The next time you pass a sausage vendor, you're going to remember this!

Nitta Casings is a pioneer in the development of edible collagen casings a thin membrane sheath for food products, primarily fresh, dry and smoked sausages.

Nitta, formerly known as Devro North America, has long been considered the 'grandfather' of the collagen casing industry; it was the first company in the world to produce an edible collagen casing. The company began as a research and development arm of Johnson & Johnson and remains at the forefront of the industry today.

In 1999, Nitta Casings began looking at ways to automate tracking of their production floor. As a producer of perishable products, the monitoring and control of activity on the floor was vital. Each manufacturing product needed to have a serial number, in order to track exact contents of each customer shipment. In the event of a recall situation, Nitta Casings needed to be able to identify where each product went and what comprised each shipment.

The existing manual process of tracking products was labor-intensive and prone to human error.

Nitta needed to implement a more efficient system that reduced error and accelerated the tracking process.

The system that they implemented involved the use wireless scanning devices, bar code software, and Nutech's Screen Mapper application. The Screen Mapper application was key to the implementation, as it entered the scanned data directly into the company's enterprise system - JD Edwards.

That real-time data entry provides Nitta with precise details about each production run and individual products in that run.

As the casings come off the production run, machines package them into individual boxes. The packaging machine automatically applies a bar code label onto each box. It is monitored by a computer system, which verifies the information and provides a serial number for each box - a number which uniquely identifies that product, production run, and the date.

Using the Screen Mapper software, the JD Edwards system records transactions, as they occur in production - from production and stock movement to picking and shipping.

Each box is then scanned as it is placed on a cart. Each cart has its own individual number, as well. The carts go around the production floor picking up completed boxes of casings to transfer them to a packaging area. In the packing area, the boxes are put into cartons - approximately 20 boxes per carton - and a bar code is applied to each carton.

The cartons are placed on pallets, which also have a serial number, to be sent to the shipping area.

This process is referred to as Multilevel Master Labeling. It provides strict control over production. The serialization labeling ensures that products are used and shipped in the order they are produced - in order they are produced - in order to maximize their shelf life and deliver the freshest possible collagen casing products. Nitta is able to discover, from the serial number on the pallet, the precise detail on each carton and each component product of the carton.

Product traceability is perhaps the greatest advantage of the new bar code data collection system. In the event of a product recall, the detailed data, which the Screen Mapper transferred directly into the JD Edwards system, provides the ability to trace the exact shipment in which a product or batch was included.

The result is consistent product quality and reduced errors in shipping and product movement. That means increased customer satisfaction. Nitta Casings has solidified its industry-leadership position through the use of modern, efficient product tracking and increased ability to trace products through the production and shipping cycle.

Thanks to Nitta's unique product and advanced production system, your sausages arrive looking fresh and intact.

For more information about this and other Nutech products,
please contact the sales department at 800-830-8058.