NEWSLETTER 2017 / 4th Quarter Providing Software Solutions, Consulting & Services for the Dairy & Food Industries since 1982 DSI LEADERS IN DAIRY & FOOD ERP SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS (continued on page 2) The Future of Milk Procurement is Now ............. 1-2 DSI Welcomes New Staff ........2 Milestones................................. 2 Microsoft Dynamics .................. 3 New Partners ............................ 3 Webinars ................................... 4 DSI Holiday Closings................ 4 this issue A s John approached the intake bay for his shift, he wondered how the day was going to go. Yesterday milk was an adventure after an issue with the plant. There was no way to know if they were going to be slammed with trucks all day, or if the diverted milk had found a home. As he came through the door, he looked up at a screen resembling an airport arrival / departure board to see how the day was proceeding. Much to his surprise, everything seemed normal. He could see five trucks onsite, currently two unloading, one in the wash bay, and four more in transit over the next three hours. This scenario: real time data on individual trucks, updated process flows, estimated time of arrivals on trucks in route, would have seemed like a fairytale just a few years ago. In reality, the pieces are already in place for this system. Just like when you arrive at an airport and check-in, go through security, check your flight schedule and scan your boarding pass, dairy liquids (milk, cream, UF, etc.) can be tracked in any stage throughout the plant. Over the last several years, DSI has invested heavily on tying together the entire procurement chain. Schedules are created for all incoming liquids. Orders are put in for incoming or outgoing dairy liquids. Haulers have phones that can talk to the systems in real- time. They all combine to create the most advanced milk intake system available; ensuring more accurate information, reducing data entry, and establishing better traceability and food safety throughout the entire process. Just like airlines release schedules in advance, the milk scheduling and dispatcher sets a schedule in advance (most customers are weekly) with the producer routes designed to automatically flow into the plant(s) or to customer locations, and then the trucks move in coordination with the schedule. DSI’s DairyHauler phone application allows the hauler to start a route and capture the pickup data in real time – showing when the route is complete and on its way to the plant for delivery The Future of Milk Procurement is Now by Thomas Filak
Transcript
NEWSLETTER 2017 / 4th Quarter
Providing Software Solutions, Consulting & Services for the Dairy & Food Industries since 1982
DSIDSI
DSILE
AD
ER
S IN
DA
IRY
& F
OO
D E
RP
SO
FTW
AR
E S
OLU
TIO
NS
(continued on page 2)
The Future of Milk Procurement is Now ............. 1-2
DSI Welcomes New Staff ........2
Milestones .................................2
Microsoft Dynamics ..................3
New Partners ............................3
Webinars ...................................4
DSI Holiday Closings ................4
this issue
A s John approached the intake bay for his shift, he wondered how the day was going to go. Yesterday milk was an adventure after an issue with the plant. There was no way to know if they were going to be slammed with trucks all day, or if the diverted milk had found a home. As he came through the door, he looked up at a screen resembling an airport arrival / departure board to see how the day was proceeding. Much to his surprise, everything seemed normal. He could see five trucks onsite, currently two unloading, one in the wash bay, and four more in transit over the next three hours.
This scenario: real time data on individual trucks, updated process flows, estimated time of arrivals on trucks in route, would have seemed like a fairytale just a few years ago. In reality, the pieces are already in place for this system. Just like when you arrive at an airport and check-in, go through security, check your flight schedule and scan your boarding pass, dairy liquids (milk, cream, UF, etc.) can be tracked in any stage throughout the plant.
Over the last several years, DSI has invested heavily on tying together the entire procurement chain. Schedules are created for all incoming liquids. Orders are put in for incoming or outgoing dairy liquids. Haulers have phones that can talk to the systems in real- time. They all combine to create the most advanced milk intake system available; ensuring more accurate information, reducing data entry, and establishing better traceability and food safety throughout the entire process.
Just like airlines release schedules in advance, the milk scheduling and dispatcher sets a schedule in advance (most customers are weekly) with the producer routes designed to automatically flow into the plant(s) or to customer locations, and then the trucks move in coordination with the schedule. DSI’s DairyHauler phone application allows the hauler to start a route and capture the pickup data in real time – showing when the route is complete and on its way to the plant for delivery
The Future of Milk Procurement is Now
by Thomas Filak
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It also validates farm information to make sure that the milk manifest data is not only present, but accurate. This real-time integration ensures accuracy on the route, rather than having to change ticket data later. It also allows the schedule to update at the plant, showing the inbound load and the estimated time of arrival for that particular truck – just like checking the arrival/departure screens at an airport.
The truck’s trip from the individual farms is only half of the story. Upon arrival, the truck can be prompted for a route specific security code generated with the schedule to open a gate (if applicable) and receive a unique identifier to allow tracking of the truck during the unloading process. The individual delivery can be followed from its arrival, through testing, scaling or metering, delivery into a specific bay, unloading into a specific silo, truck wash, and out the door. This process and data capture ensures not only silo level traceability, but also enforces elements of FSMA and SQF best practices, creating a fully electronic log of the trucks whereabouts during delivery.
The data allows customers to take a wider look at their delivery process to avoid wait time charges from their haulers, identify areas of improvement in either process or scheduling, and eliminate dependency on data entry during and after intake. The power of this type of system is in both the data and real-time information to make decisions – the scheduler can see what’s happening within minutes of real time to react to plant operations, an opportunity to buy cheap loads due to a neighboring plant’s status, be alerted to warm milk, or see that there is a backlog of trucks at a particular location – just like an air traffic controller at an airport.
