JG Customer case · Hoek Flowers
No loose ends, just structured processes
The impressive export company from Rijnsburg ships thousands of varieties of flowers and plants to 52 countries every day. With FiLogic OpenTMS, Jack van der Gugten brought all his transport into view.
A passion for flowers
The Dutch family business exports flowers to no fewer than 52 countries worldwide. Jack: ‘Hoek Flowers was founded by Peter Hoek, who started out as a florist at the age of seventeen. From a young age he worked only with the best flowers. And his sons, who run the company today, still do exactly that.’
Thousands of varieties daily
‘Every day we offer more than 4,000 varieties of flowers and 2,000 different plants. We buy twenty percent of these through the flower auction, the rest comes directly from growers at home and abroad. Always in line with Peter’s policy: only buy the flowers if you have seen them yourself. We then prepare them for export and ship them by truck or by air to the relevant destination.’
Conveyor belts, AGVs and WMS
Everything that can be done digitally or automatically is done that way. Hoek Flowers is a forward-thinking export company that likes to work digitally. ‘Every flower that arrives with us is photographed through an automatic system. The logistics process after the order is also automated as much as possible. We have an extensive Warehouse Management System, hundreds of metres of conveyor belt, and orders are picked by AGVs, automated guided vehicles.’
A one-stop shop
‘We are a one-stop shop for flowers, plants and decoration. You can order from us at any moment of the day, even small orders. Everything you see online is physically here in our building and therefore in stock. Our automated logistics are lightning fast. If you order before 12:00, you have the products in by 07:00 the very next day.’
Always on the move
Jack has worked at Hoek Flowers as Commercial Manager since 2018. ‘I have worked in this beautiful, dynamic flower industry since 1998. So far, no two days have been the same. There is always something going on in terms of innovations and new projects or customers. And don’t forget the hectic periods around the holidays. This sector really is always on the move.’
Looking for an optimisation
‘In my current role I support our sales teams and I am closely involved in the implementation of new projects or software. The logistics side is also partly my responsibility. So soon after I arrived, I went looking for a good optimisation, and that is how I ended up at FiLogic.’
Track & Trace and ETA
How can we gain insight into all our transport? That is the question Jack put to us at the first meeting. ‘In England alone we have 28 vans out delivering flowers. Previously everything was done with pen and paper and we had little visibility of the deliveries. But since we got to know FiLogic, all our drivers use their app.’
Full visibility of the trip
‘This means we know exactly which routes are being driven, who the driver is, the arrival time and what is being delivered. We can follow the entire transport journey thanks to the Track & Trace feature. On arrival, the driver also sees exactly what needs to be delivered and takes a photo as proof of delivery. Any later disputes are prevented this way. And the customer can simply log in to check the estimated time of arrival.’
All data in one system
‘Now that we have all our data in one OpenTMS, we can also analyse all kinds of things. Think of how many routes are driven each day, what the load factor is and what costs go with it. We link this to our own data warehouse and use it to make useful calculations. For example, we can decide to deploy more drivers in a certain region or to organise the routes more cleverly.’
Ready for the future
Hoek Flowers has used OpenTMS in the cloud since 2021. ‘We tested for a month whether the system added enough value, and whether it suited us. On both counts the answer was a resounding yes. That was a little exciting, because we are not very standard in this industry. For instance, we work with hubs, which are collection points. And with parcels instead of pallets. This is rather more fine-grained transport work.’
Short lines
‘FiLogic is a company you can switch gears with easily, through short lines. Right from the start we had a 95% match and we solved the remaining part together. With large parties you notice that these kinds of things often take a long time. With FiLogic it is quick to spar and resolve matters at short notice. This is very important to us. It keeps us moving and ready for the future!’
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