There are some unique challenges to importing and distributing seafood product that can make it challenging to find a solid ERP system that will meet 90% of their needs out of box. Dealing with Catch weights, tracking product at the lot level, and visibility of inventory position from the packer, on the water, to cold storage unit all the way to the customer are all things that your standard ERP applications just don’t handle.
- Catch Weights-Due to the nature of the way the product is packed, not every case will be the same weight. Most companies will know how many cases they have in inventory and how much weight they have in inventory, but will typically not know the specifics of case weight until they are weighed on the way out the door. When you are selling your product by LB or KG, you need to be able to modify the total quantity shipped after the weight tickets are received and then invoice out the correct quantity and have the remaining inventory reflect the correct quantity (weight and cases) as well.
- Lot Level Tracking-Each shipment you receive in is going to have its own unique lot number(s). Whether the lot numbers are assigned by the packer or the cold storage unit each lot is going to have its own unique expiration/best by date, its own unique logistics information and its own unique costing information.
- Inventory Visibility-When buying product from packers overseas, there are going to be long lead times between the time you place an order with the suppier and when you can actually deliver it to the customer. Using some of VISCO’s unique reporting tools, you will have a picture of what your availability is on a product now, but also forecasted out weeks and months into the future. Based on what you have on hand now, plus what is on the water, plus what you have on order with the Pack Houses, you can compare that to what is sold to customers and what you expect to sell in the coming months based on historical sales.
- Tractability back to the Farm-As consumers become increasingly concerned with where their food comes from, you need to be prepared to answer these questions including traceability all the way back to the farm where the product was harvested. By using VISCO, along with every lot you will have the Packer that you purchased it from as well as the original Farm the product came from.
- Best By Date Alerts-Particularly in the case of fresh product, but also frozen seafood is going to have a best by date in which you need to sell the product. To avoid having to discount your price to get rid of older product, you can utilize the VISCO alert system to get e-mailed Alerts if best by dates are approaching for product in storage so you know you need to move the inventory out.
- FDA Hold Alerts-The unfortunate nature of the business is that some containers will go on FDA Hold so they can be sampled and tested before being cleared. These delays can upset your supply chain and a failure can be expensive. The VISCO system will allow you to set aside product on FDA Hold so it is not included in your inventory and alert you of product that has been on hold for extended periods of time.
- Reporting based on species, size, country of origin, form, fresh vs. frozen, wild caught vs. farm raised-Built in reporting tools allow you to compare sales of fresh vs. frozen product, wild caught vs. farm raised as well as reporting based on country of origin, species, size and form.
- Integration with Trace Register-At the time of this writing, still under construction. VISCO will offer a tight integration with Trace Register allowing for an even deeper level of Traceability that some of the major retailers are now requiring.
