Software

Our product families—a connected series of food processing applications—apply the most advanced thought leadership and emerging technologies to the tasks of improving performance, ensuring safety, and managing complexity.  

Marel is developing new features and functionality in four product families, including: 

Planning and optimization

Promote best practices in operational decision making, such as assigning raw material or scheduling production, based on the circumstances of supply and demand.

Food safety management

Enable quality and safety control measures on the factory line, the rigorous adherence to local regulatory and retail requirements, and the continuous collection of traceability details across the value chain to minimize recall.  

Performance management

Benchmark and analyze data related to factory processes and employ proactive measures to increase productivity and reduce downtime.  

Production and logistics control

Connect multiple machines together to work as a single entity with centralized data collection and analysis. Manage the supply chain encompassing incoming raw materials, production, and dispatch of finished goods.  

In the near future, we will be offering software on a subscription basis using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) licensing and delivery model. Customers will implement our software remotely via a secure digital platform with instant access to upgrades. They will be able to take advantage of the most up-to-date features in a seamless, integrated experience.

For food processors, planning and optimization involve making the most effective and profitable use of raw material, energy, and labor to accurately fulfill orders in a demand-driven market. The production planning tool on our roadmap employs a 360° assessment of value-chain information to enable a real-time overview of supply and demand.  

Customers are eager to adopt this offering as it has the potential to transform the industry, as processors will gain control and agility in orchestrating factory operations to meet production needs. 

Safety regulations, known as food safety and quality assurance (FSQA) mandates, are the guiding principles of all food processing methodologies. Marel offers Innova solutions that integrate quality assurance into factory floor processes.  

We use a localized compliance framework that takes into account the regulatory and retail requirements particular to customers and their supply chains. These tools help customers safeguard their licenses to operate, reduce waste, and drive sustainability. 

Traceability is the backbone of FSQA and can make the difference between the withdrawal (not putting the product on the market) and a recall. To fulfill the promise of digital data for the purposes of FSQA, Marel offers a number of software solutions. All Marel components integrate complementarily within the ecosystem, and talk to each other across all factory floor processes.  

Marel provides customers with a range of Innova solutions for monitoring operations, i.e. factory equipment, and managing key performance indicators (KPIs) including yield, throughput, uptime, and giveaway. Once production benchmarks are established, it becomes possible to set criteria for meeting targets, to measure progress, and to address deviations. 

These offerings can be used to control individual machines, providing actionable insights for improving that device; in the same manner, they can combine and analyze data for a whole line of machines. Across the factory, and even across multiple facilities, data can be assessed and coordinated in the service of informing production planning and driving business strategy.  

Innova software, including mission-critical functionality, runs on server hardware. The architecture supports modular upgrades and conventional lifecycle management. Upcoming are predefined full-line solutions, where customers can access plug-and-play standardized implementations from a central repository. Furthermore, the platform will provide standard data APIs to connect to both proprietary and third-party reporting systems. 

We are introducing SmartBase, a complementary offering to Marel equipment that makes it connectivity-ready and part of the smart factory. A digital engine with Internet of Things (IoT)-edge device capabilities is installed in each Marel machine, and provisions secure connection to an Azure-based cloud infrastructure. 

The digital engine is a cloud-connected application platform that runs on Marel’s machines and hosts all applications that don’t require hard real-time execution. This includes human-machine interface (HMI) applications, device control, administration, and data distribution to other machines and to the cloud. It also acts as an intermediary between the machine’s controller and the outside world.  

The first application that runs on the digital engine is the data collection for SmartBase, which is Marel’s application for monitoring machine health, with add-ons for performance. The digital engine collects the data from the machine on which it is embedded on-site and streams it to the cloud, where the SmartBase application displays the data in dashboards.  

By connecting machines, this information is organized into a standard data model, making it possible to access key metrics and identify ways to improve the production process. Interconnected machines and processes are linked by moving localized data to the cloud, where it’s analyzed and presented in real time as actionable insights.  

Through the dashboards, processors can monitor machine technical health data and basic production information. By adopting this solution, they are empowered to proactively apply upgrades and maintenance measures. Data analysis can identify areas for improvement and pinpoint problems before they occur, thereby avoiding damage and reducing costs.  

Marel processors can use this solution to manage the primary pork process and maintain precise control from reception to cool room inventory. They can establish a foundation for controlling quality during primary processing by capturing data that gives a clear overview of an operation, all while achieving full traceability.  

With Primary Pork, processors can structure the behavior of their operations beyond the confines of tribal knowledge. It becomes possible to orchestrate the movement of products through the factory based on customized business rules. 

Regulatory compliance—the necessity of adhering to local laws and laws native to anywhere in a supply chain—is one of the biggest challenges of food processing. With sophisticated Marel traceability software, processors can accurately capture detailed information, which is essential for establishing the quality, safety, and provenance of finished goods. 

Over the years, food processors have seen a dramatic increase in government and consumer demand for transparency about products and practices. A digital traceability system is vital to efficiently meeting regulation standards, managing recalls, and coordinating inventory. The software can also be leveraged to mitigate disorder in the supply chain.  

The 2021 Software KnowHow user conference for Innova food processing partners in Europe gave customers a chance to gain vital information about our software. Participants acquired vital insights at training sessions, watched product demonstrations, met Marel experts, and shared questions and feedback. The conference was recommended for all Innova users, IT managers, CIOs, business analysts, innovation managers, quality assurance managers, production managers, and digitalization managers.