09 Sep 2024

“We wanted a Ferrari, not a Volkswagen”

Mielewczyk upgrades 90% of its systems, including Nuova-i and ATLAS

Siblings Malwina Dyszer, Lukasz Mielewczyk, Maria Czapp, Patryk Mielewczyk and Joanna Grzymkowska are owners of the Mielewczyk company from Dzierżążno in Poland. They recently installed a new evisceration line complete with Nuova-i. The upgrade of the primary process is part of a bigger project including an ATLAS system, which has been implemented in different phases. All this only goes to show that Mielewczyk strives for the highest quality in production as well as in end products.

Mielewczyk’s previous evisceration line dated from the 1970s, was secondhand and bought in 2007. Obviously it didn’t perform to the standard Mielewczyk wanted. The eviscerator didn’t do a proper job and needed a lot of manual re-work afterwards.

From left to right: Tomasz Chojnowski (Marel), Malwina Dyszer, Lukasz Mielewczyk, Patryk Mielewczyk, Maria Czapp, and Joanna Grzymkowska. Seated: father and founder Andrzej Mielewczyk.

Labor-saving

When looking for a new evisceration solution, reducing the number of people working in the department was a decisive factor for Mielewczyk; 19 people had been working in the giblets section alone. Manual operations have now been replaced with a fully automated line. The Marel solutions offer the latest labor-saving technologies, such as Nuova-i with SmartBase, new E-Comp shackles, new Nuova VP pack shackles and the complete automation of giblet harvesting. Although Mielewczyk currently processes 7,500 bph, all modules are ready for a capacity of 15,000 bph.

Nuova-i does a fantastic job with perfect product quality as a result.

Lukasz Mielewczyk
co-owner Mielewczyk

“We wanted a Ferrari”

Malwina Dyszer states, “Before deciding about the purchase, we visited several factories and were impressed by Marel’s achievements. We opted for a Ferrari instead of a Volkswagen.
Our expectations for the evisceration line have been met. We got what we wanted, so we chose well. Product quality is higher, yield is higher, the ergonomics are better and the way of working is more efficient and faster."

Flock variations

Mielewczyk experiences high in-flock weight variances of over 200 grams, although the company processes regular broilers only. Discussing this issue with the farmers, they would like to receive more standardized flocks.
“These big variances within a flock have certainly an influence on our performance. But Nuova-i is the most suitable machine on the market to deal with this.” says Malwina Dyszer. “Usually, we adjust Nuova-i for every new flock. But we have to deal with these big variances and keep fine-tuning to find the optimum setting.”

A huge leap forward

Lukasz Mielewczyk adds, “We can’t reach 99% performance of Nuova-i at the moment because of the in- flock weight variation. 70% of our production is ‘hard halal’ with no stunning. This impacts on the line’s effectiveness.” The 98% performance we have now is a huge leap forward, compared to our previous system which was in part manual. Looking at drawing of the viscera pack, Nuova-i does a fantastic job with perfect product quality as a result. Individual giblets are not damaged; they look really great. The machine has done well for us. Giblet yield and giblet quality have also improved quite a lot. The advantages are many.“

Optimization

Even before having Nuova-i, Mielewczyk were doing performance tests using their own methodology. Now with SmartBase this has become much easier. “Right now, besides checking on machine health, we are looking specifically at in-flock variances and how we can best handle them.“

Product quality is higher, yield is higher, the ergonomics are better and the way of working is more efficient and faster

Malwina Dyszer
co-owner of Mielewczyk

Giblet harvesting

Malwina Dyszer adds that immediate separation of the viscera pack from the carcass not only improves quality but also the microbiological situation compared to manual giblet harvesting.
All giblets are harvested, because they are valuable products for Mielewczyk. Two-thirds of the giblet production is sold in bulk to trading companies with 33% of production going to pet food.

90% replaced

20% of Mielewczyk’s chicken production goes to retail. The biggest share goes to their second further processing plant at a different location, where convenience food is produced.
Besides replacing the evisceration line, the company also replaced the entire kill line, including a Marel killer, scalders, pluckers and rehangers. They also upgraded the selection line with SmartWeigher and Marel PDS software. In total approximately 90% of the equipment in the primary process was replaced. This includes ATLAS.

ATLAS

Mielewczyk chose ATLAS for its live bird handling system, thereby adding significant value to the operation. “There were many reasons for us to change from crates. First of all, animal welfare, as humane handling is something very important in Poland. We also wanted to make work more ergonomic for our operators. And we wanted the ability of transporting more on our trucks,” says Lukasz Mielewczyk. Line speed was recently 7,500 bph, but after ATLAS was installed it has increased to 8,000 bph.

Mielewczyk even put up a new building for the ATLAS system, which will be big enough to expand operations in the future. The next project will be the addition of CAS SmoothFlow controlled atmosphere stunning.

About Mielewczyk

Mielewczyk is a family company founded in 1994 by Andrzej and Alicja Mielewczyk. Today, their children are running the business. Mielewczyk has two plants. The first is a primary processing plant in Dzierżążno in the North of Poland, where they produce most of the products for the second plant in Kawle. This further processing plant, one of the most modern facilities in Poland, includes Marel equipment such as RevoPortioner, SensorX, I-Cuts and graders to produce the highest quality convenience products.

company website: Mielewczyk.pl

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