Ardo excellence in logistics l A


n automatic storage and retrieval system (ASRS) working at room


temperature has its own challenging set of conditions


under which to operate. Such is the nature of the implementation of these systems that the work they carry out is critical to the function of the warehouse in which they are housed. Therefore the key watchwords are reliability, performance and accuracy.


To take that system and install it in a warehouse at -25O


C and expect the


same reliability, performance and accuracy therefore places an even greater challenge in the way. My visit to Ardo’s central European distribution hub in southern Belgium took me into a facility where ambitious targets have been achieved thanks to the implementation of an ASRS designed by Savoye. The facility is owned by Ardo, which is not a name familiar to UK consumers, but is nevertheless the continent’s biggest producer of frozen vegetables. This family-owned company was founded in the 1950s as a producer of crops on a farm in the village of Ardooie. In the 1970s, it started to freeze vegetables, both its own and those of neighbouring farms. The farm used to produce goods for canning, and any surplus was frozen under the brand name of Ardovries. In 2000, as the business continued to grow, it was rebranded to Ardo.


Through acquisition and organic growth, the company has grown to export to 56 countries, with 95% of its volume in the EU and the remainder going to North America and East Asia. It now has 15 sites in eight European countries, including a packaging and distribution plant in Ashford, UK. Its turnover in 2009 was 560 million Euros, with 120 million of that going through its Ardooie site. Each year the group grows, freezes and sells 520,000 tonnes of fruit, vegetables, pasta and rice. The process a typical locally-grown vegetable goes through from growing in the farmer’s field to sitting in the warehouse ready for distribution can be summarised as follows:


It is harvested and shipped to the production plant in Ardooie, where is rinsed, cleaned and separated from any foreign matter. It is inspected and, if necessary, cut.


Depending on its size and type, it is then blanched to stop the actions of the enzymes. It is then cooled to below 7O


C


using iced water to stop any bacterial activity.


It is then air-cooled at -40O C in an air


tunnel to freeze it. The process has at this stage taken just 10 minutes from the vegetable’s arrival on site.


Next, the vegetable is inspected for quality (class and size) and put into storage in Flemish boxes, a style of wooden hopper, where it undergoes a final check for foreign bodies with the use of a magnet.


It is then packaged – at the Ardooie site there are five fully-automated packaging lines.


Finally, it makes its way to the distribution centre alongside the processing plant, where your editor is standing in a thick coat and bobble hat on what for the rest of the country is a mild early summer’s day.


Now, the warehouse. Where do I start? storage of product.


The decision to implement the automated warehouse was taken after much soul searching by Ardo’s management team. The environment lies at the heart of the business, so the economy of scale that comes with such a project would only get the go-ahead if concerns in that department were able to be overcome.


Production and warehousing consultant Logflow was brought in to steer the project from concept to completion, and it started mapping product flow way back in 2002. An equation was drawn up for the case using customer service, efficiency, stock density and flexibility as the main factors. Also taken into account were markets,


Let’s look at the background to the decision to go ahead with this ambitious 30 million Euro project. One of the biggest challenges facing a producer of fresh vegetables is the seasonality of the product. For example, spinach can only be harvested from 15th April until the end of June. Despite this 10-week growing window, you, me, and every other consumer wants to eat spinach year-round (unless you’re a six-year-old boy, in which case you think spinach is the devil’s own work).


Therefore the stock must be built and made to last until the fresh produce appears the following April. Can you see the dilemma? We’re not talking about a product from a factory that can be switched on and off according to demand, we’re talking about storing an entire year’s worth of product in a warehouse. This is the challenge faced by Ardo in Ardooie, where it has a range featuring 1,200 SKUs as well as the bulk


geographical location, customers, product specifications, manpower costs and reactivity.


In 2003, the case for a new facility was proved, and a masterplan presented to the family owners. At this point, the project went dead, as the management concentrated on running and growing the business, rather than contemplating an investment greater than they had ever previously made. Finally, in 2006, the project was brought back to life and a feasibility study presented Ardo’s management with four options. The family had envisaged from the start that the facility should be a manual warehouse, as at that time there was no automated solution up-and-running in the frozen foods sector. Logflow thought otherwise, and of the four options offered, three were ‘semi- manual’ warehouses and one was fully automated. By June 2006, Ardo was convinced of the business case and a


www.PressOnShD.com August 2010 ShD 13


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