Bringing more attention back to supervising operators

In a busy pack house, when there are so many varying factors to keep control of, crucial elements such as ensuring the right product and correct volume continually gets to the line can occupy all the attention of the pack house manager. This can mean that supervising the operators is not always given the full attention it deserves.

Similarly, in larger pack houses running multiple lines, it is nearly impossible to keep an eye on every operator, let alone log exactly how long they are at their workstation and how many punnets they produce.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the latest technology to be implemented in pack houses worldwide. Readers are inbuilt into every workstation, and tags can be added to the security pass that each operator must wear to access the pack house. At the start of each shift, each operator, whether packing, grading or cleaning, ‘signs in’ at a workstation using their electronic tag, which in itself is an extremely simple procedure. The scale won’t become operational until this action has been completed, making it impossible to forget.

What is packed at that workstation, both in terms of number of punnets and total volume, is then recorded and logged against those operators. After each shift break, to restart the workstation the operators have to log back in. This means that the finished packs in this shift are accredited to the correct people, which is important in situations where operators are paid per punnet or per kilo.

Using RFID, at the end of each shift or each week, pack house managers are able to view all the automatically generated data, meaning they have an immediate overview of staff attendance and where operators are paid via how much they pack, they will also be able to efficiently and easily manage staff payroll.
RFID would virtually eradicate any pack house operator staff housekeeping , removing time consuming paperwork from the pack house managers, and thus freeing them to complete more important tasks such as managing the amount of product to the line and checking on the quality of product. It would also remove any element of human error in attendance records, and trials have proven that where an operator is visibly accountable, their productivity automatically increases.

RFID is the latest technology to be added to Marco’s solutions. Marco are productivity improvement experts, and their yield control technology is implemented in pack houses worldwide, and can virtually eradicate giveaway whilst reducing waste, increasing line speeds and providing full operator visibility. The RFID technology can be retrofitted to any of Marco’s YCM systems.

For more information:
Marco Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 1732 782380
Email: info@marco.co.uk
www.marco.co.uk