Fish Wholesaler Benefits from Food Industry Specific IT Software

Phil Black - PII Editor 12/01/2015

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Food industry specific software from CSB-System is helping French fish wholesaler Jean Lebeaupin in the fast and efficient daily compilation and delivery of orders to restaurants, canteens and retailers within a 150km range of the company’s base in Nantes.

The system is able to assess available stocks each day and allocate these against customer orders. It ensures efficient picking and optimal loading of the delivery lorries and is able to calculate the fastest delivery route. Since the introduction of this paperless system, the number of complaints has been considerably reduced.

Each morning on receipt of the daily delivery of fresh fish, the goods are quality assessed, given a unique lot number and entered into the CSB system with their respective quantities and values. Since the system automatically updates the information about stock in hand, it always accurately reflects the actual quantities of fish available. This is important as it is sometimes not possible to fulfil all orders exactly if the amount of fish caught and delivered is not sufficient. The software is therefore able to determine which customer should receive which products and suggest a possible distribution.

Once orders have been assigned, CSB’s route optimisation software calculates the fastest and shortest routes for the nine trucks. The paperless order-picking process then uses mobile devices for pickers to load the lorries, with the system defining the sequence so the they can be loaded in an optimal way – with boxes of fish placed on the bottom, followed by crustaceans, seafood and shellfish, which are frequently delivered in bags or small wooden crates.
The mobile devices communicate directly with the central CSB system to enable real time updating of orders and stock in hand.

During delivery, on-board navigation guides each truck along the previously-calculated delivery route. The system is also able to provide updates on estimated times of arrival for customers who have requested an exact delivery time.

At each customer, receipt of goods is confirmed by signing the mobile terminal, eliminating the need for paper documents. A photo of each delivery is also taken for documentation and control purposes.

At head office, route details and the mileage of the truck is entered to monitor the cost of each vehicle and to manage maintenance programmes effectively. Invoices, delivery notes and other documents are archived and managed within the CSB document management system.