Poultry processors in the Americas face many labor challenges. They’ve come to the IPPE exhibition with a specific aim in mind: to find out which solutions will support them in tackling the labor issue. It’s great to see visitors to our stand being reassured, after having learned that Marel has plenty of opportunities to automate processes.
Automation at every step
Deboning, grading, batching or packing activities that were executed by humans until now, can be replaced by Marel’s intelligent systems and services. Plenty of examples are on display at the IPPE booth: AMF-i and FHF-XB for automated breast filleting, Thigh Fillet System for automated thigh deboning, RoboBatcher for robotized packing and styling of trays, CompactGrader for automated product sorting and WPL9000+ for automated weighing and labeling. After their visit to our booth, IPPE visitors could confirm that Marel offers automated solutions for virtually every step in the poultry processing plant.
Software instead of labor
In addition to this, poultry processors are also looking to resolve an essential part of the labor issue with an appropriate software platform. They will find what they need at our Marel booth.
Apart from controlling and monitoring automatically individual machines and complete system lines, Marel’s Innova Food Processing Software can make Quality Control independent from human input, together with in-line weighing and grading devices.
Traceability, a word that’s on everybody’s minds these days, is also a process that Innova can automate. offers processors multiple opportunities to gather data and contribute to end-to-end traceability. Sensors at crucial positions throughout the plant all deliver their information to the control room where Innova can identify and backtrack the product properties of every shackle in the plant.
In short, Innova can help the processor achieve automation throughout the entire poultry plant.
Touchless process
Last but not least, visitors were attracted by the SmartStack transport module on the Marel booth, part of the renowned ATLAS live bird handling system. Once again, it’s a touchless process, after catching, to transport the birds smoothly from farm to shackle. The combination of ATLAS and CAS SmoothFlow anesthetization has been highly acclaimed in North America over the last year, with a bright future ahead. Large conglomerates in the poultry industry have begun integrating this Marel solution into their operations with many more to come.
