Largest global flower auction cooperative is implementing Blue Yonder’s WMS

AALSMEER, Netherlands and SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – April 14, 2022 – Royal FloraHolland was in the midst of a digital transformation when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Thanks to its supply chain solutions provider, Blue Yonder, Royal FloraHolland was able to accelerate the move to Blue Yonder’s SaaS-based warehouse management solution (WMS), powered by Microsoft Azure, to manage and support its high-volume fulfilment logistics in its warehouses. The project is currently being implemented by Starware, a Blue Yonder partner. 

Royal FloraHolland is a Dutch cooperative in the international floriculture sector with more than 3,700 members, 5,000 suppliers and over 2,400 buyers, and handles 90% of the Dutch flower and plant trading. The cooperative processes more than 95,000 transactions per day with over 24,000 different species of flowers and plants. The cooperative’s four main Dutch-based auctions/warehouse locations needed to be better connected and move from push logistics to a pull logistics focus in a fulfilment hub and network setting.

With Blue Yonder, Royal FloraHolland will be able to:

  • Build a floriculture supply chain infrastructure for growers and their buyers.
  • Gain more end-to-end visibility from growers (greenhouse) to hubs and their buyers.
  • Transition from auction-based (supply-driven) logistics to fulfillment and order picking (demand-driven) logistics over the coming period.

“Once our digital transformation with Blue Yonder is complete, we will have a more optimal supply chain from growers to their buyers. In our strategy we are moving from a traditional supply-driven distribution process to a demand-driven order picking process, enabled by WMS. We will also organize the logistics of direct trade and clock trade in a combined process. With this new, bundled logistics, flowers and plants will be delivered to buyers reliably and quickly,” said Marc van den Boogaard, Business Technology Manager, Operations & Supply Chain, Royal FloraHolland. “In addition, we are looking forward to digitally connecting our warehouses and online trading platform with Blue Yonder and Microsoft Azure more and more.”

Blue Yonder’s WMS will allow Royal FloraHolland to fully digitize its warehouses and gain improved inbound and outbound visibility into shipments, as well as optimize operations to ensure accuracy, timeliness, efficiency, and compliance. The cooperative is looking to implement Luminate Warehouse Tasking next. This will further enable task optimization through advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) to eliminate congestion and improve completion throughput.

“By migrating to a SaaS-based WMS, Royal FloraHolland will gain the ability to analyze data to make insightful decisions and acquire end-to-end visibility that will help their supply chain efficiency. Managing the expectations of all their stakeholders while simultaneously transforming the way they do business is not an easy task, but Royal FloraHolland is doing it successfully with the guidance of the Blue Yonder and Starware teams. For that, I am extremely proud of the work we are doing in collaboration with our implementation partner Starware. I’m looking forward to seeing Royal FloraHolland’s full transformation in the near future,” said Johan Reventberg, EMEA president, Blue Yonder.

“The floriculture sector is quite a niche sector in terms of supply chain processes. Imagine warehouses the size of Monaco being filled to maximum capacity in the morning and then completely empty again in the late afternoon. Optimizing these processes that have existed for decades, been tuned to optimal performance, and then translating them to Blue Yonder’s modern and world-class solutions is the challenge of a lifetime. We are extremely proud of our team of domain specialists that are driving this transformation, always keeping the customer’s business in mind. The constructive and open mindsets of both Royal FloraHolland and Blue Yonder have made all the difference in this program,” said Marc Roelofs, CEO, Starware.

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About Royal FloraHolland

Royal FloraHolland (RFH) is a cooperative of growers of flowers and plants and strives for sustainable success for its members. RFH connects growers, buyers and third parties through physical and digital auctioning and the digital dealmaking platform Floriday, which offers a unique combination of services relevant to the domains of order, pay and deliver. The services that Royal FloraHolland provides create a solid foundation on which all players in the sector come together to achieve sustainable success in the global floriculture market. Royal FloraHolland realized in 2021 for its members a sales turnover of over 5,6 Billion euros (2021) and processes more than 95,000 transaction per day on global scale.

About Blue Yonder

Blue Yonder is the world leader in digital supply chain and omni-channel commerce fulfillment. Our intelligent, end-to-end platform enables retailers, manufacturers and logistics providers to seamlessly predict, pivot and fulfill customer demand. With Blue Yonder, you can make more automated, profitable business decisions that deliver greater growth and re-imagined customer experiences. Blue Yonder — Fulfill your Potential™  blueyonder.com

“Blue Yonder” is a trademark or registered trademark of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name “Blue Yonder” is a trademark and/or property of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are associated.

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