Actemium Leverages Robotics to Streamline Flower Delivery
Celdomy delivers flowers and plants direct from the flower auction in Naaldwijk, the Netherlands, to hundreds of florists throughout France.
The wholesaler teamed up with Actemium and its partner Lowpad to create a state-of-the art picking and packing operation that uses autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and a put-to-light distribution system. “Now our work is easier and more efficient: we’re achieving better results with fewer people,” said Ron Fransen, owner of Celdomy.
Minimum stock, late orders
Celdomy’s logistical challenges are daunting. The company sells a wide range of fresh flowers and plants, buying directly from growers based on customer demand, keeping its own stock to a minimum.
Its customers want to be able to order as late as possible for next-day delivery, so there is little time between purchase and delivery. There are big orders and small orders; some customers order by type of flowers, others buy composed bouquets. It’s a tall task, and good help is hard to find.
Goods-to-person with AMRs
“The Labor market is tight. It was getting harder to find enough good people,” Fransen said. “We had to look for ways to do the same work with fewer people. In this world, you have to automate and optimize your processes.”
Celdomy decided to look beyond traditional automation solutions like their own conveyor belt system, and after thorough research, they ended up with a completely new process using Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) from Actemium’s partner Lowpad.
The new process is based on the goods-to-person concept, where robots bring customer carts to employees at their build stations. Each build station has its own inventory. The employees use this to fill orders using the customer carts, following the instructions on build screens.
For smaller orders there is a zone distribution line based on put to light technology. Guided by lights on shelves, and confirming picks with scanners, employees sort batches of flowers directly into customer boxes.
An Actemium-designed Warehouse Management and Control System
Lowpad called in Actemium to design an intelligent Warehouse Management and Control System (WMS/WCS). “The system gives instructions to around 65 AMRs that drive around more than 600 customer carts,” said Joost Vervoort, Project Manager & Solution Development at Actemium. He added that it registers all employee activity and keeps track of the locations of all products and customer carts.
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