Interview with: John Signal, General Manager -Venison Packers
What was the situation?
Venison Packers is a toll processor located in Fielding, New Zealand. Venison Packers resides at the same site as Lamb Packers and as General Manager, John Signal is responsible for all activities at both sites.
The New Zealand meat industry operates in a highly regulated environment and compliance is a key function of any site.
InformationLeader was developed by Theta Technologies to provide an electronic solution to the capturing, relaying, and reporting of data captured within a processing line.
Why is this a significant change?
“We could see that with InformationLeader through the input of all information into a database we could get a live record of all compliance requirements and thereby achieve a transparent audit trail of who did what”, said John.
“Our paper based system therefore could be adapted to go completely electronic. And with the alert system – for both major and minor alerts when over pre-set limits – it means that we can see potential problems and be on top of minor issues so they don’t get forgotten”.
The capturing of live data into the one electronic repository has also provided management with the ability to source reporting information for trend analysis with ease.
“From a management perspective it provides us with a tool that can provide information in a timely fashion – usually instantaneously. That type of time efficiency is of great benefit to have”, John said.
What does the future now look like?
The utilisation of the data recorded in the InformationLeader database allows John to take a wholistic and strategic view of the operation. Timely information regarding not only quality assurance aspects of the business, but also productivity allows the use of actuals for budgeting, providing in turn a solid platform for the continual improvement in business performance and future growth.