The last couple of years, knowledge and service levels have become increasingly important in the feed industry. Investments put more and more focus on these topics. With BESTMIX Formulation as a Service we offer a cloud based tool that guarantees a good balance between securing a company’s intellectual property and collaborating with all parties involved. Our solution gives access to the IP of your feed organisation, without exposing too much details. The knowledge stays protected within the secured cloud platform, giving details only to authorized users. But there are even more elements you can expect from a feed formulation service…

Smart labelling and recipe models

In a globalising industry the complexity of legislation on food safety, declaration and hazardous materials has grown stronger and stronger. To help our users face these challenges Adifo offers smart labelling tools. These tools enable users across the globe to make fully compliant labels in a completely automated process. Not only labelling, but also the implementation of recipe models makes it possible to validate recipes prior to production on both internal and legal quality standards. Lisam Systems SA is a typical example of the fact that we are constantly looking for partnerships with specialists in the industry instead of trying to reinvent the wheel ourselves. The knowledge of Lisam Systems SA on the declaration of hazardous materials and our knowledge on feed formulation processes guarantee users fully compliant product declarations, and safety data sheets, embedded in the formulation process. This way users can react on the fly during formulation.

How to deal with the volatility of raw material quality

Following up the quality of raw materials is something feed organisations are familiar with. Responding and deciding quickly and accurately on fluctuations in the quality of these raw materials is a different story. Because of this Adifo has developed a software platform that captures quality information of raw materials and transforms it into value for the formulation department. This integration between software for feed formulation and quality control gives more flexibility and accuracy to really deliver the quality that was expected.

Adifo can also make sure that the software is integrated with an Entreprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Via this way, companies can exchange contract details from the purchase department, including the quality of the different contracts with the formulation software. ERP no longer needs to aggregate the contracts, which has proven to be to prone for errors and complex within the ERP. It has even become a contract by contract decision because for every individual contract a decision can be taken by the purchase department not only whether or not to use this contract, but also when to use this contract and at which production location. 

Benefits of an integrated solution

Formulation software is at the heart of your organisation. It’s the central tool that requires and supplies information throughout the supply chain and the production process. The integration of a feed formulation software package with ERP provides insight in the entire business process of a feed company; from the intake of goods, the production of end products and the sales and financial administration up to the quality control throughout the whole chain. Because, even though they can operate standalone perfectly, they have become so dependent on each other that an integrated solution is vital for a flawless operation.

The capitalization of big data and analytics

Because of the global availability of the internet, it is possible to generate a real-time flow of data during the process of feed formulation. So far, the information is used to amend production processes, to recalibrate equipment or to take other corrective actions. Now though, Artificial Intelligence or machine learning-software will also analyse the information coming in and take measures, without any user interaction. This will allow feed organisations to take a more proactive stance rather than a reactive one.

Machine learning bringing more efficiency

Adifo is continuously looking for ways to make feed producers’ work more efficient via machine learning. For example: Changing temperature in a feed mill could trigger a process where the moisture loss during production is controlled and compensated by adding or removing the correct amount of steam automatically.
Another example: During the sales process on an e-commerce website a recommendation engine could suggest items that are likely to be purchased together in the same transaction. A similar system could also be used when a customer places an order over the phone.
Smart solutions like these could even organise production before the orders are received in the company by using order history data. These insights can be gathered by analysing customer buying patterns to predict when someone is likely to place an order. 
These are just two of the examples that show how we work together with feed organisations to research how their business could get the most out of this “big data” and help its customers to be more efficient.

Access to real time information for different parties made simple

The traditional ways of communication such as phone or e-mail are no longer the easiest way for the many involved stakeholders to collaborate in the process of feed formulation. The development of our online platform, BESTMIX Formulation as a Service, makes it possible for all stakeholders to get access to the real time information and react when and where necessary. This online collaboration platform makes cooperation more efficient and effective and results in a stronger awareness of the importance to share and exchange information. By subscribing to information, a recipe, an ingredient, a product, like you would subscribe to a newsletter, users can be informed automatically. The information flow is more efficient since the relevant information is brought to the users whenever needed and they don’t need to go and check on regular intervals.

Expect the unexpected

Managing raw material quality and their prices, optimising recipes, creating labels, communicating products to the mill are all features of a feed formulation system that have become a commodity, they are no differentiator when talking about feed formulation software. This is why suppliers of feed formulation software always need to look ahead and provide answers and solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow.