Some of our customers...

“They even stay ahead of the practice”

“Nothing but praise for the Reflex 3000 software”, says Wilco Brinkhorst of the Game & Poultry Group. The G&P Group supplies game and poultry, both uncooked and cooked, to hotels, restaurants, catering companies, congress centers and hospital kitchens. “We are extremely dependent upon the system. I wouldn't know what to do without it. We'd be lost!” Victor Brinkhorst adds: “In principle everything is possible; its possibilities are unlimited. It's great. Besides, the system is very simple and therefore very user friendly. And the instruction manuals are also very clear.” Victor and Wilco are of the opinion that ReflexSystems really fulfils the expectations created by the slogan “follows the practice”. Victor: “Yes, that's right. And what's more, they even stay ahead of the practice; for example, with respect to traceability, which is now obligatory. They don't waste time deliberating on how to tackle the problem; no, no, by the time the legislation comes into effect they have already designed the program. They really react promptly to new possibilities and demands. Currently, for example, Internet ordering is hot, so they're already on the job. And they're a really enthusiastic bunch of guys; they really help you think.”

Victor Brinkhorst, Director G&P Group

“ReflexSystems is a partner you can immediately get on well with”

Holland Food Service of Wijchen has an excellent reputation in the production and supply of uncooked and cooked potatoes, vegetables and fruits, ready-to-serve meal components and deep frozen products to institutional kitchens. Controller Bas Ceelen says that the company wants to continue to be the market leader. “We react to fast changes in the market by continually improving our assortment, production techniques, quality and service. Automation should support this philosophy. We submit our wishes to ReflexSystems, but they also take initiatives themselves. The modular system has a big advantage: You can first choose all the basic modules you want to use and later on you can build on that by adding further modules. Holland Food Service also works with the Internet order module. It makes it easier for our customers to place orders and to obtain better insight into our assortment of 15,000 articles,” Ceelen explains. “They can also request information, such as sales statistics, whenever they need it. Our assortment is continuously growing and the catalogue is updated automatically. The advantage of this is that the system is custom-designed to suit our company.”

Bas Ceelen, Controller Holland Food Service

“We use the modules that serve our purpose”

“We couldn't work without perfect automation. Our company largely runs on Reflex 3000 from ReflexSystems, and we now have three years' experience with the system. We use the elements that serve our purpose, which means we don't need to deal with any superfluous hotchpotch.” Marco Boltze is facilities manager at Verhaaren's, which has subsidiaries in Tilburg and Venlo. Verhaaren is a wholesaler of potatoes, vegetables and fruits and also supplies those products in ready-to-cook forms. Flexible and reliable delivery of countless product combinations place high demands on the automation system. “We deal with a special branch of industry: We work with day prices and sometimes even with intraday prices where the prices of the products fluctuate in the course of the day. That demands a high level of flexibility. We do not want to enter that into our system immediately and then end up seeing it on the invoices later. And we manage to do so. ReflexSystems, like us, also opts for the practical approach.” Boltze also refers to compound products, such as the vegetables used in soups; in other words, packages that contain cauliflower, leeks, onions and carrots. “The way everything is programmed means that you can see the final price immediately.” He also likes the way ReflexSystems helps his customers think: “They had a tracking and tracing module at a very early stage in anticipation of the introduction of the General Food Law on 1 January 2005. They never wait for the client to come up with a solution; they take the initiative themselves based on their experience and their knowledge of the market.”

Marco Boltze, Facilities Manager Verhaaren AGF

“Also interesting for smaller companies”

Sea fish wholesaler Gebr. Muys not only has almost the full range of Reflex 3000 modules, but also five Flex 3000 CT terminals. “Good equipment, very well suited for use in a wet environment, because with fish you always have humidity”, says Willem Vedder. On 1 October 2003, the Reflex 3000 system went live at the sea fish wholesaler. In Spakenburg, all the fish is processed by the approximately seventy workers and sold to the ambulatory fish dealers, fish shops and fish wholesalers. Among those is an ever-growing list of foreign companies. Regular customers are supplied two to three times a week; generally at night. Vedder: “We have been running the system for a year now. In the beginning there are always a few little things that need to be adapted; which is obvious, as things never run exactly as planned. Meanwhile, though, everything is working perfectly, and I must say, I am very happy with the system. It is extremely elaborate and has countless options for running statistics and analyses - which is very nice. Thanks to the modular construction, you are able to buy only what you need and you are not forced to buy a lot of unnecessary stuff you would never use. That makes the system interesting for smaller companies too.”

Willem Vedder, Chief Automation Kennemer Fish Group, of which Gebr. Muys is a subsidiary.

“Paperless order picking with an RF scanner”

‘Trendsetters in institutional use’ is the pay-off of Horesca Smulders in Goirle in the province of Brabant. “We want to show our customers new things again and again, and lead the way when it comes to new developments. This is certainly also true in automation; even if it means you sometimes have to invest more simply because you are the first mover.” Stefan Smulders is the manager of Smulders, a company that supplies to hotels, restaurants and catering companies. The company collaborates closely with ReflexSystems in the field of automation. Thanks to the collaboration with ReflexSystems, Horesca Smulders was able to implement wireless order picking using an RF pulse scanner. The sales slip that is generated by the system can be accessed directly by the order pickers. Our entire operation is now completely paperless; which not only saves us money, but it is good for the environment as well. Thanks to this new system, Horesca Smulders now works with substantially reduced error statistics. Stefan Smulders: “We also save on the cost of order controlling, because there is no longer any need for it. It saves us around 40 hours a week, as the scanner immediately shows whether the right product has been picked and whether all products have been collected. And if something goes wrong anyway, you can always trace the point of error and take the necessary steps to avoid it next time.”

Stefan Smulders, manager of product development of Horesca Smulders

“You can't help noticing that the system was designed by people who know the practice.”

“As soon as you start working with Reflex 3000, you will notice that the system was designed by butchers; that is to say, by people who know the practice of the food industry. They understand that you should be able to survey a customer's history in a flash, and that you need to take out the packing list with a single push of a button. I therefore fully agree with the claim, ‘ReflexSystems follows the practice.’” Peter Pruim, Works and System Manager of the Fresh Centre Almere, is enthusiastic about Reflex 3000: “When we started to automate approximately 15 years ago, we soon found ourselves working with ReflexSystems. I immediately trusted their system, because I knew that the designers themselves came from the practice of the butcher's shop. So it wasn't hard to make a choice and I have never regretted it since. The Fresh Centre Almere would be completely lost without Reflex 3000.” Pruim adds that “the whole company runs on it. And the best feature of the package is that there are modules available for all the different departments, and they can all be linked up without a problem. Another major advantage is the absence of breakdowns: The system is anything but sensitive to failure. We hardly ever have problems; which is critical in our sector, as we work with fresh products on a daily basis. Everything has to be quick-quick; we simply cannot afford our system to breakdown for a couple of hours,” says Pruim.

Peter Pruim, Works Manager Fresh centre Almere