A freshly picked citrus fruit from grandma’s garden, there’s nothing that tastes better. At least that’s what Stephan Rötzer said when he founded SanLucar in sunny Valencia in 1993. His dream was to grow vegetables and fruits with the taste as if you had just picked them yourself. Thirty years later, his company has more than 3.400 employees and one of the broadest top-quality assortments in the market, incuding fresh fruit and vegetables, smoothies, fresh cut, flowers & plants, and ice cream. From sowing the fruits to delivering them to supermarkets, SanLucar maintains very strict quality standards. All their products are checked multiple times after harvest. Only the best ones are packed and labelled according to the strict quality standard, starting their journey to the supermarkets.
Careful selection
Antonio Soria, Quality Technician at SanLucar, who is responsible for translating process optimisation into QC One together with the IT team, says that quality is paramount at SanLucar. “Our company carefully selects its partners to work with, from growers and sales channels to external parties supporting our production processes.” According to the Spaniard, ”As a big multinational company with production all over the world, we needed a powerful and innovative system able to work on the quality of our products in a cyber-secure and data-driven manner, keeping an eye on the future. Through a global tender, we came across QC One.”
Smart software
SanLucar has implemented the Dutch software system QC One at various locations. “The number of locations using it is growing, partly because we are growing further. We also use the software in the office to control label claims and to check if all quality controls have been performed correctly. The system provides us with all imaginable information about suppliers and products, seamlessly aligning with our data-driven culture. Thanks to the app, our on-site quality technicians can conduct export, import, and shelf-life inspections. During the inspections, all the necessary tools are available in the app to create a complete and professional report. A useful functionality is a scan feature that creates an inspection directly from our ERP system by scanning a barcode in the app. Antonio also praises the fact that, thanks to QC One, he can train (new) employees to speak the quality language and adopt the jargon that has existed within SanLucar for all these years in the software.
Brand-specific standard
SanLucar’s quality technicians now use all available features of QC One in their quality inspections. From the moment the smart software is installed, the same quality standard applies to all parts of the production chain, and the templates can be customized based on the relevance of a specific point or type of inspection. “This is fully ensured and supported through the software. In the app, packaging types, indications, and codes are an integral part of an inspection report and registration. QC One enables us to manage all product specifications and translate them into inspection templates with our brand-specific characteristics,” Antonio explains.
Working more efficiently
According to Antonio, QC One is “a highly flexible system designed to meet the applicable quality requirements.” The system also allows SanLucar to work in a data-driven manner. “We have transitioned from a reactive to a proactive approach. This has given us more control over our product quality,” he says. QC One now determines the process standard. The app provides feedback directly to the ERP system. “All of this makes our work so much more efficient than before. It’s incredible how many of our requests have been integrated into the system. And we continue to optimize things together. We can’t imagine not having this system anymore.”
Pursuing goals
Antonio concludes by saying that he can recommend everyone to collaborate with QC One. “The personal collaboration with the QC One team is fantastic. We are a demanding party, but it works incredibly well between us. The people at QC One know exactly where our priorities lie. It’s very pleasant to work with them. It certainly helps us pursue our goals.”