Branston Ltd has announced a £600,000 investment in new software across its three UK sites, which will provide even greater working efficiencies.

The company, which is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of potatoes, is to introduce Anglia Business Solutions’ (ABS) LINKFresh 2 at its sites in Lincolnshire, Somerset and Scotland.

The LINKFresh 2 package will be configured to suit Branston’s lean manufacturing processes - the Branston Production System. It will provide a user-friendly interface to enable the company to collect, analyse and report on data from across all departments and sites in greater detail than ever before.

The Branston LINKFresh 2 solution will provide broad coverage to all of the major functions of the business. This includes agronomy, forecasting, EDI orders, planning, scheduling, intake, quality control, production, pick and despatch, label checking, invoicing and core financials.

The system integrates specialist modules for capturing information within the factories, using rugged touch-screen terminals. It also uses mobile applications for activities such as managing intake, despatch and quality control.

Nick Turnbull, technical director at Branston, said: “Five years ago, we introduced LINKFresh to handle the finance and order-processing aspects of our business and it had a significant and beneficial impact.

“Since then, our turnover has increased considerably, the number of people in our team has doubled and the production process has become increasingly sophisticated. Technology has also moved at an incredible rate and the launch of LINKFresh 2 takes advantage of developments that were not available when the first system was installed.

“LINKFresh 2 will be installed at our Lincoln site first and a team of three will spend several months with us making sure the programme fits our processes perfectly.

“Once installed, we will have an extremely quick and incredibly detailed way of capturing, analysing and processing data from all areas of our business, which will give us a much richer understanding of our operation. This information will inform and expedite business-critical decisions.

“We anticipate that once installed we will benefit from further efficiency, reduced waste and greater agility, as well as improved financial and operational reporting and customer service. This will provide Branston with an information platform designed to support future growth.”

Charlie Flack has been given the role of IT project co-ordinator as a result of the move, with responsibility for integrating the new software into Branston’s processes and procedures as smoothly as possible. He will liaise with both Anglia’s implementation team and the Branston team.

LINKFresh 2 replaces the original LINKFresh system, which was designed, built and installed by ABS five years ago.

David Hurley, managing director of ABS, said: “We are very pleased that Branston has chosen to implement the LINKFresh 2 product across its expanded operations. Branston’s vision and long-term investments have made them one of the UK’s leading suppliers of potatoes.

“Microsoft’s significant investment in the Dynamics NAV platform has enabled the continued development of the LINKFresh suite to set new standards for the industry.”

DECOFRUT IMS FOCUS

Decofrut is to launch its new Inventory Management System (IMS) service in the UK.

The specialist provider of integrated quality control services for the fresh produce industry has an extensive experience built up over 20 years and offices in Spain (Barcelona and Madrid), Italy, the Netherlands, the US (Philadelphia, Wilmington, Los Angeles and Miami), St Petersburg, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Guangzhou, Korea and Chile.

With IMS, Decofrut can help companies provide “the right product to the right customer”, which will help to lower their costs and reduce their losses.

Fernando Irarrazaval, vice-president and director of Decofrut, said: “To ensure this first-rate service, a permanent team of people will be assigned to your company and constantly keep you updated.”

Simon Price, chairman of Alfred Price & Sons Ltd, said: “Thanks to the timely presence of my Decofrut inspectors and IMS, problems are rapidly detected and resolved, thus saving me both time and money.”

Decofrut’s reports are sent via the internet and provide a full summary of inspection results, thermograph measurements and digital photographs in a straightforward fashion.

Furthermore, the database allows users to generate statistical analysis and even graphic creation. Companies and their clients will get access to their specific information through a secured website.

Irarrazaval said: “Decofrut has the experience, the logistics and the people to help you with your quality control processes: we work with you and your quality control team to make sure you receive the best products.”

GREENERY UK ONLINE

UK-based marketing and public relations consultancy Smye Holland Associates has produced a new website for the UK subsidiary of The Greenery BV - completing its first such international job since opening an office in the Netherlands earlier this year.

To help develop its UK business, the company decided to launch a dedicated UK website -

www.greeneryuk.com. Although the site is aimed at UK customers, the project was commissioned and managed by the marketing team at The Greenery head office in Barendrecht in the Netherlands.

Smye Holland Associates won the contract to develop the site in competition with Dutch agencies.

Harm-Jan Eikelenboom of The Greenery BV said: “We selected Smye Holland Associates because it seemed to understand our needs and put forward a competitive proposal with a short timetable for completion.

“We have been very pleased with the result and the new website clearly communicates what Greenery UK offers to the market.”

Mike Holland, managing director of Smye Holland Associates, said: “The Greenery is a massive international Dutch business and we are delighted to have been awarded this contract.”

Michael Ruiter, who heads the company’s Dutch office in Castricum, near Amsterdam, said: “We hope to develop more business of this type.”

GREEN IT - IS IT A FAD, OR JUST GOOD BUSINESS SENSE?

This month, Anglia Business Solutions takes a look at how green initiatives could make a difference to the running of your business, as well as making effective savings on your bottom line.

Much has been written during the past few years on green initiatives. As a result, few people can be left in any doubt that it is now pretty high on the public’s radar. So how does this apply to IT and can IT help a business to establish its green credentials? Here, we look at just a few areas where information technology can make an environmental difference.

