ServiceAtWork powers Hi-tech Tom'ees
The words High-Tech and Tomatoes don’t normally sit within the same sentence, however tomato growing company d’Vineripe of South Australia, leave no technology stone unturned when producing vine trussed tomatoes.
d’Vineripe operate one of Australia’s largest tomato greenhouse just north of Adelaide. Not surprisingly, the numbers are impressive. The greenhouse covers 8 hectares, houses nearly 300,000 plants, and produces more than 4,000 tonnes of tomato varieties per year. The greenhouse uses the latest in water recycling and horticulture technologies to grow truss tomatoes across the year and bring these to bowls and sandwiches across the country. Apart from using advanced growing techniques, they also sought a better method than pen and clipboards to manage worker tasks and time sheeting.
|
|
Who, What, Where and When
FieldAtWork, were engaged to deliver a solution to measure the core task elements of “Who, What, Where and When”. Who did the task, what type of task, where was it completed and when.
“As our company was a start up we have now been able to identify and benchmark our current operational activities within the Glasshouse, more cost effectively versus other solutions available within the marketplace”
Anthony Evans, Financial Controller
d’Vineripe Pty Ltd
|
The solution, based on FieldAtWorks’ ServiceAtWork platform, provides each worker with a rugged Tracient RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) scanner paddle. The worker starts the day by scanning their unique ID tag, then as they move about the greenhouse completing tasks they scan the tag of the row and a tag related to 1 of 8 possible task types. When they complete the task or move to another row they repeat the scan process.
|
The information from the scanner is downloaded to the ServiceAtWork computer daily. ServiceAtWork collates the data which is then available as a handy Excel spreadsheet. This includes the individual details of each task as well as the summary of time spent on tasks and individual worker timesheets.
|
The simplicity of the system is the cornerstone of its usability. Vine workers tend to be low skilled migrant workers with little technology experience. So the process of monitoring tasks has to be easy to train and use. The RFID scanners operate with a single button press and are well suited to the greenhouse as they are moisture and dust resistant. Similarly the RFID tags are sealed, highly visible ‘buttons’ about the size of a coin. It doesn’t take long for a worker to get accustomed to the scanning when they move row or start a new task.
|
“Our plans were to initially monitor the workforce, to ensure compliance to our crop-management program, and then use it to find areas where more training and development are required”
Anthony Evans, Financial Controller
d’Vineripe Pty Ltd
|
Apart from providing time sheeting data, the system provides valuable information on the cumulative and average times to complete tasks, this is compared to benchmark values and used to further reduce task time and labour costs.
So when you next approach the salad bar, spare a thought for the humble, yet hi-tech tomato before you.
|