Start a new project at a new customer, plant, farm, pack-house, COOP.

Audience & purpose

  • Technical advisors
  • Systems Administrators
  • Integrators

An initial video and demonstration during an e-meeting was recorded and can be found on YouTube


Purpose of this document 

Flex²B is a solution that is used in the Fresh Produce and Perishables industries. The idea is to give a brief initial impression on the needed elements to start a successful project.

Flex²B is a tool that can be used in miscellaneous environments. It might be that some other aspects of Flex²B may be needed, while others are not in scope at your project.

The last two pages might interest technical personnel to get assistance and a guide to the setup.

As a general mind-map, we include the next image on consideration points. 


Phases 

When installing a solution such as Flex²B at your company or plant, you need to make some necessary choices. Here is a limited checklist:


Initial approach list


Check point

Y
e
s

N
o

N/A

Comments

GS1 

  • Company prefix 
  • GS1 GTIN PREFIX (RANGE DEF)
  • LOOK AT THE NUMBER OF SSCC’S THAT CAN BE GENERATED AND THE SIZE OF THE MATERIAL RANGE


O

O

O


O

O

O


O

O

O

Flex²B SITES

  • SINGLE VERSUS MULTIPLE
  • Windows clients (count)
  • WEB EDITION FOR SUPPLIERS AND REMOTE USERS (PROFESSIONAL FAST ISP INTERNET LINE WITH FIX IP AND POSSIBILITY TO HOST WEB APPLICATION (PORT80/443)
  • PDA integration (web service / soap module)
  • Production line automation (web service module)
  • MOBILE EDITION (Q3/2016) 


O

O



O

O

O


O

O



O

O

O


O

O



O

O

O



RT Win client

RT 1 Webapp licence


RT 1 Webapp licence

RT 1 Webapp licence

RT 1 Webapp licence

PROCESS FLOW ANALYSIS

  • DEFINE ALL PROCESS FLOW IN A VISUAL DRAWING


O


O


O

stock locations

  • implementation?
  • define stock locations, codes, description, barcodes, barcodetypes


O

O


O

O


O

O

OPERATIONS DEFINITION

  • CREATE THEM IN Flex²B OR EXCEL


O


O


O

MAP OPERATIONS TO PROCESS FLOW STOP/START POINTS

O

O

O

DEFINE ADDITIONAL NEEDED COMPONENTS OR CHARACTERISTICS OR INFORMATION

  • INDEPTH ANALYSIS

O

O

O

DEFINE NEEDED REPORT 

  • OUT OF THE BOX
  • TAILOR MADE


O

O


O

O


O

O

DEFINE NEEDED BI REQUIREMENTS

  • TAILOR MADE

O

O

O

Define materials characteristics

  • brands
  • origins
  • varieties
  • pack code (gtin)
  • FruCON
  • Classes
  • Growing Methods
  • Sizes
  • Label indicator (on fruit / per customer ??)
  • Pallet configurations:
    • Pallet Base
    • Stacking configuration
    • Pack Styles (boxes, …)
    • Max packs per pallet (i.e. for a bin it is 1, for a pallet, it might be i.e. 96)
    • ...


O

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 


O

O 

O 

O 


O

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 


O

O 

O 

O 


O

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 


O

O 

O 

O 

Define Materials (with characteristics)        

O

O

O

Define server installation

  • location installation
  • pseudo installation account + password(s)


O

O


O

O


O

O

Define server

  • MS Windows 2008R2 or Newer 
    (preferred SQL2016+)
  • MS SQL Server 2012 or newer 
    (preferred MS-Win Server 2016 + )
  • MS Internet Information Server (IIS)
  • Processor, ram, diskspace, backup etc 
    to be discussed with local it vendor
  • daily server maintenance by local it vendor


O

O

O

O


O


O

O

O

O


O


O

O

O

O


O

Define workstations

  • windows 10 or newer

O

O

O

define printers

  • A4 windows laser printers
  • dedicated label printers


O

O


O

O


O

O

Define report requirements 

O

O

O

Define BI requirements

O

O

O

Define infrastructure requirements

  • Workstations inventory (os/…)
  • cabling
  • printers
  • wifi access points (site survey)
  • pda’s required
  • ISP SPECS (when web module is used)


O

O

O

O

O

O


O

O

O

O

O

O


O

O

O

O

O

O

Define sscc card (tailor made)

O

O

O

Customised documentation or help

O

O

O

On-site training

O

O

O

Data to information

O

O

O

Specific customer requests

O

O

O




Arrange on site presence of local it vendor during installation

O

O

O


Define later phases: i.e.

