Desiring good-tasting, healthy meals yet often pressed for time, consumers are increasingly turning to the chilled and frozen foods found at their local retailer for Home Meal Replacement (HMR). With 98% of foodservice operations utilizing refrigerated and frozen foods for solutions to year round availability, product consistency, labor costs, portion control, quality, ease of storage and food safety challenges, the market for refrigerated and frozen foods is estimated at over $200 billion annually and growing steadily!

AFS Technologies customers use the accurate, real-time information provided by our fully integrated, end-to-end business software solutions to make better business decisions and better serve their customers. Through a 27 year history of exclusively serving the food industry, particularly companies handling weight-based perishable products, AFS Technologies has the software, innovation and experience needed to drive profitability and competitive advantage for refrigerated and frozen food distributors nationwide.

AFS Technologies solutions deliver tangible business benefits by:

Increasing Customer Satisfaction and Sales

The AFS Advanced Enterprise product suite utilizes a single database to integrate your company's departments and business processes across functions in real-time. Information only needs to be keyed-in once into a single system eliminating errors and redundant activities while providing accurate, real-time business reporting of pricing, costing and inventory quantities and values in multiple units of measure (incl. random weights), down to the single case ID with code dating and lot tracking. Inventory is tightly controlled while your field sales force (DSRs) will have the confidence that on-hand inventory quantities and values are accurate, that pricing and costing data in multiple units of measure are accurate, and that customers will receive what they ordered when delivery was committed.

The product suite also offers five different ways to enter and manage orders in both online (internet) and off-line modes using a laptop, PC or other type of mobile computing device. This ability is tightly integrated with AFS Advanced Enterprise Business Management and provides your customers, DSRs, and your in-house customer service representatives the convenience, accuracy and ability to enter orders themselves, 24 X 7, while in the office or on the road.

Improving Margins

Comprehensive pricing, margin and credit rules and controls are built into the application with easy set up and maintenance. Products are sold at the right price and margin based on the right cost.

AFS Advanced Enterprise includes an automated vendor deal and rebate tracking system to allow distributors to easily and accurately record and report the data needed to receive the maximum allowable vendor rebates. Current customers experience sheltered income increases of 20-30% over manual rebate tracking processes.

Improving Operational Efficiencies and Reduced Overall Operational Costs

Available integrated forecasting and purchasing supply chain management software helps buyers improve buying practices and optimize inventory investments. Service levels are improved, lost sales are reduced, margins are increased and excess stock is eliminated through improved forecasting and purchasing decisions. This helps improve inventory turns and reduces cash consumption and carrying costs as well.

Automated Warehouse Management using Wireless Bar Code Scanning is a major operational efficiency and cost cutting driver. AFS Technologies has a long history of implementing these solutions and has helped many customers achieve dramatic warehouse operational improvements through sophisticated picking algorithms & directed warehouse activity. Knowing where your inventory is located and by rotating stock, spoilage and waste are typically reduced up to 10%. Employee productivity can increase up to 15% and overall warehouse efficiency can improve by as much as 20%. Reductions in inventory cost of 2-5% are typical and picking errors are practically eliminated with 99.5% picking accuracy achieved. An overall increase in company profitability of 1-3% is achievable, all by streamlining your business with AFS Warehouse Management. AFS Technologies works closely with partner Psion Teklogix to offer hand-held scanning terminals designed to function in the harshest freezer environments in temperatures as low as –22 degrees F.

Route planning & truck loading optimization software offered in partnership with UPS Logistics Technology helps manage your transportation department more efficiently. The daily route optimization tool Roadnet™ will help to reduce transportation costs and increase driver accountability. Territory Planner™ optimizes sales and delivery territories, while MobileCast™ provides real-time delivery management and route execution. In all, our integrated solutions help customers find more effective ways to manage deliveries, load vehicles more efficiently, reduce transportation costs, increase driver accountability and improve customer service.

Route accounting / DEX driver delivery solutions for delivery automation allow your drivers to use mobile, handheld computers to input sales, returns, cash receipts, expenses and inventory transactions at the customer site. Information is transferred to your company's business management software system through a wireless or dial-up connection. This solution reduces time spent on paperwork, eliminates line item extension errors, pricing errors, and eliminates office data entry errors all while allowing your driver to add extra stops per day without adding additional work hours. Route accounting solutions are ideal for delivering short shelf-life products to businesses on a regular basis.

Business trend analysis & reporting solutions combine Crystal Reports with a choice of comprehensive, yet simple-to-use business intelligence packages to provide easy-to view graphical reports of critical operational information in your company’s ERP system.