Standard Process Inc.

Inventory Management with a Zap of a Gun

April 2006 News From The Farm SP News Article

Christine Mason,
Farm Manager

One of the many things that make Standard Process unique is our ability to control the quality of our raw vegetables by growing them ourselves. This creates the need for a very large warehouse full of a multitude of produce, and a means of tracking our inventory of produce. In the past, we kept our inventory amounts current by updating the computer system at the main plant, and the counting was completed manually with our feet, eyeballs, and a calculator. We now have a new inventory system at the farm!

Our maintenance department recently put a tower on our warehouse roof and installed antennas inside our buildings. This, along with a complex computer program, allows us to enter our entire inventory by pallet location with a simple zap of a scan gun. I am anticipating this system will prove to be more efficient. Our warehouse has 582 pallet locations, and at times, it was not easy to find the last lonely pallet of Brussels sprouts. We always knew how many pounds of carrots, for example, were in the warehouse from each batch, but we never knew exactly where it was. With this system, when the Mixing department calls to let us know that they need beet flour, for instance, we know exactly where to drive the forklift to retrieve the first beets made last year. Although we always did our best, this system will guarantee that the first ingredients stored are the first ingredients used.

It has been a very grey winter here. In January, we had a record 17 days straight where we never saw the sun. It is cold, dark days like these when you could use a little humor in your life. I think watching a bunch of farmers try to jump into the computer era provided our IT department with a few laughs!