Knowing what you know now, would you do it again?
“Yes – definitely – totally”
What would you say to others thinking of working with Transfirm?
“For us it has been life changing; has transformed our complex system into an online digital platform that has set the business up for growth. I would highly recommend Transfirm to anyone wanting to build something exactly how they need it, rather than settling for a generic, off-the-shelf system.”
CASE STUDY
Salumi Australia has spent more than a decade consciously crafting fermented and gently aged smallgoods in the Byron Bay hinterland. Massimiliano Scalas, a chef and native Sardinian who missed the salumi of his homeland setup Salumi with his partner Rebecca McEwan. As the business has grown, they and their dedicated staff remain devoted to crafting unique and authentic products.
What was happening when you engaged Transfirm?
We had a successful and growing business that differed from those in Italy. Unlike manufacturers in Italy who tend to specialise in one regional product line, we make everything. Consequently, our HACCP food safety and traceability system couldn’t be adapted to off-the-shelf, industry software.
Everything was manual, which made scaling difficult. We were concerned about losing information and our staff becoming frustrated using a manual system in a rapidly growing business. We wanted to maintain a working environment that would continue to attract and retain great people.
What was the first thing you did with Transfirm?
Transfirm performed an initial investigation of our operations that was very thorough. It enabled Transfirm to learn exactly what we needed.
The first thing we did was develop better pricing rules to reflect operating constraints; thereby sending the right price signals to the market based on the product type offered. At the same time, we digitised our maintenance processes. This was a priority since efficient manufacturing is only possible with reliable and well-maintained equipment – particularly in the food industry. This made a big difference; people’s roles became clearer, and we experienced less interruptions.
We then moved on to digitise our entire HACCP food safety, traceability and production system.
How did you feel at the time?
We were excited, and a bit daunted. Excited because it was something we had wanted to do for a very long time. Daunted because we knew it was a big project, and we didn’t know where to start until we worked with Transfirm.
We were not nervous though, as we were doing something we understood well – we had a manual system in place.
What we ended up with was way better than we thought – it went beyond what we thought possible. Even adoption was quicker and easier than we anticipated.
What else did you do with Transfirm?
The main work with Transfirm was digitising our HACCP food safety, traceability and production system. We made sure all four stages of receivals, production, maturation and packing worked seamlessly and provided full traceability. It took a while to get our collecting minds around it, but once we did, it appeared almost anything was possible.
We then integrated and imbedded our cleaning and calibration programs, creating features that were incredibly advantageous. Visibility and connectivity have changed entirely; everyone can now see everything which has transformed communication. We now even feed information directly from packaging into our maintenance system which further expands traceability.
In fact, we had a senior auditor and food scientist from the food authority inspect our system. He took one look at the system and said, “I have never seen anything like it”. He said, “not even the big companies have this level of traceability or a system this good”.
It all came down to common sense. Why would you not build something like this if you could, and we have total comfort that Transfirm digitised the system on our Microsoft Tenancy.
What made the most impact?
Building a system where all the data is genuinely integrated and available to everyone has made the most impact. Safe and efficient food production is all about traceability and communication, which we have nailed. We can all see that each step in the process has been followed, with full verification and total accountability. Our system is fully auditable without notice. Traceability is not just about our product but our ingredients and all our compliance activities as well.
What would you say you’ve achieved overall?
We have set the business up for growth in terms of food safety and production and have fully connected our team. We are now future proofed and have what we need to expand, as well as the ongoing support from Transfirm should we need it.
We can now track thousands of batches from where the meat was sourced to who we sold it to and everything in between. It’s all at our fingertips. We now track trends such as weight loss and make better decisions. In our industry, weight loss is money, and our system now gives us a competitive edge.
Final Thoughts?
It has changed our business. Transfirm was recommended to us by Peter Shoobridge who said it would take some investment, but it will be worth it.
Peter was right – it is totally worth it. O my goodness, I would never go back.
I’d also like to say that Will always made himself available, was awesome and delivered what we wanted.
Rebecca McEwan
Co-Founder & Director
