Software link facilitates wine export collaboration

Dutch distributor plugs into SA system
RAY SMUTS
SOFTWARE FOR supply chain management (SCM) is difficult at the best of times, in that it usually means a number of different software packages have to integrate with one another to ensure that all parties in the supply chain are sharing information. A Cape Town-based logistics company is in the process of putting together just such a collaboration between South African wine exporters and a Dutch distributor of wines. The Cape Town company runs the Macro 2000 logistics and warehousing software and the Dutch company its own software, including an internet-based SCM system. The two systems share information on a two-way basis. The Europeans, explains Macro 2000 marketing executive Anthea van Breemen, will log onto the internet and place wine orders online. This information will then automatically be sent from the Dutch distributor to update the South African supply chain information. These orders are then optimally packed into containers for export. Information about the receipt into the Cape Town consolidation warehouse, stock holding balances and container packing lists is automatically sent back to the distributor in Holland. Van Breemen says as supply chain management is a collaboration between all suppliers in the chain, the individual producers are also updated on their stockholding in the warehouse in order for them to ensure the demand on their wine is met. “What this means is that at any given time, everyone in the supply chain knows exactly what is going on and where the stock is.”