By James Butcher (B-Eng), Managing Director – Claricom Limited, Claricom Limited - Package Coding Management
SubscribeTanimura & Antle has installed a Claricom CLARiNET network to improve the accuracy and efficiency of package coding of its fresh packed value added salads.
According to Margreet van Harn, Marketing Director for The Greenery, "Sales of salads have increased by 90% in value over the last decade” and "Salads now constitute 7% of total retail food sales in the UK”.
No more so than with quality fresh product, accurate package date and traceability coding is essential and the Claricom software removes manual operations, removes human error, eliminates risk and ensures accuracy. A Claricom Package Coding Management System (PCMS) typically pays for itself within 12 months.
Leading processor, packager and distributor of pre-cut, pre-washed bagged salad, Tanimura & Antle (SaladTime) has recently invested over $12 million dollars in new and refurbished facilities employing state-of-the-art technology, which includes a Package Coding Management System from Claricom.
Tanimura & Antle serves a variety of Groceries throughout the USA and Canada under the Tanimura & Antle brand name and several well known private labels including: Sav A Lot, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Publix’s, Sysco, and Loblaw’s and therefore quality is paramount.
With the purchase of new on-line date coding equipment from Tanimura & Antle purchased a Claricom CLARINET network to link all of the date coders and on-line Accu-Sort barcode reading equipment to a single central and controlled database.
The Claricom PCMS suite comprises software modules to automate each aspect of package coding management:
- Origination of coding information
- Design of look and feel for the codes on the packaging
- Planning coding information on production batch basis
- Feedback of essential production information; and
- Automatic communication of coding information to all leading brands of coding and labelling equipment.
Claricom is a specialist provider of PCMS - independent software solution that provide manufacturers with the opportunity to use the most appropriate ‘best in class’ coding equipment for each application within their plant, within a single cohesive network and Package Coding Management System.
Tanimura & Antle produces a wide variety of products for the food service and retail markets and therefore all of the product specific information is maintained with a Product Database. Claricom CLARiSOFT Package Coding Design software is used to create the ‘templates’ that define the ‘look and feel’ of the image such as date formats, text size, font and position information.
As part of this process CLARiSOFT is also used to define which data is used within each part of the printed message, which enables all of the coding rules, including product life, to be maintained within a single central database, which need only be updated when product specifications are changed, or new products launched.
“The use of the central CLARiSOFT database and Claricom's network software enables Tanimura & Antle to change product specific date code information without the need for users to type in information on a day-to-day basis, ensuring fast and error free date code changeovers” explains Glenn Adler of Tanimura & Antle. “The benefits of accurate coding are apparent to product quality, to the Tanimura & Antle retail and foodservice brands, and to the consumers”.