New Approach to Whole Salmon Packing – Fishupdate.com

New Approach to Whole Salmon Packing Published:  14 February, 2012

Valka’s innovative, high-tech whole salmon grading and packing system doubles production at the Finnmark facility of Mainstream Norway.

Mainstream AS, one of the largest salmon farming companies in Norway, installed Valka’s new hygienic whole fish grading and packing system in September of 2011.

“We needed to automate both grading and packing because of increased volume for the future and decided to work with Valka and First Process on the project,” says Knut Larsen, Processing Manager at Mainstream Norway AS. “The main benefits are that we have been able to double our production as we hoped and we do not need more people to do that. The system is also hygienic and very easy to clean, which is an added bonus.”

The entire construction of the Valka whole fish grading and packing system is based on the latest in hygienic engineering. This hygienic, effective system gently and accurately grades salmon into variable or fixed weight boxes using advanced new algorithms. The new grader has more automation than seen before and its capacity is 150 tons daily with only 8-10 employees. “The new system is a big change for us,” says Larsen. “The system selects the correct pieces for each box and then automatically ices the content, closes the box and puts into pallets. It has made the entire production more efficient and easier to manage.”The RapidFish production software comes with the system. It oversees the grading and packing process as well as monitoring the efficiency of the gutting machines, enabling the production manager to have total control of the process.

In addition, Mainstream installed the RapidFish order handling module to automate the order process. Sondre Bo Bratlien, Europe Logistics Manager for Mainstream Norway uses it daily to handle orders and create accurate daily prognosis for the sales side of things. “The system is very efficient and it makes the issuing of documents needed for our customers easy,” says Bratlien. “Everything from taking out packing lists and orders to entering data into our ERP system works well for us.”

Mainstream’s customers have full access to their data on the system at all times with their own username and password, and receive automated E-mail and SMS text notifications on order status.

“They know immediately when their order is ready. This is something that the customers are very pleased with,” says Bratlien. “They have been very happy with our level of service through the new system. The software allows us not only to stay on top of our production and order handling, but also to provide excellent service to our customers.”