CMA: Investigation to improve performance of the Y-Cutting automation system

Summary

Background
 Y cutting is so named as it is a "Y" shaped cut as the first incision on the lamb or sheep carcase to begin the opening up process so as to remove the pelt from the carcase.
An automated robotic Y cutter has been available in New Zealand for some time, but commercial take up of the technology in Australia has been unsuccessful to date.  This is primarilty because of the differences between Australia and New Zealand caracass specifications (e.g. variabiulity in caracase weights and sizes, no washing prior to slaughter etc). 
A series of faciliated adoption projects have been funded to adress these technical issues and provide a viable solution for Australian processors. 
Facilitated adoption
In 2004, project PRTEC.009 was funded in order to demonstrate the newly developed Industrial Research Limited (IRL) automated Y cutter under Australian conditions and to demonstrate the system working in an Australian processing site – Southern Meat and Goulburn (NSW) was selected as the demonstration site. While successfully demonstrated, this technology did not progress further at the time.
In order to clarify the technical development path forward, a working group was assembled under project A.TEC.0074 in 2011 from major stakeholders and a site visit arranged to view the machine first hand.
The working group comprising of representatives from IRL, Alliance NZ, MAR, AMPC, MLA, and CRF invested 2 days to explore the strengths and limitations of the machine. The brainstorming sessions were then crystallised down to a mutually agreed development action plan.
The outcome of the working group mainly considered how operational data could be conveniently collected, analysed, and used to design system improvements. In addition, it was envisaged the Y cutter functionality may be restricted to a V-cut to improve reliability.
The ovine Y cutter was installed in two locations (one in New Zealand and one at CRF Colac  (funded under project P.PIP.0100).  Performance at Alliance Mataura NZ was measured at ~95%, in service and but only achieved  ~80% CRF. The target in service requirement was 98%.
A twelve month support project (P.PSH.0283) was also funded so as to support and optimise the CRF (now part of ALC) Y cutter.
The most recent project (A.TEC.0091) was funded as a result of a site troubleshooting meeting attended by all stakeholders, and utilised a camera recording system developed by IRL to observe the operation of the Y cutter machine.  The project objective was to determine which interventions were required to increase the reliability of the system. It was envisaged a follow-up PIP project would action the required modifications. In addition, a new and more reliable sock ringer was to be developed IRL.
This project was terminated by MLA due to issues with developing the sock ringer.   The technology development will be continued in 2015 as a collaborative effort between Callaghan Innovation, OAL, Alliance, MLA, AMPC, Milmeq, AL Colac & MAR under a new project.
Outcomes
Adoption in Australia will depend on the ability of Milmeq and MAR (the Australian commercialisers) to address the various technical and performance issues identified at the CRF (now ALC) processing plant.