Ostrich meat processor embraces new technology
South Africa’s Klein Karoo is responsible for roughly 65% of all Ostrich meat on international markets and its fan fillet is gaining ground in the UK, Denmark and Sweden. The business has just finished a project which has seen it install Emydex Factory Floor software across its three abattoirs, boning halls and value-added processing facilitates in South Africa.
In 2015, Klein Karoo asked Dublin-based Emydex to install a new factory floor software system to replace its old system that, in the company’s words had reached the “end of life”. Klein wanted a unique and centralised operating system that simplified business procedure. This system has been put together by developers from Ireland and was installed this month.
Cobus Pretorius, production and logistics coordinator at Klein Karoo, said the roll-out of the software would save the business time thanks to its in-built traceability reporting systems.
‘A big step forward’
“The suite of full traceability reports are easy to navigate and will save us a lot of time,” said Pretorius. “In addition, the fact that all information and reporting can be extracted to Excel also has a lot of benefits for our business.
“From a warehousing perspective, the full scanning throughout the Emydex system is a big step forward for our company, we can already see the huge benefits this gives us in terms of proper stock control. Also, by fully integrating with our new financial system, Emydex has eliminated all the work that we had to manually duplicate before [we had the software].”
Pretorius added the wireless integration between its Graaff Reinet and Swellendam plants, where the business ships carcasses to its processing hub in Oudtshoorn, has saved the business “a lot of time and trouble”.
The CEO of Emydex, David McMahon, added that the project to implement the technology across the meat processor’s systems was a big challenge.
“The Klein Karoo project was definitely one of the most ambitious and potentially challenging projects we have ever had to tackle. The fact that the go-live systems went so smoothly, over the various project phases coming in quick succession over the summer, is down to the hard work and many months of preparation and testing invested by Klein Karoo, iPlan and Emydex.”
