Located in the heart of Chester County, Pennsylvania—the Mushroom Capital of the World—Buona Foods, Inc. was established on strong family principles. Rosemarie Ferranto, the daughter of Italian immigrants, grew up working on her family’s mushroom farm not far from Buona Foods’ present location. In 1972, Roro, as she is known to friends and family, began supplying local grocers and restaurateurs with mushrooms. Her love of people and her products enabled her business to grow steadily. A few years later, her husband, Robert “Bear” Ferranto joined the company and eventually, their three children – Robert, Peter and Gale – would all join the company, contributing talent and expertise that has helped Buona continue to grow into one of the most prominent mushroom companies in the region.
Like other produce companies (growers, re-packers, and distributors), Buona Foods needed to address the requirements associated with the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI). At the same time, they required a system that would communicate and exchange information (Purchase Orders & Sales Orders) with their QuickBooks Enterprise (QBE) Accounting Software. Being a leader in their industry, Buona Foods made the decision to invest in SG Systems’ Traceability and PTI-compliant Labeling System. The easy-to-use system also utilizes a QBE plug-in that allows data to be exchanged between the QuickBooks and SG databases without human interaction. The interface allows for a more efficient process by allowing data from receiving, through production and all the way to shipping to be collected automatically – and in turn, this automated process reduces errors that are commonly associated with manual data collection.
The PTI-compliant labeling system, which consists of three 15” stainless steel touchscreen terminals, thermal label printers plus 2 Tablet PCs with integrated scanners, allows incoming pallets to be weighed and labeled with information relating to the Lot Number, Product, Supplier, and Weight. All of this information is provided with a human readable label that includes a barcode. Once the processed mushroom arrives at the packaging area, the received mushrooms are packed into various types of sellable finished products. As the products are shipped, traceability is linked back to the packaging process and ultimately all the way back to the inbound lot number.
Receiving – Using a touchscreen terminal that is connected to a floor scale, mushrooms are weighed and information about the delivery is recorded. Purchase Orders that were created within QuickBooks Enterprise (QBE) can be received against. For tare weight purposes, information regarding the type of skid (including the respective weight) and the quantity and type of container is also captured. Information about the supplier, mushroom type, expiration date, weight and storage location is captured electronically. Once the receiving process is complete, the details are sent back to QBE and a pallet label is generated to identify the pallet. At this point, the inventory count is updated.
Production – Utilizing two terminals on the production lines, along with high speed/high volume label printers, Buona Foods can easily identify the lot number of the received mushroom and then select the ‘output’ product which is being packed on the lines. For example, if ‘Whole White Mushrooms’ is the inbound product, the terminals will display all possible combinations for the outbound product, such as 5# sliced, 10# Bulk, etc. The easy-to-use system allows for the operator to make the correct finished product selection. As each box is labeled, inventory is adjusted accordingly. Each case is now PTI complaint with a case end label. In order to control the target weights and reduce unnecessary product giveaway, the terminals can be connected to weighing scales. All labels are GS1-128 compliant with the GS1-128 standard barcode and the barcode labels contain tracking information such as lot number and GTIN (Global Trade Identification Number).
The Mushroom PTI Case labels are compliant with the newly mandated requirements from retailers such as Walmart and Giant Food Stores, who are making an effort to have fully traceable fresh foods from their produce suppliers.
Shipping – As sales orders are entered into the company’s QuickBooks Enterprise Accounting Software, the QBE plug-in automatically transfers the orders to the two Tablet PCs (with integrated scanners) that are connected to the wireless network. The tablet PCs enable rapid picking, packing and shipping. Once the order is complete, the details are returned to QBE for invoicing purposes and delivery notes are automatically printed. The entire delivery is traceable to its original lot number that was received at the dock.
SG Systems is proud to be a part of the “family” tradition at Buona Foods.
Interested in learning how you can identify which inbound products have been delivered to which customers in a short amount of time? Do you need a PTI-compliant labeling system? Please, contact our office for more information.
Source: SG Systems
