DR. BRUMM AND FBS PRESCRIBE REAL-TIME MANAGEMENT AT PORKSHOP.2006
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| Keynote
speaker Dr. Mike Brumm... |
...describes
the possibilities for real-time growth process management to PORKSHOP.2006
participants. |
Pork production has
come a long way in the 27 years since Mike Brumm joined the University
of Nebraska. Scale, standardization, marketing practices, performance
and management practices have advanced to levels unimaginable back in
1979.
What's the next big opportunity?
At PORKSHOP.2006, June 7th in Des Moines, Dr. Brumm shared his experiences
with and vision for a new level of management control for pork producers.
Brumm believes that in a future driven by process verification, traceability
and environmental compliance requirements, the opportunities will come
from exploiting real-time data from production and financial management
systems. The latest catalysts are new technologies that monitor water
and feed consumption. Brumm has been studying if and how this data can
be used to manage the growth process.
How do top producers manage animal growth today? According to Brumm, "They
don't. Closeouts are a look at what was, not what is. Even statistical
process control is mostly a backward look."
Brumm is focusing on water and feed as predictors of illness. "Water is
the only thing a pig has control over," he reports. You'll find a summary
of his findings on the link below. According to Brumm, what are the biggest
challenges to real-time growth management?
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Getting timely
information into the hands of people in the barn |
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Training,
because producers and employees aren't "geeks" |
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What to do
when something is amiss? (Brumm admits, "We're not that good yet!") |
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Developing
"dashboards" that quickly identify trends and exceptions. |
Note that FBS is taking
up Brumm's challenge with the release of the Farm SeRVey
dashboard featured
in the next story. For summaries of selected presentations
from PORKSHOP, click on the links below.
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INTRODUCING:
THE NEW VIEW IN AGRICULTURE
FBS Systems,
Inc. announces that it has licensed rights to market a patent-pending
technology that extracts data from nearly any source, creating a real-time
management "control center" for demanding decision makers. The
Farm SeRVey™
Executive
Dashboard
automatically generates graphs, monitors Key Performance Indicators, and
triggers alerts directly from FBS SeRVware™
software and many accounting and production programs, spreadsheets, facility
monitoring systems and websites. Views in the form of graphs, tables,
gauges and maps can be customized by the user and are automatically updated
as underlying data change.
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| Figure
1. Dashboards monitor current key performance indicators (KPIs)
critical for each user. |
Dashboard software is an emerging class of information systems that integrates data to help organizations measure, monitor and manage business performance more effectively. These programs were developed to help managers answer questions such as:
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How can I
make quality decisions in an environment that can change literally
every second? |
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How do I
keep my production, marketing and financial teams on the same
page? |
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How can I
leverage the investment I've already made in management systems
and specialized reports? |
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Is it possible
to begin mining knowledge rather than just shoveling data? |
Farm SeRVey™
combines the patent-pending data-extraction technology developed for Fortune
2000 companies by Theoris Software with FBS Systems' 26 years of leadership
in integrating agricultural production and accounting data.
"We've incorporated a batch reporting system that regularly 'refreshes'
the Farm SeRVey™ SQL
database with FBS and PigCHAMP data," says FBS president, Norm Brown.
"Instead of waiting for printed reports that are quickly out of date,
your management team will view a 'single version of the truth' delivered
instantly to their desktops via the Internet."
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| Figure
2. Batch reporting system automatically updates
Farm SeRVey™
dashboard from FBS and PigCHAMP |
Each user can customize his own dashboards views, Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) and alerts through an intuitive, wizard-driven process that requires
no programming knowledge. Farm SeRVey™
graphs and reports automatically adapt to changes in the underlying data
sources, and permits "drilling down" to underlying data.
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Figure
3. Real-time sales trend graph from TransAction
Plus User-Defined Report.
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| Figure
4. "Drill down" to detail from graph above.
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"You don't have to be an FBS SeRVware
client to take advantage of Farm SeRVey™
," notes Brown. "Its real power derives from its ability to
create new knowledge from existing reports, spreadsheets, databases and
even external information over the Internet. To demonstrate
this concept we created a real-time hog breakeven analysis by linking
a simple Excel spreadsheet with lean hog, corn and soybean meal futures
web pages. Using "speed dial" indicators we can compare potential
margins with targets every ten minutes. Next we pulled in projected
sales by month/quarter from our Smart Feeder Planning Module and
combined that with futures positions from our Contract Module to calculate
net open and sold positions."
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Figure
5. Lean Hog futures prices updated in real-time with a conversion
column for Live Price. The color codes in the Change column indicate
price direction.
