TILTING SHELVES
vative production facility. In week 12, four months after the start of construction, the first growing room was filled.
Faith
Keunen continues: “We engineered a compete shelving system in our factory some time ago and filled it with compost. This, combined with the experience we gained at Marc van Dore- maele, has given us unshakable faith in the sys- tem. So far, everything here has been proceeding according to expectations at Dec- kers, although it is an exciting development. After all, there's a first time for everything. At the very outset, there were some minor techni- cal hitches, but in cooperation with our pro- grammers and suppliers we were able to solve them to everyone's satisfaction. For the rest, our concept is based on utilising as much exis- ting technology as possible. Every type of head filler can be used to fill the growing rooms, using a special adapter kit that you can easily build on. The advantage for the growing rooms is that shelving is positioned practically identi- cally to in a room with a ‘regular’ set up, so air
distribution and climate control are no different, and have been proven to be effective. We are also extremely pleased with how picking actu- ally works in practice; the results are super. Some improvements are possible downstream in the process, where a second picker removes the mushrooms from the belt, and we are busy fine-tuning the system. In cooperation with Limbraco, we have developed a working robot to remove the mushrooms and place them in various packaging."
Houben takes over the story: “We have delibe- rately segmented the process. The first chapter in the story are the shelves, picking with two hands is a very important step. And it works. We are still working on optimising the logistics once the mushrooms leave the growing room. At the moment, the stumps are automatically cut to the desired length, and then automatically removed. So far, so good. On the output side, there is now a second picker who places the mushrooms in the right trays. The system works, but we are still emphatically in a process of further refinement to optimise this process as well. Taking simplicity as our guiding principle. We want to work with existing and proven tech- nology and combine them in the right mix."
Tilted beds with brown mushrooms, variety is Amycel Heirloom and on CNC compost. Through CNC compost, ChampFood supplement is delivered.
Well-known name To get the best results from the new farm from the very beginning, the services of a well-known name in the mushroom world were called upon. Henk van Gerwen is slowly working on a come- back, and this task fits him to a T. “I spoke to Rob van Deten, so I am here with a temporary assignment to investigate how we can maximise the picking process as quickly as possible. My job is to look at the human input, the ergonomic factors, how to pick efficiently with both hands. I'm also helping to familiarise the pickers with some of the tech aspects. Inside the growing room, each picker has a remote device to control his or her own picking lorry and belt. The picker also controls the tilting action of the shelving during harvest. Pickers, who are usually female, can often be a little apprehensive about techno- logy, but what we use here is really easy to get to grips with. Any, once mastered, they enjoy using it! From the start, I stressed the importance of recruiting new people for this specific site, because ‘retraining’ experienced pickers who are used to the knife technique is not as easy as you think. Luckily."
Each bed can be tilted individually. 46 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
Van Gerwen is also responsible for training the people in charge of picking. “We have to opti- mise the kilos, in terms of yield per square metre and performance per picker per hour as a team. This entails identifying any issues at an
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