Digital transformation with Innova

What is digital transformation?

Digital Transformation (DT) does not simply mean using more and better technology. Technology and digitally facilitated processes are only a means to rebuild operations and gain the agility to supply customers with valuable and creative innovation. Some companies embraced digital tools to deliver on changing customer demands and succeeded in disrupting entire industries. Examples of such disruptive innovators are Uber, Airbnb and Amazon Fresh. Traditional business leaders should realize that a “digital transformation revolution” is needed to keep up with the digital competition.

These are the challenges

There are a number of Digital Transformation challenges to which the food industry must react sooner rather than later:

• Consumers, retailers and the authorities will have more requirements on transparency and traceability
• Public opinion will ask for a business operation, which respects sustainability and animal welfare
• Consumers are more informed and influential than ever. They want to make themselves heard
• Food companies need to introduce new products. The risks, however, can be very high
• Increasingly complex processes call for new and smarter solutions with real-time and reliable process data

What's the solution?

For poultry processors, the time has come to embrace digital transformation and become an innovator. In cooperation with Marel Poultry, they can get a grip on fast changing demands from the market. By implementing the necessary digital renovation, a technological backlog, reputational damage and loss of money can be prevented. Moving to modern technologies and software, such as Innova, transforms the supply chain into a transparent, efficient system that generates profit for processors and value for their customers. A well-integrated digital transformation of processes allows them to improve operational efficiency, increase revenue and maintain customer satisfaction.

Well-prepared

Innova sales director René Kjaer provides useful advice for poultry processors, “Be well-prepared before embarking on DT and don’t underestimate it. Define your end goals clearly and be realistic on the steps needed to get there. Succeeding in this transformation takes clear objectives and well thought-out planning. Last but not least you’ll need a realistic view on how to start changes, at the same time excluding risks and facing the possible consequences.”

Fragmented automation 

First of all, the poultry industry in general needs to modernize its IT landscape. It is a well-known phenomenon that information from plant floor terminals is written down or printed and entered by hand into another system elsewhere in the process. This fragmented automation is not only inefficient but can also lead to data entry errors. The process of going paperless can be done so much better with the help of Innova. A very first and natural step in the DT process is essentially to automate data collection from the plant floor. After that, gathering data on individual products can be extended to a fully integrated tracing system, supervised in the control room. In this way, the entire process from poultry intake to order pick and warehouse handling can become completely paperless and traceable at the same time. Such an advanced traceability process is becoming a legal requirement in many markets. It is inevitable that poultry plants will have to step up to DT.

Trust

There’s another advantage to digitizing end-to-end traceability and quality documentation. It prevents suspect products from making it to the sales channels. Poor quality, contaminated, mislabeled, or counterfeit goods that reach the consumer can impact a business significantly, destroying trust in the brand. Traceability enables adherence to quality, complies with safety standards and ultimately preserves brand loyalty, while increasing reliability and improving satisfaction among consumers.

Experienced

As a long term partner to the industry, Marel Poultry is already well advanced in innovating,  implementing and servicing some of the most advanced processing and software technologies available in the market. “That’s why we are one of the most trustworthy and experienced partners in the Digital Transformation. Innova Food Processing solutions have already helped many leading poultry processors to take some of the first steps in the Digital Transformation process,” concludes René Kjaer.