In horticulture in the Netherlands, there is ever-increasing attention to the digitalization of processes. With the data that is collected, businesses gain insight into production, stock, labor and planning. OK Plant uses Codema SDF software and analyzes the collected data to gain insight into their daily operations. The goal is to allow management decision-making to be better considered and to be of better service to customers. Since recently, OK Plant has been using SDF Datawarehouse to present the data visually during internal meetings or in discussions with customers. Thijs van der Valk, Manager at OK Plant, explains in the video how they do this.
Good insight into daily operations
The family business OK Plant was founded by Rob and Desiree Olsthoorn in 1990. They cultivate various seasonal products and 9 centimeter phalaenopsis all year round. Thijs van der Valk works every day with SDF software. He states: “The world is changing rapidly and we work more digitally all the time. We now collect a great deal of data in SDF software and use Datawarehouse from SDF to present the data visually attractively in dashboards. We now have extremely good insight into our daily operations. We present the dashboards to customers and during internal meetings. This allows us to see clearly the numbers we still have to sell and when we have to accelerate or conversely apply the brake. This also allows us to be less dependent on the clock because we have surpluses less often.”
Better labor planning
Thijs van der Valk explains how the data helps in the planning of production and labor: “The prognosis figures that we enter into SDF are displayed in dashboards. These contain data such as totals, price levels and the different families of orchid. This allows the various departments to see how much we have to produce per day or week or to deliver. This gives insight to our delivery managers. The dashboards also help in the planning of labor. If we have sold too much for Monday, we can organize in advance that we start at 6 o’clock rather than 7, or that people are added to the packing line. This means we can stop on time, and our customers receive their goods on time, because ‘just in time’ is becoming ever more important.
Serving customers better
“In SDF Datawarehouse we create customer reports that we share with our customers once a month. This lets them be up to date about turnover, increases and any decreases. We also tell them about new products that are coming on to the market at that time, because we cultivate seasonal products. We now also link up with customers more quickly whenever we see an increase or decrease. Then we start discussion with our customers about whether we can convert a decrease into an increase. We’re very transparent to our customers. This has become our way of doing business and it also allows closer cooperation. We now don’t have to turn away sales so often and we can serve our customers better.”
Fewer mistakes
“SDF Datawarehouse gives us good insight into our daily operations in the areas of stock, sales and labor planning. We can deliver better to our customers and we make fewer mistakes. We’ve become less dependent on particular sales channels. We work closely together with the Codema SDF consultant. He listens to us and cooperates with us, and translates this into useful dashboards.”
For more information:
Codema Systems Group
Oosteindsepad 8
2661 EP Bergschenhoek
The Netherlands
+31105212755
info@codemasystemsgroup.com
www.codemasystemsgroup.com