A planner with experience in several industries gets quite a surprise when visiting a fresh fruit and vegetable packing plant for the first time.
The first shock comes from the sheer amount of technology and mechanization involved: raw material dumpers, washing systems, raw material quality control, electronic graders, raw material and packaging material transport systems, machines for making nets, trays, bagging or boxing, palletizers…
Who would have imagined that all this was necessary just to make it possible to shop at a greengrocer’s or a supermarket?
The second surprise comes when seeing that the products arriving from the field in the same box vary in shape, size, color, and quality. In industrial processes, materials are homogeneous, and two units of the same component are indistinguishable.
Moreover, industrial components don’t deteriorate if stored under proper conditions, whereas fruits and vegetables evolve, transpire, lose weight, and can develop diseases or defects that were not visible upon reception.
The ultimate shock comes when discovering that a high percentage of orders (between one-third and up to half of the demand) are received or modified on the very same day they have to be loaded onto the truck — knowing that one order might fill an entire trailer.
Because of all these circumstances, fruit and vegetable companies have not found a planning system that works for them, since existing systems were developed for industrial environments where variability is much lower.
To simplify, here’s how planning is done today:
- Each packaging line is assigned an order to start the day.
- From that moment on, when an order is about 10–15 minutes from completion, the next order to be packed on that line is decided.
I know this works — it’s what you’ve been doing your whole life.
However, you’ll agree with us that making decisions this way is not optimal. It wastes productivity and generates a lot of unnecessary stress, as decisions are being made constantly — especially when new same-day orders come in.
We have good news:
We’ve been learning from professionals who make the decisions about fresh fruit packaging plans, and we’ve experienced firsthand the challenges of changing the way planning is done. We’ve developed a process and a solution that we’ve refined side by side with our clients, facing daily reality together. It’s working in three plants.
Is it important for you to make better decisions and improve packaging productivity?
Contact us, and we’ll explain the benefits you’ll gain and the requirements you must meet to access our solution.
