Novus International awarded AFIA IT Innovation Award
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) has handed out its first AFIA Information Technology (IT) Innovation Award to feed ingredients supplier Novus International. The runner-up was awarded to Feed Energy Company of Des Moines, Iowa.
In 1993, Novus pioneered a vendor-managed inventory for bulk liquid feed ingredients with the introduction of a patented automated remote monitoring system known as AIMS.
This system provided improved inventory management of Novus’s bulk liquid ingredients via the telecommunications system.
In 2009-10, Novus upgraded the AIMS infrastructure by incorporating the latest satellite communications and remote monitoring technology throughout its bulk liquid product supply chain.
The new platform is internet-based and provides precise, dependable and instantaneous inventory readings for any customer 24/7, and has been implemented at over 500 locations across North America.
Inventory management
The 2011 runner-up, Feed Energy Company, recently developed a computational-based stochastic model, the Nth Load, to help the company in decision making and optimization of inventory management for ingredient procurement, processing and finished goods inventories.
The model is run weekly using historical and current data from Feed Energy’s three locations in a five-week planning horizon.
The Nth Load has helped Feed Energy ensure it has the proper supply to meet the demands of its livestock and poultry customers.
