Custom app for processing jobs in the packing shed
Appfront builds apps that help bulb and tuber growers manage work in the shed: which operation each lot needs, in what order, by which team and on which machine, and what has been reported as complete. From drying and peeling to sorting, counting and disinfection, with no paper notes on the lot bin and no planner walking the shed to ask how far things have got.
What is a shed operations app?
A shed operations app turns each lot into a sequence of tasks: drying, peeling, sorting by sieve size, counting, disinfection, packing. For each task it shows which team carries it out, on which machine, in what order and with what instructions. The team reports completion with quantities per size and losses, and the lot moves on to the next operation. The planner sees each day's workload, what is waiting, and where a machine is sitting idle.
Without an app, the schedule lives on a whiteboard in the shed, the instructions sit on a note taped to the lot bin, and the planner has to walk around to find out how far things have got. That works in a quiet week. At peak times, with temporary staff who don't know the lots and a sorting machine that is the bottleneck, lots get processed in the wrong order, a disinfection is forgotten, or it turns out at the end of the day that one lot was counted twice and another not at all.
We build custom solutions because every shed works differently. Which operations, in what order, on which machines, and which rules apply to sequencing, for example that a disinfected lot must not run over the same belt as an undisinfected one: that is your way of working. The app should follow it, and connect to the lot administration and cultivation records you already keep.
Task per lot and operation
Each lot gets a sequence of tasks with team, machine, order and instructions, shown on the screen at the machine.
Completion with quantities
The team reports completion with quantities per size, losses and remarks, and the lot moves on to the next operation.
Daily planning
What is running, what is waiting, which machine is idle and which team is free. The planner steers from a single screen.
How we build your shed operations app
We start in the shed, with the teams and the machines, and with the whiteboard the schedule currently hangs on. From that we establish what the app needs to know for each task and what the team needs to be able to report.
Which operations, which machines, which sequencing rules and which teams. We shadow a day at peak time and note where the paper notes come from.
For each lot, the sequence of tasks, the assignment to team and machine, and the screen at the machine showing the task and its instructions.
Reporting completion with quantities and losses, moving the lot on to the next operation, and the planner seeing what has happened.
Quantities to the lot administration, disinfection to the cultivation records, hours to the time records. After that we take the app into management.
What a shed operations app concretely does
The components below appear in almost every bulb shed. Which ones you need depends on your operations and on how many teams work at the same time.
Tasks per lot
Each lot gets a sequence of operations with order, instructions and the rules that apply, created by the planner or from a template per crop.
Assignment to team and machine
Who does what where, with machine and team availability per day and the queue per machine.
Screen at the machine
The team sees the task, the instructions and the lot, scans the lot and starts. With large buttons, for a dusty shed.
Completion with quantities
Quantities per sieve size, losses with reasons and remarks, recorded by the team at the moment itself.
Queue and bottleneck
Which lots are waiting for which machine, and what happens to the schedule when a machine fails.
Daily overview for the planner
Completed, in progress, waiting and not yet started, per lot and per crew, with deviations from the plan.
Who we build a barn work order app for
This app is intended for businesses where the barn is the bottleneck during peak season and where planning currently depends too heavily on the planner walking around.
Bulb growers
Their own lots from the field to the barn, with a peak after lifting in which every operation must happen on time.
Exporters and trading companies
Purchased lots from many growers, each with their own requirements, sorted, counted and packed in the barn per customer.
Contract processors with barn work
Operations commissioned by growers, where completion reports with quantities form the basis for the invoice.
Businesses with many temporary workers
Crews who don't know the lots and need instructions on screen rather than in the foreman's head.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
The app runs on screens at the machines and on the planner's phone, linked to your lot administration. We have a separate page on that lot administration itself: the bulb lot administration app. For labour per operation in the barn there is the labour registration app, and you can read about our way of working at building an app.
For the office, covering seasonal capacity, costs per lot and settlement with contract processors, there is our software for barn capacity and costs.
Why choose Appfront for your barn work order app?
Barn work at peak times depends on sequence and on knowing where each lot is. An app that shows this to the crew rather than to the planner is what makes the difference.
The work order is at the machine
The crew sees what needs doing with which lot, without searching for the foreman. That is why temporary staff can work independently in their first week.
Your sequencing rules built in
Disinfected and non-disinfected kept separate, drying before peeling, this lot for this customer first. The app knows your rules and does not allow an incorrect sequence.
Completion reporting is the lot administration
The quantities per size and the losses the crew reports are immediately the current state of the lot. Nobody recounts at the end of the day.
Security and privacy for a barn work order app
The app contains commercially sensitive data on lots, growers and customers, as well as performance data for crews. Access is arranged by role: the crew sees its own orders, the planner the whole barn, administration the quantities. Performance data per person stays within the company.
Completion reports receive a timestamp from the device and are stored unchanged. A correction by the planner sits alongside the original report with name and reason, so that if there is a dispute over quantities with a grower or customer, the history of the lot can be traced back.
Frequently asked questions about a barn work order app
Questions bulb businesses ask before getting started.
It turns each lot into a series of work orders with crew, machine, sequence and instructions, displays them on a screen at the machine, and lets the crew report completion with quantities per size and losses. The planner sees each day what is in progress, what is waiting and where a machine is idle.
Yes. The screens at the machines work locally and synchronise as soon as connectivity returns. We test with the crew in the barn, wearing gloves and in the dust, not in the office.
Yes. Rules such as drying before peeling, not disinfecting over the same belt as non-disinfected product, or prioritising batches for a specific buyer, are recorded per crop or per barn. The app won't start an order if a rule doesn't allow it, and it tells you why.
Via the completion notification: the team reports quantities per sieve size and losses with reasons, and these become the status of the lot. With an integration to the sorting machine, the quantities come from there; otherwise the team counts or weighs.
Yes. A disinfection is an operation with a product, a dosage and a moment in time, and that information belongs in the crop records. The app enters it there as soon as the order is reported as complete.
Yes, with the grower as the client for each batch. The completion report with quantities and operations then forms the basis for the invoice, and the grower can, if they wish, see in a portal how far along their batches are.
A planning board shows the schedule; this app directs the work and records what has been done. If you only want to see what needs doing today, a board is enough, and we'll say so. The value lies in the completion reporting and in the rules the app enforces.
Direct your barn from the screen at the machine?
Tell us which operations you carry out and how the planning currently works in the barn. We'll shadow you through a busy day and show you what an app would concretely deliver in your situation.