Exotic Fruit Importers Limited Network Systems - Case Study Example

Management Report Exotic Fruit Importers Limited Network Systems Outlining a revised Network Infrastructure: Exotic Fruit Importers Limited has been into the trade for more than 20 yrs now. With its head office at East Midlands the company is divided into six major divisions, each headed by a Director. The Michael Davenport, the Managing Director is a man with a relaxed style who gives his department heads considerable autonomy in running their sections, provided the corporate objectives are met. For a small organization this could be a perfect approach, but for a larger organization some procedures and conventions have to be worked out. This type of carefree approach creates a serious problem when the man in command of a department, who knows all the ins and outs of the department, decides to leave the company and for the new incumbent to the post it becomes a problem to understand the business and networking procedures. This doesn't mean that the MD has started doubting the integrity of Directors. It simply means that to run an organization effectively and efficiently certain conventions and procedures are to be followed. Having 'many' LANs and many 'known' and 'unknown' computers within a department does not give reflection of a professional approach. Development of an integrated approach encompassing safe growing, harvesting, processing and retail/foodservice handling practices from farm to table required a real time information network with effective means of enhancing fresh fruits safety. Today we are in the 'information age', which effectively means 1. We have plenty of sources of information. 2. We cannot survive in this fierce world of competition, without credible information and analysis. It can be safely said that, 'Information is power! It is an asset that can help overcome uncertainty and open new avenues for opportunity. Any business can make fullest use of the information if it reaches the right person, at the right time, in the right format. This requires a dependable backbone in the form of an Information Network. Real time networking arrangements are required not only for Information Management at the headquarter end, but it is required for the procurement, storage, distribution, order confirmations, consignment tracking etc. For example some fruits are chilling injury sensitive requiring warm weather growing conditions. Warm humid conditions may favor human pathogen persistence and increase wildlife pest pressure and activity. Many wildlife species (birds, insects, amphibians and snakes) are known to be potential carriers of human pathogens. Heavy rains may also cause certain fruits like melons to be covered with soil due to rain splashing. All this updated stuff has to be communicated to the workforce in the field so that the information can be translated into the practical solution. Therefore to start with; There has to be no "unofficial" PC. As is apparent from the company's policy, the MD wants all computers to be network enabled therefore all computers can be networked to access 'relevant' data from the central server. The present policy appears to be to connect all PC's to the company's network in order to provide all personnel with access to corporate data. To start with not all persons are required to access all the information all the time. Therefore if the 'sales' team is provided with 'procurement' data all the time, it will be redundant for the sales team. Therefore the networking must be done in such a fashion that only relevant data is accessed by the relevant department. This will have a dual benefit, first the unconcerned departments won't be inundated with redundant data and secondly, speed of the network will be reasonably good enough. In case there's a need for one department to communicate some info to the other department (which will of course be required), it can be routed through the central server, so that it leaves a logging into the central server for monitoring and subsequent follow up. The company's corporate network is made up of a number of dedicated Local Area Networks (LANs) implemented in the functional areas of the business but 'linked' to head office. That means if one functional area is to get in touch with other functional area, it has to be routed thru the head office only. That means during the peak communication period the network becomes very slow because the gateway thru head office has its own limitations. For the networking to be effective all LANs must form a WAN (Wide Area Network), so that the communication can be routed through alternative routes. Of course there has to be secure administrative passwords to access the WAN. The organization chart will take good care of the hierarchical needs. For real-time updates the company's network must also get regular feeds from other concerned departments/ agencies of the government and similar organizations. The food sector is an important sector in most economies and encompasses parts of the chemical industry which provides inputs to farms as the primary food producers, various types of processing industry, trading companies and the food retail sector. So respective governments do have a mechanism in place to regulate this sector. This will help in strengthening the supply chain. Supply chain management as such can be defined as "a network of connected and interdependent organizations mutually and cooperatively working together to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end users". Similarly the distribution network can be strengthened if real-time tracking of the consignment trucks is made possible by the network. For this the trucks will need to be GPRS enabled so that there exact location