A new tool developed by FMC FoodTech gives producers that opportunity. The Plant InfoPort™ provides visibility into plant operations from the moment fruit is harvested, to the shipping of the final product to customers.

“In mature industries like citrus, process optimisation doesn’t create huge yield increases - at this point, we’re fighting for fractions of a per cent,” said Danny Milla, systems integration manager for Citrus Systems. “The next logical step for processors who aren’t doing it already is to get an accurate picture of what’s going on in their plant.”

While most citrus processors have existing databases for production, fruit procurement and other activities, in many plants this information is not linked and analysed effectively to provide true visibility into a plant’s operations. The Plant InfoPort enables processors to aggregate information from existing databases - such as ERP systems, supply-chain systems and maintenance and financial databases. Users also have the ability to collect and store new operational data. The information collected is transformed into reports that are presented to users via standard web browsers to offer instantaneous and accurate shift reporting, provide instant traceability, help processors meet reporting requirements, and more.

This customised approach capitalises on FMC FoodTech’s internal breadth of expertise in process engineering, Human Machine Interface (HMI) and PLC programming, as well as web, network and database design to provide a cost-effective solution that would be time-consuming and expensive for processors to implement on their own. InfoPort process engineers work with the processor to pinpoint key performance indicators (KPIs) - gauges that enable the producer to look at plant operation and know whether they are running well or not. “We discover the KPIs with the customer, and they vary from plant to plant,” said Milla. “One customer may look at loads of fruit per day, for example, while another may prefer to look at gallons per minute.”

InfoPort also allows any number of people within the organisation to access the web-based system for their own use. FMC FoodTech can create reports for different users that report on different functions within a plant - while a production person may want to see a temperature trend on a pasteuriser, a business person may want to see production totals for the day, for instance.

The web-based portal can be used to optimise a plant’s activities in a variety of ways. One processor is using the system to determine how many loads of citrus are in the company’s yard at any given time. Previously, it would take employees at least 45 minutes to generate such a report by counting loads in the yard, in bins and how many lines were running at a time. Now, a real-time report can be generated at the touch of a button.

Keeping track of a plant’s day-to-day operations can yield some surprising increases in efficiency. At one plant, a report generated by the InfoPort discovered that production dipped at 3am for a few hours before going back up. “When the plant managers saw this, they said, ‘I knew they were taking a smoke break!’” said Milla. “They were thinking about adding another ramp to get more fruit into the plant. With the Plant InfoPort system, they were able to avoid this expense simply by observing how the plant was running and making changes based on that data.”

In another plant, frequent emergency stops were shutting down production several times daily. FMC FoodTech was able to generate a report that showed which e-stop was getting the most “actions.” It turned out that one e-stop button extended into a pathway and plant workers were accidentally hitting it as they walked by. By recessing the e-stop button, the company was able to get an additional eight minutes of production a day.

By visualising and analysing plant data using the InfoPort, producers can also gain an understanding of - and correct - production bottlenecks to implement more efficient operational procedures. In addition, the database enables operators to compare production statistics by line, or historically against past performance to determine how efficiently the plant is running. And if there is an issue with a particular load of fruit, the system gives producers the ability to trace the load through the plant to determine in which tank it ended up.

Using the Plant InfoPort, processors have the ability to track several facilities from a single server. And because FMC FoodTech maintains and administers the InfoPort server at the customer’s site remotely through an Internet VPN, the product offers these benefits with zero maintenance concerns for the customer. “The sky’s the limit using this technology,” says Milla. “To enhance their operations, processors should be asking: Where are the bottlenecks in my plant? What are the human processes that affect them? And how can they be improved? The Plant InfoPort provides the tool they need to answer these questions.”

GET SOME ASYST-ANCE

Asyst solutions has launched a new accounts and warehouse iconnectivity application, WareComm, to provide full warehouse management through wireless technology. The software will help streamline and automate the despatch, ‘goods in’ and stocktaking processes, which can save businesses thousands of pounds.

WareComm provides direct integration between the award-winning business and accounting software Access Dimensions, developed by Access Accounting, and Aspin’s MiniPick warehouse management software (WMS) for hand-held computers running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.

The integration of the two solutions makes processing orders and receiving goods fast and accurate, with the automatic transfer of information between the systems. Efficiency is increased by electronically transferring orders to the MiniPick hand-held units, without the need for printed documentation. Warehouse staff are then guided logically through the order-picking and goods-received process, using a barcode scanner.

Nathan Aspin, sales director for Aspin, commented: “We were delighted to work with Asyst in developing WareComm, which will create substantial efficiencies throughout the whole warehouse operation. As the process is automated, staff can pick, pack and despatch orders and carry out stocktaking in a fraction of the time it took previously. Various reports are available to provide an accurate picture of stock levels, order status and staff performance.”

