The scent of milk lingers in the many hallways and workspaces of the QLIP laboratories in Zutphen. That’s not surprising, since milk (from cows and goats) is the lifeblood of this company. QLIP, with locations in Zutphen and Leusden, is Europe’s largest milk and dairy laboratory. It’s pronounced ‘Kjoelip’—which rhymes with ‘tulip’—to emphasize that it’s a quintessentially Dutch company. The acronym also stands for something. Director Jan Bobbink explains: the “q” stands for quality, the “l” for laboratory, the “i” for inspection, and the “p” for process certification. This immediately sums up the core activities of this fast-growing company. “The Dutch dairy sector has an excellent international reputation. As a private company, QLIP plays an essential role in that.”
Alistar is a partner that can adapt quickly and deliver customized solutions integrated with the standard Exact software suite.
Jan Bonnink
The White Motorcycle
According to Bobbink, the expansion is being driven by favorable developments in the Dutch agri-food cluster. But it is also driven by automation and robotization, which have been extensively implemented at his company. At QLIP, milk is the driving force, but the company also runs on information; it is a true data factory. A large portion of the analysis results used to be entered manually, but are now automatically imported, scanned, validated, authorized, and sent back to customers. This is more efficient, faster, less prone to errors, and increases profitability, says Head of IT Hans van Hemert.
“On the one hand, we analyze and inspect to ensure that no unsafe substances end up in the dairy products—substances you definitely don’t want in your food. Think of added melamine, which led to a major food scandal in China in 2008. On the other hand, we verify whether the contents actually match what’s listed on the packaging,” Bobbink explains during a tour in Zutphen.
Sustainability
Farmers ask QLIP whether livestock feed is being used efficiently. And consumers of dairy products want to know what the ‘carbon footprint’ of the production process is, because they are striving to make the dairy supply chain more sustainable. Since some milk consumers prefer milk, yogurt, and butter from cows that actually graze in pastures after winter, QLIP has developed a grazing program on behalf of dairy manufacturers to verify whether the animals have actually grazed outdoors.
There are two laboratories at the Zutphen site. There is the chemical-microbiological laboratory, where raw and preserved milk, butter, cheese products, milk powder, and infant formula, among other items, are tested. Approximately 450,000 analyses are conducted there annually. In addition, there is the routine laboratory, consisting of two departments: the payment laboratory, which analyzes 2.3 million milk samples annually, and the MPR (Milk Production Registration) laboratory. Because livestock farmers and livestock improvement organizations also need information at the cow- or goat-level for their breeding models, this laboratory analyzes an additional 250,000 samples from individual animals each week.
Exact Synergy ensures that QLIP can effectively exchange performance data with all dairy companies and the livestock improvement organization.
Hans van Hemert
Interactive Customer Portal
Exact Synergy is the software behind QLIP’s interactive customer portal. Van Hemert: “The customer logs in via our website, indicates that a sample is on its way, and attaches a barcode label to it that they can scan or enter manually. This creates a sort of order form, similar to what you do on Bol.com, but for the desired analyses (tests). Our transport service picks up the samples—for example, a piece of cheese or a bottle of milk. As soon as one of the requested tests is completed, we update the customer’s record, and the results appear immediately on the portal. The client receives an Excel spreadsheet for their own system, and the results are also sent to their email inbox.”.
A billing line is automatically created for Exact Globe submitted, along with the financial package we’ve linked to it, after which the invoice can be sent. Bobbink believes that digitization will bring even more benefits to the dairy chain. “As a dairy nation, we’re already a leader, but there’s still a world of opportunity to be gained in the sector—through more research, leveraging even more data, and developing new products. QLIP is a reliable partner in these developments, thanks to its distinctive expertise and technology.”
Custom Solutions
“From Exact Synergy ”There's much more to Exact than companies realize,“ says Maritha Doorn of Alistar, an Exact partner. ”QLIP, for example, uses Synergy as a kind of process generator, which could be of interest to many companies."
While Exact provides the standard software, Alistar offers a number of additional services. “We set up processes within Exact for clients, develop software, or customize existing software. So we don’t just integrate systems; we build solutions based on and around Exact so that we can fully support the desired processes. It’s truly custom work.”
