Nailing that first impression — preparing for our first major delivery
When you have a blue chip company for a customer you know without a doubt delivery has to be on point, especially since no one gets a second chance to create a first impression. In a few weeks we will be making our first major delivery of two out of our five commodities to a ‘big boy’ (as we often call these multinational companies) and need to get things right with military precision. Preparations are so far looking good.
Packing up the sacks
The commodities will need to be packed in 50kg and 100kg sacks which are way cheaper in Accra compared to the towns we source our commodities from. So as part of our ‘operation spend wisely’ it made economic sense to move sacks from the south up north. On this sunny Wednesday we went in and carried off our 8000 sack order we had placed earlier. Sacks — check.
The tarpaulin
One interesting thing about life is the ability to start with small processes that work and grow into more sophisticated processes. The tarpaulin serves multiple purposes in our case. Our farmers spread the commodities on this to properly dry them. This is done so we can meet the acceptable moisture content specifications we’ve been given by our client. The tarpaulin also helps when re-bagging commodities into our branded sacks. This process is somewhat anti-mechanical but it’s good first steps for us. Tarpaulin — check.
The scale
It’s interesting how smallholder farmers have improvised ways of achieving results in the absence of proper machinery. The tarpaulin is the improvised version of a drying, grading/sorting and bagging machine. Before buying our smallholder farmers scales to help them get accurate weights, they were using a certain bowl to measure 50kg and 100kg. This method is close to accurate but we don’t want to get close to accurate — has to be precisely accurate. So we bought 3 scales to speed weighing up a bit. Scales — check.
The commodities
Our AgroTrade platform helps us keep stock levels of commodities from our over 7000 smallholder farmers. It also helps us know where we can get large quantities of specific commodities stocked by our farmers. Think of this as stock levels on a map. Commodities — check check.
Transportation
The driver is on standby and can’t wait to count his money on deal day when we pack up his truck and send him on his way. Transportation — check.
Firmware update
Of course. We work hard but never forget to eat. The body needs it to ensure we’re alive to see the truck move come deal day.
It’s been double the hard work these past few days and we are happy with progress made so far. Super optimistic that our hammer will hit the nail right on the head in one blow.
