Blog

Tree nurseries prepare for summer inventory

Congratulations on your purchase! The InstaCaliper is a powerful tree inventory tool, providing continuing benefits year after year. The InstaCaliper is more than a measuring device. It provides information to value your trees, enables you to create strategic work orders to pick trees from the field, and offers push button tree grading capabilities.

To prepare for the season, fully charge the handheld computer. Leave the device charging and connected to Wi-Fi. Leave the device “on” and “awake” to download app updates. The updates will include new InstaCaliper software releases and various Google app releases. The update process can take an hour or more; depending on your internet connection speed and how many apps require updates.

Use the Customer Portal to add or update task and list information. An example would be adding new tree varieties or locations. Sync the InstaCaliper app on the handheld computer to load the new information.

Many inventory software programs allow data imports. Contact us early for custom downloads that will “play nice” with your existing nursery inventory system to save even more time. There can be a line during tree inventory season, so get your request in now so that you aren’t waiting to get your report when you need it this summer and fall!

Things to know:

  • What’s new in 2019? Nothing! If we don’t have the feature you want, you probably don’t need it. But if you want it, we can make it. Software is billed hourly. Contact us for a quote.
  • Find our free help site at http://help.2ndsightbio.com. Phone support is billed hourly, with minimum of 15-minute increments. Standard support hours are 9am to 5pm PDT.
  • We rely on our customers and word of mouth to sell more units. When you send someone our way… have them mention your name. You will both be rewarded.
  • The annual fee pays for basic support, updates, data storage, and enables you to add and remove information. If you want to grow a great apple tree, expect to pay continuous costs for fertilizers and sprays.
  • We have limited stock. We sell out every year. We are unable to rent or offer free testing.
  • You will need to have basic computer skills or find someone who does. We will teach you how to surf the digital wave; but we ask you to please know how to find the beach.

Our Customers Can’t Leave the Future to Chance, So Neither Can We

When I opened my Outlook app this morning, the email at the top of my inbox came from Nursery Management, and the headline caught my attention: “Don’t leave the future to chance.” If you’re like me, leaving things to chance is frightening.

At 2nd Sight, we know life happens, but we did our best to anticipate how our equipment would be used (and abused) in the field. We couldn't just cross our fingers and hope that a worker wouldn't get our equipment wet, would not drop a handheld out in the orchard, or hit one of our FairPick scale frames by a tractor.... We wanted to be proactive with the design and selection of our equipment so that you, and our own 2nd Sight team, could sleep well at night.

Rugged equipment

Your employees will drop things, get them dirty, and maybe even wet. It’s no coincidence that we utilize durable and reliable waterproof handheld devices with our labor and product tracking systems. These “Ruggedized Handheld Computers” are designed with safeguards against dirt and debris. They can take on the challenge of daily, outdoor field use. Wondering about the FairPick scale or FlexHub box? A team of experienced 2nd Sight engineers designed these systems to be put to the test too. We don’t recommend mistreating your electronic equipment, but we’ve had scales withstand drops off the beds of trucks and live to tell the tale.

Durable employee badges

RFID technology has become more widespread in many ag and nonagricultural applications. It was another intentional decision to utilize RFID cards as employee badges with our systems. The antenna inside PVC protective layer can only be damaged if completely bent in half. Dirt, dust, water, mud, and sweat do not interfere with the ability to scan an employee’s badge. Barcodes, on the other hand, cannot be read quickly and easily if there is dirt or dust on them, or if the label has been damaged by water or sweat. RFID cards also have the advantage of being reusable from season to season as they can be re-assigned over and over again.

Data integrity

We want to ensure that your data is there when you need it. We can’t just hope that a handheld getting run over by a tractor won’t damage the device’s memory. That’s why we have data stored not only on the device itself, but also on a micro SD card. Once you sync data to the Portal, you now have your data stored in several locations:

  • On the handheld (or FairPick Pro box flash memory)
  • On a micro SD card in the handheld (or FairPick Pro box)
  • On the Portal
  • In Portal database backups (yes, we back up your data for you automatically)
  • In data logs and reports that you’ve downloaded from the Portal

We know how important it is for equipment to work when you need it to, to have the data ready when you need to run payroll, and to have contingency plans for when life happens. At 2nd Sight, we do our best to not leave the future to chance so that we can all sleep better at night.

Using FairTrak in Greenhouse Operations to Track and Monitor Employee Productivity

Recently, a greenhouse grower in Alberta, Canada implemented the FairTrak system. The grower wanted a way to better track employee productivity per activity at the operation. The FairTrak offered several benefits to help this greenhouse grower achieve his goals:

Flexibility

Track all types of tasks: From hourly, to barcode scanning, to piece type tasks, this grower even uses the FairTrak to type in pallet weights per worker to evaluate worker’s picking efficiency.

Mobility

The FairTrak rugged handheld moves with the crew. The system can keep up with the employees in the greenhouse. The crew boss can unlock the batch mode feature to clock multiple employees in and out of tasks quickly without a badge scan.

Automated reports

The grower can evaluate worker productivity daily with a click of a button. Poor worker performance can be identified and corrected quickly.

Employee accountability

When employees know their time and work are being recorded accurately, they are less likely to abuse employer time. Employees also receive more feedback about the work they perform which can lead to better productivity.

Simple and scalable

The app interface is easy to understand and use and a grower can continue to add additional handhelds to the system as the organization grows. There is no limit to the number of employees that can use one handheld, and annual fees are only associated with the number of units—not the number of people.

This customer said the FairTrak system will pay for itself in only six months tracking 50 people in his greenhouses. This is something that we love to hear at 2nd Sight! Our goal is to save growers money and minimize stress. What better way to achieve this goal with Ag technology and software like the FairTrak! Other greenhouse growers in Alberta are jumping on board, will you be joining them?

2nd Sight

823 N Crestline St
Spokane, WA 99202
United States

Phone: 509-381-2112
Email: sales@2ndsightbio.com