Introduction
This week’s Customer Spotlight highlights Sales Rep Hayden Fredriksen’s work with a new tree farm just outside of Fort Worth using a Rugged RFID tag on every tree. Arbré Tech received a website submission a few months ago from a farm in Fort Worth, Texas looking for help with tree farm inventory management. One decade ago, the Walsh family planted a 75-acre tree farm to grow and nurture over 16,000 trees that could be utilized in its 7,200 acre master-planned community. The challenge? Establish an updated inventory of the farm to create a solid operations and sales plan.
The Challenge
The Walsh team was tasked with creating not only an up-to-date inventory list for the farm, but also plotting a map of each species. In addition, the team needed the ability to periodically operate the tree farm remotely. To solve this, Hayden worked with the team to implement an RFID solution with a few key software features to establish efficiency as well as inventory accuracy.
One rugged RFID tag was nailed to each tree at the farm, and then Hayden and a small team went through and created a profile for every tree using the “Create Inventory Mode” in the Arbré Nursery App. One unique feature the Walsh team decided to use was Arbré’s GPS feature, which drops a GPS pin on a digital map where the most recent scan of a tag took place, allowing them to see where each tree was located within the farm. Once the scanning was complete – it was quite the sight! The map went from showing 75 acres of open land to more than 11,000 trees pinned.
The next piece was running the tree farm remotely. With home builders and tree moving companies working in tandem to transport trees into the housing development, knowing which trees were taken and by whom is vital to Walsh. Arbré’s ability to scan each tree and automatically remove it from availability, as well as an integration with QuickBooks Online, helped to solve this problem. The team can take any tree pulled from the farm, scan the RFID tag, and mark it as sold and to whom. This not only keeps the inventory live, but helps to keep the invoicing and logistics side running smoothly.
Implementation, Support & Service
Arbré strives for a seamless implementation of RFID solutions. Undertaking management of a new tree farm was a huge task, coupled with implementing a brand-new inventory system. Arbré’s goal was to make the process as stress-free as possible while helping the Walsh team establish best practices. Hayden took the time to understand the team’s business and needs, and was able to recommend the right solution, not just the easiest one. The Walsh team is thrilled with the outcome and wanted to share a few words about their experience:
“Working with Hayden and the Arbré Tech software made, what seemed to be at first, such a daunting task, very doable, and even much easier than expected. Hayden truly ‘held our hand,’ and continues to do so, throughout the implementation processes. Each Tree Farm is different, and we like how we have been able to tailor the software to work with our unique circumstances.”
Carrie Cutaia of Walsh Tree Farm
These are the kinds of words that keep Arbré working to solve nursery problems and provide a great user experience!