Bettinehoeve/ENS: “Let’s goat for it”
Practical case digital lab with the HAI Platform in the MS Azure Cloud
Bettinehoeve/ENS: ``Let's goat for it``
Bettinehoeve and Emmi Nutritional Solutions (ENS) have taken a proactive approach to digitizing their laboratory processes in their factories in Etten Leur.
In their factories, they process raw goat’s milk into cheese, powder, protein concentrate, and fresh milk.
They opted for the HAI Platform in the Microsoft Azure Cloud: a SaaS solution, which stands for Software-as-a-Service. A modern approach to use software programs, which has a lot of benefits.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
In Software as a Service (SaaS), the software resides centrally in the Cloud, in this case, within the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Here, the software is managed in accordance with ISO 27001 standards, and made available to users.
This approach fully relieves Bettinehoeve/ENS of the typical necessities associated with implementing new software programs, such as infrastructure (network and servers), software installation, security, and software management (uptime, backups, and updates). Bettinehoeve/ENS, like all customers, automatically operates with the latest version of the software.
With a subscription to the HAI Platform, employees of Bettinehoeve/ENS have secure access to the HAI software in the Cloud regardless of location or device type (PC, laptop, tablet/iPad, or phone).
This Software-as-a-Service method is gaining popularity, offering significant advantages in terms of costs, scalability, flexibility, and cybersecurity. Additionally, it alleviates the IT department’s workload.
The HAI Platform has been custom-configured for Bettinehoeve/ENS to align with their business processes.
Tightly organized controls
“Quality assurance is of utmost importance to us”, says Karin van Vugt, QA/QC Manager at the cheese and powder manufacturer. “A large number of checks are performed daily to ensure product quality and food safety. Companies that have experienced a recall—having to withdraw products from the market due to food safety concerns—know that the costs of a recall can range from hundreds of thousands to millions. As a quality department, we do everything we can to prevent such an incident, which underscores the importance of quality control.”
“This alone makes it crucial to meticulously organize all relevant checks and measurements. Digitization plays a key role in this, which was a significant reason for adopting HAI’s software.”
A higher level
With the digitization of lab measurements, Van Vugt sees benefits in reporting and the speed at which they can retrieve and trend information. Ultimately, digitization automatically elevates the organization’s performance to a higher level: “both in terms of working faster with fewer errors and having better oversight,” says Van Vugt.
Karin van Vugt, QA/QC Manager Emmi Group:
“Ultimately, digitalization automatically elevates the organization’s performance to a higher level”
Dashboards and trends: ready to use
Reporting and trending proved to be a distinguishing criterion in favor of HAI. Van Vugt explains, “A graph tells you so much more than a list of numbers. In many systems, it takes a lot of effort to generate the desired reports or trends. In the HAI Platform, you can easily create and maintain your own trending dashboards. This ease and speed of implementation also played a role in choosing HAI.”
Quality control: chemical/physical, antibiotics, microbiology
The quality measurements are diverse. They encompass the chemical/physical composition of raw materials and end products such as milk, whey, cheese, and powders. This also includes antibiotic checks on milk and sensory analyses on cheese, evaluating attributes like taste, smell, and texture.
Additionally, there are microbiological controls on raw materials and end products, as well as hygiene checks in the factory (environmental monitoring, air and water samples, etc.).
External laboratories
Some samples are sent to external laboratories, which involves considerable administration: determining which samples need to be sent, when to send them, to which laboratory, and which analyses need to be performed. When the external lab sends back the measurement results, these need to be reviewed and recorded daily, adding further to the administrative burden.
This entire process is now automated with the HAI Platform, which integrates with the systems of Nutricontrol and Qlip (and soon Eurofins as well).
The HAI software automates the submission of samples along with their corresponding analysis requests. Additionally, the software facilitates the automated retrieval of the analysis results from these external laboratories. This saves a lot of time and, furthermore, helps to avoid the possibility of errors.
Let's goat for it!
Significant progress has already been made, and the ambition to embrace digitization more broadly is only strengthened by this. The “can-do” mentality of the former family business has certainly contributed to this success: “No dilly-dallying, let’s goat for it” laughs Van Vugt.
Bettinehoeve / Emmi Nutrition Solutions / Emmi Group
Bettinehoeve, based in Etten-Leur, is the market leader in the Netherlands as a producer of goat cheese. Its sister company, ENS (Emmi Nutritional Solutions), also operates at the same location, producing (organic) goat milk powder and goat whey protein concentrate (WPC). Both entities are part of the Swiss-based Emmi Group.
Get inspired
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