Production of flowers which does not fully meet the specifications of the market contributes to a serious loss. Almost 50% of problems encountered within the supply chain arise at the airport due to paper work being incomplete; this creates inconsistency, inaccuracy and lack of accountability causing growers to spend excess resources trying to get it right.
While growers strive to deliver to the best standards possible in cool chain management to ensure consistency, good pest management, enhancement of vase life, speed and accuracy in terms of data collection. The process still demands more as it requires heavy investment, professional approach and investment in reliable systems to execute, monitor and assess the success of the cool chain program.
Motivated by these challenges experienced by growers which are: cooling and re-cooling which attracts extra costs, additional of management time which results in high wastage and compromises made to the cool chain’s speed; Muddy boots software designed a comprehensive software to emphasize on quality foundation at pre-harvest, pack house and dispatch points respectively and having the data collected from the three assessment points made available in real time within the system.
How can working with quality control greenlight help supply chain be sustainable?
The software has comprehensive and intense assessment activities which are supposed to be performed at pre-harvest point, pack house and at the dispatch location. During the pre-harvest, workers at the green houses get to monitor the growth of flowers so as to manage the threats caused by pests and diseases enabling them to detect any compromises on the quality in real time so as to get agronomists curb the challenge early enough. Once the data is recorded, they upload to the system and store at the cloud. At the pack house, workers perform quality assessment tests referred to as self assessment before flowers are dispatched and the last assessment is executed at the dispatch point when flowers are loaded to the plane. Recorded data in the system is made visible and available throughout the supply chain. The process creates confidence and trust in the entire supply chain, emphasizes on quality, and complements cool chain management processes, increases shelf life and also thermal degree hours; hence cutting on costs incurred in management of quality and cool chain programs. The software contributes immensely to sustainability because when wastes are reduced, quality increased and data made available and visible in real time then revenue will definitely rise.
Quality control greenlight is the industry architecture with the right capacity to help growers to formally engage data collection capability of their existing army of quality control officers in the flower industry and ensure they harness the increase in data collection realized from the usage of the software in a push to cut wastage and increase revenue.
Benefits of Quality Control Greenlight
Grower- The growers get to integrate quality assessment checks at all levels into their farms so as to ensure that every staff member gets it right when it comes to quality production. Data collection creates confidence and contributes to the farms reputation through being visible and transparent concerning the quality of their flowers. The growers are able to cut on the wastage they incur annually which are approximately 20 million shillings and increase revenue and their recognition in the market.
Retailer- Retailers and customers are able to trace their orders at the point of dispatch because the system will notify them in real time that what they ordered has been completed and dispatched. They will also be assured of quality because of the confidence they already have towards the supply chain.
Kenya Regulators (KEPHIS, FPEAK, KFC) They are able to trace data uploaded to the cloud and get to understand the volume of flowers dispatched from different farms on real time updates, get data on the amount of revenue gained by the government from the exports Furthermore KEPHIS is able to trace quality control assessment data of the farms from the system and compliance which saves on time and costs incurred and in turn speed up the cool chain process.
Call for action
With technological advancement, it is indisputable that we ought to automate the processes within the farm so as to save on the costs, avoid misuse of time and enhance quality management of data. Appreciate the technological milestones that have been achieved, tested and proofed to work successfully in the flower sector by trying quality control greenlight today which is accredited. Get in touch with Muddy boots software to secure a 30 day free trial of the software in your farm.
