SI Foodware Fruits and Vegetables

SI Foodware Fruits and Vegetables is a fresh produce specific software package based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Consignment management is the heart of this solution. For all processes within the supply chain, from import, logistics, manufacturing up to delivery, costs can be accounted to a specific consignment. The Business Intelligence Consignment module provides insight in costs and processes so that you are in complete control of balancing supply and demand.

Balancing Supply and Demand

• Microsoft Dynamics NAV add-on: 100% fresh produce
• Consignment Management as the heart of the solution
• User association plays big role in development
• 1700 users on a daily basis at 70 customers
• Real-time inventory insights
• Available wordwide through partner network

Business Intelligence

Consignment Result Analysis and Margin Calculation in No Time

In a market in which margins are under pressure, it is important to have up-to-date and detailed information on the revenue and costs of your product. It allows you to make quick decisions and the necessary adjustments when processes are not running optimally. All the information that you need is stored in your ERP System. But how do you access this information in a quick, manageable and reliable way?

500 Out of the Box KPI’s and BI-Reports

Schouw Informatisering offers the possibility of retrieving information from the database in a structured way with the Food Management Dashboard. This BI application consists of a set of 500 KPIs and BI reports, 100 of which specifically designed for food companies. The experience of Schouw Informatisering with more than 250 software implementations at food companies is bundled in this extensive set of KPIs and reports.

Unique Consignment Management Module

For the Fruit & Vegetables industry, a special consignment management module has been added to the dashboard. With this module, cross-sections of consignments can be made, for instance to trace the consignments back in time or forward and per supplier or customer. It allows you to calculate margins, such as net sales and the gross and net margin per customer, item, and item attribute.

Consignment Result Analysis

With the Food Management Dashboard, you can easily analyse consignment results. You can view the sales booked out, result booked out, corrections and consignment result per consignment, supplier, item and item attribute.

Consignment Management

Follow Logistics and Financial Transactions of Items at Consignment Level Including Documents

SI Foodware Fresh Produce takes into account different settlement methods, such as fixed price, commission, joint account or minimum guarantee. Furthermore, you can follow the logistics and financial transactions of items at consignment, supplier, consignment contract, lot, item attribute or customer level. Since the consignment administration is fully integrated with the financial administration, time is saved in processes such as the preparation of invoices and the monthly reconciliation of consignment results with periodic results in the general ledger.

Consignment Contracts

In consignment contracts with growers, data are recorded including terms and conditions, products and cost determination factors. Within SI Foodware Fresh Produce, cost determination factors are defined based on item surcharges. Examples of these factors are costs for receipt at (air)ports, cooling costs (periodic and per location), transport costs, handling costs (per location), incidental costs such as inspections or costs for commissioners.

Consignment Card and Consignment Status

With the consignment card, information can be obtained at all times about the status of the consignment. Is there any stock? Which costs have been allocated to the consignment? With the consignment card, all these questions can be answered real time. The consignment status reports give insight into all consignment transactions that have been entered. Questions that can normally only be answered at company level (general ledger) can now be answered at consignment and even lot level:

• What purchase costs were budgeted and what has been invoiced in the end?
• Who are the customers to whom the goods have been sold and at what market prices were they sold??
• How much bonus has been accrued and what invoice discount has been granted?
• What amount has been included in the sales prices to cover the costs of outgoing transport and what amount has been invoiced in the end by the carrier?
• Sales report and Account sale

After the sale of the consignment is complete, the value booked out will be settled with the supplier in SI Foodware Fresh Produce. Based on the linked transactions, the software calculates the number and price to be booked out. The sales staff is alerted to incomplete transactions, such as outstanding complaints. In the recommended book-out price and book-out number, issues such as goods returned, negative corrections, manufacturing activities (grading and repacking orders), grade out, catch weight, sales coverage, discounts and claims are taken into account. Sales report at pool and stage level is optional.

SI Foodware Fresh Produce supports the detailed sales report of values based on sales order lines. During the sales report process, the consignment result is updated in real time. The system shows the average result for the last purchase consignments to ensure that issues such as a minimum guarantee agreement or an internal target with regard to the average consignment result to be achieved are complied with in the medium to long term. After the sales report, the costs entered can be checked and adjusted in the Account Sale. Changing the costs that are passed on to the customer affects the expected consignment result. Simultaneously with the sales report, the impact of cost adjustments on the consignment result is immediately clear to the purchaser.

