Flower grower and wholesaler Grandiflora have used a tailor-made solution from Peacock Bros to streamline their production line with resounding benefits to their business and their customers.
Grandiflora grow 75 varieties of flowers and produces between 3000 and 7000 bunches of flowers per day for distribution directly to markets, wholesalers and florists. Grandiflora hold stock of each flower variety in specially designed coolrooms, with seasonal demand dictating the stock level of each variety at any one time.
On their production line includes a flower sorting machine that automatically sorts by length, type and colour and presented to the packers on the production line in bundles of 10. There is a touch screen system linked to Zebra TLP2844-Z desktop label printer to generate labels on demand for the flower bouquets.
The labelling system was designed to integrate the label printer through the touch screen directly into Grandiflora’s system. This integration allows their programme to communicate directly with the printer, feeding it information and content such as flower variety, colour, length, bloom size and batch number.
Using the user-friendly designed interface, the packers look up the flower details on a touch screen computer and the information relating to the bouquet and the relevant EAN13 barcode is then printed onto a custom printed label. The packer then applies the label to the flower bouquet and places them on special racking ready for delivery.
The custom label stock selected for this application has a strong adhesive to resist moisture and cold. The easy-to-use interface also allows packers to see a visual representation of the varieties they are sorting when the information is displayed on screen, enabling fast confirmation that the system matches the flower variety they are packing at any one time.
This solution has introduced a new level of stock control to the business. They can now track each batch of flowers, maintain vigilant quality control and produce sales data and production statistics that are essential in maintaining a consistent and appropriate stock level of each flower variety.
Grandiflora have increased their efficiency on their production line as well as in the quality, presentation and traceability of the product that is released into the market. As the only Australian grower to provide barcodes including descriptions and clear information for each flower bouquet produced, Grandiflora’s customers are also benefiting. Florists and wholesalers are able to easily receipt the goods into their own stock management systems and have all the essential product information at their fingertips.
Peacock Bros have provided many solutions for the retail supply chain that have been designed to reduce labour and other contributing costs for a supplier and their customers as well.