AUTOMATIC DATA CAPTURE
Success story
LoBue Citrus automates
traceability with Intermec Smart Printing, FoodLogiQ
L
oBue Citrus is a family-run grower and distributor of oranges accounting for approximately four to five per cent of the California citrus industry. That equates to between 4 and 5 million boxes each year, with 40 per cent of the product exported to Asia. Based in Lindsay, California, the company recognised the need to automate its produce traceability programme in October 2010. Formerly, the process was manual, which tied up critical resources and increased the likelihood of error.
FoodLogiQ, which provides software and solutions that meet the needs of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI), engaged LoBue Citrus with an automated system using Intermec Smart Printing solutions. Operations
manager Tom Clark said: "The key benefit for us is having a real-time, automated inventory control system, versus the manual system we've had in place, and being able to make
“
rolling cart to make this system functional. It seems to be a very cost-effective, simple solution to satisfying the requirements that are being requested of us today."
What they've done is develop a system that is not commodity-specific.
And in that, they've incorporated all the aspects of traceability, food safety, sustainability, pesticide application documentation, and record keeping.” – Tom Clark, LoBue Citrus.
decisions both in sales and production on what we have available to us in real time.”
Labelling made smarter
Most intriguing to Clark's team was the standalone nature of Intermec PM4i industrial smart printers; the printer didn't require an additional computer to print labels, which minimised the cost of the solution. The system was also easy to use, which simplified and sped up worker adoption. "We always look at simple as being the best solution," said Clark. "With the Intermec Smart Printers, all you need is a small area on a desk or a
34
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT October 2011
Workers are able to scan a FoodLogiQ- generated barcode using an Intermec SR30 handheld scanner, which tells the Intermec PM4i industrial printer what label to print. The worker uses the PM4i printer's keypad to select a quantity on the display. Because the printer isn't tethered to a computer, workers can move the cart on which it is stationed directly to the boxes that require the tags. Once the boxes are wrapped, the workers use an Intermec PB50 mobile printer to generate a pallet tag. The box labels from the PM4i and pallet labels from the PB50 include a barcode that identifies the kind of orange, ship date, destination, farm source, and even the farm lot. This is a powerful tool should the company need to trace a shipment back to its origin. Clark again: "At any given moment, if we were to have a trace-back for some reason, it's simply a matter of getting notification from the consumer or buyer, and
www.logisticsit.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52