can be tracked. This way if sometime an order is cancelled or there's a report of the land route closure or some other important communication is to be passed on to the truck carrying the consignment, it can be easily passed on to the truck within real time. These steps will definitely help in further boosting the image and market standing of EFI. Network Infrastructure for supporting the Soups and Juicing operations Typical operations used in converting raw fruits and vegetables to Soups and processed- ingredients for packaging and preservation or prior to a further heat treatment processing are as follows: Washing the fruit/ vegetables Sorting i.e. removal of partially or completely decayed fruit/ vegetable is the most important operation in the preparation of fruit for production of first quality fruit juices; sorting is carried out on moving inspection belts or sorting tables. Crushing/grinding/disintegration step is applied in different ways and depends on fruit types e.g. Crushing for grapes and berries; Grinding for apples, pears; Disintegration for tomatoes, peaches, mangoes, apricots. This processing step will need specific equipment which differs from one type of operation to another. Enzyme treatment of crushed fruit mass is applied to some fruits by adding 2-8% pectolitic enzymes at about 50 C for 30 minutes. This way the extraction yield will be improved, the juice colour is better fixed and finished product taste is improved. Heating of crushed fruit mass before juice extraction is an optional step used for some fruit in order to facilitate pressing and colour fixing; at same time, protein coagulation takes place. Pressing to extract juice. Diffusion is an alternative step for juice extraction and can be carried out discontinuously or in batteries at water temperature of about 80-85 C. Juice clarifying can be performed by centrifugation or by enzyme treatment. Centrifugation achieves a separation of particles in suspension in the juice and can be considered as a pre-clarifying step. This operation is carried out in centrifugal separators with a speed of 6000 to 6500 RPM. Enzyme clarifying is based on pectic substance hydrolysis; this will decrease the juices' viscosity and facilitate their filtration. Filtration of clarified juice can be carried out with kieselgur and bentonite as filtration additive in press-filters (equipment). De-tartarisation is aimed to eliminate potassium bitartrate from solution. This step can be performed by the addition of 1% calcium lactate or 0.4% calcium carbonate. Pasteurization of juice can be done for temporary preservation (pre-pasteurization) and in this case this operation is carried out with continuous equipment (heat exchangers, etc.); warm juice is stored in drums or large size receptacles (20-30 kg). Pasteurization conditions are at 75C in continuous stream. Pasteurization of bottled juice is then carried out just before delivery to the market; this is performed in water baths at 75 C until the point where the juice reaches 68 C. There are of course a number of other pasteurization and preservation techniques as well. From this discussion it is very clear all steps are well related and very crucial for the juice and soup business. Any shortcoming at any stage during the process may result in wastage or spurious output. Each step has a timeline within which the task is to be finished. Even minor delays may jeopardize the whole exercise. Therefore networking amongst divisions will provide the actual status of the fruit pulp in the process chain, and accordingly the next division can prepare itself for its share of responsibility in packaging the juice. For example the sales and marketing team will be ready as soon as it comes to know that the juice is ready for dispatch, accordingly it will sound an alert for the transport section. Once a batch of consignment is ready, the purchasing department can go for more purchases. Also some of the steps in the juice processing chain like grinding/ crushing, heating, enzyme treatment etc. require computer controlled precision. A well informed decision will definitely help in the preparation of a good quality juice. Networking will help in controlling these processes depending upon the speed of other processes in the chain. Because soups and juices have comparatively shorter life span therefore the distribution network plays an equally crucial role. Distribution networks help satisfy consumer demand for variety, making available, even in remote areas, items that are not locally grown or processed. In fact, although distribution is all but invisible to the average consumer, it plays a vital role in ensuring the availability of even the most basic foodstuffs. The distribution network will of course be more effective and efficient only if it can read the pulse of market in real time and act accordingly. Network management regime: Network management is the execution of the set of functions and responsibilities required for controlling, planning, allocating, deploying, coordinating, and monitoring the resources of a network. This includes performing functions such as initial network planning, frequency allocation, predetermined traffic routing to support load balancing, cryptographic key distribution authorization, configuration management, fault management, security management, performance management, bandwidth management, and accounting management. There exists a wide variety of software and hardware products that help network system administrators manage a network. Network management could mean different things to different people. In some cases, it involves a solitary network consultant monitoring network activity with an outdated protocol analyzer. In other cases, network management involves