For meat lockers. Built in Adair, Iowa.

Give your shop a wingman.

Your crew tells Otis what comes in the cooler door and what goes out. You ask Hank, on your phone, what's in the cooler, what's short and who hasn't picked up. Every answer comes from your own records.

Call or text Danny: (515) 400-3343 See the door

No forms, no slideshow. We walk your floor one morning. If it isn't a fit, we'll tell you so and leave.

HANKPrairie Creek Meats

Tap a question:

Monday, 5:12 AM

What's in the raw cooler?

Here's what's on the book:

Pork butts
1,180.40 lb
Beef trim 80s
640.15 lb
Ground beef 80/20
412.60 lb
Brat mixunder your 150
64.20 lb
Bacon endsunder your 100
42.50 lb

And 17 more. Two are under your minimum. Monday's truck is due at 7.

Where this comes fromThe door: 231 bookings since your count on Sept 8. The last one Saturday, 1:15 PM.

Wednesday, 4:50 PM

What do I need on Thursday's truck?

At the pace the crew has pulled for two weeks, four things run out before Monday. Here's what I'd order:

Ground beef 80/201.8 days left
600 lb
Bacon ends1 day left
120 lb
Pork butts3 days left
400 lb
Brat mixout since Tuesday
160 lb

Everything else carries you to Monday's truck.

Read it backPut these 4 lines, 1,280 lb, on Thursday's order sheet?
YesNo
Yes

On Thursday's sheet. 4 lines, 1,280 lb.

Thursday, 11:20 AM

Who hasn't picked up?

41 orders are on the pickup shelf, $16,300 owed. Seven have waited past two weeks, $1,980 between them. The oldest has sat 26 days.

Want the seven, oldest first?

Yes
Half beef, #447126 days
$612.40
Whole hog, #448622 days
$348.75
Quarter beef, #450219 days
$301.10

And four more, with their phone numbers.

Where this comes fromYour register, this week's copy.

Friday, 6:40 AM

Where'd the ground beef go?

Ground beef 80/20, this week at the door:

On the book Monday
412.60 lb
In860 off the trucks, 380 from the grind
+1,240.00 lb
Out1,010 to the case, 96 to box orders
−1,106.00 lb
Should be here
546.60 lb
The crew's count, Thursday 4:30 PM
505.20 lb
Gapabout 3%
41.40 lb

Last week it ran 1.6%. It's on this morning's letter.

Where this comes fromThe door: 38 ground beef bookings this week, and Thursday's count.

Sunday, 8:15 PM

What's my card leaving on the table?

Your beef card is $1.25 a hanging pound. It hasn't changed in 14 months of invoices.

You hung 548,000 lb of custom beef in the last 12 months. Every 10¢ on the card is $54,800 a year.

What your customers will bear is your call. That's just the math.

Where this comes fromYour register: 14 months of processing invoices.

Nothing goes on the book without your yes.

Hank’s real screen.

At the door, nobody types.

A tablet hangs by the cooler door. When the truck comes in, somebody takes a picture of the ticket. When they pull trim for the grind, they hold the button and say it. Otis reads it back, they tap yes, and it's on the book: the weight, the time and the price.

OTISPrairie Creek Meats Waiting on a yes
In todayNothing yet
Out today186.00 lb
Raw cooler4,026.85 lbcounted Sept 8, booked since

Monday, 7:42 AM

Otis read the ticket: 14 lines

Pork butts, 4 cases212.40 lb$2.19/lb
Beef trim 80s, 6 cases360.00 lb$3.05/lb
Ground beef 80/20, 10 cases600.00 lb$4.48/lb

And 11 more lines.

Read it back

36 cases, 1,812.40 lb, off Monday's truck, at the ticket's prices. Book them in?

Not on the book until yes

Say it.

"Three boxes of trim for the grind, 186 pounds." Hold the button, say it, let go.

Snap it.

One picture of the packer's ticket becomes every line on it, with the price per pound.

Fix it.

Slipped? "Fix last" corrects it at the door before it reaches anything else.

Otis counts meat, not people. No names go in the door log, and nobody on the crew gets graded.

Friday at 6 AM, the week in one read.

One letter, on your phone or printed for the Friday coffee. Fixes come first, then the door, then the money you picked to watch.

Once it's sent it never changes, so this Friday's letter can be held up against last Friday's.

When Hank got something wrong, the letter says so first.

Prairie Creek MeatsFriday letter for the week of Sept 21

One fix first

Monday I read a ticket line for bacon ends as 38 lb. It was 83. The crew caught it at 9:10 and fixed it at the door. Everything below uses 83.

