METHOD FOR PROCESSING AND BATCHING FOOD ITEMS

Abstract

A method of fulfilling a plurality of weight batch orders in a food item processing line, including: obtaining an estimated weight data of a first supply batch of food items; receiving a plurality of weight batch orders; allocating a subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items by determining which weight batch order best corresponds with the estimated weight data; and scheduling fulfilment of the determined best corresponding weight batch order.

Claims

1.-36. (canceled)

37. A method of fulfilling a plurality of weight batch orders in a food item processing line, the method comprising: obtaining an estimated weight data of a first supply batch of food items; receiving a plurality of weight batch orders; allocating a subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items by determining which weight batch order best corresponds with the estimated weight data; and scheduling fulfilment of the determined best corresponding weight batch order.

38. The method according to claim 38, including tagging one or more measurable parameters to the first supply batch of food items and wherein each weight batch order has an associated fulfilment characteristic.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein allocating a subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items includes determining which weight batch order best corresponds with the estimated weight data and which fulfilment characteristic best corresponds to the one or more measurable parameters.

40. The method according to claim 38, including updating the tagged one or more measurable parameters of the first supply batch of food items based upon a visual inspection.

41. The method according to claim 37, including weighing a number of the individual food items of the first supply batch of food items to obtain measured weight data.

42. The method according to claim 41, including: verifying the allocation of the subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items by determining which weight batch order best corresponds with the measured weight data.

43. The method according to claim 41, including: verifying the allocation of the subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items by determining which weight batch order best corresponds with the measured weight data and which fulfilment characteristic best corresponds to the updated one or more measurable parameters of the first supply batch of food items based upon the visual inspection.

44. The method according to claim 42, including: re-allocating a subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items and/or re-scheduling fulfilment of the determined best corresponding weight batch order to a second supply batch of food items.

45. The method according to claim 37, wherein the food items comprise poultry and scheduling fulfilment of the determined best corresponding weight batch order includes allocating whole poultry birds to at least a first and a second batching area.

46. The method according to claim 45, wherein the first batching area includes a breakup line for breaking up a whole poultry bird into poultry items and the second batching area includes a batching line for processing whole poultry birds.

47. The method according to claim 37, wherein the food item is poultry and the poultry is slaughtered poultry items carried by a conveyor.

48. The method according to claim 37, wherein the food item is poultry and the poultry is slaughtered poultry items carried by carriers attached and conveyed by an overhang rail system.

49. The method according to claim 48, further comprising automatically adjusting the allocation of the poultry from the overhang rails system to two or more batching areas when new order data indicating new different weight targets is received.

50. The method according to claim 46, further comprising bypassing the poultry from the two or more batching areas if resulting smaller poultry pieces do not fulfil a pre-defined weight target data criterion.

51. The method according to claim 48, wherein at least one weighing device is integrated into the overhang rail system and where the weight of individual poultry items is determined while the poultry items are conveyed.

52. The method according to claim 37, wherein the food items are poultry and the measurable parameters are one or more of size of bird, organic, free range, caged, halal, number of blood spots, physical abnormalities, breed of bird, originating farm, number of birds, average weight of birds.

53. The method according to claim 37, wherein the food items are poultry and the fulfilment characteristics are one or more of priority of order, weight limit, pallet size, price, expiry date, organic, free range, caged, halal, number of blood spots, physical abnormalities, breed of bird, originating farm, whole poultry birds, poultry drum stick, poultry wings, poultry breast fillets.

54. The method according to claim 37, wherein at least one of the plurality of weight batch orders includes a whole poultry bird.

55. The method according to claim 37, wherein at least one of the plurality of weight batch orders is for a portion of a poultry bird and the fulfilment characteristic includes a number of individual poultry bird portions making up the weight of the order.

56. The method according to claim 37, including at least one handling device having at least one robotic device, and wherein transferring food items to multiple batching areas comprises picking up the food items and placing them at the multiple of batching areas.

57. The method according to claim 56, wherein the at least one handling device comprises multiple of sweep arms placed along the conveyor device, and where transferring the food items to a multiple of batching areas is performed via opening and closing the multiple of sweep arms.

58. The method according to claim 56, wherein a control unit controls the at least one handling device.

59. The method according to claim 37, further comprising at least one tray feeding device for feeding empty trays acting as batching areas, wherein the trays are advanced by an advancing device continuously or in discrete steps relative a conveyor device while the generation of the batches takes place.

60. The method according to claim 37, including updating the estimated weight data of subsequent supply batches of poultry based upon historical measured weights.

61. The method according to claim 40, including updating the tagging of one or more measurable parameters based on historical visually inspected measurable parameters.

62. The method according to claim 60, wherein the updating is performed by an artificial intelligence module employing a machine learning algorithm.

63. The method according to claim 37, wherein the weight data is an average, medium or mode weight of first supply batch of food items.

64. The method according to claim 37, wherein in the case of the estimated weight data, a total weight or a number of food items is estimated, or both is estimated.

