The integrated turnkey solution controls the entire value-added chain in the factory. Two control stations permanently monitor about 800 individual processes online, allowing fast corrective action when required. 

Receiving pork and beef

Edeka Südwest Fleisch’s automated processes start from initial receipt of pork halves and beef quarters. Following in-process control and entry in the CSB-System, beef quarters are forwarded to track storage. Pork halves are graded using a CSB-Image-Meater, a special hardware and software solution that enables fully automatic, no-contact and totally hygienic assessment. 

Retail goods 

Purchased trading goods are received in a dedicated area that is also controlled by the CSB software. Incoming raw materials, auxiliary supplies and operating materials are weighed, submitted to quality checks, and posted directly to the ERP system using MDC (mobile data capture) devices. With pallet labels attached, goods are transported either to the high bay storage, or individual crates are entered at four CSB-Rack dedicated workstations and forwarded to a crates storage. 

Cutting

Six pork cutting lines and two beef cutting lines produce the meat cuts. Demand is determined in a fully integrated software planning process. Based on identified sales data, the CSB-System calculates expected sales of items for the respective day. 

Manual work in cutting is mainly limited to carving. All other processes are automated. The CSB-System ensures that for each cutting order, the track stores automatically provide exactly the required quantities of pork halves and beef quarters with the requested quality. 

Once the primals have been cut, parts are packed into crates and labelled with all traceability data. This information will be retained until the meat reaches the consumer. 

Software can identify which goods are in which crate, and this ensures optimised information and material flows for efficient value-added processes throughout the entire inventory management. 

Crates are scanned with MDC devices. The system uses this information to generate pallet labels indicating all relevant information for the respective pallet and its contents. 

Meat for self-service

The production of meat for self-service receives various items directly from cutting or interim storage. On 14 packaging lines, software controls the fully automatic weighing, packaging and labelling of the finished self-service meat products. Focus was placed on easy handling and simple operation for employees.  

Sausage products 

CSB Recipe Optimisation is used to create recipes for high-quality sausage products. It is said to ensure efficient material use together with optimal quality and costs to deliver reliable gross margins. As part of the batch processing, the software stipulates the exact recipe for every product and includes technical instructions for the machines. For the finished meat emulsion, the system generates a label with all batch information required for further processing and consistent traceability of the sausage products. This data is included in the packaging with integrated price labelling by means of MDC devices that communicate directly with the software. 

Storage and picking

High bay storage provides space for 3500 pallets and is automatically managed via inventory management. The software controls all processes for stock entry and removal, shelf loading devices and conveyors. 

Based on customer orders, the system passes items to dynamic and static picking, which has been designed for a throughput of about 130,000 order line items with a total of 100,000 crates and boxes per day.

Loading, dispatch, control

Picked goods are forwarded via conveyor to nine trolley loading stations and then to dispatch. The CSB-System provides all data required to correctly load the trolleys. When loading is completed and the trolleys are ready for dispatch, way bills including all order data are attached. Trolleys are assigned to the respective delivery routes and loaded onto the trucks. Using GPS, they are then sent on optimal routes to Edeka stores. 

At two CSB control stations, all strings of this highly automated meat factory are joined: one master control station ensures optimal processing in the logistics system; another monitors and controls production and picking. The result is up-to-date information about the overall situation, performance, and technical status of the production and logistics areas.