FMS adds clear cost function to Pennent Mill Manager

As a real-time example, the current conflict in Ukraine—a major grain producer—is expected to raise grain prices worldwide. Why? Because it exports mainly through the Black Sea and major grain companies say they are monitoring developments in the Black Sea region, and that shipments have not been slowed so far. However, shippers in the region have begun building risk premiums into freight costs in and out of the region.

This is just one example of how and why feed ingredient prices can fluctuate. Until now, feed producers have been in the dark to understand what’s included in their quoted price. For some, these costs are likely to be an eye-opener since this is a new capability for the feed industry that’s being introduced by FMS. A generic view of landed costs is available within some ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) platforms in use by feed manufacturers.

With Landed Costs, feed producers can track in real-time the true and actual cost of an ingredient including freight, fuel charges, warehouse fees etc. This real-time insight provides greater decision making flexibility.

Landed Costs for Pennent Mill Manager Advanced Purchasing Model includes new benefits that provide critical and actionable information to feed producers, here are a few of them:

• Captures and reveals ‘true’ cost paid for an ingredient and its accessorials, providing the fully loaded cost for that ingredient.
• Calculates all hidden costs—freight, fuel surcharges, warehousing, customs, utilities, taxes, finance charges and insurance.
• Allows flexibility in how landed costs are assigned, either to specific line items or entire invoice.

Landed Costs offers easy integration with many ERP systems, even those that do not incorporate any landed cost functionality. The Landed Costs functionality will be available beginning February 3, 2014.

Feed Management Systems