Bee Sweet Citrus California Palletizing Facility

Project Overview

Bee Sweet Citrus operates as a one-stop shop for fresh citrus year-round, with an impressive 400,000 square foot campus in California that ships to global markets stretching from Europe to Australia. The company's growth has been dramatic, expanding from handling 10,000 boxes per year to operating at a scale where 125 citrus-filled trucks depart the facility each day.

The business primarily operates as a consolidation center for major retail chains, requiring the ability to handle multiple citrus varieties (lemons, oranges, mandarins, blood oranges) with different packaging configurations simultaneously. This diversity in product types and packaging styles created unique challenges for palletizing operations.

With rising labor costs, safety concerns, high staff turnover, and potential production increases, Bee Sweet Citrus recognized the need for automation to maintain competitiveness and operational efficiency in the demanding citrus industry.

Technical Solution

Alvey 910 Series High-Speed Palletizers

The solution features Alvey 910 series high-speed palletizers from Honeywell Intelligrated, incorporating several exclusive modifications to deliver reliable high throughput with superior load quality. These palletizers handle the diverse packaging requirements of different citrus varieties and retail configurations.

Key Features

The Alvey 910 series palletizers with exclusive modifications provide the flexibility needed to configure different pallet types for various retail vendors, accommodating the diverse packaging requirements of Bee Sweet's consolidation business model.

The 28 accumulation lanes fed by a sliding shoe sorter enable efficient organization of different product types, ensuring that full pallet quantities are assembled accurately before palletizing begins.

Automatic changeover capabilities allow the system to adapt to fluctuating incoming products based on citrus variety and packaging type, maintaining operational efficiency despite the diversity of products handled.

Results & Benefits

The system enables Bee Sweet Citrus to maintain constant production flow without the slowdowns that occurred with manual hand stacking, supporting the company's goal of processing citrus 12 months out of the year.

A more professional presentation to retailers is achieved through straighter, more consistent pallet stacking, enhancing the quality of delivery to Bee Sweet's retail partners across global markets.

Reduced physical lifting for workers addresses safety concerns and improves working conditions, contributing to better staff retention and addressing one of the key challenges of rising labor costs and high turnover.

Challenges & Solutions

The combination of rising labor costs, safety concerns, high staff turnover, and potential production increases created significant operational challenges. The automated palletizing solution from Honeywell Intelligrated addressed these issues by reducing manual labor requirements while increasing throughput and consistency.

The need to handle diverse packaging types and configurations for different retail chains was solved through the deployment of automated palletizers with flexible configuration capabilities that can adapt to various citrus varieties and packaging styles.

System Integrator

Honeywell Intelligrated was selected as the system integrator after a competitive three-month bid process that evaluated five material handling system providers. Their selection was based on a strong track record in the citrus industry, comprehensive product offering, integration experience, and robust engineering capacity. The installation was conducted collaboratively, with Intelligrated working around Bee Sweet's production schedule by performing installations at night to avoid disrupting daytime packing operations.