Clover SA, one of South Africa's largest providers of dairy products, contracted GIS (Geographical System Information) solution provider AfriGIS to develop a system that would enable it to optimally plan and schedule the routes of its milk collection and inter-branch distribution fleet.

"Clover SA has to collect milk from more than 1300 farmers in rural South Africa, explains AfriGIS Director Johann van der Westhuizen. We had to develop an application that would be able to handle various complexities such as the limitations of collection times on farms, various vehicle combinations, varying volumes, etc."

An additional requirement was that the application had to be integrated into Clover's existing milk procurement system, which supplies information on the volumes to be collected as well as other producer-related data.

Development began in February 2000, and by August 2000 AfriGIS had produced a system that met nearly all Clover's requirements. "The system is based on a national street centreline database (in the form of a map) which is used as a base network for route planning", Van der Westhuizen explains. "It also includes software that ensures optimum vehicle scheduling for milk collection from farmers and the transport of milk between factories".

The application allows for the updating of information from Clover's procurement system and then automatically optimises routes and assigns vehicles. "The user can then manually adapt the routes and update them to the procurement system," Van der Westhuizen adds.

"Our staff are currently undergoing training in the use of the system, and we are extremely pleased with the results so far", says Tobie de Villiers, General Manager: Milk Procurement at Clover. "AfriGIS demonstrated a high degree of professionalism throughout the project, and their project management skills are outstanding. Their ability to turn our requirements into a workable solution is truly impressive and we look forward to a long-standing relationship".

AfriGIS

(012) 362 3114

lydette@afrigis.co.za

www.afrigis.co.za