New Staff System Comes at the Right Time as Growers Seek Efficiency

The team at BumperCrop has spent the past year developing a new staff management system to help indoor growers manage rising labour costs and run more efficient operations. 
 

"We have worked with 5 growers across different crop types to develop a system that is both easy to use and flexible for the differing needs of operations." said BumperCrop founder Adam Forbes. The organisations range from small to large and are growing capsicums, tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers. The official launch of the system has come at a good time for growers, who are more than ever seeking greater efficiencies as a result of COVID-19 – without having to incur a large investment price tag.
 

The system makes it very easy for staff to record their work and for managers to gain new insights from the data. Staff use individual mobile devices to scan WorkWave™ tags which ensure accuracy. The data is then sent to the cloud for automated analysis and report generation.  
 

Growers have been using the data in different ways. For some, understanding employees' speed and the quality of their work is key. For others, seeing the amount being picked off each row, or reporting problems found by staff are important. Automatically recording timesheets for staff is another popular feature. Once growers start using the system, they often uncover unexpected insights, such as revealing  that some employees who they thought were not high performers are actually very efficient. 

Report showing median rows completed by each staff member for two different task types

"Staff management systems are being deployed in many high efficiency operations across the globe, but we saw a gap in the market for a system that is both affordable and doesn't get in the way of staff doing their jobs,” continued Adam. “Off the shelf devices are a good fit, owing to their affordability and how adaptable they can be.” Growers are not locked in to a particular vendor and the system can adapt with them if their needs change.  Some growers wanted to prevent staff accessing Apps other than BumperCrop on the devices, so we added in that capability. Staff are not required to share a common computer or note pad, which is a consideration with Covid-19 concerns.  
 

Overall, organisations have found that the system  frees up managers’ time and allows them to reward their best performers. All of the customers that BumperCrop worked with to build the system have now purchased it for ongoing use. BumperCrop has just rolled out the latest version of the App and is confident that this is now a fully developed staff management solution that will be of benefit to many and  widely-varied indoor growing operations.

Frans van Dorsser, Managing Director at Blooming Hill Flowers has been using the BumperCrop system for the past 8 months

Learn more here or get in touch with us

BUMPERCROP – Precision Insights for Covered Crops

Staff Management | Rootzone Monitoring | Growth and Health Tracking

Website: http://mybumpercrop.com/

Phone: Adam Forbes 027 351 2512