Terwijl sommige medewerkers en klanten de loods van ZON op hun duimpje kennen, is deze plek voor anderen minder bekend. Hoog tijd dus om daar wat verandering in te brengen. Keurspecialist André Grubben, ploegleider Wilbert Maas en logistiek medewerker Adam Krawczyszyn nemen ons op sleeptouw en leiden ons rond door de plek die we toch wel met recht het hart van ZON kunnen noemen.
Quality control
“As an inspection specialist, I and my colleagues guarantee the quality of all products that come in,” says André. In the morning we see via an EAB (electronic delivery note) what a grower will deliver that afternoon. We check quantities and quality and record this digitally. Sometimes a quality check is necessary after the sale.
Logistics
All logistics employees together form the spider in ZON's logistics web. “We prepare all the orders that come in,” says Adam. “Furthermore, we are the ones who unload and load trailers and put everything in the right place. After the clock starts at 7 o'clock in the morning, we then see the auctioned products appear on our scanners and we can prepare them for the customers.'
Sorting & Packaging
Wilbert is one of the five team leaders in the Sorting & Packaging department. His main task is to plan and co-organize all activities and to check the machines. ‘At ZON we mainly package bell peppers and asparagus. ZON has specialized machines for this and we have set up specific sorting and packaging processes for this.”
“Most of the product is packed in so-called flow packs (for example, peppers at traffic lights). We also do a lot of manual work, for example when we pack snack cucumbers in small buckets. Asparagus can also be peeled with us and possibly supplied with peels (for preparing soup, for example).'
Peppers are sorted in the sorting department. Wilbert: “We sort them by weight and quality. After a quality check, they arrive for the clock, are packed or go directly to the customer.'


Voor het sorteren en verpakken van paprika’s en asperges, heeft ZON gespecialiseerde machines in huis.Wilbert Maas
The role of the system
It is all activity in the warehouse. Every truck that arrives registers digitally at the Transport Office. Once we have checked everything on a random basis, we record this in the system. We then issue a suitable label for each pallet,' André explains. “Pallets with auctioned products are scanned via the sticker and then the pallet is distributed among the customers who have ordered that product. When an order is ready, it is driven to the dock.


We record everything in the system, so that we know exactly what comes in.Adam Krawczyszyn
Different roads within ZON
Products that come in all follow different routes in the warehouse. "Unsorted product first goes to the sorting department, other products are immediately checked for quality," says Wilbert. “In addition, some products go directly to a customer, while others first come for the auction clock. Then you also have the presale, where customers can indicate the day before the auction which products and quantities they would like and whether they have specific packaging requirements. Products used to arrive in one block for the clock, while now more and more auctions are auctioned by name.' This means an extra challenge for logistics, as many products now have to be auctioned in separate lots, says Adam.


Manual work
"Sometimes orders consist of complete pallets that don't need any work, but sometimes it's manual work, where crates or boxes are re-stacked by hand," says Adam.
The digital system is therefore very important to keep everything running smoothly. It is one of the developments within ZON that André is very happy with. In contrast to the past, everything now goes through this system and we immediately see in the evening whether there are differences in the count. In addition, every pallet now has a kind of track & trace code, so that we can always see exactly where that pallet is.