Berries: Individual Piecework with Accurate Yield Maps
Outcomes and Benefits
Hard Outcomes
- 24 man-hours saved per day (3 people filling in papers @ 8 hrs per day)
- 15% Worker Productivity increase
- 1 hour senior management time saved per day
- 120 mins full training of 2 staff members
Soft Outcomes
- Employee & employer trust in data
- Live, accurate data every day
- Ease of use = less training of harvesters
- Hardware rented, less risk to start
- More time farming, less time paperwork
Dashboard and Hardware
Android Mobile Phone
GT-1 Harvesting Device
RFID Tag
The Setup
How it Works
1. In the field
- Each harvester has a RFID Tag that is allocated to him / her
- Each runner has a GT-1 device (allocated to the orchard nr) that they take with them
The process in the field:
- The runner collects the full crate from the harvester
- For each crate collected, the runner scans the employee’s tag
- The Date and time, location, orchard nr and tag ID is collected for each crate
2. At the station
- Each station is equipped with a pre-set “High-Low-Go” scale that indicates whether the crates are on the target weight
- At set times, the GT-1 scanner is scanned with the mobile phone and the data is synced to the cloud
3. On the portal
- Data is shown on the online portal within minutes and can be accessed anywhere on earth
- Data is organised to show:
- Orchard yields (crates and Kg’s)
- Harvester performance
- Total yield for the day
Frequently Asked Questions
Not a problem, the GT-1 scanner will be located at the Station and each worker’s tag will be scanned at the station after confirming the bucket weight being within the correct margin.
Yes, this farm specifically rented the GT-1 hardware as they wanted to see if it will work for them. The employee tags was the only hardware considered a consumable product that they had to purchase. They also already had the mobile android phones.
All data that have been scanned in will be visible on the Dashboard within 5-10mins
No, but the scales have a fine margin that the crates must be within in order to be counted. Feedback from the manager states that the weight estimates and the actual weights are within single percentage points from each other
Yes, we do have a really well proven and affordable rugged phone that we recommend farmers purchase
We have a system to help with the data and sim management. If you’d like, you are welcome to take the sim management over on your own account. Call us to guide you through the process if required.
No, there are many hidden settings that the managers can se on the GT-1 device. The settings used in the above section includes preventing the same tag from being scanned 2 times in a row and also preventing the same tag from being scanned within 3mins. The runners don’t know the settings and that prevents them from working around it.
Not a problem, the GT-1 scanners does not need cellphone signal to work. It uses satellite signals for GPS and then it is ready to be scanned. The data is transmitted to the cloud via the mobile phone with our app that is also offline compatible.
The Orchard yield is determined by the bag coordinates and pre-set orchard boundaries. All the GPS plots that fall within the orchard boundaries are allocated to the orchard and we can set a pre-determined average bag weight to calculate yield and yield maps.
Yes, all our dashboards can be exported to excel to be used for internal calculations
The GT-1 scanner will last a full 12 hours when the battery is still new, but we have a 3 year expected battery life cycle where if the battery does not last a full day, we swop the GT-1 out for a new one and refurbish the old one. So no need to throw an old one away and buy a full priced new one.
Yes, you will always have access to your data, even after the season.
The GT-1 scanners must be charged every evening. We consider your GT-1 scanners like a farm radio that is placed in the Charger every evening and the next morning, it is ready for a full day’s harvest
Each GT-1 charging dock comes with a reset port. You can just insert the faulty GT-1 into the Reset port and press the reset button while the dock is plugged in. It will do a factory reset and you now only need to allocate the GT-1 and ensure that the correct configurations are selected. Just reach out to one of our technical staff to assist you.