Worldwide Fruit, UK - Stopping human error with automated product label verification
Worldwide Fruit is a growing £200+ million turnover fruit marketing and distribution business. Quality is critical to their customers, and they wanted a solution that could scale across their complex operations handling thousands of SKUs from over 1,000 global growers. OAL has helped Worldwide Fruit automate to ensure all its products have the right date code, right packaging and country of origin.
Worldwide Fruit is a growing £200+ million turnover fruit marketing and distribution business. Quality is critical to their customers, and they wanted a solution that could scale across their complex operations handling thousands of SKUs from over 1,000 global growers. OAL has helped Worldwide Fruit automate to ensure all its products have the right date code, right packaging and country of origin.
UPDATE: Worldwide Fruit is on a SMART Industry journey supported by OAL. The first phase deployed label and date code verification to ensure the right-first-time packaging and date coding in 2020, including the use of AI vision checks with APRIL Eye.
In the second phase in 2023, OAL has helped Worldwide Fruit seamlessly integrate their ERP (Prophet), Label and Date Code Verification (OAL), and OEE (Redzone) systems.
Challenge
The right apple must be in the right packaging with the right date code and country of origin.
Ensuring the highest standards of quality control and food safety are mission-critical priorities for Worldwide Fruit. Previously manual human checks of product labels, date code and country of origin were undertaken, but these methods are susceptible to human error, especially in a high-complexity business.
Complexity to Worldwide Fruit is driven by the different product, grower, and packaging combinations. For one category like apples, there are many varieties of apples from different countries with different packaging and promotion requirements from each retailer.
For a production run, Worldwide Fruit must ensure the right product (apple), is in the right packaging with the right date code and country of origin. Any mistake in the process could result in a product recall and a fine from retailers. To address these challenges Worldwide Fruit turned to automation.
Solution
Phase 1: Label and date code verification - 2020
After a review of suppliers, Worldwide Fruit chose to work with OAL because of recommendations and previous experience implementing the OAL system. Furthermore, they wanted to work with a business that could integrate with their existing ERP system, which OAL could demonstrate.
The priority was implementing an “online” label and verification system across its 16 packaging lines to accelerate its digital transformation. Online meaning, every product is verified as opposed to “offline” where a sample is verified.
“The team at OAL are easy to work with, working together we have implemented a robust automated label and date code verification system. By introducing cutting edge artificial intelligence technology we’ve futureproofed our packaging lines, enabling further automation. Crucially we’ve been able to customise the system to meet our unique requirements. The 24/7 support is quick, friendly, and efficient!”
First, a master product database was installed on a site-based SQL server. This is a database managed by the technical team that stores all product information. OAL’s ex-industry trainers assisted WWF in populating the database.
The OAL system was installed and commissioned comprising:
OAL Line Terminals on every line for operators to start and finish jobs and conduct quality checks related to the job.
Cameras to scan and verify packaging to ensure the right packaging is applied to the product.
Each online printer was connected to the OAL system. The OAL system controls the printer and tells it the date code to print based on the date code rules in the master product database.
The offline print room printers were also under the control of the OAL system to ensure offline printed labels were also correct.
Finally, the site chose to add an extra layer of assurance with APRIL Eye date code verification. APRIL Eye gives the OAL system the functionality to read back and verify printed date codes in an image. This ensures the right date code is applied, it’s legible and in the right location.
At Worldwide Fruit, as part of start-up, interval and end-of-run checks the operator takes a picture of a finished pack with the OAL line terminal hand scanner. The system checks it’s correct and legible against the current job.
Finally, every check, scan and data point is recorded providing a complete digital audit trail to ensure BRC and retailer code of practice compliance.
OAL provide a 24/7 support contract to minimise downtime and ensure the system is functioning to specification.
Phase 2: ERP and Redzone Integration - 2023
Worldwide Fruit had a long-term vision to automate and digitalise its packhouse to ensure the right data first time. OAL utilised the Ignition SCADA/MES Platform to integrate the different business systems driven by works orders generated in Prophet.
The user experience is:
Job scheduled in Prophet
Job appears for selection on the OAL Line Terminal as a works order
Job selection by operator on the OAL Line Terminal sets up cameras, printers and starts a job in Redzone.
“Working with OAL on this project has been great for managing complexity and automating several ERP tasks with the Ignition MES. OAL has made it easy to ensure right-first-time data by integrating Prophet with Redzone and Autocoding applications. We are looking forward to uncovering more opportunities together in the future.”
Key results
Worldwide Fruit has scaled and improved its quality control processes, resulting in happier customers and reduced operational risk. Automation has helped find and prevent “hard to spot errors” whilst reducing the time it takes to complete quality control checks. They have also removed substantial paperwork from the business helping meet and surpass sustainability goals.
The 2023 system integration project has created a single source of truth for Worldwide Fruit helping them make critical business decision based on accurate, real-time data. This integration has resulted in Worldwide Fruit’s SMART Industry Ready Index rank being better than ever and closer to their SMART Industry roadmap.
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At a glance
Customer since: 2020
Challenge
Complex operations with thousands of SKUs
Improve quality control and labelling
Future ERP integration capability
Solution
OAL Connected with Autocoding, Paperless and APRIL Eye functionality.
24/7 support with annual audits to ensure code of practice compliance
Integration with Prophet ERP and Redzone OEE using Ignition SCADA/MES
Results
Improved quality control through an automated system
Deployed AI-based verification to enable further automation
Improved sustainability by removing paperwork
Right first-time data from a single source