Manufacturing

Extremely Complete and User-Friendly for the Fruit & Vegetables Industry

SI Foodware Fresh Produce offers extensive possibilities to manage and support the production and all production-related processes, with an emphasis on ease of use and completeness. SI Foodware Fresh Produce gives you direct insight into the progress of unfilled orders and their status. In one general view, you can see the order status, how much has already been produced for an order and how much still has to be produced.

Planning

The production process starts with the planning of the sorting and packing orders. SI Foodware Fresh Produce is linked to the planning tool Preactor. This application allows you to schedule your production orders at a daily and even hourly level. Production orders can be planned over the production lines in different ways: they can be scheduled automatically based on specified capacities or based on a preferred sequence to be specified taking into account the date on which the orders must be dispatched.

Manufacturing Based on Suppliers’ Certifications and Customer Requirements

In the packing process, the consignments and packing materials needed, are managed automatically. This can be done based on suppliers’ certificates and customer requirements.

Production Registration

With simple Operations Control screens (registration at the production line) and RF scanners, you can quickly register the use, output, employee and machine hours and breakdowns. As a result, the actual production costs are registered per consignment. In the event of commission business, it can be recorded per type of production costs whether the actual or standard production costs are settled with the supplier.

Registration at the line enables the registration of the characteristics of the materials used. This way it is possible, for instance, to record that the quality of certain raw materials is different. It is also possible to record that the product is not fit for use, for instance because of its inferior quality.

Grading

The grading commands in SI Foodware Fresh Produce allow you to sort products according to quality, for instance, or size. With the Operations Control screens, you can easily register the input of the bulk consignment, the result of the grading command and the hours worked.

Purchase

Your purchase costs and agreements determine to a great extent the margins per item, consignment and supplier. The speed of recording and adjusting these costs and agreements and making them transparent is therefore essential to your business operations. SI Foodware Fresh Produce has a large set of standard possibilities in the area of:

• Purchasing
• Commission business
• Contract registration
• Consignment management
• The allocation of logistics to the consignments
• The allocation production costs to the consignments

Understanding of Actual Purchase Costs per Consignment

SI Foodware Fresh Produce has extensive possibilities to allocate the costs of purchased goods, combined with consignment management. You can easily budget the expected costs and afterwards replace them with the actual costs. Production and logistics costs can be traced back to the consignments purchased. When entering purchase invoices, the actual purchase costs are allocated to the consignment, so that afterwards the differences are transparent.

Quality

Simply Comply With the Requirements of Your Customer and the Government

As Fruit & Vegetables company, you are faced with the tight schedules and deadlines of your customers, because you work with fresh produce. Furthermore, there are strict statutory provisions (including General Food Law and HACCP) you have to comply with. To be able to work quickly, accurately and efficiently, the quality-related issues are supported in the quality module of SI Foodware Fresh Produce.

Speedy Complaints Handling

Complaints of suppliers and customers can be managed in the complaints module of SI Foodware Fresh Produce. All reports are automatically forwarded to the correct person, so that immediate action can be taken. In the event of a recall, the remaining lots of the product in question can quickly be blocked and the Track & Trace procedure will start. With SI Foodware Fresh Produce, you can trace products both back in time and forward, after which you can inform the customers and suppliers in question. Issues can be explained and resolved immediately, which will protect your image and business operations.

Product Specifications

Once the specifications of the raw materials have been entered, SI Foodware Fresh Produce automatically calculates the product specifications. This avoids errors and saves you a lot of work. The corresponding labels, including allergen and ingredient declarations for the packaging are automatically generated.

Registration and Compliance With Certificates

Central registration of the different certificates and the corresponding products, suppliers and customers is easily brought about in SI Foodware Fresh Produce. Maximum residue values (crop protection) per item or consignment are also centrally recorded in SI Foodware Fresh Produce. For each supplier, you can specify the products for which it is certified (such as products with the EKO, BIO and BRC mark). Next, this value is taken over per lot on receipt (depending on the validity period of the certificate). This can be adjusted per lot, where necessary. It is possible to indicate per client the products that require certified lots. In the sales process, the non-certified lots are excluded.

Allocation of Quality Codes per Lot

SI Foodware Fresh Produce takes into account the quality requirements of your customers. The desired quality per lot can be recorded for each customer, summarizing the quality (for instance based on size, maturity, etc.) in one quality code using, for instance, the numbers from 1 to 10. Per customer, a minimum and maximum value can be entered. Lots with a different quality code than the desired quality can be sold, but are given another colour in the Stock Availability Screen.

