Adifo is known around the industry as a real innovator. We are constantly improving and developing upon our BESTMIX Software, with both the help of our consultants, and with the input of our users around the globe. This allows us to release 1 or 2 new versions of BESTMIX^® each year. Every new release is jam-packed with a bunch of new features and benefits. Here a list of what’s new in the latest release of BESTMIX, version 3.33:

With BESTMIX Multiblend, you can deal with different challenges. On one side, you have the formulation managers whose goal is to steer the mill and to drive production. Because there is an increasing amount of formulas and a continuously changing environment, the formulation manager wants to optimize the formulas in one go and wants to deliver a quick optimal solution. The second type of challenge is for the procurement manager whose goal is to manage the raw material planning. He or she needs to be able to quickly evaluate his or her buying opportunities and allocate the ingredients at the right time and the right place. If you want to learn more about the usage of Multiblend, I can refer to our Multiblend webinars that you can download from our website.

In BESTMIX version 3.33, we moved the Multiblend functionality to a separate application. All relevant Multiblend information such as forecast lists, ingredient stock lists and pool contracts were also moved to this application. The ingredient pricelists on the contrary are available in both applications. This change allows you to have the BESTMIX main application and the Multiblend environment open at the same time, allowing you to do a Multiblend optimisation for a certain plant and still adjust formulas in singleblend for formulas not used in that Multiblend job. Resulting in more efficiency.

The second fine-tuning in Multiblend has to do with identifying the new version as either an active version or an inactive one. When products are created during the Multiblend rounding it is not always desirable to make them active as well (which was until now the default behaviour). Therefore, we added a checkbox at the bottom of the Multiblend rounding window to enable/disable this option. Resulting in more flexibility.

2. Get introduced to 'Multiblend Premium Service'

Multiblend Premium Service offers a cloud based optimisation solution for big Multiblend jobs where the complexity in the usage of constraints is high, such as using priority rules, step values, minimal inclusion, combination rules and pool contracts. A first big benefit is that it is cloud based, so you do not need to invest in servers with high calculation capacities. A second big benefit is the ideal performance results you can achieve for those kind of jobs.

Below you will find a practical example, showing you the premium performance capabilities of Multiblend Premium Service. If you want to learn more about this offering, you can always contact us for more information.

3. Look at the real product composition (taking into account dosing parameters) during optimisation

When formulating and making changes to an existing formula, it is useful to be able to see what the current optimization result would look like if the compound was rounded,

• without creating a product
• without saving the compound

Therefore, a new icon is now available in the compound toolbar, called virtual rounding. When clicking this button, a new window opens up where you can compare the optimization result, the virtual rounded result and the active product for the

• Price
• Composition
• Composition

Virtual rounding behaves identically to normal rounding, meaning that all rounding concepts are applied, such as adding extra product ingredients.

This gives the formulator the opportunity during optimisation to compare via a simple click the active production result with the newly optimisation result whilst already taking into account the rounding parameters.

4. Work with the new premix management extensions to have a more accurate & easy recipe design

First of all, we optimised the UI when optimizing a premix.  Before, you could select or unselect the “change values” check box when changing the inclusion rate of a premix. However, this description was sometimes confusing and not as easy to understand. Therefore, the “Change values” checkbox has been modified into a combo box with two options:

• Update premix constraints when the inclusion rate changes
• Update end-product constraints when the inclusion rate changes

This is much clearer and simpler to understand for the end-user, resulting in an easier recipe design.

Below you can find a practical example based upon the nutrient Density. Here you see that the value on premix level is 86. When we toggle to endproduct, you see that the value is the same. The other nutrients are on the contrary recalculated.

5. Benefit from the performance improvements

In the new version, we have achieved some nice performance improvements. First of all, Multiblend optimisations will now go about 30% quicker than before. We have downgraded this improvement towards version 3.31. So starting from version 3.31, you can benefit from this change.

The second performance improvement is at the level of report generation when doing a Singleblend rounding. When finishing the rounding process, the generation & saving of reports such as cost reports or blend orders will take 25-50% less time per report. To give you a practical example, we have tested a case at Adifo where the generation of the cost report went from 3,5 s towards 1,9 s

6. Use extensions on Push/pull functionality to have a more automated modelling solution

With compound modelling it is possible to define certain compounds as models useable for other compounds. The model compound can be legislation like for example in pet food the Fediaf regulation, but can also be a template or framework from Product Management that you wish to use when creating a new diet. There a lot of business cases applicable. More information about these cases can be found in a previous webinar thatyou can download from our website.

Now, in BESTMIX 3.33, we have fine-tuned this modelling concept leaning more towards an automated modelling solution. When BESTMIX updates a model, the push process can be automatically started when this checkbox is activated. You will get a notification when saving the changes in the model. When you use Multi-push and as a result other compound models are also effected, the program prompts you to continue immediately with the Multi-Push, as you can see here: