chrispeng [ad_1]
LoBueCitrus is a family-run orange planting and sales company, with sales accounting for approximately 4-5% of the California citrus industry. This means that 4-5 million boxes of oranges are produced every year, 40% of which are exported to Asia. The company is headquartered in Lindsay, California, and in October 2010 they recognized the need to automate their production tracking procedures. Previously, this was a manual process, which took up a lot of important resources and had a high error rate. FoodLogiQ provides LoBueCitrus with software and solutions that can meet their production tracking requirements (PTI). This automated system uses Intermec’s smart printing solution. “For us, its important advantage is the real-time, automatic inventory control system. This is much more advanced than our previous manual system. It can help us determine what we have in real time during sales and production, so as to make the right Decision-making,” said Tom Clark, operations manager.
Smarter label printing
What fascinates Clark’s team is the offline printing function of IntermecPM4i; the printer does not require other computers to print labels, which minimizes the cost of the solution. The system is easy to use and can speed up and simplify the process of workers’ adaptation. “We have always believed that a simple and practical solution is the best solution,” Clark said. “Using (Intermec) smart printers, we only need to free up a small area on the desk or have a small cart to implement the system. Functional. It seems to be a cost-effective and simple and practical solution that can meet our current needs.”
Workers can use the IntermecSR30 handheld scanner to scan the barcode generated by FoodLogiQ. The scanner will transmit the scanned result to the IntermecPM4i industrial printer, and the printer will generate the labels that need to be printed. Workers can use the keyboard of the PM4i printer to select the number of labels to be printed on the display. Since this printer does not need to be connected to a computer, workers can directly fix it on the cart and push it to the side of the box to print labels. After the boxes are packed, workers can use IntermecPB50 mobile printers to generate tray labels. Both the box label printed by PM4i and the pallet label printed by PB50 contain a bar code indicating the type of orange, the date of shipment, the destination, the origin farm, and the specific farm plot. This is exactly what the company needs is a powerful tool that can trace the goods back to the place of origin.
“At any time, as long as we need to trace back, we only need a notice from the customer or buyer, and we can immediately call up all the information related to a particular plot.” Clark said.
Progress brought by automation
The traceability function of the new system can be realized in only a few minutes, compared to the previous traceability that took about two hours. The accuracy of inventory has also been greatly improved. Each percentage increase in inventory accuracy will help improve the competitiveness of production and distribution. Before the implementation of the new system, the accuracy rate was about 80-90%, but now the accuracy rate has increased to 98-99%. Because the system is an automated system, paper inventory lists are a thing of the past, which can save 8-16 hours a day, which is equivalent to saving 96-240 US dollars in labor costs per day. In view of these early results, Clark believes that the system can recoup the investment in only two years, and the subsequent benefits can further contribute to the development of the enterprise.
FoodLogiQ provides a complete set of solutions-combining their PTI solutions with a complete set of Intermec technologies (PM4i industrial printers, PB50 mobile printers, and SR30 handheld scanners), which enables LoBuecitrus to focus on Core business.
“FoodLogiQ took care of the entire process transformation,” Clark said. “We don’t have to put together our own systems. FoodLogiQ integrates all our needs, not just the ability to print barcodes and other text. They have an understanding of food safety procedures. With the combination, you can actually save your food safety documents in their system.”
Single hardware manufacturer
LoBueCitrus can process up to 1200 packaging units per hour, and the relevant system must be powerful. During the day, Intermec hardware is used intensively in the loading and unloading areas of warehouses that are open to the outside world. Even under such high-intensity conditions, the equipment can continue to work day after day.
“All the equipment I bought from Intermec is so indestructible,” Clark said. “My experience is that if you want a system that is truly reliable in day-to-day work, you can choose Intermec.”
LoBueCitrus decided to only cooperate with a single hardware manufacturer in order to reduce system complexity. System operators need to be able to use handheld scanners, industrial printers, mobile computers and mobile printers. Therefore, the versatility of the operation interface is essential to avoid long training.
“I find that once a system that can rely on software is discovered, it is a good idea to find a reliable complete hardware solution provider. This is much simpler than integrating various hardware programs and separately solving the interconnection of various devices. .”
Exceed the company’s needs
Clark said that he is very satisfied with the combined solution provided by FoodLogiQ and Intermec, which can be used as a standalone system or integrated into an existing system. More importantly, the trial was very successful and fully achieved the initial goal of implementation.
“What we did was to develop a system that was not specific to a certain product,” Clark said. “In order to achieve this, they integrated traceability, food safety, sustainability, pesticide application documentation and record keeping, etc. The functions are all combined together. I have been involved in production management for 25 years, and this is the most convenient system I have ever used.”
[ad_2]
