Eduard Van Wingerden, CEO of Ever-Bloom Inc. in Carpinteria, CA, had one simple response to new laws in California that expand overtime rules while eventually pushing minimum wage to $15 per hour.
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A spray robot at Ever-Bloom from Steenks Services is able to automatically spray the 57-meter benches, and the attached meto-trolley moves it automatically from one bed to the next. Not only does this machine save on labor, it sprays the plants evenly and thoroughly, so Ever-Bloom sprays less often.
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The spray robot can spray nearly 2½ acres in 2½ hours all by itself.
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Harvest carts roll along a pipe rail system from Meteor Systems, making picking nearly twice as fast as the previous system. Instead of bunching flowers in the beds, workers pick the flowers and immediately hydrate them in buckets without wasting time bunching or carrying them out.
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The flower buckets are put on aluminum trolleys that can be connected together and towed down to the cooler, saving time on moving product around by foot.
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The pipe-rail system is the biggest upgrade taking place at Ever-Bloom. It includes a “Worm System,” which uses 19-centimeter pots instead of 1-meter slabs.
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Bed lengths are now twice as long at Ever-Bloom.
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There is one pathway into the greenhouse instead of two.
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The next piece of automation equipment at Ever-Bloom will arrive in April 2017. It’s a FlowMaster packing machine from Havatec BV in the Netherlands that will cut labor costs in the packing area and create a manageable and trackable flow of product. Check out a video of the machine at Havatec.com/machines/flowmaster.
Van Wingerden says his company was already committed to automating its facility prior to the overtime law going into effect. The passing of the bill will now push Ever-Bloom to move even faster to accomplish these changes, he says.
“We purchased a pipe-rail growing system, that will make all manual spraying obsolete, and a robot that will spray all of our greenhouses. The pipe rail system also allows for harvesting carts, planting carts, and maintenance equipment to more effectively and efficiently do the day-to-day jobs. We will also purchase automated packing equipment that will eliminate about eight of our current 20 packers. We expect the return on investment to be right around five years.”
Ever-Bloom also made changes in how its greenhouses are laid out.