Markem-Imaje, the global provider of end-to-end supply chain solutions and industrial marking and coding systems, has provided a printing and data management solution for catering expert Elior to reduce food waste and improve production efficiency.
Elior is a business in Italy with a long history of foresight, strategy and innovation, which was born in the Genoa shipyards in 1954, and has today ten thousand collaborators, two thousand restaurants and over 106 million customers every year. Part of their strategy to approach new markets is through the Division called SMB (Small-Medium-Business), offering innovative and modular solutions for small and medium-sized food outlets.
The SMB Division of the company has identified four formats which focus on the line of products in a protective atmosphere without the addition of chemical preservatives, which offers – among the first, main courses and side dishes – over two hundred recipes prepared by Elior nutritionists and chefs. The gastronomic offer varies according to seasonality and ranges from traditional Italian dishes such as lasagna Bolognese, to light and genuine dishes, such as sliced chicken and steamed spinach, all the way to vegan, or vegetarian dishes.
Elior thus offers different distribution modules to accommodate different needs and environments.
Urban 360, for example, involves the installation of a smart fridge, which allows the distribution of ready meals 24/7 without the obligation to book. The intelligent locker opens when you make a payment through an application or by approaching a debit card or ticket card. The display case, equipped with RFID technology, recognizes the user and the identification number of the dish.
The Market, on the other hand, is an open space with a display fridge, where you can choose dishes on the spot, a real “mini market” where the employee can select their lunch menu at their convenience, always supported by the availability of the staff at the cash register.
All this information and data management is today managed automatically in a production hub in Zola Predosa with the help of Markem-Imaje’s CoLOS software
“We needed a partner to help us to connect the product digitally and, in Markem-Imaje, we identified the skills and products necessary to move in this direction. What convinced us was the possibility of having a single implementor for all technological areas, with efficient print and apply labellers, software with proven stability and robustness, RFID Technology, and knowledge of IT industrial environments,” says Luca Lomolino, IT application manager at Elior Italy.
“The Elior project immediately thrilled us because it includes some of the core values of the Markem-Imaje philosophy, such as the fight against food waste. Thanks to this project, Elior can automatically establish which dishes need to be replenished and send only what is consumed, as well as manage deadlines in a predictive manner,” explains Gianluca Angelici, Solutions Architect at Markem-Imaje Italy. “Thanks to our knowledge of industrial IT environments and the versatility of the CoLOS software, we were able to communicate directly with Elior’s ERP, managing production in real time, coding the human-readable information on the label, storing other data on the RFID antenna and marking the lot on the edge of the tray.”
Additionally, two 2200 Series Print & Apply systems have been installed on the production lines. These systems ensure the precise application of labels that include both human-readable information and data encoded on RFID tags, significantly improving product traceability, and ensuring compliance with European regulations.