RFID SALES DISAPPOINT

At the start of 2007, the cumulative number of RFID tags sold over the last 60 years stood at 3.752 billion.

Some 27 per cent of that number were sold in 2006 and 19 per cent in 2005, showing a very robust increase.

However, the sale of 1.02bn RFID tags in 2006 (35 per cent of those being RFID cards) has been disappointing to those expecting higher volume sales of versions in the form of labels. Around 200m tags were used on pallets or cases.

WHERE DOES IT FIT IN THE NEW INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE?

In this month’s column, David Hurley, managing director of Anglia Business Solutions, asks if the technology platform really matters?

A recent survey carried out within the IT industry revealed how radically the landscape has changed when it comes to today’s investment decisions.

In the past, the rise of the major operating and infrastructure vendors dominated the thinking of what the IT industry was all about. This left the business applications as the poor relations when it came to prioritising expenditure.

Today, business applications are increasingly in the limelight as organisations strive to reduce costs while improving efficiency. In a CIO Insight magazine survey, 69 per cent of the respondents indicated they felt that their industries were now moving faster than all other industries. Some 88 per cent said their focus was now firmly on speed of response and agility as a strategic imperative. In this scenario, the focus is moving from IT to the business managers with specific problems to solve.

Business managers usually view IT as a means to an end and want solutions, rather than just more technology. Moreover, rather than automate past operational processes, the new challenges are to use IT to define new business models and practices. In addition, the new applications have to deliver real business value, be reliable, flexible and, most importantly, cost effective. In this new, fast-moving, competitive world, the choice of business application platform can make the difference between success and failure.

However, when faced with a myriad of choices, how does a management team select an appropriate business application for their company?

Contrary to popular belief, the team does not need to have an in-depth understanding of all of the nuances of the technology world to select an appropriate platform for their business. All it requires is a common-sense approach, a healthy degree of scepticism and the willingness to back their judgement on their selected system.

In this, the changes in the IT industry can provide some useful guidelines. Rather like the fresh produce industry, IT is currently going through a period of rapid consolidation.

Driven by worldwide pressures, it is clear that only those vendors with global reach and substantial resources are likely to prosper in the longer term. In the worldwide market, there is a broad acceptance that the current 4,000 vendors of what are described as business management solutions will consolidate in time into less than a dozen global players. Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and Sage will inevitably feature heavily in that sector.

Nevertheless, it could be a serious error to just pick one from these leading players on the basis that “they all broadly do the same thing - don’t they?” Being from different authors, the underlying design of the software suite will invariably be fundamentally different. In the Tier 1 marketplace, Oracle could in theory offer PeopleSoft, the JD Edwards OneWorld solution or its traditional ERP suite to meet similar requirements. Each system would have its own particular strengths, as well as its drawbacks.

Likewise, in the mid-range space, Microsoft has no less than four possible business management solution offerings, providing what would appear to be similar applications.

At first glance the line-up in the Dynamics™ stable looks remarkably similar. All are Windows-based, business-management applications with a rich range of out-of-the-box functionality. Once again, however, each of the four was designed and written by different authors prior to being acquired by Microsoft.

In this Microsoft line up, the Dynamics NAV platform leads the field by some considerable way with a global user base of over 57,000 companies. To put it into context, this is more than eight times the user base of the Dynamics AX platform. Its runaway success in the mid-range business-management systems space is due to its inherent agility, low cost of ownership and its wide range of vertical applications. As a result, the Dynamics NAV suite is now widely used across the globe in the fresh produce industry.

Nevertheless, this does not alleviate the management selecting a solution for their business of the responsibility of just plumping for the Dynamics NAV suite. Once again, it is vital that due diligence is carried out to ensure that the proposed solution meets the specific needs of the organisation. In addition, other factors such as the credentials of the supply partner, the ability of the business to resource the project and managing the changes caused by operating in the new environment are aspects that have to be taken into account.

However, the key message is that selecting a business-management solution is not a short-term investment decision.

The average deployment is likely to last between seven and 10 years. That’s a long time to have to live with a solution that fails to flex to meet the inevitable changes in business models experienced by successful organisations. In this context, the technology does matter - a lot!

• On another matter, Anglia would like to thank the judges for their gracious comments during the Re:fresh Awards last week. The description of LABELCheck as “an IT solution that has significant tangible benefits whilst remaining easy to use and highly portable” resonated with many.

The winning LINKFresh® LABELCheck entry has now made the shortlist in the UK’s Information Age Awards, which is a remarkable achievement. It may not win, but rather like the Re:fresh Awards ceremony, it should be another good night out.

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