Lighthouse, a part of the giant Pan Fish Group, has farming and processing interests in Scotland. Sales manager Peter Bullock, from Marel UK, has been involved in long term discussions with them for a total solution for primary processing at their processing facility in Cairndow.
"We have developed a relationship with Marel that we see as a long term partnership in the development of this factory," says Alex Adrian, Lighthouse of Scotland's processing manager. Marel is very excited to be involved in that partnership and has installed the first solution, a wireless weighing and software system.
Scales, Scanners and MPS
Earlier this year Lighthouse took the first step by asking Marel to provide a software and scale system for the box packing of whole, gutted salmon. Lighthouse were impressed by what the Marel MPS production software could offer them, especially with regard to interfacing opportunities with their other factory software systems.
In May, Marel UK installed the scale and scanning system linked to the MPS OptiPack software as a replacement for an existing system from a competitor. Now the box packing of whole, gutted salmon is no longer the bottleneck that it used to be with weighing - registration to the database and labeling rapid.
Wireless network - cables
The unique feature of this installation is that the whole system is installed on a wireless network, including the scales. Lighthouse is planning an upgrade of the processing plant and wanted to take this step now rather than add yet more cable to the many miles that have been installed over the years.
This is the first completely wireless scale, scanning and MPS system that Marel has installed and it has been a resounding success. It is clear that this is going to be a feature of future Marel installations around the world. Customers want to simplify the cable runs in their factories as well as have the benefit of hardware mobility.
Lighthouse of Scotland are very pleased with the system that Marel has provided and acknowledges that this allows them to move forward in the way that they process their salmon.
They can now plan for the future, especially with regard to a continued, higher throughput.
