McDougall & Sons Case Study

Enhancing Efficiency and Accuracy in Cherry Processing through Automation

McDougall & Sons, located in Wenatchee, WA, is a fourth-generation, family-owned company that grows, processes, and distributes cherries and other tree fruits. They needed to increase their cherry processing rates, manage capacity during peak times, balance production between two cherry lines and improve the accuracy and speed of data collection and reporting of processed cherries.

McDougall & Sons turned to RH Brown, now proudly part of Bastian Solutions. The result is an automated material handling system that handles cartons twice as fast as their previous system, with less need for manual labor and much greater accuracy – 99.9%. The new system’s WCS (warehouse control software) provides precise, efficient management of production lines as well as real-time insights, data analytics, and product traceability.

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Key Technologies

Automated carton movement that reduces manual labor
Warehouse control system (WCS) that allows more precise and efficient production line management, plus real-time insights for faster decision making
Hytrol conveyor with zoned accumulation
Intralox high-speed merge conveyor
Intralox switches for taper feed/control
High-speed check weighers (in-line scales)
Induction and discharge photo eye controls
Cognex bar code imagers
LeanLogix control package

Results

This new automated material handling system resulted in a remarkable transformation in McDougall & Sons' cherry processing operations:

130% increase in throughput.
The ability to process an average of 100 cases per minute on each production line.
Processes, package, and track grower production runs efficiently and accurately.