Natal Agri, the largest agricultural products manufacturer in KwaZulu-Natal, has contracted QBCON, a Progress independent software vendor (ISV), to develop a management information and trading system (MITS) to address its specific manufacturing needs.
Natal Agri has an animal feed factory that manufactures special feed on order and stocks several product recipes. MITS, a Progress-based, fully integrated repository of modules comprises bill of materials and routing, master production scheduling and material requirement planning, and performs maintenance of the recipes. All 50 of Natal Agri`s business outlets and its departments use the system.
"We chose QBCON after our research showed that the company has extensive knowledge in the manufacturing environment," says Louis de Jager, IT manager at Natal Agri. "To further enhance our competitive-edge, we intend to Web-enable MITS as this will speed up our delivery time to market and improve our customer service."
QBCON integrated MITS with Natal Agri`s existing grain, production and workshop systems. MITS provides Natal Agri with real-time management information and has cut the processing of financial month-end statements from eight days to one. Debtors, which previously took two days, has been reduced to 45 minutes.
Says De Jager: "MITS addresses all the specific requirements we need from a manufacturing system. It helps improve our customer service by providing us with real-time information on stock levels, accuracy in stock orders and stocktaking, which ultimately leads to better stock control."
MITS assists Natal Agri`s branches in planning and scheduling, and provides better stock and delivery estimates which helps in supplying accurate delivery dates to Natal Agri`s customers. In addition, the system helps to more efficiently manage stock requirements, cash needed for stock, and the company`s entire budget.
"Because we are a development house that has extensive knowledge in the agricultural environment, we were able to provide Natal Agri with a system that is customised according to its specific needs," says Gustav Piater, technical director at QBCON. "Our aim is always to add value to our client`s existing offerings and Progress is the ideal platform from which to do so."
"QBCON`s success is due to the professionalism that is always maintained when developing systems for its clients," says Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software SA. "In addition, the fact that Natal Agri receives quality information in realtime will prove to be an enormous cost saving in the future."
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