65. The method according to claim 37, wherein the weight data is a weight distribution of the first supply batch of food items.

66. The method according to claim 65, wherein the weight distribution is modelled to fit a Gaussian distribution of weight versus frequency.

67. The method according to claim 37, wherein the weight data is a list of weight of food items stored in a look up table for a given number of food items.

68. The method according to claim 37, including a fulfilment indicator and a reference value attributed to the weight data, wherein best corresponds occurs when the reference value meets or is within a threshold from the fulfilment indicator.

69. The method according to claim 68, wherein the threshold differs for individual fulfilment characteristics and measurement parameters.

70. The method according to claim 37, wherein the weight batch order is a fixed weight batch order.

71. The method according to claim 37, wherein the subset of the plurality of weight batch orders comprises two or more weight batch orders.

72. The method according to claim 71, wherein the allocation of the subset of the plurality of weight batch orders to the first supply batch of food items comprises determining which weight batch orders best correspond with the estimated weight data, the method further comprising scheduling fulfilment of the determined best corresponding weight batch orders.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

[0036] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of individual prepared poultry on an overhead rail according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0037] FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the overall planning and execution of the method of processing and batching food items according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0038] FIG. 3 is a flow chart of method start-up parameters according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0039] FIG. 4 is a flow chart of main execution of the method of embodiments of the invention;

[0040] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of input of weight data being fulfilled into allocated orders according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0041] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of weight distribution for poultry according to some fulfilment criteria based on weight according to an embodiment of the invention; and

[0042] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a top view of part of an embodiment of a poultry processing system according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS EMBODIMENTS

[0043] Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of individual prepared poultry 102, 104, 106 hung by shackles 108 on an overhead rail 100 according to an embodiment of the invention are ready for processing. An objective of the method and apparatus for processing and batching food items according to the present invention is to determine the best processing of the poultry to meet orders, in particular to minimise giveaway of food product when producing batch sizes. For example, poultry 102 may have an ideal weight and appearance to match a whole bird medium order, whereas poultry 104 may have an ideal drum weight to match an order for packs of chicken drums; poultry 106 an ideal weight match for wings plus a weight matching an order for chicken breast.

[0044] It is well known that each portion of a prepared bird, such as breast, thigh and wing comprise a percentage of the overall weight of the bird. Such that when a weight of a bird is estimated or measured then the weight of the portion can be easily determined. Further, there is typically little variance in these percentages from bird to bird. For example, two drumsticks may account for 13% to 15% of a bird weight; a breast cap may account for up to 34% to 36% of the overall bird weight. Similar known percentages exist for live feathered birds, since the prepared bird is itself a percentage of the live weight.

[0045] Referring to FIG. 2, a flow chart of the overall planning and execution 200 of the method of processing and batching food items according to an embodiment of the invention comprises various components to enable the efficient implementation of the present invention. Farms 202 provide data according to the flock 204 which is aggregated to a data stream of sales 206 having inputs of a demand for production orders 208 and a progress of production data 210. A processing factory has a data input of its hardware specification 212 attributable to the type of factory, capacity and capability. The data inputs from the farms 202, flock 204 and sales 206 are input to a data digest 214 for suitable consumption of the data, which can involve various optimised algorithms 216 for output as a production plan 218. A feedback to hardware settings 220 can be implemented due to learning arising from the algorithms 216, which can make adjustments to the factory hardware specification 212. Process monitoring 222 is carried out of the production plan 218 for further refinement and may generated a warning 224 and the process monitoring 222 may implement a trigger 226 to initiate the process, in turn controlled by scheduling module 228. Further input into the trigger 226 is carried out by a user interface normally under the control of a human operative 232. The human operative 232 can authorise the feedback 234 to hardware settings 220 implemented due to learning arising from the algorithms 216, which can make adjustments to the factory hardware specification 212. Production data 236 has an input to processing monitoring 222 and to the flock data 204.

[0046] Referring to FIG. 3, a flow chart of method start-up parameters 300 according to an embodiment of the invention comprises a main execution step 302 which loads data obtained from the various data sources described in more detail in connection with FIG. 2. Various parameters are determined for weight limit optimisation 306 to be fulfilled including solving weight limit optimisation 308, setting optimal weight limit for scheduling 310, setting optimal supply rate for scheduling 312, setting optimal giveaway limit for scheduling 314 and flagging any fulfilment miss 316. Parameters for solving weight limit optimization 308 are listed in module 318 and parameters for solving scheduling optimization 320 are listed in module 322. A post process procedure 324 may be used to adjust the start 326 and main execution step 302.

[0047] Referring to FIG. 4, a flow chart of main execution 400 of the method of embodiments of the invention comprises after start 402 and main execution 404 a number of so-called weight buckets 406 are defined for the incoming flock and batch orders. Once the program is started 408 the data can be read 410 in order to generate flock using flock data and calculate yield using product data. Once determined, the program is set 412, the data converted 414 and fixed weight tray options calculated 416 until the program ends 418.

