Fishing for succes: improved efficiency and cost calculations with Pozyx
One of the key players in the French seafood and fish processing industry specializes in distributing extremely fresh products to retailers by using state-of-the-art production lines and workstations. Because the quality of seafood depends on the shortest time between the catch and the customer’s plate, the company was looking for solutions to make the processing flow more efficient. It was also looking for a way to create clear time and cost calculations. That’s why it teamed up with an integration partner and Pozyx to deploy a reliable RTLS (real-time locating system) with UWB to track processing times and cost, workstation efficiency, and more.
The challenge of fresh fish
Several tons of fish arrive at the company’s facilities each day, fresh from the sea, and ready to be processed in a variety of specialized workstations. They perform everything from basic bulk processing over special services (modified atmosphere packaging) to dedicated frozen seafood and fish handling: there are many moving parts to working with fresh fish. Salmon, for example, is one of the most popular products and needs several different processing steps. From simply portioning it to filleting the salmon over slicing it, or creating carpaccio or minced salmon. Each step takes time, which adds up in terms of time and cost.
Navigating the processing waters
The modern facilities make it efficient to process fish, but getting insights into time and cost calculations is difficult since there are many operations to complete. To visualize the entire process, the company was looking for a solution that was effective, reliable, and easy to use. Managers often faced challenges with knowing who is processing which batch, how long it takes, and where a load of seafood is located in the entire process. What’s more, without clear data it is impossible to run correct calculations and more importantly to efficiently price its services.
Smooth sailing with ultra-wideband
Pozyx installed a complete UWB RTLS solution with 18 Anchors and 110 Tags to create a clear picture of the facility. The floor plan was neatly divided into different logical zones for each step of the processing process. As people move around to work on different parts of the fish, their Tag shows what’s being worked on, for how long.
“We immediately saw the broad application possibilities of the Pozyx UWB solution. The technology easily replaces barcode scanning, for example. It’s also a better solution than using an employee’s fingerprint to register their physical location at a workstation. All we need today is someone wearing a Pozyx tag, that’s it."
Another important benefit of the Pozyx UWB technology is that it works well in difficult environments. The Pozyx hardware had already been field-tested in colder environments and applications where food standards play an important role. As a result, temperature, humidity, and strict food processing protocols were not an obstacle.
The integration partner connected the data stream from the Pozyx positioning engine with the company’s ERP system to make it easy to start running calculations on both time and cost. In turn, it gives the fish processor insights into how it can organize its facility more efficiently, better allocate people and resources, and make sure price calculations are very accurate. What's more, the Pozyx UWB system also makes time registration automatic. Especially in the challenging environment of fish processing, badging or scanning is now a thing of the past.
Benefits
- Automatic & error-free time registration
- Better product cost calculation
- Improved lead times and accurate data
- Bottle-neck detection
- Workstation efficiency data
- No fish lost in the processing flow sea
