In collaboration with Gibbs Analytics Consulting, we built our own Datagreenhouse to make the commercial game transparent. In a blog written by Gibbs, this journey is beautifully captured. Take your time and read on!
In all colours and sizes, many thousands of Yucca’s, Dracaena’s, Ficusses, Curcuma’s and other tropical potted plants fill the greenhouses of potted-plant grower Forever Plants Group in Honselersdijk. The company cultivates a broad assortment across some 10 hectares, at three different locations. “That makes it a lot harder for our sales team to keep track of what needs to be sold and when”, says director Thom Persoon. “Just doing an extra round through the greenhouse is no longer enough. It was essential to create more insight.” Over the past two years, Forever Plants has been building its own Datagreenhouse, in collaboration with Gibbs Analytics Consulting.
How do you decide which plants to grow, and in what quantities? That question lay at the heart of the collaboration between Forever Plants and Gibbs Analytics Consulting. But behind that simple-sounding question lies a complex challenge.
We have a certain number of square metres in the greenhouse and we know how many weeks a plant needs to grow”, Thom Persoon explains. “Ideally you want your nursery to be as full as possible, but you also don’t want to grow unsellable products. On top of that, you want to cover your fixed costs. In this planning puzzle you have to integrate three elements into an optimal solution: the cost price, the expected market demand and production-technical aspects. Because if we increase production, it has to happen in units that let them work efficiently in the greenhouse. But before we’ve captured all of that in an algorithm, we’ll be tinkering for a while yet. That is our dot on the horizon.”
A DELIBERATE CHOICE FOR CUSTOM SOLUTIONS
Through sub-projects, the project team works step by step towards increasingly advanced management information, in order to optimise the planning. In doing so, Forever Plants deliberately chose custom solutions in the collaboration with Gibbs. “Our experience is that individual software packages often perform more strongly in their own field than complete ERP packages. The data from those separate systems form the input for the various solutions that we developed together with Gibbs. And it’s not only about collecting and presenting data in dashboards. We go a step further, with all kinds of algorithms. Among them a model that forecasts our sales volumes. This allows us to make smarter choices every day, based on the current state of affairs in the greenhouse.”
PRODUCTION INFORMATION RECORDED IN THE GREENHOUSE
Forever Plants works with a standard software package for production data and cost-price calculation. Using a floor plan of the locations, all basic information is recorded per batch. This software is used by the teams that care for the plants. “The plants stay in the greenhouse for two to ten months. When potting, we make an estimate of the cultivation time. But that also depends on the conditions: with plenty of sun, or a few cold weeks instead, the plant may easily need a few weeks less or more.” The staff in the greenhouse assess the growth along the way and adjust the information in the system where necessary.
INVENTORY DASHBOARD MATCHES ORDERS TO STOCK
One of the algorithms developed by Gibbs reads in the current production data several times a day and matches it with the sales planning. Based on this, the software automatically determines the composition of every future order: how many plants from which batch and where they are located in the greenhouse. “If a specific batch is only ready for sale a few weeks later, then the sales team knows that these items are temporarily sold out, and that they need to reserve enough items for previously placed orders.”
INVENTORY DASHBOARD DRIVES SALES ACTIVITIES
The sales team now works mainly from the overarching inventory dashboard. It’s not only the committed long-term orders that are set against the available supply. Using recent sales history, the system also provides an estimate of the expected demand on a daily basis. With that input, the sales team determines the supply for the daily trade and whether any additional sales activities are needed on top of that. “The sales team continuously makes choices: accepting a large promotional order today can mean that you have no supply for the daily trade for the next three weeks. The inventory dashboard now makes that commercial game very transparent.”
DATA AVAILABLE TO CUSTOMERS
The sales team also evaluates the sales orders on the basis of the data – for example the ordering behaviour per customer. Because a lot of sales run through intermediary trade, Forever Plants often doesn’t have sight of the end customer itself. “That’s why we make our data available to our customers and ask them to share their underlying data as well. That can explain fluctuations in the sales figures that we can’t quite put our finger on. Which trends can we see? Are certain products sold much more in a DIY store in Germany or much more in garden centres in France? Conversely, our data also has added value for the intermediary trade. Often they have the same questions as we do. We notice that a lot comes back when you share your own data in a clear report with others. For them too, it’s often a challenge to make their data transparent.”
MORE DATA FOR NEXT STEPS
The exchange with customers offers new insights. And Thom also has a clear picture of other next steps. “Some interesting questions we can’t answer yet: for example, which interesting plant are you not yet growing? We also don’t yet use external trends – what’s hip, which plant species are searched for a lot on Google, and economic indicators such as inflation. Or regional differences – for example in pot size and plant choices, flowering or green. Collecting good data on that can still be quite a challenge!”
FOCUS ON MAXIMUM ADDED VALUE
Whereas many potted-plant growers focus on year-round, large-scale cultivation of a few species for retail, Forever Plants opts for a broad assortment of some 180 products. Their customers are DIY stores, garden centres, florists, wholesalers and supermarket chains – within a radius of about 1000 km of the Westland. The company focuses on small scale, a very complete range and a high level of service. “Our strength lies in maximum added value. We are particularly strong in delivering smaller quantities frequently and at high frequency. So that you can order a small batch of plants in the morning too, which is then at the intermediary trader a few hours later.”
ONE-STOP SHOPPING
The aim is to offer one-stop shopping in green plants, including accessories such as a ceramic pot or wicker basket. That’s why Forever Plants also delivers mixed packages. Customers can roll such a mix trolley into the store ready to go: a fast and simple way to bring more diversity into their assortment. If desired, Forever Plants also fits the plants with custom price stickers straight away. Exporters and intermediary traders can then pass the order on to any point of sale in Europe without extra work. “We make things complicated for ourselves, with all those small batches. It demands relatively a lot of sales effort and cultivation and production guidance. Smart algorithms and transparent dashboards are therefore anything but a superfluous luxury!”
