ZEN-NOH Fresh Produce Marketing Corporation - Distribution Center Enables Efficient Handling of Product, Temperature Control, And Product Traceability
In February 2009, ZEN-NOH Fresh Produce Marketing Corporation, an affiliate of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), established the Aikawa distribution center to handle the receiving and shipping operations for a home delivery service for products from the U co-op association. The new logistics center is temperature controlled for high-quality and fresh produce, has ample space for receiving loads, and can accommodate future volume increases. A digital pick-to-light system with precedence picking and automatic replenishment functions improves efficiency, saves on labor, and improves traceability. The Aikawa center has made the company competitive in the fresh produce home delivery business.
Next-day home delivery
ZEN-NOH separated from JA in 2006. Today, it has three regional sales bases to serve co-ops and supermarkets. The U Co-op, which was established in 1990, is actually an organization of six separate Co-ops.
Currently, 500 thousand households utilize the home delivery service. Customers order from a product list of 1,800 items; deliveries are made to each household once a week. As the demand for day-after harvest delivery has increased, the service has become the Co-op’s main offer.
When ZEN-NOH began contracting logistics operations for U Co-op in 2001, receiving and shipping operations were conducted in Tokyo and Machida. At the time, annual picking volume was approximately 25 million items. In 2007, volume increased 160 percent. The growth in demand affected the available space for receiving and processing operations. Additionally, due to manual replenishment of the pick-to-light system, too much time and labor was required to fill orders, more space was needed on the replenishment side, and accurate replenishment history tracking was impossible.
Temperature-controlled picking with fewer operators and more accuracy
The new distribution center is a 2-level building with almost twice the amount of space for operations than the old facility. The first floor houses receiving, shipping, processing for root vegetables (such as potatoes), storage for vacant returnable containers, and a carton disposing area. The second floor is home to processing and consolidation picking for green vegetables and fruit. Receiving and the root vegetables processing area are kept at 20 – 22°C (68 – 77 °F), and the other areas are kept at 15 – 17°C (59 – 63 °F).
The distribution center operates Sunday through Thursday. Receiving for most products occurs between midnight and 9 a.m.; remaining deliveries are received from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cutting and repackaging operates from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., while shipping for 37 U Co-op depots happens between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m.
A multi-order, tact transporting Combination Digital Pick System, often called “C-DPS”, moves six boxes by unit and zone and enables operators to induct items into returnable containers and to place ordered items on temporary tables ahead of time to reduce wait period during picking operations. Replenishment occurs automatically.
A high-speed Automated Storage & Retrieval System (AS/RS) enables faster operations and saves space for the replenishing Pickway Container Storage Shelf without operators. By replenishment, the distribution center eliminated picking errors and ensured item tracking. Also, a Jet Surfing Sorter and palletizing robots in each area reduced labor from 35 to 28 people in the returnable container shipping lines.
In 2008, 42 million items were picked; the 2009 projection is 50 million items. According to Business Development Manager Yoshiro Chikaoka, “The changes we made to our operations enable us to ensure product traceability by region and vendor. We will continue to serve our customers by expanding and improving our fresh home-delivery service with U Co-op and JA.”