a distributed database, auto-polling of network devices, and high-end workstations generating real-time graphical views of network topology changes and traffic. EFI requires not only an effective network management regime but a quick response team of experts as well. EFI has an Information Systems Director in the form of Dennis Ince-Smythe. But at the moment he appears more busy in maintaining the LANs and procuring new PCs. With the setting up of interconnected LAN (or WAN) managing the network becomes all the more crucial covering the following areas; Security: Ensuring that the network is protected from unauthorized users. Performance: Eliminating bottlenecks in the network. Reliability: Making sure the network is available to users and responding to hardware and software malfunctions. Therefore the Information System Director will require some more IT professionals to work for maintaining the network, different LAN administrators, Network documentation etc. EFI is divided into six major divisions, each headed by a director who can double up as LAN administrator of that particular section. Relevant minor computing processes need not go upto the central server. The network administrator needs to make sure that all sections need not have undue information overload in the form of redundant information. Similarly if any LAN accesses the data bank of any other LAN, then a proper record of this transaction has to be maintained by the administrator. A standard procedure must be in place to access different LANs and the central server. In addition, there has to be a standard in hierarchy to cross check the computations done by the lower level. This will ensure that the problems like the under-costed quotations cannot go scot-free and tracked before spillover. For making sure that the network is reliable enough and whatever data we are storing on it doesn't get lost if any mishap occurs (like the one involving an aircraft crash), back up and security copies need be prepared on daily basis and certainly not on weekly basis. During the last hour of the day's work, system administrator has the all important task of overseeing that the data back-up is being prepared religiously to avoid any data crash or data corruption. In fact bigger organization whose work depends solely on the data management keep preparing data back-up every minute. This data has its own shelf life depending upon the usage and many other factors of the organizations. The system administrator must also make sure that not everybody is authorized to edit/ delete data in the data bank. Such commands must follow a proper hierarchy for authentication to avoid the instances like the one involving the sales personnel who needed access to the company sales files ended up corrupting the important records inadvertently. Any Management Information System (MIS) must also take into account the performances of the concerned staff, in order to provide incentives or directives for improvements. Prioritized list of recommendations to the EFI management team EFI is in the business of supplying fresh Fruits and vegetables therefore the topmost priority has to be preserving quality fruits and vegetables. Preservation of foods aims to prevent the development of micro-organisms (bacteria, yeasts and mould), to avoid food spoilage during storage. At the same time, the chemical and biochemical changes that bring about the deterioration process must be controlled. Demand Forecasting: EFI has recently ventured into demand forecasting as well, to avoid. This is indeed a very helpful technique to remain in business. But for demand forecasting to succeed the Networking must be brutally reliable. All the computers in the networking must be counted and connected. Standalone work can be harmful not only in the forms like faulty quotations developed by the sales representative but also very dangerous for the pilferage of vital company information to competitors. Not everybody has access to the key information and the central server i.e. the level of authentication must be well in place soon enough. LANs are connected to a WAN to make it a wider network. The distribution and supply trucks are GPRS enabled. This involves some more investment on the part of EFI, but is required to retain the position amongst competitors. Resources: 1. Mircea Enachescu Dauthy, (1995), Fruit and vegetable processing, Rome, FAO AGRICULTURAL SERVICES BULLETIN No.119. 2. United's Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program Resource Center, available online at; http://www.uffva.org/ (Accessed on 27th Aug, 2006) 3. Azizi Meor Ngah, (2004), Supply Chain Management of Agricultural Fresh Produce: A New Approach, Paper Presented at AGRICONGRESS 2004. 4. Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schiefer, E-Commerce Concepts in Food Supply Chain Management, available online at, http://www2.ipe.liu.se/rwg/igls/igls2002/Paper147.pdf#search=%22network%20infrastructure%20for%20fruit%20supply%20chain%22 5. Lazzarine, S.G., Chaddad, F.R., Cook, M.L. (2001). Integrating Supply Chain and Network Analysis: The Study of Netchains. Journal on Chain and Network Science. Vol. 1 (1). 6. Fresh Fruit Fast at Seabrex Terminal, a case study, available online at; http://www.lxe.com/pdf/Port-Seabrex.pdf#search=%22network%20infrastructure%20for%20fruit%20supply%20chain%22 7. Fresh Fruits Co Ltd, a New Zealand company, available online at; http://frutia.trustpass.alibaba.com/ 8. Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines For The Fresh Tomato Supply Chain, available online at; http://www.tomato.org/ContentAssets/FDAGUIDEFINAL.pdf#search=%22recent%20research%20on%20controlling%20hazards%20to%20fresh%20fruits%20at%20all%20stages%20of%20the%20supply%20chain%22. Read More