrooms clearly outlined these software
" personas. "
The keynote addressed the differences between having insight into the
processes of a plant and knowing how to improve those processes.
Lectures featured subjects such as added value with convenience
food, fillet value optimization and optimizing production planning,
all with the shared component of software-controlled, data-driven
processes. Rabobank's Nan-Dirk Mulder concluded the event with an
overview of the global poultry market and key trends in the industry.
The demonstration hall featured a fillet handling line ready to process
real breast caps. The data-driven, connected configuration highlighted Marel's technological qualities and digital capabilities.

started actual production with Marel technicians explaining what they wanted from the
software, such as birds per man hour, yields,
efficiencies, etc., as well as populating the new
operating system with specifications, quality
standards and all the requisite inputs needed.
" All that had to be put into their package
with our standards and our parts that we want.
I underestimated the time the necessary people
would need to be here, " Shafer says. " They're
still here and we're still populating. "
" It's learning how it all works and what we
can do with it, " Kolterman adds.

ALL SYSTEMS GO
Along with tracking birds from arrival to
packaging, weighing at key points throughout
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