Circular Process
Under the slogan ‘Ecology is our Strength,’ Remi Tack NV is fully focused on the reconditioning of large industrial packaging, particularly IBCs (Intermediate Bulk Containers) and plastic drums. To this end, they have a large fleet of trailers, three industrial washing lines, and their own recycling department. According to Lynn Decancq, purchasing and sales manager, Remi Tack NV is a unique company: “In most cases, our business partners are both suppliers and customers. We pick up a mix of uncleaned containers and return them cleaned according to their specifications, supplemented with containers from other suppliers. We purchase any incoming packaging that does not meet their requirements. Packaging that cannot be cleaned is reconditioned or, if necessary, recycled by raw material.”
Specific Challenges
In addition to this unusual business model, there are other specific challenges. “Other companies need something, place an order, have it delivered, check the delivery against the order, and then pay the invoice. That concludes the transaction. That’s not the case for us,” says Jurgen. “We receive goods we’ve never ordered, so we don’t know the quantities or specifications during unloading and have to record as many relevant details as possible. So for us, it’s always a matter of waiting to see what comes in at the receiving area.”
An additional challenge is that there are hundreds of variants of IBCs alone. “In the past, we used short item references, customer-specific technical data sheets, and the knowledge of our ‘veterans.’ It was a cumbersome and error-prone process that new employees, in particular, found difficult to navigate. Communication was cumbersome, involving a lot of back-and-forth between the loading areas and the administrative department. Once a mistake was made at the beginning of the process, it had an impact on the entire organization,” Lynn adds.
“We recently renamed more than 3,000 product SKUs using extended alphanumeric codes. This code allows us to describe the products in detail. However, it’s impossible to recognize an IBC of type ‘A23-4479-103’ at a glance upon arrival. This is where our Power App provides the solution.”
Waste streams must also be tracked very carefully. Jurgen: “When we purchase packaging, it may still contain residues. To properly monitor, store, process, and invoice these waste streams, it is important to accurately record the amount of residue. These records are also important for periodic reporting to the government.”
The combination of the Power App and Business Central provides better integration between purchasing, production, and sales
Jurgen Lernout – Site Manager, Remi Tack NV
Power Apps as a registration tool
To make registration easy despite all those obstacles, Remi Tack NV teamed up with Alistar to implement Power Apps.
An application was built in Power Platform that allows various products to be categorized quickly. Employees in the goods receiving department use the Power App by navigating through various columns containing all the characteristics of a package, such as contents, faucet type, type of opening and lid, color, etc. By clicking on the appropriate field or property in each column on their tablet based on what they see (e.g., 1,000 liters, 2” valve, 225 mm opening with vent, white, etc.), the product is recorded in a structured manner and mapped to the correct item reference.
All forklifts are also equipped with weighing forks, and with the push of a button in the Power App, the weight of items such as residues is automatically transmitted to Business Central. In addition, if an IBC is damaged or has any unusual characteristics, they take a photo using the Power App. Various categories and fields facilitate structured or free-form communication between the receptionist/forklift operator and the administrative staff.
Every entry made by the reception staff in the Power App is immediately sent to the ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. As a result, all data is always accurate and up to date. Jurgen adds, “Thanks to the 4G connections on the tablets and scale forks, we know in real time what has been unloaded. The information is reliable and structured in such a way that administrative processing is largely automated.”
“We now have a much better understanding of what’s coming in, and that leads to better communication with our customers, improves our visibility into inventory, and also helps with production planning.” The Power App also offers many benefits on the commercial side: “The combination of the Power App and Business Central ensures better integration between purchasing, production, and sales,” Lynn concludes.
More Than Just Power Apps
As a major player in this niche market, Remi Tack NV is strongly committed to innovation, and Jurgen plays a leading role in this: “We cannot tolerate slapdash work or amateurism. We must be a customer-focused and efficient company with high-quality, reliable systems. That’s why we’ve been actively developing our technology over the past three years. We build robust systems that support us and enable us to perform our work more effectively,” says Jurgen.
For Remi Tack, the data from the Power app is very useful for analysis: identifying and predicting market trends, determining which types of packaging come from which industries, … They’ll gain more insight, and it’s also nice for the operators themselves to see that their systems are becoming more user-friendly.
But the developments go beyond Power Apps. For example, Alistar has also developed a new transportation and production planning system in Business Central for Remi Tack NV. “Tomorrow, our in-house Technical Consultant will present this solution to about 100 ES colleagues. The ‘drag-and-drop’ features, real-time overviews, and interactive maps will be explained,” says Lynn.
Upcoming developments include the implementation of an electronic CMR for drivers by the end of this year and the initial analysis of the data collected using Power BI.
And that’s not all. Remi Tack NV clearly intends to continue innovating and optimizing: “We’re not quite at Industry 4.0 yet; our machinery is still too outdated for that. So for now, there’s little point in integrating it with Business Central. But when new machines arrive, sensors will give us a much better understanding of what’s going on. We need that knowledge, because we have to move forward. Using technology, we need to offer more specific wash programs; we need to understand even better how to clean more efficiently at a lower cost and with less water and energy. ”Only in this way can we give our customers what they want, reduce our environmental footprint, maintain our margins, and recoup our investments,” Jurgen concludes.
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