IBM Helps To Keep Florists In Bloom

A new system developed by IBM in conjunction with Container Centralen is helping to keep flowers and plants fresh from growers to wholesalers and retailers.

On February 1st, 2010, Danish Container Centralen – Europe’s largest provider of re-usable transport equipment and services – will use IBM sensor technology to allow participants in the horticultural supply chain to track the progress of shipments across 40 countries in Europe. The project is the largest of its kind in the horticulture business.

Approximately 80,000 growers, wholesalers, and retailers use Container Centralen’s flower and pot plant trolleys to deliver fresh flowers and plants speedily and in the best possible condition. The company’s flower and pot plant trolleys – called “CC Containers” – are designed to meet the specific needs of the horticultural industry. The containers are suitable for mechanical handling, and since they are also used as retail display units, the flowers and plants can be transported right from the grower to the consumer in the store with no need for product handling in between – meaning less damage to goods and reduced overall distribution costs.

In order to meet customer requirements, Container Centralen needs to be able to quickly and easily make the trolleys available to their customers where and when they are needed. And with 3.5 million flower and pot plant trolleys in circulation in the international network known as the “CC Pool System”, careful tracking of the trolleys is essential.

Together with IBM, Container Centralen is outfitting each of its flower and pot plant trolleys with intelligent Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which will allow it to offer an unprecedented level of transparency and security for all the players in the horticultural supply chain. It is expected to help the users reap significant savings through the entire supply chain from growers to wholesalers and retailers due to improved order management.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 am and is filed under Business, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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