The first area to look at is IT infrastructure, where a proliferation of servers consumes an increasing amount of energy. With the upsurge in the amount of information stored digitally, many companies will experience increasing energy costs as the number of servers and storage devices grow to accommodate the volume. The reality, however, is that many such devices only use a fraction of their capacity.

The first step in resolving this is to understand the available capacity, what it is costing and what value it contributes to the business. A number of tools are available to enable a business to carry out this exercise. Once a clear picture emerges of the available capacity, simple steps can be taken to make more efficient use of the equipment.

For example, many server farms contain units that have not been used for some time. However, they are still switched on and consuming energy. Moreover, many are older servers that are far less energy-efficient. Once these devices are eliminated, the work load should be consolidated on to a smaller number of servers. This simple exercise alone will reduce energy consumption, while increasing resource utilisation by taking advantage of surplus capacity.

While undertaking this exercise, it is also worthwhile exploring the concept of virtualisation. The virtualisation process works by using software to emulate a physical computer. This creates a separate operating system that is logically isolated from the host server. By providing multiple virtual machines at once, it allows several operating systems to run simultaneously on a single physical machine. The net effect is to reduce the number of servers even further. It also means reduced hardware and software costs, as the optimised servers can handle the anticipated increase in data volume.

Moving outside the infrastructure arena, a well-implemented business management application can make a significant difference across the rest of the business. For example, wasting food is a major problem for the industry as a whole. Between suppliers and consumers, almost half of what is produced is thrown away. This is a major ecological cause for concern and is unsustainable in the longer term. An accurate forecasting system, together with access to live stock information, can make a significant difference, by reducing waste in the supply chain.

Paperwork has had to ramp up in recent years to facilitate compliance with regularity and traceability requirements. The mountain of paperwork needed is hardly good for the environment, as well as being a heavy administrative cost to the fresh produce industry. Using widely available devices such as touch screens and mobiles to move, trace and cost produce as it travels through the supply chain can eliminate most of this paper. It can also remove costs, which is good for the business.

A further aid to paperwork reduction is the use of email to distribute items such as invoices, statements, purchase orders and letters. Modern business management systems have the facility to distribute such documents electronically. Apart from the labour involved in the production, envelope stuffing and posting of such documents, there is the sheer volume of paper generated to consider. From the business angle, the postage and handling costs ramp up the overheads of the organisation.

Most goods are moved by road transport. This is an increasing threat to the environment due to the pollution and road congestion generated. It is also costly, as fuel and labour costs increase. IT can assist by optimising loads carried and journey planning. Removing unnecessary trips by more efficient use of transport resources can help protect the environment, while improving customer service.

These are just a few areas where IT can make a significant difference in reducing a company’s carbon footprint. Moreover, these differences have already been experienced by companies in the industry.

William Burgess, ceo of Produce World, said: “One of the major issues in fresh produce is the cost of waste. Getting it correct by having accurate and timely information has a huge bottom line impact.”

Ian Parrot, operations director of Valley Grown Salads (VGS), said: “We wanted to make our operation as environment-friendly as possible. Every time one of our vehicles takes to the road, its load is optimised. This allows VGS to reduce our impact on the environment, with fewer journeys.”

As can be seen from the above, well-implemented IT can be a major facilitator in enabling a company to embrace green initiatives. Moreover, reducing hardware and software costs while minimising waste and paperwork has got to be good for business. Add reduced transport costs into the mix and what emerges is a win-win situation for both the industry and the environment.

TRAC-IT A HIT FOR PANDOL

UK-based fruit packhouse profitability expert Marco has made further important inroads into the US market through the supply and installation of its Marco Trac-IT Yield Control System for leading Californian fruit packer Pandol Inc.

The Marco installation is at the heart of Pandol’s latest major expansion of its coldstorage and packing facility, which has now doubled in size to almost 2,000sqm.

With a history going back more than 70 years, family-owned Pandol is a major supplier of table grapes, blueberries, persimmon and other fruit and vegetable varieties for both domestic and export markets.

Marco has 25 years’ experience supplying the world’s leading soft-fruit brands. During consultative field trials carried out for Pandol, Marco identified significant double- digit percentage pack giveaway, directly impacting its bottom line. However, without adequate line control, ensuring consistent pack weight within legislative requirements, while maintaining line speeds and all-important product quality, can be a daunting task. “The Marco system overcomes all these problems and is now an integral and essential part of the Pandol packhouse operation,” said the company.

The installation features Marco’s innovative automatic optimisation software, which intuitively updates target weights at individual stations based on real-time pack weight trends. This constant, yet operator-transparent, tracking reduces pack giveaway to fractions of a per cent.

According to Pandol, the expanded facility will employ more than 100 people at its peak, with the largest packing room staying at a constant temperature to maintain the cold chain and enhance produce shelf life. Dave Bryan, Pandol’s post-harvest operations manager, said: “It’s exciting because now our expanded facility features five separate packing lines with 12 to 36 packers per line. The expansion offers more flexibility and will also meet the growing demand for custom packing.”

Andrew Pandol is very pleased with the results so far. He said: “We have been impressed with Marco’s knowledge and really appreciate that they took time to listen to us in order to understand the diverse challenges facing our highly competitive industry. The calculated short-term pay-back time makes this a low-risk investment for us and we are looking forward to rolling the system out in other areas of our operation.”

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