Earlier this year, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association hosted a webinar, The Future of Food and Agriculture.
David Guthrie and Marc Low of KPMG Canada presented their predictions for what the next two decades may have in store for the fresh produce industry and specifically the processing and distribution of fresh produce. CPMA members can watch it here: https://community.cpma.ca/member-resources/webinars
How Technology Will Change The Way We Produce Food
Triggered by the world’s growing population, the demand for sustainable food production, and threats to global food security, it’s technology like Produce Inventory Control System (PICS) software that will change the way we produce, sell, buy, and consume food in the future.
Food production, supply chain (track and trace), the customer experience (traceability), workplace automation, and employee demands are all critical factors for the next 20 years. At WaudWare, we’re committed to bringing the future into focus. Here are the improvements we made to our award winning software for the fresh produce industry last month.
- Changed the code when you duplicate a customer or vendor to blank the Alpha Sort. We think this is better than leaving it with what was there in case a user doesn’t change to what it should be. If it is left blank, it will be filled with the left part of the customer name anyway.
- Added a new system control for what we call “Scan Mode“. If this system control is set to ON or OFF a scan mode button will appear on the Sales Order Shipping screen. The button can be used to enable or disable scan mode when entering shipment data. If it is ON, then the cursor will land in the lot # field each time a new line is to be added to the shipment. Using a USB style barcode reader, the user can scan a barcode on a PICS Stock label (assuming that the barcode contains the lot #) and PICS will determine the stock # from the lot # and auto-fill the stock item being shipped against. Note that if that item is on two or more sales order lines, PICS will pop a list asking the user to choose which line from the sales order they want to use for the shipment line they are adding. If scan mode is OFF, then the screen will act as usual, and the stock # will need to be entered first. The reason we have a button on the screen is because a user may or may not want to use scan mode for a given shipment, or perhaps for adding but not editing, etc. The button allows them to turn it on or off as they desire. If the system control is left (at the default setting of) blank, the button will not appear. Note that this will not work if sales order substitution is on.
- Added a new system control for the stock code for Pallets. If this is filled, when a user clicks the Ship Button on the Sales Order screen, PICS will check to make sure there is a line on the sales order c/w a qty shipped for that stock code. If there is no line, or if there is no quantity shipped, the user will not be able to change the sales order to a Shipped status.
- Added a new “Ask Before Printing Sales Order” system control. If it is set to the default of Y, when a user prints a sales order, PICS will first bring up a “Do you wish to print this Sales Order?” question. If you set this to N, then PICS will print without asking. Some users may want this set to N to make printing a little bit faster.
The Future of the Fresh Produce Industry Is Now
Explore PICS – software for the fresh produce industry – and get a PICS software demo your way today. Browse all the continuous improvements we’ve made here: https://www.produceinventory.com/blog/category/latest-pics-features/
OPMA Award Nominations are Now Open!
Each year, the produce industry in Ontario honours individuals and organizations for their outstanding accomplishments and contributions to our great industry.
The OPMA is accepting nominations for five different awards:
- Cory Clack-Streef Produce Person of the Year Award
- OPMA Fresh Award
- OPMA Outstanding Achievement Award
- OPMA Lifetime Achievement Award
- Produce Hero
Click for the easy to complete nomination form and award criteria. Why not take a moment to consider nominating deserving individuals you work or interact with. You don’t have to nominate a person for every award. Nominations close October 21, 2022.