ProFlowers guarantees freshness—even a week after Valentine's Day delivery. Flowers must be received, processed, kitted into orders and shipped within hours after our distribution centers receive them. That requires visibility, not only into our own operations, but into the information supply chains feeding us.

We need suppliers to give us information in the right formats to keep product moving (i.e., bar codes for each SKU, a box ID, P.O. number and a lot number indicating cut date). Not all suppliers are equipped or eager to oblige. What entices them to comply?

Information in return.

We reject as much as 20% of the product they send us for deficiencies. With better information management, we can tell them what we reject and why, and we can also give them competitive benchmarks.

Information is key to maintaining freshness throughout the supply chain. Working with Fortna, we came up with a system that streamlines crossdocking to move imported product from our point of entry to our distribution centers with fewer touches. We combined our stringent quality assurance process with order picking, which significantly reduces turn-around time and improves distribution accuracy.

All orders are assembled and kitted with the customer's selection of vases, chocolates, teddy bears, etc. These are stored in flow racks, similar to the floral product. Once an order is built, it is scanned out of inventory and then it is scanned onto a pallet based on its carrier and ship method. Palletized orders are routed to trucks based on predetermined pick-up times. This minimizes touches and speeds the flowers through our facilities. All that information on product origin, age and supply chain history translates into customer satisfaction.