How We Uprooted Dairy Dilemmas And Brought Home In Cream
In the heartland of South India, a vast dairy empire stands tall, with thousands of farmers diligently milking their cows twice a day. In the early morning and evening, the milk is carefully collected at various centres, where it undergoes rigorous tests for purity and quantity.
But, here’s the catch. While the collection centres ensure the milk’s quality, payments to these hardworking farmers are processed miles away in the company’s finance department. It’s a system ripe for discrepancies, especially if there’s any pilferage along the way or some curious ‘understanding’ between the farmers, drivers, and collection agents.
In such cases, farmers can either be shortchanged or overpaid, and there’s no verifiable record of the exact milk quantities contributed by each farmer. This lack of transparency can lead to a breakdown of trust between the farmers and the dairy company, potentially driving them toward competitors.
Enter the heroes of our story: EasyClouds. When the client reached out to us with this dilemma, we didn’t cry over spilt milk. Instead, we rolled up our sleeves and embarked on a mission to overhaul the dairy industry. Our functional consulting and IT teams spent days observing the entire milk production cycle, from cow to collection centre.
What we discovered was fascinating. Alongside the high-tech Milk Analyzer machine, collection agents still kept a manual register. In this ledger, they recorded each farmer’s name, the date, the quantity, and the purity of the milk they contributed. At the end of the week or month, this data was used to calculate payments, which were either manually credited to the farmers’ bank accounts or handed out in cash.
This process was cumbersome and outdated, presenting an excellent opportunity for our team to make a significant change.
The easier parts of the solution were clear. We proposed linking all the farmers’ bank accounts to Aadhar and integrating them with EasyClouds’ ERP solution. This would eliminate manual cash exchanges and the need for the finance team at the central headquarters to handle payments. Additionally, we implemented a mobile integration solution that sent an SMS to the farmer each time their milk was checked by the Milk Analyzer machine.
The more challenging aspects of our solution design involved automating data transfer. We aimed to seamlessly transfer data from the Milk Analyzer and weighing machine directly into our ERP system, minimizing human error and saving the collection agents’ time. It was a complex problem, but our team eagerly took it on, working closely with external consultants to find a solution.
After several iterations and hard work, we succeeded. In the new system, once a farmer delivered their milk to the collection point, it was poured into the container on a Weighing Scale. The farmer received an SMS informing them of the quantity of milk received at the weighing machine. Simultaneously, the Milk Analyzer machine provided an SMS with data on milk purity and fat content. All this data was also seamlessly integrated into our ERP system, eliminating the need for manual calculations at the end of each payment period.
The result? Happy farmers no longer feared irregular payments and now preferred digital transactions over cash. The larger community also benefited, with more farmers embracing digital payments. (Our little contribution to making India digital at the grassroots level). And, of course, our client was delighted to see a significant reduction in accounting workload, the end of cash-related issues, and a boost in transparency and trust.
In the end, we turned a dairy dilemma into a creamy success story, proving that even in the traditional world of farming, automation and innovation can bring about positive change. So, remember, when life hands you a milk problem, don’t cry over it – call EasyClouds instead!