The situation
Heyl exports fresh flowers to German florists. In that trade, a day of delay is the difference between selling and throwing away, and the warehouse had grown to 26,600 square metres with three export days a week.
An operation like that needs one system that knows the whole chain: what arrives from the auction, what is on the shelves, what has to be picked this afternoon and which truck is waiting for it. Separate systems with connectors between them cannot keep that pace.
What we built
A complete ERP system for the flower wholesale business: stock, purchasing, transport, order picking and the control of the conveyors, all in the same system. The VanRiet conveyors and CaptureTech voice picking sit inside the same workflow, with no layer in between.
On top of that we built the integration with the FloraHolland flower auction and the Floriday platform. Order processes that used to be retyped by hand now run through automatically. Workflows give insight into purchasing strategy, expected stock and customer preferences based on historical data.
Hardware integration, difficult?
Plenty of companies assume hardware integration is complex and risky. At Heyl we proved the opposite. We did not just develop the software, we designed the entire warehouse as well, working closely with Koen Heyl.
From kilometres of VanRiet conveyor to the voice picking on the floor: everything is coordinated in real time from the platform. Customers order until 17:00, the warehouse goes to work straight away, crates are routed automatically to the right pick location, and at 18:00 the trucks leave for Germany. That same night the order is at the florist.
Integrations in this project
- VanRiet conveyors
- CaptureTech voice picking
- Camera surveillance
- Transport systems
- Floriday
- Twinfield
Results
- From order to ready-to-ship within minutes
- Hands-free order picking for every employee
- Real-time stock and location management
- Automated order processing, 24/7
- Kilometres of conveyor driven in real time
Sector
Flower wholesale and export
Build period
Q1 2018 to Q1 2019
Team
2 full-time developers and 1 architect part of the time, alongside the Heyl team
Kilometres of VanRiet conveyor, controlled in real time from Core
What happened next
Since going live in 2019, Heyl’s own IT team has kept developing the system on the platform: new modules, dashboards and process improvements. RUAL supports with expertise and training where it is needed.
Not dependent on us. Which is exactly the point.
This is what building on Core is for: Heyl has full control over its own digital future and keeps innovating with its own team, without queueing at an outside vendor.
More customer cases
Other operations running on our platform every day.
Want something like this for your operation?
We are happy to walk you through how this warehouse runs, right down to the conveyor.