Who is Worldwide Fruit?
Worldwide Fruit (WWF) , one of the UK’s premier fresh produce wholesalers, supplies top-quality fruits to customers worldwide. They partner with over 100 growers in 21 countries, as part of their mission is to maintain consistent quality and reliable supply, 365 days a year.
But meeting such high standards, and at scale, comes with major challenges, especially when it comes to quality control (QC). Before 2022, WWF’s QC processes were manual, time-consuming, and largely subjective. That made it difficult to achieve consistency and reliably predict the shelf life of fresh produce.
Recognizing that the shortcomings of conventional QC processes would hinder their ability to advance their mission, WWF turned to Clarifruit’s AI-powered platform for answers.
The Challenge
As WWF expanded its network of suppliers and customers, it faced three critical quality control challenges:
Outdated and Subjective QC Processes: Without automation, WWF’s QC relied on manual, subjective inspections, varying by individual inspector and region. Variability and inconsistency in these processes stood in the way of establishing uniform quality standards that WWF could apply across diverse growing environments. These outdated inspection methods were also time-intensive, absorbing resources that WWF wanted to be able to deploy elsewhere.
Lack of Standardization Across Regions: With operations spanning 21 countries, WWF struggled to unify QC standards. Each region followed its own processes, so it was difficult to ensure consistent produce quality. This lack of standardization risked customer satisfaction and product shelf life across global markets.
Underutilized Data: Although WWF collected extensive quality data, it was not centralized or standardized. Due to the limitations of the systems they used, WWF could not leverage the insights hidden in their data. They needed a way to access those insights to guide operational decisions, improve fulfillment timing, and optimize logistics across the supply chain.
These challenges underscored WWF’s need for an efficient, data-driven solution that could standardize QC processes, enhance consistency, and allow for informed decision-making.
Results and Impact
Since deploying Clarifruit’s platform, WWF has achieved remarkable results, enhancing both quality and produce inspection efficiency across their supply chain:
More Inspections in Less Time
WWF doubled (and in some cases tripled) its inspection capacity. These time savings enabled faster fulfillment and better inventory turnover. Overall, inspection times dropped by 40%, allowing WWF to manage larger volumes and get high-quality produce to their customers, without additional labor costs.
Jason Winter, Quality Manager, highlights the operational benefits: “Going forward, we expect to experience a reduction in our internal waste rejections, ultimately leading to significant reduction in costs on a company level. We’re grateful for the time and cost savings, and for the customer satisfaction we’ve experienced as a result of Clarifruit’s AI-platform.”
Accurate, Always Accessible Data
Clarifruit’s standardized QC processes eliminated the subjective variability of manual inspections. This consistency ensures uniform quality across WWF’s global network, significantly reducing discrepancies in QC outcomes.
By leveraging real-time analytics, WWF now accesses and analyzes QC data instantly. This visibility has enabled the company to make swift, well-informed decisions on inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer quality assurance.
Reduced Internal Waste and Expected Cost Savings
The streamlined QC process has reduced internal waste rejections, decreasing waste-related expenses and improving WWF’s overall cost efficiency. WWF expects ongoing savings as their quality control automation continues to evolve with Clarifruit’s technology.
Conclusion
Worldwide Fruit’s journey from traditional quality control methods to an AI-powered, data-driven approach has set a new standard in fresh produce supply chain optimization. By partnering with Clarifruit, WWF has achieved consistency, accuracy, and efficiency across its QC processes, elevating its position as a leading supplier of quality produce. Their success illustrates how Clarifruit’s solution can empower quality control managers and executives in the fresh produce industry to transform their QC operations, ensuring high-quality products, satisfied customers, and streamlined costs.
“Going forward, we expect to experience a reduction in our internal waste rejections, ultimately leading to significant reduction in costs on a company level. We’re grateful for the amount of time and cost we’ve saved with this new QC process, and for the customer satisfaction we’ve experienced as a result of Clarifruit’s AI-platform” Jason Winter, Quality Manager, Worldwide Fruit
“We’ve come a long way in our daily operations since deploying Clarifruit’s AI platform. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the Clarifruit team to help us transform our entire QC process to be completely objective and consistent. I’m thrilled that Worldwide Fruit has finally found a solution to help reduce the amount of waste along the supply chain and thankful for this fruitful partnership.” Willie Wood, Head of Technical, Worldwide Fruit
Learn more about Clarifruit and discover how to bring greater accuracy, efficiency, and standardization to your produce quality control processes.
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