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Figure
6. "Speed dial" graphically displays relation of futures price
to expected price zone (yellow), plus tracks current cost of production
based on production model and current corn and soybean meal futures
prices.
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Figure
7. Current sales projections coming from Smart
Feeder Planning Module.
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| Figure
8. Contract positions (from TransAction Plus
Contract Module) compared with projected sales, futures prices
and margins. |
According to Brown, Farm SeRVey™
is a logical next step for two levels of farming operations. "Mega-size
units with their own IT departments and Oracle or SQL servers will install
Farm SeRVey™ as their in-house MIS 'capstone,' monitoring all their specialized
business applications. Medium-size family farms can tap into a 'hosted'
version of the dashboard that requires only a web browser and Internet
connection to operate, yet still connects interactively to their data
and is backed by our team of allied consultants and analysts."
For more information email norm@fbssystems.com or call 800.437.7638. ext 101
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WHERE DO YOU WANT
TO GO WITH MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING? (HOW ABOUT DENVER?)
The Farm
Financial Standards Council would appreciate your review and comments
of its Management Accounting Guidelines. It's
just a click away.
The only requirement is that you compete and return the Feedback form
also found on the web page. Your comments will be presented
to the Council at its Summer Symposium, August 7-8 in Denver.( (Click
on www.ffsc.org to register for this
conference.) Also, if you want to explore managerial accounting in your
business, e-mail norm@fbssystems.com for a free consultation.
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CAN THE INTERNET BE SERVED "HOT" ON A DISH?
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It sounds like a reasonable
Internet alternative to dial-up for rural users too remote to access DSL,
cable or wireless services. That's why we polled our readers last month
for their experiences with satellite Internet services. Our first report
comes from Don Anthony, Lexington, Nebraska.
I have been on satellite since Dec of 2002. I couldn't stay connected
on dial-up long enough to download documents from a national board I served
on so I went to satellite. I am too far from the switch station to get
a T1 or other high speed connection by wire and am over 8 miles from the
nearest wireless tower so it wouldn't work either.
Overall, I am satisfied with the satellite. There is a period in March and October when the sun will knock it out for a few hours in the afternoon. The first service I was with, Direct TV, had their earth link in New Jersey and the hurricanes would take it out. Now I am with Wild Blue and their station is in Laredo so that is no longer a problem.
The equipment is a little touchy. They blame much of it on lightning. Supposedly there is enough static electricity in an electrical storm to damage the equipment without a direct strike. About the time you really want to see the radar track, there will be enough interference that you can't connect. Anyway, that's my experience.
If you've had first-hand experience with a satellite system we invite you to share your thoughts with our readers. E-mail them norm@fbssystems.com.
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MEET US IN MOLINE... AT THE FBS NATIONAL FARM COMPUTER CONFERENCE.2006
Join us along the banks
of the mighty Mississippi at the all-new Stoney Creek Inn-Conference
Center, Quad Cities-Moline, on August 23-24, 2006, for or some serious
training and invigorating networking, including:
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Cranking
up your software effectiveness. |
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New data
capture/storage technologies. |
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· Building
and using an executive dashboard. |
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New budgeting
software that you can plan to keep. |
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More meaningful
managerial reporting. |
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Plugging
into the virtual accounting/consulting world. |
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A prime rib
dinner cruise on a real paddle-wheeler. |
So don't be stuck up a creek without a paddle! Early
registration deadline for the Stoney Creek Inn is July 23rd
(call 309.743.0101 for room reservations in the FBS block). Also
receive a 50% early-bird discount on your seminar registration
by confirming by July 31st. Call 800.437.7638
or click here to register.
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SOFTWARE Q&A
– WITH Q'S FROM YOU, OUR CLIENTS!
Send
us your questions/problems–be they short, long, simple or downright
frustratin'!–about SeRVware
and we'll handle them right "on the air" for the benefit of all.
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Q.
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I have several "Well-Managed Farm" companies on my Select Company screen. Where did they come from and how can I get rid of them? |
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"Well Managed Farm" is the default company name when you set up a new company and the name of our sample data. If you accidentally added a new company by typing in your 3 letter initials incorrectly you created a blank "Well Managed Farm" company.
To delete a company highlight that company name in the window
in the left window and click on the delete company
button on the lower right. You will be asked to confirm that
you want to delete the company. Click on Yes to delete.
NOTE: Be extremely careful when selecting a
company to delete. It cannot be restored
from the recycle bin. |
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Call in your questions (800.437.7638) or e-mail them
to support@fbssystems.com.
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