Frutos de Vettonia | Case Studies Quatenus

Frutos de Vettonia is an agricultural project that started in 2005, being now owned by Portuguese & Spanish partners, that aims to produce and market nuts from a farm in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, western Spain, with 65 hectares. With a stable yearly business growth, 2017 estimated production is 150 tones of nuts..

Context

Throughout time, the company has invested heavily in the modernisation and mechanisation of operating activities across several value chain stages, with the objective of obtaining resources efficiency gains. If we add to this the fact that none of the partners live nearby the farm (Madrid and Lisbon), the need of increasing work management control was clear.

Shortly, 3 main factors contributed for technology adoption:

Machine accurate usage

Including tractors, motor vehicles and support machinery, asset investment justifies a thorough planning & control to maximize their usage towards production activity and minimize maintenance costs.

Team management

Geographically distant from farm day-to-day activity and resource allocation based on seasonality, it is essential to retrieve work type management information along productive stages – collection, weighting and transportation.

Safety

These productive stages take place in a wide geographical area. It is mandatory to ensure safety of both teams and machine assets.

Quatenus solution

To answer these specific challenges Quatenus Asset Machine Edition product range was selected.

Using GPS and GSM technology, it is ideal to manage teams and machines supporting operations geographically dispersed. It allows the handle of used vs available capacity, automate administrative tasks, check performance levels remotely and gather complete activity snapshot. All real-time. Imagine a reality where you have the answers to these questions in the palm of your hand:

Where is my tractor?
Who, where and when used it in a specific time period?
Has its usage from staff been the most adequate? (cargo weight, usage time, etc.)
How many hours per day is each worker allocated to operating activities?
What is the usage rate per machine id or type?
What is the operating cost of using a specific machine iD or type (versus expected future revenue)?

Results and next steps

Via more and better real-time information, Frutos de Vettonia improved internal processes in workflow and machines handling. These changes impacted directly in productivity enhancements towards improved operating profitability.

At the present moment, company owners are thinking on more ambitious goals regarding existing resources efficiency gains. According to José Luís Pereira, member of the executive board:

Asset Machine Edition product has an immediate payback in our profit-and-loss accounts. We are now working with Quatenus to turn available activity heat maps, based in multiple factors such as tasks automatic flows and meteorology.

Learn more about Quatenus Asset Machine Edition

Here!