In Conversation with Senior INECTA ERP Consultant

INECTA recently sat down with one of its senior ERP consultants, Ruth Lestina, to discuss what customers seem to really appreciate about INECTA's ERP offerings. Ruth Lestina is a highly knowledgeable consultant who has been working with INECTA’s customers for quite some time, and she knows exactly what makes them tick. Her expertise gives her invaluable insight into what businesses are sorely lacking in their current form of enterprise resource planning, and what they desperately need in order to jumpstart their process productivity.

Ruth has worked extensively with INECTA customers, guiding them through the implementation process and ensuring that their business is running smoothly and according to plan post-implementation. For INECTA Food customers, it has become all too apparent that certain system features stand out for customers more than others and have become absolute catalysts for businesses. The same can be said for customers of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, whose appreciation for the multiple features and functionalities of the software exceeds expectations. One feature in particular always seems to be highlighted as an absolute life-saver for businesses and that is the Lot Traceability feature.

As we’ve mentioned previously in our conversations with both Sea Delight and JBL Foods, Lot Traceability is an absolute must-have, and Ruth has also noticed how important it is for customers within most food-related industries. “So basically, the common elements that people care very passionately about in the food space that I have run into that INECTA Food provides is the additional layers of lot tracking. The added ability functions, being able to add things like country of origin and other attributes at the lot level, that's a biggie. The whole expanded lot granules, all of that is big. And the case management functionality and the fully landed costs at the lot and item level is a big one. Being able to under and over receive is pretty universal in the food space especially in the seafood space, not necessarily all food, like Voss doesn't have that and Frederick Wildman doesn't really have that, but everybody who works with seafood or variable weight products needs to over and under receive, and that's a biggie.” Continuing on the importance of Lot Traceability, “With INECTA’s lot traceability feature, there is an easy one-click screen where if my vendor says I'm recalling Lot A, I can see “do I have it in my warehouse.” “Have I shifted it to a customer?” “Have I incorporated it into other finished goods and shipped those goods to customers with customers, and on what day?”

Ruth has worked diligently with our customers to tap into how and why lot traceability is so important for businesses, for example, INECTA customers CATSMO and Blue Harvest. She took the time to break down the logistics of the lot tracking process and how customers reap the benefits of this essential software feature. We asked her to break it down for us so that even a complete novice with no prior knowledge of Lot Traceability could understand clearly and without confusion, and Ruth most certainly obliged us.

“In the normal course of working with lots, when the customer receives a shipment from a vendor, they're going to scan a barcode or occasionally type in a number designating what lot that particular box of raw fish is, or what tub. They'll say unload a boat, Blue Harvest unloads a boat with a tub of raw seafood. Everything that comes off that boat that day is automatically a lot tied to that trip number. That is automatically created. On the other hand, CATSMO gets a pallet full of frozen seafood that is from a company like Blue Harvest that would be outputting that in the supply chain. Next, CATSMO gets a box of frozen seafood that has already been pre-stamped with a lot number on it, okay? CATSMO and Blue Harvest exist in the same supply chain. So say Blue Harvest discovered that there was a problem with the fish that came off a particular boat on a particular day, for them they can then go and type in that lot number, that day's catch from that boat into the software and it will show them what they still have in their warehouse, if anything, or what has gone to what customer. Somebody like CATSMO may have received some of that fish. Perhaps Blue Harvest is their vendor and Blue Harvest says to CATSMO, “Hey, we have a recall on fish with lot number ABC.” CATSMO can then go and type that into our interface and it will show them exactly where that is in their process. Is some of it currently being smoked? If some of it has already sent to some of their customers. So, everybody when they receive a fish in this example, they label what they get from where with a lot number. And if they're not the ones that actually caught the fish, that lot number is usually coming from whoever did catch it. And then if there's a recall or a problem they can see where that came from and ditto through the manufacturing like if a CATSMO discovers that one of their machines is contaminated with biological contaminants and they have to do a recall. They just need to know when it was processed and what lot number it was, and they can see automatically in our software where that bad stuff is so they can notify appropriate customers so they can pull it from the appropriate spots in the warehouse. But the lot tracking part, they just use that in the normal course of their business. Anybody in the seafood industry is going to understand lots. Anybody in the food industry is going to understand lots and recalls."

No one wants to face the harsh reality of a product recall. That much can be said with little to no debate. However, having the ability to swiftly deal with a product recall is something that not every company can boast. INECTA’s Business Central customers and INECTA Food customers are afforded this luxury and are immediately given this superpower right out of the box with zero customization necessary. It’s a nasty business, having to retrace your steps to stamp out the root of a problem that could potentially harm customers and deal a heavy blow to a business both on the fiscal and PR front. But that old adage of “better safe than sorry” could not be more applicable in this scenario. Food companies of all kinds are no stranger to the threat of recalls, and that is exactly why they count on the efficiency and accuracy of INECTA’s Microsoft-powered solutions to get the job done right every single time.

We want to thank Ruth for taking the time to speak with us and helping us understand the overwhelming importance of this feature. To learn more about some of the customers mentioned in this interview, please visit Blue Harvest and CATSMO.