User story: Lex van Haaster (Van Haaster Vijfhuizen)

Blog

October 22, 2020

1. Who are you and what does your company do?

“I am Lex van Haaster, Rob van Haaster's youngest son. I am responsible for a large part of our logistics. Within our company, I ensure that all inventory is properly maintained. As a company, we grow three bulbous plants and a root vegetable: Hyacinths, Tulips, Daffodils and Crocuses. In addition, we grow Snij-hyacinths in the winter.”

2. What problems did you face in the company?

“When we were even smaller as a company, it was even easier to follow the processes by heart. As we grew as a company, it became increasingly difficult to oversee the processes and remember exactly where your parties were located. In the past, people simply wrote on the coffin and papers. Then you just had to hope that everything was written down properly and that the right boxes remained with the right parties when everything was moved through the shed. It was therefore difficult to check whether the numbers were still correct or which plot the lot came from.

Of course, everyone also has their own way of writing things down, for example when writing down abbreviations quickly. Everyone has a way of “this is how it should be” for themselves, which quickly makes things unclear. Thanks to the app, you can now draw the same line here.”

“You don't have to drive to the cell or write things down on a piece of paper or in a large folder, and you can lose that piece of paper again.”

3. Why did you look for a solution to digitally register your inventory?

“At one point, we just lost parties. Then you just didn't know exactly where they were, or whether they still needed to be sorted, for example. Three years ago, we thought we had finished peeling the tulips when it turned out that we needed 40 more boxes. That ended up costing us two more days. That was the last straw. Then we started looking for a system.

We first came to another major tulip grower. They worked with barcoded cards, where they had to scan which row they were standing on. Then, in the Greenity, my father came across a story about Beam, which had just been launched. That's how we ended up at Beam. That's when he started weighing the systems.”

An old chalkboard on the door of the cold store where the stock in the cell used to be kept.

4. Why did you choose Beam instead of a system where batches have to be scanned?

“The system that required scanning was already old-fashioned, it had been around for a few years. Its development has been at a standstill for a few years. Beam had just started fresh and was rapidly being developed. We also found it too much trouble to first scan the card on the chest for each box and then scan the row. We were looking for a simpler solution.”

5. Why is Beam a good fit for Van Haaster Vijfhuizen as a company?

“We are a growing company and a new batch of business successors is coming. As a company, we want to further develop and we always see opportunities for improvement. We also saw this in Beam.”

6. What's the best part about using Beam?

“You don't just confuse two parties because they have the same name. Because you have all the history and information of a party together, you can easily distinguish them from each other. The labels that we print from Beam are also ideal. Even when the boxes get wet, they stay on them and you remember what's inside.”

7. How do you use Beam in daily processes (from the plot, in the shed, etc..)?

“When the bulbs are harvested and come from the land, my brother tells the harvester what is in the boxes, what plot they come from, what the plant size is and sometimes even where they were the year before. I make sure that everything is then properly entered into the system. The boxes are placed in front of the quick-drying wall for a few days until we gather them to put them away in the shed. When we sort or peel, we split off the different sizes from the existing harvested lots, so that all history is preserved. It's important to us to remember that, in case something is wrong with a party.

For the hatchery, we plant the bulbs from the cubic boxes in hotbeds. For example, if we are going to plant Hyacinths, Delfstblauw 15s, we split the bulbs based on the planting week and day. Then they go into the cell. If we enter this into the system, we can give each bin a location and place it eighteen high in the cell. After four weeks, we take them out of the cell to remove the covers. Because we know exactly what day the bulbs were planted, we know for which hotbeds it is time to remove the plates. They will then go to jail for another 11 weeks until they are allowed to go into the greenhouse. In the meantime, you know exactly how much inventory you have and where it is.”

On the map, you can record all movements from the forklift.

8. What does using Beam mean for you?

“Especially the overall overview. That you can see where everything is from your app. You don't have to drive to the cell or write things down on a piece of paper or in a large folder, and you can lose that piece of paper again. You can just know exactly what you have in just a few clicks. Not pretty much like “I think it's there” or “I think we still have so much”. This is also easier when it comes to sales: when you get a call, you'll know what your stock is left within 5 minutes.”

“You can just know exactly what you have in just a few clicks.”

9. Would you recommend Beam to other bulb growers?

“Beam suddenly gives you a lot of overview. So you won't lose both parties and the overview. You sometimes hear from companies that they forget a party or even an entire cell. Then you think: with a relatively simple system, that can be prevented. Instead of doing things by feeling or 'approximately', you know exactly what you have, even when it comes to sales. “

10. Is there anything else you'd like to add to Beam?

“It would be great if you could see the temperature and humidity in the cell right away on the iPad. Then you won't have to walk to the climate computer later either.”

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