Lacour Fruit
Improved Efficiency and Compliance with Regulations Thanks to a Logistics Modernization Project
Lacour Fruits, located in Perpignan, France, imports fruits and vegetables from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, South Africa and Argentina and exports foodstuffs to wholesalers, central purchasers and food manufacturers throughout Northern and Eastern Europe. The company was established in 1945 and today it employs 78 people and boasts annual revenues around 80 million Euros (US$112 million).
The Challenge:
The logistics hub in Perpignan handles 55,000 packages—about 415 tons of goods—every day. Each product is identified by cross-variety, origin, packaging and size. Melon season—the peak of activity—sees the team unload and return 15 trucks carrying 26 tons each in a single day.
- New European Union regulations introduced in January 2005 require businesses in the food services chain to trace all stages of production, processing and distribution. Each link in the value chain must be able to reliably and securely identify the origin of the products they carry and handle right up to delivery to the end consumer.
- Thanks to this new regulation, Lacour Fruits had to abandon its existing manual order preparation process and move to a new, automated system.
The Solution:
- Psion designed and installed a new WiFi network providing access points that cover all 6,000-square-meters (almost 20,000-square-feet) of the warehouse.
- Twenty five warehousing workhorse 7535 handheld computers connect food handlers to the main information system in real-time.
- Receipt of goods, preparation and shipment orders are all supported by a computer network that records all operations, movement of goods and shipments.
- Pallet labels are scanned using the 7535 handheld computers and contain all the information required on the origin of the product, variety, quantity and weight. Unique identifiers Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) are recorded to ensure traceability between units received and units shipped.
The Benefits:
- Ensured traceability and compliance with the new regulation.
- Improved efficiency of the reception, inspection, storage, preparation, scheduling and shipping.
- Lacour Fruits now enjoys a 98% efficiency rate.
