Britain's largest supplier of organic produce, Riverford Organic Farmers, has invested in warehouse automation, allowing it to deliver a wider range of products more efficiently.
The veg box delivery service, whose product range has expanded considerably, teamed up with material handling specialist Daifuku to introduce automated picking, packing and conveyor technology at its headquarters in Buckfastleigh, Devon.
The new technology has enabled the company, which now delivers to around 50,000 homes a week, to deliver its veg boxes quicker and with fewer 'mis-picks'. In addition, it has allowed the business to offer its customers a wider selection of organic products, including bespoke recipes.
“We were completely new to automation, so it was ideal that Daifuku was able to act as our advisor and confidante throughout the journey,' said Sue Jones, head of business systems at Riverford.
“We’ve been delighted with the implementation, which has effectively given each of our delivery drivers an hour back every day. That’s an incredible increase in efficiency, which has dramatically reduced mis-picks and enabled us to offer a far richer mix of products.”
As well as organic veg boxes, Riverford sells a growing number of organically sourced complementary products such as tinned produce, drinks, fresh fruits and meats. However, more customer choice has brought with it greater complexity, creating bottlenecks in the company’s network of franchised distributors, who were spending more time picking complex orders from the back of their branded Riverford vans.
By moving the function of picking ordered items to Riverford’s main warehouse, the company has allowed its delivery drivers to focus more on customer care on the doorstep.
On top of this, automation has been fundamental in enabling Riverford to offer customers a wider range of recipe boxes, which arrive with cooking instructions and nutritional information.
“We have around 70 dedicated franchised distributor partners across the UK, each of whom deliver veg boxes as well as the additional items our customers order from our website,' Jones explained.
'When we offered a few additional products to customers, this was not an issue, but once that number began to escalate, the task of picking on the road became onerous for our drivers. It was obvious that we needed to embrace automation, but we were not sure how to go about such a daunting prospect.”
Following extensive research and modelling with Daifuku since 2015, Riverford opted for a pick-to-light system to handle ambient, chilled and meat products, all of which needed to be handled in separate areas of the warehouse.
Daifuku also implemented extensive conveyor systems to transport new purpose-made totes to picking staff.
Robert Wood, business development manager at Daifuku, said: “This was a fascinating project for us that demonstrated how fast growing, online businesses can embrace automation to maintain growth, while improving further their customer experience.
'It’s great to see the system contributing so quickly to the success of the business.”