2018 promises to push this system even further, with DSI announcing the DairyHauler program will be released on the Android mobile platform in the first quarter. Between iOS (Apple) and Android (Google), DSI’s application will be available on over 90% of consumer smartphones. Taking the concept even further, DSI will be announcing an addition to the procurement suite in the second half of 2018 to allow for farm level inventory – taking milk procurement further down the supply chain than ever before. □
The Future of Milk Procurement is Now
(Continued from front page) by Thomas Filak
DSI Welcomes New Staff Valerie Tribble has joined DSI as our new Office Manager. She has over 17 years of administrative & management experience from all industries and has a farming background from growing up on her family guernsey farm in SE Wisconsin.
Before joining DSI, Valerie spent the last 7 years in the non-profit field at American Cancer Society and Muscular Dystrophy Association. Her time at ACS/MDA really captured her innate need to make clients feel at ease with her personal touches and attention to detail. She would always go above and beyond what is needed.
Valerie lives in East Troy, WI with her husband, David, and their two daughters, Amelia and Delainey. She loves spending time with her daughters in the kitchen baking and working outside in the yard and garden. During the winter months, she and her husband work on their large sports memorabilia collection.
DSI also welcomes Bob Prentki to our Development Team as our Senior SQL Developer. Bob has his MBA in Information Technology from Concordia University Wisconsin and joins DSI with more than 30 years of IT experience across varying industries and corporations. Previously, Bob was a Senior Business Technical Analyst and Senior Developer for a major financial institution in the Milwaukee, WI area where he was continuously identifying improvement, optimization and efficiency opportunities.
Bob is a lifelong Wisconsinite and currently lives in Muskego, WI with his wife, Joan, and their two children, Olivia and Ian. He is a roller coaster enthusiast (to date has ridden 497 different roller coasters), a devoted Disney fan and an advocate in giving back to the community through volunteering.
We welcome Valerie and Bob to our DSI family.
2
The below customers are celebrating a mile marker partnership with DSI in the 4th quarter of 2017.
Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery – 10 YearsFairlife – 5 Years
Thank you for your partnership!
M i l e s t o n e s
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Tips and Tricks for Microsoft® Dynamics GP
1. When creating a purchase order – if you are ordering something from a vendor, that you have ordered before, just copy lines from old purchase orders. In the Purchase Order window > Actions > Copy PO Lines to Current PO OR Create and Copy New PO.
2. If you void an employee paycheck, do not reuse the same check to create a new check. This results in incorrect YTD amounts on the check stub.
3. When entering in a date, assuming you want to enter a date from the current month, just enter in the day. For example: 12/11/2017 – just enter 11. The system will assume the month and year.
4. In the Sales module, there is a Customer Combiner and Modifier utility. If you have to change a Customer ID use this tool. Note: Customer ID’s would have to be changed in GP first, then DSI. Also back up the database and have all users exit GP before trying this. Use a test environment first!
5. In the Purchasing module, there is a Vendor Combiner and Modifier. Note: First back up the database and have all users exit GP for trying this. Use a test environment first!
6. All Dynamics GP installations have access to the Professional Services Tools Library – which may be used by the ‘sa’. This is a group of powerful tools that can be used to modify various master files. As with other powerful tools – back up the database and have users exit GP before using. It is also a good idea to try any of these tools in a test environment.
7. In Management Reporter, the * can be used as a wildcard when working with row dimensions. For example, if you wanted all natural accounts that begin with 4 all you would have to do is indicate 4* in your Link to Financial Dimensions field. □
Microsoft Dynamics® GP“Year-End Closing Checklist”1. Post all batches in all modules
2. Review accounts to verify Balance Sheet accounts and Profit and Loss accounts are properly identified (Can be done in Smart List>Financials>Accounts)
3. Verify GL Setup to ensure Posting to His-tory is marked
4. Run a financial trail Balance as of year-end.
5. Run a set of financial statements for year- end
6. Back-up Dynamics and company database(s)
7. Run Year-End Close routine
8. Close all Fiscal Periods for closed year
9. Create new Fiscal Year
(Note: Article Reference: Microsoft Dynamics® GP Partner Source website.)
New Partners... by Thomas Filak
Milk Source Kaukauna, WI
Milk Source was co-founded in 1999 by UW-Madison graduates Jim Ostrom, John Vosters and Todd Willer, each from multi-generational Wisconsin farm families and traces its roots back to 1965 when a small 30-cow dairy farm was started in Freedom by John’s parents.
Milk Source operates two quality dairies in both Wisconsin and Michigan, producing milk that is used to make cheese, butter and other dairy products. In addition, Milk Source also has a Wisconsin calf farm and a heifer-raising facil-ity. They also own two manufacturing facilities located in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Milk Source is in the process of implementing DSI’s manu-facturing suite at two locations. The focus on both of the projects will be creating better standards for traceability, production of inventory, sales and costing. We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with their team as they continue to expand their diverse agribusiness.
(Source: Milk Source website)
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DSIDSI
DSIData Specialists, Inc.1021 Proctor Drive Elkhorn, WI 53121262.723.5726www.dataspecialists.com RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
DSI 2018 Customer Webinars and new format to be announced Q1 2018 If you are interested in attending a DSI customer Webinar – please contact Valerie Tribble via email at [email protected] or call DSI at 262.723.5726.
As 2017 comes to an end, we would like to thank our customers for their continued business and friendships. Our growth, investment in dairy software products and additional staff, has been exciting and rewarding.
With the ups and downs in the dairy business, DSI realizes the effort it takes to keep your business progressing and we will continue to develop software and services to meet your daily and future needs, to remain profitable and competi-tive in the years to come.
