Simple is best for cutting shipping and labor costs

Every spring, 15-hour days become the norm at greenhouses and nurseries everywhere. Two growers recently took time from their busy days to share some of their time- and labor-saving measures.

At D.S. Cole Growers in Loudon, N.H., Kristin Graham, sales rep, says there’s a lot to keep track of during the busy season. Within the 150,000-square-foot business, where staffing ranges from 20 to 70 employees, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page.

“Training is a constant challenge, especially during the young plant season, when you’re going from 0 to 90 miles an hour; you want to be sure everyone understands the mapping process for pulling and shipping inventory. This is critical,” says Graham.

Last fall, D.S. Cole focused on improving procedures for order fulfillment. The company also worked with Paul Fisher at the University of Florida on developing training videos for the newly launched Back Pocket Grower website. The site provides company-specific training and crop management tools to greenhouse and nursery growers and was developed by the University of Florida IFAS and the Floriculture Research Alliance.

Graham says the efforts that went into developing the training video coupled with discussions during meetings on mapping procedures led to an important revelation. That is, all the information contained in the plant tags and pull stickers wasn’t clearly understood by all D.S. Cole employees.

So D.S. Cole, with the help of the University of Florida IFAS, developed its label-key program, which defines such information as customer name and location; shipping method; the sequence number within the master pull system; the number of shelves; and the number of carts required.

“Before the program’s implementation, new staff members were wandering through the greenhouse, unclear about their mission,” says Graham. “Now staff are getting their jobs done more efficiently. The video, the mapping, and the label-key program have helped reduce errors.”
 

Simple shipping

Krieger Greenhouses in Jefferson, Iowa, is an 11-acre complex, yet just two employees run the shipping department, and one of them is co-owner Al Krieger.

“Most growers our size have shipping departments with a minimum of four individuals,” says Krieger. “Besides weather, transportation is our industry’s single largest obstacle and expense, and we found a way to sidestep that issue.

“We once ran five semitrailers, two trailers, and four trucks during spring. Now we run just two trucks. All other items are shipped ship via LTL freight, local carrier, FedEx Freight, or grocery backhauls. It’s a matter of hopping on the FedEx or another carrier’s website, entering the info and printing the BOL. They handle the routing, pickups, etc.”

This is made possible by Krieger’s GreenWay Plant Shipper containers. The 40- by-48-inch shipping system is made of water–repellent, 100-percent recyclable cardboard. The one-way shippers were designed for use with flats, packs, and pots up to 2-gallon containers. They have standard shelf spacing of 6, 9, and 17 inches, but shelves also can be adjusted. Custom shelf heights are available to handle young plant starter plugs and liners and a retail-ready display shipper is available.

“By developing these containers, we’re able to concentrate on being the best grower we can while leaving the transportation logistics to the professionals,” says Krieger. “Stores simply recycle the containers like any other cardboard boxes.

“Furthermore, the pallet footprint is designed for use in warehouse distribution centers, while rolling racks are not. Now we never lose racks during the busy season. While other growers adjust their bottom line due to having to pay drivers to pick up wayward racks, our bottom line remains intact.”