|
|
|
FOOD PROCESSOR SHIPS PRODUCE IN 1/2 THE TIME
This Salinas,
California facility is the largest refrigerated produce warehouse of its
kind in the world. It is a fully computer automated facility that
delivers premium quality fresh produce to customers throughout the
United States and Canada.
It is vital to move the products from the field to the customer as
quickly as possible to prevent spoilage. Dole’s original system was
not meeting expectations so they requested FloStor to provide a
solution for more efficient picking. Efficiency at Dole is
measured by the time it takes to load a truck, from the time it arrives
until it departs. This time has been cut by approximately one-half (from
120-140 minutes to about 55 minutes). Further, picking labor efficiency
has gone up 50%.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
From the field, pallets are identified with a bar code
indicating product, pack type, field and patch location, the
growers name, date and time of harvest, the harvesting crew and
foreman’s name and even the name of the trucker who hauls it from
the field to the warehouse. This tracking system keeps a record of
each pallet from fields to market. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Once the produce is delivered to the facility, it is
quickly cooled to remove field heat and transported to the Automated
Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). Orders are processed
automatically by the ASRS and sent to shipping.
The Drag Chain conveyor is a reliable technology to transport pallets
by preventing skewing or slipping. This is critical in delivering a
pallet to an ASRS as the crane requires repeatability of the exact
picking position. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FloStor further ensured accuracy by inducting the
pallet to a lift which retracts to lay the pallet down onto a structural
steel pallet support for the crane interface.
Certain pallet loads come from other areas and are not bar coded and
cannot be loaded into the ASRS. These are placed on gravity flow pallet
rails by a lift truck. From these pallets, cases are picked and placed
on the roller bed conveyor for consolidation with the other lines.
|
|
|
|
sitemap
|
©1996-2007 FloStor Engineering
|
|
