The Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd (NCMC)'s meat processing, buffering, sortation and sequencing solution was recognised at the 57th Australian Supply Chain & Logistics Awards in Sydney last month.
NCMC was awarded the 2017 Information Technology and Management Award by the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA), as well as two highly commended awards in the Supply Chain Management and International Supply Chain Management categories.
NCMC’s materials handling solution was developed by Dematic, working with Wiley, in response to increased demand from Asia for Australian red meat.
Australia's meat processors have needed to improve their complex distribution and dispatch processes, which have remained highly labour-intensive and inefficient, according to NCMC.
At NCMC, all materials handling is fully automated and driven by smart location control and routing software, which minimises carton processing and retrieval time.
The system has resulted in the elimination of manual handling of frozen cases, full track and trace capabilities, reduced labour, reduced product damage, and a smaller system footprint, says the company.
