SubscribeThe poultry specialist Heidemark has been a familiar word to both traders and consumers for decades. The innovative company from Garrel in Lower Saxony, Germany, is synonymous with high quality and an epicurean product variety. Working hours there are recorded using a biometric system.
Poultry has been an important element of North American, Central American and also European cuisine for centuries. In Germany too, poultry meat is becoming increasingly popular. Heidemark, which produces a full range of chicken and turkey meat products, is profiting from this trend.
Besides a large variety of fresh items, its product range covers a large selection of convenience articles, grill specialities, strongly-flavored smoked goods, fine poultry sausages and preserves. Heidemark itself runs all stages of production, from the breeding birds to the breeding houses, fattening the birds, producing the bird feed, slaughterhouses and processing plants to the logistics chain. Its area of sales covers all of Germany as well as neighboring countries, Great Britain and Ireland.
The company employs around 900 people, most of them at its main center in Garrel, with the remainder in other nearby locations. The size of this operation makes timekeeping essential. 'We have an enormous number of flexible time models', confirms Uwe Hausfeld, Head of IT at Heidemark. These range from flexible models such as those for the truck drivers, to shift models with alternatives, 2 - 3 fixed shifts including weekends, to flexi-time in the administrative departments.
All production staff identify themselves at the biometric terminals on the turnstiles located at the entrance to the company's site. Authorized persons pass through the turnstiles and onto the site.
The company plans to replace the existing insular solution with a new system, which would have to fulfill the following conditions: It should include access, be open for further operational data acquisition and it must also be possible to integrate it easily into the new time management software based on MS business solutions. 'It should guarantee the unambiguous identification of the persons using the system in particular areas of the company.
Getting a friend or colleague to clock in for you is now no longer possible,' explains Uwe Hausfeld. 'Because of the large number of workers who cannot possibly all know each other personally, we regarded access restriction via an access control and time management system as essential. We want to increase security within the company.'
The decision was taken to look for a LEGIC based biometry system in order to regulate timekeeping in production via biometry, to issue administrative and management staff with LEGIC credentials without biometry and for these to be used by everybody for access control.
Thanks to writable LEGIC credentials all biometrical data remain within the control and at the disposal of the user and therefore data protection regulations are guaranteed. Finger biometry in a production company where a lot of water and grease is handled was a challenge, and so there were naturally reservations as to whether this could result in too many reading errors or whether the registration process would be too slow.
Various systems were therefore tested at CeBIT 2003. At the end of the selection process, the man responsible at Heidemark chose the verification solution from Kaba Benzing, which employs a „sweep reader". 'This verification model offers no large area for dirt to attack when the finger is swiped over it,' explains Head of IT Uwe Hausfeld. 'It is particularly suitable for use in our rough environment.'
The Head of IT has also known Kaba Benzing for a long time and had already had many good experiences with their systems. 'Although they're not the lowest-priced terminals, they always work. Good support is also guaranteed.' On the software side, Tempvision was chosen because it best covers all the time management requirements.
Five Bedanet terminals 93 60 with a verification module were installed in Garrel and Cappeln, with additional timekeeping terminals incorporating LEGIC readers in Garrel, Höltinghausen and Meppen. To control access, Type Bedanet 91 04 or 91 05 access readers were installed at all points of entry to and exit from Heidemark, some of them integrated into Kaba Gallenschütz turnstiles.
The access control readers are controlled by an access manager. The hardware in Garrel is connected via servers on which the Tempvision software runs. The branch sites are administered via VPN. Two teach-in stations record the biometric data.
Following the system's introduction, the start of work at the beginning of a shift in Garrel is now as follows: All production staff identify themselves at the biometry terminals on the turnstiles located at the entrance to the company's site. Authorized persons pass through the turnstiles and onto the site. After they have changed, staff enter the production halls by stopping at other turnstiles, known as hygiene locks, and hold their LEGIC credentials in front of the integrated access readers. Each employee is then requested to disinfect his / her fingers. Only then does the hygiene lock grant them access.
When leaving too, workers' passes are also read at the turnstiles. Since there are also many foreign employees, the terminals are multilingual. 'No-one without authorization should now come onto our site,' explains Uwe Hausfeld. 'With this system, we can guarantee this one hundred per cent. The combination of biometry and LEGIC credentials works extremely smoothly.' Today, the registration process takes just 2 - 3 seconds.
Now that the project has been completed, Head of IT Uwe Hausfeld draws a positive conclusion. 'We now have unambiguous person identification for our access control and timekeeping. The possibility of misuse has now been eliminated.
We have therefore achieved our principle aim, namely to ensure that only company employees are on our site.' At Heidemark, people are by and large very satisfied with the system. 'We have achieved the targets that we were aiming for. The system will pay for itself within two years', Uwe Hausfeld emphasized.
