SLO County Organics Selects InSync's GREENTrace Food Safety Application To Identify And Track Pallets Of Custom-Ordered Bulk Vegetables From Point Of Harvest To Customer
SLO County Organics, the San Luis Obispo-based specialty grower/harvester of USDA certified organic vegetables, has selected InSync Software, Inc.'s GREENTrace iApp software application to track pallets of fresh produce from harvest throughout its supply chain. The GREENTrace iApp, (built using InSync's award-winning iApp Platform) is being deployed to improve visibility into bulk vegetable production from the point of harvest for each pallet and to provide harvest-in-process data to management in real-time. InSync is delivering GREENTrace as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), allowing SLO County Organics to reduce upfront investment and infrastructure through an OnDemand model.
SLO County Organics, LLC is a specialty grower that produces salad components, including baby spinach and other specialty leafy greens. Customers of SLO County Organics (including Misionero Vegetables, Wild Rocket Foods, Taylor Farms and others) order specific mixes of bulk vegetables and use these for salad mixes and other packaged products. For example, a customer may order a shipment consisting of 80% lettuces, 10% arugula and 10% spinach. Because of this custom ordering process, the management of filling each order becomes a formidable task, requiring precise visibility as to what pallets are being picked, cooled and transported.
SLO Country Organics has worked with Ramsey Highlander, a provider of custom harvesting machinery, for many years. SLO Country Organics uses Ramsey's custom-designed Stainless Steel Baby Leaf Harvester for their spinach and baby leaf products. Based on this relationship, SLO County Organics approached Ramsey with a need for increased visibility and efficiency in its order filling and harvest processes. "SLO County Organics produces many of the specialty greens we eat every day," says Frank Maconachy, CEO of Ramsey Highlander. "Their order and filling process becomes very complicated given the fill-to-order nature of their business, and we wanted to be able to recommend a solution that would simplify and accelerate this process. InSync's GREENTrace does just this, and we were happy to be able to identify this best-in-class solution that has already proven itself in the food industry."
InSync's GREENTrace application will be used by field operators operating an Intermec handheld barcode reader with GPS capability. InSync's application runs on the handhelds, and will allow operators to enter information that is required through the PTI initiative, including grower, ranch (GPS coordinates of harvest point), lot, date, species, variety, GPS, time stamp, and country of origin. As pallets are filled, this information will be associated to each pallet label through the GREENTrace system, and will be available for reference for future recalls, or order inquiry.
In the field, GREENTrace will allow workers to pick custom orders on the fly. Workers will use the handhelds to pick to the order from the system. As Pallets are filled and pallet labels applied, contents are checked off against a specific order. Based on real-time field data, management can determine how much of an order in the system has been harvested, and can easily spot inefficiencies and issues in the filling process related to specific product.
SLO County Organics plans to scale the application once installed to both increase visibility and value of the system. Currently the project is in the initial implementation phase, which will include the automation of pallet label printing in the field, and traceability from the point of harvest (GPS). The next phase of the deployment calls for linking all of the on-farm input documents, (i.e. fertilizers, water quality information, pre-harvest inspections, etc) with the harvest in process, so that all of the information can be supplied to partners or the FDA for quick response to audits.
The process is also scoped to include future enhancements to track produce from the point of harvest, to loading in refrigerated trucks and through to the point of customer delivery. This enhancement will include the incorporation of temperature tracking, and time fencing for freshness and quality assurance. The final phase will involve integrating GREENTrace with QuickBooks so that GREENTrace will automatically generate the bill of lading, send an ASN to the customer and update billing.
"We are very excited to be working with SLO County Organics through our industry partner Ramsey Highlander," says Ashish Chona, CEO of InSync Software. "It's very rewarding to see our GREENTrace iApp continuing to be leveraged by the leaders in the fresh food industry to increase visibility, adhere to industry initiatives such as the PTI and overall provide safer foods for Americans as a whole. I think this application also proves that our SaaS/OnDemand model is an ideal fit for this industry – in which upfront investment into licenses and hardware can hinder adoption of newer technologies."
About InSync Software, Inc.
InSync Software, Inc. provides the fabric for the world's leading RFID, GPS, and sensor-driven food safety software applications. InSync's renowned GREENTrace iApp allows customers in this industry to rapidly develop and deploy track-and-trace applications to locate and track fresh and processed foods, improve operational efficiencies, and manage risks. GREENTrace combines sensory data, mobile technologies and enterprise information (via ERP, WMS, etc.) to actively manage product regardless of its location. For more information, visit www.insyncinfo.com
SOURCE: InSync Software, Inc.