{"id":3563,"date":"2020-09-29T08:47:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T08:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totalctrl.com\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2020-09-29T08:47:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T08:47:31","slug":"blog-matsentralen-oslo-will-save-1428-tonnes-of-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.totalctrl.com\/no\/blog\/blog-matsentralen-oslo-will-save-1428-tonnes-of-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Matsentralen Oslo Will Save 1,428 Tonnes of Food"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matsentralen Oslo is the Oslo branch of Matsentralen, a Norwegian food bank network that aims to fight food waste<\/a>. Matsentralen Oslo receives food from 50 suppliers. It then distributes this food to more than 120 hunger relief charities in Oslo. In 2017, they redistributed 1270 tonnes of food, which is equal to 2.5 million meals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large quantity of food inventory, however, came with challenges in recording inventory accurately and quickly. All their processes were manual and required excessive paperwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw this as an opportunity for joint value-creation. TotalCtrl created two applications specifically for Matsentralen Oslo. They served as our pilot customer for our inventory solution for food banks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Matsentralen Oslo, this reduced time spent on inventory management. Further, it led to significant food waste savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving From Pen & Paper to Digital <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before using TotalCtrl\u2019s solution, Matsentralen Oslo recorded food donations on paper without details. They didn\u2019t specify the exact amount, weight, and brand of food they received. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charities determined the number of designated products during checkout by weighing each pallet and recording its weight. They disregarded the contents of the pallet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All transactions were manually recorded in Microsoft Excel by one employee. Thus, inventory management had many inaccuracies across its entire process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The food waste management system was also faulty. Matsentralen Oslo had to keep many food products in their inventory to satisfy demand. However, most foods have a limited shelf life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, they had to get rid of their inventory before food expired to avoid food waste. Sometimes, the fluctuating nature of demand did not accommodate this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main challenges at Matsentralen Oslo can be boiled down to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Inaccuracies in recording inventory<\/li>
  2. Manual distribution and record-keeping processes <\/li>
  3. Wasted time<\/li>
  4. Unpredictable supply and demand <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    By collaborating with TotalCtrl, Matsentralen Oslo was able to digitize its inventory management system, saving time and money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    TotalCtrl\u2019s Food Bank Solution For Matsentralen Oslo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    To address inventory management challenges across the entire supply chain, we created two digital applications, one for Matsentralen Oslo and one for the charities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Matsentralen app <\/strong>helped add products to inventory through scanning or manually. This gave Matsentralen an accurate and holistic view of their inventory. Matsentralen also had access to a web dashboard, where they could edit information on charities and suppliers and download data in the form of a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The charity app<\/strong> allowed charities to view Matsentralen\u2019s full inventory before visiting the warehouse. Charity employees and volunteers added items placed in inventory by Matsentralen Oslo into the charity\u2019s own shopping cart when they picked them up. Thus, the products were automatically deducted from Matsentralen\u2019s inventory, thus digitizing the entire process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Matsentralen Oslo Saved Time and Money<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Digitizing their entire inventory benefited Matsentralen in several ways. Thanks to TotalCtrl, they could:<\/p>\n\n\n\n