 Anglia Business Solutions has deployed, free of charge, a demonstration suite of its LINKFresh® solution at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, on the University of Lincoln’s Holbeach Campus.
The demo suite has been added to the Centre’s Technical Training Area and Processing Lab where it will complement the line equipment supplied by other Commercial Partners.
Holbeach is the University’s specialist campus for the food manufacturing sector serving the UK’s largest concentration of food manufacturing businesses located in the East Midlands and Eastern regions.
The LINKFresh demo suite will enable the Centre’s students to experience the efficiency and workflow benefits gained when using an end to end business management solution to manage product as it moves through the production process.
The demo suite comprises; a HP DL380 Database server running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard 64 bit, Microsoft SQL 2008, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and SOTI. The LINKFresh components include; LINKFresh demonstration modules, Anglia’s Mobile Upgrader Software and web based portals for Growers Returns and QC Results. The LINKFresh Mobile Quality Control application is provided via a Motorola MC75 handheld unit and LINKFresh Mobile Warehousing functionality is deployed on a Motorola MC9090 G. Mobile printing is available via a Zebra QL420 portable printer.
Anglia has been working with The National Centre for Food Manufacturing as a Commercial Partner for the past year to provide a series of business seminars exploring the use of IT to improve efficiency and competitiveness in the food supply chain. The University’s Principal Lecturer in Food Manufacturing & Automation, Michael Dudbridge, has been a Guest Speaker at these events.
Speaking about the new demonstration facilities available, Mr Dudbridge said, “This is a great new facility here at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing. The LINKFresh system gives us the ability to work with a state of the art ERP software package that has been tailored specifically to meet the needs of the very fast moving fresh food industry. Students on our courses explore all aspects of the package from raw material intake to final product despatch and from product recipe costings through to warehouse management. Because the system we have is a full commercial package the work is true to life and ensures that the work we do is immediately applicable inside the businesses we serve.”
The Holbeach Campus has grown from its roots as a vocational training centre into an internationally-recognised provider of undergraduate and post-graduate education, research and technical business support for the food industry. The Technical Training Centre and Processing Lab is equipped with state of the art manufacturing plant including 2 automated fresh food lines with robotic case packing plus a wide range of other specialist equipment e.g. spray drier, homogeniser, packaging testing equipment, extrusion, pasteurisation etc. The Processing Lab is available for hire to businesses requiring a food factory grade environment within which to trial, manufacture and train-out new products and processes.
Anglia will also be able to utilise the facilities at Holbeach as a LINKFresh reference site where it can showcase the LINKFresh solution to potential customers. |