REA Scancheck 3 with ISIS hands-free stand

First Milk

First Milk is the largest dairy farmer co-operative in the UK. Their members’ farms stretch from Central Scotland to the South of England, and from West Wales to East Anglia.

Their milk division handles 1.7 billion litres of milk per annum and their cheese company is the largest UK-based cheese supplier. They also supply a range of customers with innovative products through their ingredients business.

Background

First Milk's previous barcode verifiers were reaching the end-of- life and repairs were becoming more frequent. Staff had to walk some distance from one of the production areas to the QA station, which was inefficient. There were even instances when barcodes were not being verified due to the distance from the line to the verification QA station.

Proposal

ISIS proposed that First Milk purchase three REA Scancheck 3 verifiers, together with Transwin32 plus Article Look-up and the new ‘hands-free’ stand. The REA Scancheck 3 verifies all retail and outer case barcodes in one portable unit - making it unique in the market. Reports can be uploaded from a Scancheck 3 sitting anywhere on the network.

Benefits

Delivery of the project resulted in the following benefits:

• Reduced risk of EPW’s (Emergency Product Withdrawal) and financial penalties;
• Ensures First Milk produce barcodes that meet the requirements of the ISO standard and of their customers;
• Reduced the risk of non-compliant barcodes getting into the supply chain;
• Better traceability of verification reports in the event of a complaint;
• Article Lookup software ensures correct barcode has been scanned for a particular product;
• Existing verifiers are used as back-up;
• ‘Hands-free’ stand significantly reduces repair costs as users do not have to pick up verifier to scan barcodes.