[0048] Referring to FIG. 5, a schematic diagram of input of weight data 500 being fulfilled into allocated orders according to an embodiment of the invention comprises determination of a mass balance 502 of the food products for example poultry. Raw material is input and will have a weight distribution rather like a Gaussian distribution of weight 504 centred around a mean value. In order to generate order fulfilment 506 according to present techniques, a poultry bird is cut up according to a fulfilment distribution 508 by, for example, a fixed weight fillet 510, weighted fillets 512, drumsticks 514 and including but not limited to wings 516. Where there is a better fit to the weight distribution and where an order specifies a whole bird 518 then a whole bird 518 may fit a whole bird distribution 520 for shelf sale 522 or rotisserie i.e. cooked sale 524. In this way, food items may be selected or ranked for fulfilment of an order in differing orders of priority.

[0049] Ranking orders for fulfilment may be a dynamic feature rather than a static feature. In present techniques, the relative ranking of orders for fulfilment may change depending on the metrics specified as important by the application or user. Such a technique is beneficial to the flexibility of the service since different applications or users can have different technical requirements for their service selected from fulfilment characteristics, measurement parameters or a mixture of both. These include size of bird, organic, free range, caged, halal, number of blood spots, physical abnormalities, breed of bird, originating farm, number of birds, average weight of birds, as age of data, update frequency, volume and so in this way ranking is context specific.

[0050] Additional flexibility can be introduced into the service as raw factors and ranking data is supplied to the application or user to allow them to apply their own processing and algorithms to make their own determinations about the value and quality of the device data that is received.

[0051] In any data ranking system, a subset of data sources may become more trusted than other sources. Such more trusted sources of data may result in a tiered, hierarchical ordering of data which in turn may lead to the provision of a data division per category of data. Such an ordering of data can enable a user to immediately access most relevant data for its purpose. Other embodiments for data self-enrichment include data criticality such as a measure of how important some fulfilment characteristics or measurable parameters are to a consumer. For example, organic meat may be allocated a 1 or 0, in that all meat is rejected that is not certified organic. It may be different for other factors such as age of bird, which may be allowed more tolerance and a spread of acceptable ages. Such improvement may provide a self-review or other automated review and ranking framework for the data.

[0052] Referring to FIG. 6, a schematic diagram of weight distribution 600 for poultry according to some fulfilment criteria based on weight according to an embodiment of the invention comprises an average weight of 3 kg with whole birds 602 being selected over a range of weight distribution, breast meat 604 and drum sticks 606 also selected from the distribution.

[0053] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a top view of part of an embodiment of a poultry processing system 700 according to an embodiment of the invention. Illustrated is a food separation device 702, a batching system 704 and a conveyor means 706 which transports incoming food items 708 to the food separation device 702 and the batching system 704.

[0054] The food item separation device 702 may comprise a cutting device 710 arranged to cut incoming food items 708 into cut food items 712 according to instructions received from a control system 714. The cutting device 710 may be embodied by a cutting means e.g. a knife, connected to a robot arm, or other controllable device, capable of cutting means to particular food items 708 to be cut.

[0055] The batching system 704 may comprise at least one controllable handling means 716, e.g. embodied by one or more robot arms, capable of transferring particular food items 712 from the conveyor means 706 to batches 718, 720. The batches 718, 720 may be of the same type or of different types e.g. different types for accommodating different numbers of food items 712 and or different weights of food items in the batches. It is understood that different types of batches 718, 720 may in fact be structurally identical, but intended for accommodating different numbers of food items 708. For example, batches 720 may be used for 400 g batch jobs, where each batch should contain two items with a total weight of at least 400 g. Batches 718 may similarly be used for 400 g batch jobs, where each batch should contain three items with a total weight of at least 400 g. The batches 718 and 720 may be transported on a batch conveyor 722.

[0056] In operation, a whole poultry bird may undergo a breakup process into different batching lines such that the whole poultry bird can undergo more than one breakup process onto different processing lines. For example, poultry fillets can be placed on one batching line, and the poultry pieces such as wings and/or legs go to another batching line. It may be considered by a user that the weight distribution of the batching line for the wings is not as important as the weight distribution for the fillets.

[0057] Any weight distribution can be selected as appropriate for any particular food item. For example, a target weight distribution will depend on the orders received (weight target and e.g. number of pieces in the trays), where in case of a more difficult batch, such as only 3 fillets in a tray with a target weight, that the requirement might be that the distribution is narrower than if a batch was made to fulfil an order of for example 6 fillets in a tray, where a broader weight range may be acceptable i.e. more tolerance is provided in the weight rang. In practical terms, embodiments include adapting the weight distribution to the batches currently taking place, and when an order from customer A is completed, and a new order is received with easier batches (e.g. larger weight and larger number of pieces), that the distribution requirements can then be automatically adjusted and new weight range defined.