Certifications and Customer Requirements in Production Orders

Certifications and customer requirements also apply if products are repacked. In the event of customer-specific production, the possibility exists to enter production commands based on sales order lines. Customer-specific requirements with regard to certification, residue and quality codes are taken into account in the production command and used in the allocation of the lots of raw materials. In the event of production without a specific customer demand, the production lot inherits the characteristics mentioned above based on the (other) lots of raw materials that are used.

Sales

Reliability and Speed Through Insight Into and Grip on Stock Availability

To be able to sell quickly and efficiently, two issues are important to your business:

• Making and recording agreements with your customers on matters such as EDI, invoicing, varying price units (per unit or kilogram), qualities, packaging, bonuses and SSCC labels are essential.
• Your sales staff needs to have an insight into and grip on stock availability to be able to comply with the agreements made and to respond to exceptions.

SI Foodware Fresh Produce is fully aimed at the Fruit & Vegetables industry and has an exceptionally extensive set of sales possibilities that support the issues mentioned above. It enables you to act quicker and better, as a result of which volumes and margins will increase.

Stock Availability

Insight into stock availability is crucial in the Fruit & Vegetables industry. SI Foodware Fresh Produce gives information on stock availability that is accurate to the minute.

• It is possible to enter a deadline for each process within your company. Examples hereof are the delivery deadlines per customer, the deadline for picking the finished products, the finale date the production must be finished and the deadline for the production picking process.
• With insight into stock availability, specific customer requirements such as required certificates, MRL values, required pallet type, stacking height and the exclusion of certain growers can be taken into account.
• SI Foodware Fresh Produce gives information on incoming sea containers and planeloads (airway bill).

Stock Availability Screen

The Stock Availability Screen (SAS) is the cockpit for your sales staff. It is developed to increase the speed at which they can sell without affecting the quality of the delivery. The SSS offers proposals for sales prices and information on current price agreements, prices offered and historical sales prices.

Insight Into and Control Over Conflicts

Schouw Informatisering has developed a Conflicts Screen for SI Foodware Fresh Produce which provides information on the differences between supply and demand and the possibility to easily remedy them. The Conflicts Screen is a crucial part of a flexible reservation system: receipts that vary in terms of location, time and/or quality are permitted without blocking the (logistics) processes.

Transport

Insights Into Planning and Transport Costs

The transport of goods is a significant cost item. A proper planning, registration of agreements and provision of information to both internal and external carriers is therefore important. With SI Foodware Fresh Produce, the entire transport can be scheduled and made transparent. Within the Fruit & Vegetables industry, it is also important to quickly gain an insight into the transport costs of each consignment. Within SI Foodware Fresh Produce, the budgetted rates are used to calculate the estimated transport costs per sales order and per transport order. After entering the purchase invoice (following the receipt of the invoice of the carrier), the actual transport costs per consignment are made transparent, for both incoming and outgoing transport.

Faultless Planning

It is important to manage all transport from your central business application, so that issues such as successive transport can be planned faultlessly as well.

Warehouse Management

Speed in the Scheduling and Execution of Picking Orders

Many times, the speedy and correct scheduling and execution of picking orders is hindered if you work with paper lists. Within SI Foodware Fresh Produce, these processes are fully automated, using an integrated RF scanning solution. Two simple scheduling screens complete this strong solution. SI Foodware Fresh Produceg also offers the possibility of real-time stock inventory with scanners (for example with Cycle counting). At any moment of the day, you can perform the inventory without having to stop the daily activities.

Warehouse Activities Overview Screen and Workload Screen for Planners

After a salesperson releases an order, it will automatically appear on the shop floor in the Warehouse Activities Overview screen for the planners. With the Workload screen, the planner can see the order picker that is available and use the Warehouse Activities Overview screen to send the order to the hand-held scanner of the picker. The picker can see the products that he has to pick and their location. At the picking location, he scans the desired products to a carrier, registering the picking order. He then takes the carriers to the shipping location and scans the order to the shipping location. At the shipping location, the order is given a SSCC label or shipping label.

Optimisation of Your Picking Process, Thanks to RF Scanning

With the integrated RF scanning solution, you register who packed the items and at what time. This way, you can check the order and timeliness of the process. You can see where errors arose and who is responsible. This enables you to train your employees better and improve your processes.