Frits has worked in the industry for many years and his day job is plant buying at Van der Plas. Van der Plas is part of the Floral Trade Group, comprising several companies, each with its own separate customer focus. Frits' role within FTG involves implementing Floriday for their procurement process. He too sees many opportunities in unlocking more transport information through Floriday.
Overcapacity and uncertainty about orders
Floral Trade Group sells stock to customers before it has been purchased on Floriday. A tightly organized logistics process plays an essential role in this. Frits: "The uncertainty from this way of working means we often have too many people. This comes at a high cost. It would really help us to know beforehand when an order is going to be delivered, so capacity can be adjusted accordingly."
Frits: "We get deliveries from 100 growers every day. Overall, this works incredibly well. Usually, we only need to chase up 1–3 orders to see where they are. An order might be arriving late, for instance. If we know about this in advance, we can take action in time and still offer the end customer what we have agreed. Understanding when orders are going to be delivered and being able to adapt in time when things go wrong are two key areas where transport information can play a valuable role."
System learning based on historical data
Frits sees many opportunities from adding Track & Trace information on Floriday. "Using this data, we can feed into our own planning system. Based on historical data, we can predict the circumstances where mistakes are more likely to happen. We can also monitor our logistics performance better. Quality is paramount in what we supply, but logistics people waiting for something to do costs a lot of money. Based on this data, we can deliberately choose specific growers who make things easier for us."
Fewer phone calls
By now Frits knows everyone who answers the phone at the transport companies, he says with a laugh: "Surely it would be nice if these people could be doing other work elsewhere in the business. Track & Trace can be very helpful in keeping us up to speed. If we can then also predict things better based on historical data, I won't be reaching for the phone quite so often.
For more information:
Floriday
www.Floriday.io