Customer Case Studies

Florensis is one of the largest flower producers in the world, with approximately 20 hectares (200,000 square meters) of growing capacity throughout Northwest Europe, England, Germany and Kenya. The company specializes in the production, selection and sale of flower seeds and young plant material from seeds and cuttings, and uses unique 'plug module' returnable plastic trays to transport its products to customers throughout its European facilities.
For a long while, Florensis suffered the severe financial impact of returnable plastic trays either inadvertently remaining with customers or habitually getting lost. As a result, the company decided to switch to new, hard plastic trays that would reduce material costs, and set out to find a solution that would enable identification and tracking of each and every tray throughout its entire supply chain. This solution would also have to enable Florensis to increase outbound shipping accuracy, so as to ensure that customers received exactly what they ordered.

“Following preliminary market research, we thought RFID would be the right technology for us,” explains Peter de Graaf, Director of Florensis. However, tags would need to be inexpensive, and durable enough to survive repeat roundtrips and enable accurate data acquisition. While initially also in favor of RFID, CaptureTech, Florensis’ integrator for the project, quickly determined that alternative technology would present a more effective solution. “RFID proved to be extremely susceptible to interference from metal frames, humidity and robot operations in Florensis’ nursery environments,” states Celestin Brouwer of CaptureTech. While RFID enables simultaneous registration of multiple tags, Florensis discovered it would not be able to report the exact location of each product. Mr. de Graaf adds, “After comparing the two technologies, it became obvious that ImageID’s Visidot was the only Automatic Identification and Data Capture solution that would offer us reliable and proven traceability for our returnable trays, while keeping total cost of ownership down and ensuring relatively fast return on investment.”

Visidot Provides Florensis with Proven Traceability

To ensure a high degree of accuracy and data capture reliability, Florensis proceeded to tag each of its returnable plastic trays with industry-standard Data Matrix (2D) labels, which support effective error correction and are highly immune to dirt and damage. The company then deployed Visidot reader gates and operator stands throughout its production nurseries and distribution centers.

The reader gates, which are capable of capturing very large quantities of containers in a single scan, capture thousands of outbound plant trays a day. Local servers running software with business logic tailored to Florensis’ particular needs enable the company’s operators to match and verify customer orders, plant trays and cart numbers, to perform ad-hoc shipping verification and apply corrective measures as required. Once cart content has been verified, it is affixed with an automatically printed package order label and linked to a specific customer order. This link is maintained by Florensis’ administration department until carts and trays return, at which point their “ownership” by the customer is terminated. Missing carts trigger alerts, prompting Florensis to inquire as to their whereabouts and take the measures required to return them to its possession.

The local business logic servers communicate tag information captured from all incoming and outgoing plant trays to Florensis’ headquarter traceability servers. Software running on the headquarter servers then generates a comprehensive, birds’ eye view of the company’s entire supply chain, and enables implementation of a wide range of applications, including image bank-based proof of shipping and proof of product condition archiving.

Florensis Application Benefits

•  Complete supply chain visibility
•  Eliminates returnable tray losses
•  Zero shipping errors
•  Image-based, operator-friendly guidance for corrective actions
•  Negligible tag costs

Visidot Delivers