Leipomo Rosten

Leipomo Rosten eliminates night work with Distrib Put to Light

Leipomo Rosten no longer needs to use operators during night hours to process orders. Thanks to Pcdata’s Distrib Put to Light, the Finnish bakery’s order pickers can start working in the after- noon. Not only does this save a lot of money, it also provides more space and flexibility. Tuomo Paananen of Leipomo Rosten: “We recouped the investment much faster than expected.”

Leipomo Rosten is one of three companies in the Rosten Group, which has as many as seven bakeries across Finland. The latest addition is Porin Leipa, the Pori-based bakery acquired in December 2022. “The Rosten Group is the largest family business in the Finnish bakery sec- tor. We supply freshly baked bread, as well as frozen products and longer shelf-life products such as dry bread,” says Tuomo Paananen, logistics director at Leipomo Rosten.

The bread finds eager customers at S Group, Kesko and Lidl, Finland’s three largest food retailers that together control 95 percent of supermar- kets. In addition, a large number of hotels and restaurants order their bread from Leipomo Rosten. Paananen; “Depending on the day of the week, we supply 380 to 500 customers every day.”

leipomo-rosten

Growing demand for fresh

Leipomo Rosten has been using Pcdata’s orderpicking solutions to its full satisfaction for more than 15 years. The bakery in Turku implement- ed Distrib Pick to Light in 2008, which gives each product its own pick location in a rack. The moment an employee starts an order, the display above the pick location indicates how many pieces of that product have been ordered. “We chose Pcdata at the time because of its good refer- ences. There were more bakeries in Finland that were already working with Distrib and without exception they were very positive,” Paananen knows.

The system functioned excellently as long as Leipomo Rosten mainly made longer shelf-life products. That changed when the demand for freshly baked bread increased. “Pick to Light had the disadvantage that we could only start order picking when all products were ready. Because only then could we complete each order and make it ready for transport. But in order to be able to deliver our bread as fresh as possible, it wasn’t ready until late in the evening. As a result, we had to pick orders at night,” Paananen explains.

Leipomo Rosten

No more working at night

Paananen brought in Pcdata to look for a solution that was better suit- ed to the rapidly changing market. It was found in Distrib Put to Light, the system used by fresh bakeries around the world as the standard for the distribution of freshly baked bread. While with Pick to Light the products are at a fixed location, with Put to Light it is just the other way around; customers are assigned a location. Leipomo Rosten operators then walk past these locations to distribute the products to the custom- ers. Again, it is the displays above the locations that indicate how many pieces should be distributed to each customer.

There is one important difference between the old and new solution: with Distrib Put to Light, Leipomo Rosten can start distribution even before all the products are ready. The moment the fresh bread goes into the oven, the first long-life products have already been distributed. “Previously, we couldn’t start order picking until before midnight and were finished by 6:30 a.m. the next morning,” says Paananen. “Now we start as soon as we have orders in. That’s usually around 2 p.m. And nowadays, we finish before midnight, which in the old situation was the moment when we were about to start!”

More space on the floor

In addition, Leipomo Rosten benefits from more space on the shop floor. The old system consist- ed largely of racking and roller conveyors: hard- ware that was used intensively at night but got in the way during the day. The new system, on the other hand, primarily uses floor locations. “As long as order processing hasn’t started, the floor is free and we can use it for buffering finished goods, for example,” Paananen says. “Only for smaller customers such as hotels and restau- rants Pcdata installed racking, so the space of one floor location can now accommodate three small customers. That saves on floor space and reduces walking distances.”

The implementation took only three business days. On Friday, dismantling of the old racking and roller conveyors began. On Monday, the new system was tested and could be put into op- eration just one day later. “The implementation went extremely well, even though we were in the middle of the pandemic and on-site support was minimal. We did not encounter any signifi- cant problems. Because the project was tightly planned, that system down-time was kept to a minimum.”

Very short payback period

The new system has far exceeded Leipomo Ro- sten’s expectations. The investment has paid for itself much faster than expected, particularly due to the significant savings in personnel costs. Previously, Paananen needed at least four peo- ple and at the end of the night as many as sev- en to pick orders. Now three and, on busy days, four people are sufficient, and they no longer have to receive a night allowance. Paananen: “Moreover, we can now use these people flex- ibly. If there are no products to distribute for a while, they can help pack products.”

Paananen praises the cooperation with Pc- data. “We now know that Pcdata doesn’t offer solutions that we don’t need. They have a great understanding of processes and systems, look closely at their customers’ needs and then offer the best-fit solution,” says Paananen, who has not for a moment considered partnering with an- other party.

Accommodating future growth

Right now, Paananen is already looking ahead. With the acquisition of Porin Leipa, Leipomo Rosten has gained many more cus- tomers. All of which need to be located on the floor of the bakery in Turku, leading to new issues. Once again, Pcdata was asked to think along. “We now have an idea of how we want to accommodate that growth,” says Paananen. “So also in the future we will con- tinue to work together to further improve the operation.”

Tuomo Paananen
Logistics director at Leipomo Rosten

„We now know that Pcdata doesn’t offer solutions that we don’t need. They have
a great understanding of processes and systems, look closely at their customers’ needs and then offer the best-fit solution.“

Distrib WMS