How Aviko Automates and Optimizes the Potato Chain with Agrio

Aviko serves both the consumer market and professional kitchens, as well as the food industry. For the administration surrounding potato reception and for the potato purchasing process at the 10 factories, Aviko uses the solutions from Axelio, Agrio.

IT in Every Process

"Every process within Aviko involves IT," begins Jules de Vries, Business Process Consultant at Aviko, his story. "Aviko has two major branches: potato purchasing, which falls under Aviko Potato, and the processing factories, which fall under Aviko. Especially the potato purchasing uses the solutions from Axelio. They are really two different worlds with a boundary at the factory gate."

25 Years of Collaboration

"We came into contact with Axelio when we started looking at standard packages about 25 years ago. Back then, it was still recorded on paper how many trips a farmer had, and at the bottom line, a total was recorded in Excel with a price. We are talking about 25 years ago, so that could have been more professional. We wanted to bring more structure to the administration, and then an ERP package was purchased."

Flexible Solution

"Every ten years, we evaluate whether the solution we are using still fits us. We check if Microsoft Dynamics still meets our needs, and eight years ago, we turned back to Axelio because we had good experiences with the Level team and later Axelio. We chose Microsoft Dynamics again because it is more flexible than SAP. We have quite a bit of customization for Aviko; within SAP, we would be able to do that less quickly. That makes Microsoft Dynamics super efficient for us."

Customization

"The automatic settlement of potato reception is customized and quite special. But also the price corrections, we automatically account for quality premiums, weighing costs, bonuses on tubers per kilo. This is very specific to agriculture and potato-oriented. We receive potatoes in all shapes and sizes. Small, large, thick, or long and thin. That is a quality aspect; if the quality is good, you get a higher price. Many of these checks are done automatically, which saves a lot of labor."

Fair Price

"At Aviko, we believe that a farmer deserves a higher compensation if the quality of the potato is better than that of another farmer. It's about a fair price, ideally as independent of human judgment as possible. In a human inspection, one quality inspector could assign a higher price than another quality inspector. Completely eliminating manual work is not possible, but we can reduce it significantly. The price is not only fair in terms of weight but also in terms of control."

Different Contract Forms

"We also work with different contract forms compared to our competitors. The standard contract form is paying a fixed price for a potato, but we also have contract forms where we say: we buy your potatoes, but we do not yet know what price we will pay. That price is then dependent on, for example, the entire price formation during the entire season. It is also possible to speculate on the stock market; this fry guarantee price is also a contract form. We then offer a floor price, but you share in the profits if the stock market prices are very high."

Efficiency through Automation

"The different contract forms require specific IT processes, but thanks to automation, we can settle all potatoes delivered with two to three people. That is very efficient, because in just one factory in Steenderen, we receive 100 trucks per day. Each truck delivers about 35,000 kilos of potatoes, and that is just one factory, and we have eleven! The trucks are automatically weighed and linked to a license plate. The taring also goes automatically, so we know exactly how much soil is with the potatoes and what sizes the potatoes have. The potatoes are then settled weekly and per farmer."

Production Planning

"This is not the only thing we have automated together with Axelio, formerly Newminds. Think also of the planning of the transport companies that pick up the potatoes from the farmers. We plan trips for eleven factories from farmer to factory. We instruct to pick up the potatoes at a certain time and deliver them at a specific factory at a certain time. The factories request a certain number of truckloads per day and can also indicate which varieties they want and at what times they want to receive the potatoes."

Grower Portal

"For the farmers, Axelio has also created the grower portal. As soon as a truck leaves the farm of a farmer and is inspected, the farmer can see the quality data of that load ten minutes later. A farmer, or grower, can thus already track his loads himself. We want to make everything transparent, even the ecological footprint. The latter is still in its infancy, but we are making great strides throughout the entire chain."

Applications

In addition to ERP, we also provide portals and apps to Aviko. For example, there is a field service app for registering samples at the grower, and a sprout registration app.

We also played an important role in 2021 during the commissioning of Aviko's newest factory in Belgium by providing the factory with the correct supply data and automatically controlling the test lane as soon as a truck is unloaded with acceptance and transport samples.

Structural Collaboration

"The collaboration is very good; we have been working structurally together one day a week for years. We meet weekly with one or two programmers from Axelio. We look at new innovations we want to develop, but we also sometimes have a problem that we look at together. Or when new laws and regulations are introduced, we need to incorporate this into our IT solutions as well. Aviko may not always be at the forefront of innovations, but our human collaboration and willingness to solve issues are important aspects of our partnership. That is one reason why the collaboration has lasted so long. Axelio knows the agricultural market well, and that is quite special."