The customer

Holland is the international centre of flower and plant breeding. The network reaches from companies specialist in plant breeding and growing to experts in sales and export of flowers and plants. The FloraHolland flower auction hall takes an important part in the system as an international marketplace. Not only supply and demand get together in this place but FloraHolland also functions as a knowledge centre for the flower industry as a whole.

FloraHolland consists of six auction halls which are connected logistically and employ more than 4524 people. All auctions are held with the Dutch auction method and under strict time pressure. The Center in Aalsmeer has an auction space of more than 1.250.000 m².It's the biggest flower market in the world.

The voice of experience

"The integration of the new scanners and software leads to an improvement of functions. An important improvement is the transfer of information and the exchange with the controllers. This helps our customers", says Dolf de Groot, Project Manager at FloraHolland.

Use

For the distribution of the goods inside the building and for the transaction of the goods to the customer by so called Controllers the FloraHolland flower auction uses since June 2009 the DT-X7 laser scanner terminal.

The mobile terminals were first integrated in the areas E, course B and the central distribution area. There the scanners help to improve the commissioning method, guarantee the continuity in the processes, lead to an improved management of the delivery and a higher efficiency of the auction.

The total system in the auction hall knows automatically which changes must be made, where the vehicle with the goods is located and which Controller leads the transaction. After the award for the customer the Controller in charge gets an automatic message via wireless LAN on his DT-X7 terminal. So he can deliver the vehicle with all the flowers and plants just in time at the customer's truck.

During the transaction the barcodes at the transport vehicles and the delivery coupons of the customers are scanned. With the help of these scan procedures the way of the goods through the building can be tracked automatically.

The customers also gain advantage of this tracking-and-tracing system. By the reading of the barcodes the buyer can immediately integrate the information into his inventory control system and print his labels. The time consuming scanning of all delivery coupons is not necessary any more. And if a delivery coupon gets lost this is also not a problem.

Additionally to the investment in new hardware FloraHolland has invested in a new central management solution (MobiControl) to administrate the terminals. This way the scanners and software guarantees continuity in the processes and efficient administration of the whole auction.