At the door

3,412.40 lb in off two trucks, plus 380.00 lb from the grind. 3,198.60 lb out.

Ran short twice: brat mix on Tuesday, bacon ends on Thursday.

Ground beef came up 41.40 lb light against Thursday's count, about 3%. Last week it ran 1.6%.

The pickup shelf

$16,300 owed on 41 orders, down from $21,700 when your first read came out. Seven have waited past two weeks, down from eleven last Friday.

Your move: you called the four oldest on Tuesday. Three picked up.

Only you can answer this

Brat mix ran out two weeks running. Was that the fair, or should the minimum go up?

Every figure is from your register or the door, with its date. Each one was worked out twice before this letter went out.

Before anything goes live, your shop on paper.

The first thing you get is a plain read of your own business, built from the register and the box store you already run: what came in, what's sitting still, and what the numbers say you could do about it.

Where your records can't answer something, it says so, and names the one thing that would.

At our first shop, the paper carried 708 figures. We checked all 708 against the owner's own records before he saw one.

Prairie Creek Meats

The state of the shop

August. Built from 13 months of your register and box store.

  • $21,700is sitting on the pickup shelf.58 orders are ready. 15 have waited past two weeks.
  • 13 monthssince your beef card last moved.Every 10¢ a hanging pound is $54,800 a year.
  • +21%clock hours per head, on last August.Head are up 6%. The time clock can't say where the extra hours went. Four weeks of a job code would.

Every figure carries its source and its date. Page 1 of 14.

What it grows into.

Start at the door. Each step after that is its own yes, priced in writing before it's built.

  1. Ready now

    The door and the answers

    • Otis at the door: what comes in, what goes out, the count.
    • Hank's answers from your register, your box store and the door.
    • The pickup shelf, the rail, and what's scheduled to hang.
    • The Friday letter.

  2. After two weeks at the door

    The buying

    • What's running short, before it runs out.
    • How many days each item will last.
    • Thursday's order, written out for you to check.

A year from now: the count matches the cooler. Thursday's order is waiting for your yes. The inventory number your accountant gets is true. And you know what each door brought in.

That's where it's headed. The first column is ready today; the rest gets built one yes at a time.

What it will never do.

Write anything down without a yes.

Otis and Hank read it back first, every time.

Guess.

When Hank can't see something, he says so, and names what would show it.

Grade your crew.

It counts meat, not people.

Make you switch registers.

It works beside the one you already run.

Touch your bank or move money.

It never sees an account or a card.

Keep your records.

They're yours, and they leave with you whenever you want.

What did that side cost me?

I can't see that. Nothing in the building writes down what a carcass cost you. Snap the next carcass bill and I'll start from there.

"I can't see that" is an answer.

He'd rather tell you what he can't see than hand you a number you can't trust.

How it starts.

  1. A morning on your floor.

    We walk the door, the cooler and the counter with you. If it isn't a fit, you'll hear it that morning, with the reason.

  2. A price in writing.

    One setup fee and one flat monthly. Never hourly.

  3. Your shop on paper.

    The first read, every figure checked, before anything goes live.

  4. Count day.

    One count of the raw cooler. The tablet goes up at the door. We log in together.

  5. Fridays.

    A letter every Friday. At 90 days you sit down together and look at the hours nobody spent hunting.

Straight answers.

What does it cost?
One setup fee and one flat monthly, in writing before you say yes. Never hourly.
Do I have to switch registers?
No. Otis works at the door whatever register you run. Hank reads your register's and your box store's own exports. Running something we haven't read yet? Ask.
Will my crew actually use it?
There's nothing to learn. They talk, or they take a picture. Otis reads it back and they tap yes. No names go in the log.
What if it gets something wrong?
Every entry is read back before it's booked. "Fix last" corrects a slip at the door. The Friday letter leads with anything that was fixed. And Hank would rather say "I can't see that" than guess.
Who sees my numbers?
You, and whoever you say. Your records sit in their own locked room. Every time we touch your setup, it's logged. Leave, and every number goes with you.

You'll deal with a person.

Wingman is built and run in Adair, Iowa. Its founder spent 25 years building systems for hospitals, where "it went down" is not an acceptable sentence, and where the real job is getting many places to run the same way without a person in each one holding it together by hand.

The first shop, a busy Iowa locker, went live this fall. When something's off, you call a person, not a ticket queue.

Want to see it on your own numbers?

Call or text, or send us an email. We'll set up a morning on your floor.

Call or text Danny: (515) 400-3343 Email us