Direct · Agribusiness
South Australia Potato Company
A family-owned potato grower measures and compares the true cost of waste.
Customer profile
Based in Mount Barker, Australia, the South Australian Potato Company processes more than 60,000 tonnes of fresh potatoes each year. The company employs roughly 100 staff working around the clock to provide quality products to Australian and international consumers. Family-owned and internationally known as a potato grower, packer and marketer.
Situation
The challenges that needed addressing.
Capturing production waste
Harvesting potatoes brings substantial sedimentary by-product: soil, rocks and weeds, representing wasted energy and effort in transport and processing that was difficult to quantify or act on.
No visibility beyond the gate
Limited tracking of product use and wastage once it left the company meant no comprehensive understanding of the full supply chain, including material flows, destinations and costs such as supermarket rejects.
Fragmented data across divisions
Several departments generated data on different systems with no standardised or centralised process, making it difficult to share intelligence or perform analysis across the product life cycle.
Solution
How Empauer helped.
The South Australian Potato Company participated in a Direct pilot study in 2020, leveraging the tool to model and compare the process of packing potatoes into different-sized bags across multiple production runs. Direct's ease of use enabled the company to highlight significant business expenditures going towards waste, and to see the potential of structured data as a long-term tool for business decision-making. When considered on an ongoing basis, Direct could play a key role in determining business decisions across the supply chain.
“Direct is so self-explanatory. It will work with how we do things; we won't have to alter anything.”
Outcomes
What the work delivered.
Visibility into the true cost of waste
Direct identified reducible costs associated with processing weeds, rocks and soil entering the production stage, inputs that represent genuine, addressable waste with clear improvement paths.
Tools to identify efficiency
Contrasting processes gave the company a tool for determining which product or combination of end products results in the most efficient process with the highest value output.
New supply chain insights
Extending Direct across the entire supply chain, including the final product delivered to consumers, could only deepen the company's understanding of cost and income across the chain.
Centralised data opportunity
Previously, gathering data took longer than needed due to disparate systems. Direct helps break down silos and aids communication across divisions, consolidating what was previously spread across many people and systems.
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