  • production line automation
  • integration 3rd party software
  • …


O

O

O


O

O

O


O

O

O




 

Literature.

References

GS1: Logistics label.
http://www.gs1belu.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/gs1_logistic_label_guideline_version_june_2014.pdf 

GS1 Ireland:

http://www.gs1ie.org/GS1/ 

GS1 Ireland: introduction to barcodes:

http://www.gs1ie.org/Download_Files/BarCode_Files/Introduction-to-GS1-Barcodes.pdf 

GS1 Country code for Ireland: 539

http://www.gs1.org/company-prefix 

Knowledgebase

The GS1 company prefix is a crucial identifying part in an official SSCC. Note that you need an official recognition at GS1 and that your SSCC free of use part is big enough to store all your SSCC’s that you create. We suggest a range of minimal 8 significant free to use digits at the end of the SSCC. So you should have a free range as where the X defines the customer range. YYYYYYYYYYXXXXXXX# where the Y is GS1 attributed, the X is free to use and the # is a check digit.

Typical this will be

    • &539XXXX#########$

& = Start digit, stating the content. Ie 1 = pallet

539 = Ireland.

XXXX = the number you need get from GS1 Ireland.

######### = the stock units that you can create.

$ = check digit, auto calculated, cannot be manipulated. 

Alternative:

You might apply at GS1 for:
XXXXXX = PBP GS1 Company prefix

But then you have less stock units to generate: #######



Flex2B should be seen as a solution for the combination of agricultural characteristics and a food supply chain. It gives advantage when collection both types of data, so that future lessons can be stored on historical data. 

Flex²B: IT Technical 

The Flex²B roles

  • Database Server(s) : MS SQL 2012, 2014 or higher, Oracle, mySQL,...
  • Windows SMB server(s) : Windows 2008R2 or higher or a comparable environment over samba
  • RDP/Citrix servers : choice of Customer
  • Windows IIS servers for PDA WS + Web Apps: Windows 2008R2 or higher
  • FTP Server  (can also be on IIS).
  • Mail servers: SMTP
  • Connectivity to ERP (Accounting / administration) systems. (when integration with these tools is requested)
  • Service providers.


For Technical personnel.

In the next sections, you will find a visualization on the solution to rebuild the Antwerp case. We have added the needed components. You will find the Flex²B machines next to standard industry solutions, such as DB servers and the replication, the FTP and mail servers…

IMPORTANT note.

Security, anti-xxx solutions, backups, … are not in this design. The Cloud consultants should make a plan and a policy for backup and security. Flex²B is a solution that is built to run in  a 24/7 scheme. Breakdown of underlying infrastructure,… might disturb the well-functioning of Flex²B.

Communication Protocols

Depending on the modules that are installed per site, some protocols may not be used.

Port

Explanation

SMB/samba

The binaries are executed from a site specific central home folder to run on a Windows Client computer. 
Modules:

  • Flex²B core
  • Flex²B background utilities
  • Flex²B web service server
  • Flex²B web application server (AJAX)

DB 1433

Any Flex²B application that needs to access the database. (sample MS SQL)

FTP

For those EDI-files that need to be communicated to another site or plant. The F2TP automates this communication to several sites without user intervention. (port 20/21)

HTTP

The Web services server or the web application server (port 80 or 8080)

HTTPS

The Web services server or the web application server (port 443)

SMTP

Alerting is performed using a mail server with SMTP (probably port 25)

RDP

Remote desktop protocol

PDF

(not really a protocol) The pallet cards (passports) are printed to a PDF file for uniform printing over a wide range of printers and operating systems.

Open standards

Since the very early start, we have focused on open solutions. Flex²B has embraced the usage of open standards, as defined by the W3C.

We are avoiding to incorporate non vendor specific techniques, as this would block the growth of the solution.

* Note the indicated ports are the default protocol ports.

Fill in per machine participating in the Cloud


Property

Value

Name server


Logical location in Cloud structure


DNS / Name


Role(s)



Protocols enabled



User ID Logon + password



User ID Service Accounts + password



IP-address / network



Domain



Nr of CPU


Memory


Bandwidth restrictions


Backup strategy


Security / Anti-xxx


Notes











Visualizations

Figure 1: sample implementation / representation