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Minutes or hours is the difference in unloading an entire truck of fresh produce – it all comes down to the goods having accurate, scannable barcodes.
Braydon Cocks, Sales Product Specialist – iDSnet & LPA Solutions with Matthews, said, “It’s a vast difference, but that is the difference that correct coding makes.
“When you think how many trucks of fresh produce go into a DC daily, that time difference between checking produce straight in, or then spent laboriously correcting labelling errors, quickly becomes a significant number.
“The incorrect labelling issue isn’t just a problem at the DC: a supplier who doesn't have correctly coded and labelled produce will be overlooked in preference for those who do, so it makes commercial sense for all parties.”
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Some 18 months ago, Matthews began working collaboratively with Woolworths Group Supply Chain and GS1 Australia to identify supply-chain points for improvement and resolve coding and labelling errors for fresh produce. The ensuing solution, based on Matthews’ non-proprietary software, was then thoroughly beta tested.
The result of this R&D is iDSnet Cloud, a simple-to-use, cloud-based printing tool that generates and prints carton, crate and SSCC labels.
Mark Dingley, Matthews CEO, said, “We’re now really proud to launch this solution for Australia’s fresh produce sector at Hort Connections in Brisbane, on June 6-9.”
Mr Dingley said importantly, the iDSnet Cloud software is free.
Braydon Cocks says iDSnet Cloud is simple to use.
“Since it’s recent beta launch, the platform has already generated more than 160,000 labels online.
“The software is free, and accessed via the cloud, so all fresh produce manufacturers need is a printer that can run Zebra Programming Language. If it can run ZPL, then it can run iDSnet Cloud, but if manufacturers are new and don't have a printer, or want to upgrade, we offer packages to do it all.
“On the iDSnet Cloud page on the Matthews website, we’ve created step-by-step videos on how to set yourself up right from the beginning, so links to the coding needed – Java and QZ Script – and then bite-sized instructions on what to do.”
Mark Dingley said iDSnet Cloud had been specifically designed for fresh produce manufacturers supplying into Woolworths, with the retailer’s new tray and carton label format supported along with SSCC Pallet labelling.
“However we realised what iDSnet Cloud could achieve was so important, that any Australian manufacturer will be able to use the tool online for free for standard carton GTIN and SSCC pallet barcoding requirements.
“iDSnet already manages coding and labelling across more than 1,000 production lines throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific region; from what we’re seeing, the government’s and industry targets for Australia’s fresh produce sector to improve traceability are driving demand for Australian-made package code management software.”
Braydon Cocks said, “iDSnet Cloud is a simple-to-use tool, it’s easy to manage, and manufacturers know that the format is going to be 100% compliant for Australia’s major retailers because Matthews developed it in collaboration with the retail sector. Making it free, is really just Matthews giving back to the industry. And we’re very proud to do that.”
To check out the software, please visit: https://www.matthews.com.au/idsnet-cloud