Connecting Ovotrack to your grading machine - 2 - for better traceability

For most customers, connecting Ovotrack to their grading machine is an important step. There are different ways of doing this, depending on the type of grading machine or the specific requirements of your local market. In this newsletter, and in forthcoming editions, we will be zooming in on the different aspects of grader communication in more detail. The benefits of collecting accurate grading results have been discussed in the previous newsletter; in this edition, we will focus on the enhanced traceability with grader communication.

Many of our customers want Ovotrack to connect to their grading machines, as this brings traceability to a higher level. At the very moment an egg is packed in an egg pack, the egg is assigned a destination. Grading machines with individual egg handling can accurately export this information on the egg. For each packing lane, traceability information about the supplier of the eggs and the product they are packed into is sent to Ovotrack. Every change of supplier or product creates a new data record for Ovotrack. This information is stored in Ovotrack with the lane number and the exact date and time. This is the basis for traceability.

Customers are increasingly using the option to send their production order (also known as a run sheet) to the grading machine and activating that on a lane. This is more accurate than grading per product, as it makes batches smaller, in turn reducing the impact of a recall. This also creates the possibility of seeing progress of the production order on the grading machine without manual data entry.

The main benefit of this Ovotrack feature is the fact that traceability is more accurate than in situations without grader communication. Another benefit is that you have more efficiency because you don’t need to leave a gap between different suppliers and switch batches manually; instead, this can be done automatically. If you want to have the same level of traceability without grader communication, you need to empty the grading machine at each batch change. Last but not least: if you want to print the supplier name or batch on the pack or on the outer case, grader communication can help you to automatically switch the printing.

In the near future, the traceability information of an individual egg pack will also be communicated to Ovotrack by some grading machines, which opens new possibilities for printing unique QR codes with traceability information on egg packs or outer cases.

Interested? Ask for more information!