Three ways Mooigezicht manages its labour costs more effectively
Mooigezicht Estates is an export-focused table grape producer in the Hex River Valley, comprising 10 farms on about 400 hectares of land. For the past decade, Mooigezicht has been using the Farm Costing Solutions (FCS) system to manage its labour-related costs. We spoke to Francois Rossouw Jnr, a production manager at Mooigezicht, about how the company benefits from FCS’ solution.
Time and attendance:
Accurate monitoring of work hours
With FCS’ Time and Attendance feature, Mooigezicht can easily monitor the work hours of its employees. Each person is issued a special ‘tag’ that they swipe against a ‘reader’ device when they arrive in the morning, check out and in for lunch, and leave in the afternoon.
“We can immediately see if someone is not at work, how long they worked or if they stayed out after lunch. It takes away all the paperwork and the need to do a roll call every day. It is also more trustworthy than a paper-based method,” says Rossouw.
Piecework:
A trustworthy system for tracking productivity
Mooigezicht uses the FCS system to keep track of various piecework tasks in its vineyards and packhouse. When workers complete an action – such as harvesting the grapes or filling a box in the packhouse – it is recorded on FCS’ reader device under the supervision of a team leader. “Workers will, for instance, have a target of 100 vines per day. When they finish with a row, they swipe their tag on the readers and tackle the next row,” Rossouw explains.
By hitting their targets, workers can unlock a higher rate for each additional unit of piecework completed. Every morning, they receive feedback on the previous day’s work. Thanks to the system’s simplicity and ease of use, Mooigezicht’s team members have confidence their hard work is accurately monitored and rewarded.
The readers are equipped with SIM cards, which means the information is instantly available to management.
Job costing:
A complete view of all expenses
Growing table grapes, however, involves many other labour-related expenses besides piecework. With FCS’ Job Costing module, Mooigezicht captures the costs associated with tractor drivers, supervisors and spray cart operators, to name a few. This data is allocated to the relevant cost centre and allows management to compare costs between blocks and farms.
With farming costs continuing to rise, Rossouw says Mooigezicht keeps a close eye on its expenses. “We really put in a lot of effort to monitor our costs and to know exactly what we spend on each block and each grape variety. With FCS, we can monitor the profitability of each block. If a particular block is not profitable, we can remove it, plant new vines or take whatever action is necessary.”
FCS serves some of South Africa’s most well-known agricultural businesses, including Du Toit Farming, Fruitways, Cape Span, De Keur Estate, Morester Farming and Boschkrans Farming.
