This article is a workflow guide. It will cover more complex intake procedures such as:
Scheduling an intake in the future
Performing winemaking operations on an open intake
Work Orders against scheduled intakes
Scheduling an intake
In Blended, it is possible to schedule an intake for a future date. Simply follow the normal intake process, but record the Intake Date as a date in the future. When you are done, click save and the intake will be added to the Intake tab.
Key Consideration: Should I add a weight or leave it blank?
Weights (or volume if it is juice or bulk wine) are optional. It will be required prior to finalizing, but you could save the intake blank until the fruit shows up.
The benefit of leaving it blank is that you won't need to edit any estimates. Instead, you'd just add weights and the weight tab will populate from a base of 0. The drawback of this approach is that a number of operations in Blended rely on lot volume. You'll be able to write a WO against the Lot, but you won't be able to complete these actions until weights start being added to the intake and certain features, such as additive calculators, won't work given there isn't volume within the Lot.
Performing lot operations on an option intake
Its not uncommon to see wineries that either have a longer intake process. This might be because a truck needs to weigh in, unload and then weigh out or processing of fruit happens simultaneously with bin weighing. This section will discuss some tips for this type of complex intake workflow.
Start by creating an intake if one isn't already created. In this example, we'll assume that there is at least some weight on the intake and it hasn't been finalized yet.
Adding Weight
If you need to add weight to an active intake, start from the Intake tab. On the intake dashboard, you'll see a button that says Add Weighing.
Click this and you'll be prompted to add a single weighing to the selected intake. This button can be used as many times as you'd like. Each weighing will increase the total amount on the intake.
At the same time, as weight is added to the intake, volume will be added to the associated Lot.
Editing Weight
If your process involves editing an active intake, for example because an empty truck needs to tare out, click on the name of the intake and use the edit button to adjust the gross or tare weight that has been recorded. When the adjustment is saved, volume within the Lot will be updated accordingly.
Recording Operations
Users can find the associated Lot on the All Lots tab and the first tab of the selected protocol. As long as the intake has some weight, it will be displayed with volume. Operations can be recorded against these Lots as you would normally.
If the Lot has no volume, operations that directly require volume such as movements or loss events aren't available.
Writing work orders on future intakes
A common workflow is the desire to write crush pad work orders a day or more before the fruit arrives. This covers some tips and tricks to make that process smooth.
Step 1: Ensure that an intake exists before starting the work order
Work orders are written against a Lot. Before you can do that, ensure that you have an intake created. The intake can be for the future and doesn't need weights.
Tip: if your team likes to complete work orders digitally, it is recommended that you include an estimated weight on your intake.
Step 2: Open up the work order menu and write the work order against the lot name created by the intake
Writing the work order will be the same as writing a normal work order. For any steps that require volume, you can include them even if your lot has 0 volume currently, but you won't be able to complete them in Blended until volume is added.
Tip: include a No Action first step that has instructions for the team regarding where the fruit is coming from and expected tonnage. If they are relying on paper, this will help them understand which work orders are associated with which intakes
Tip: do not complete any Blended operations that would archive the original Lot prior to the weigh tag being finalized. Doing so will not flow intake changes through to child lots.