The time for picking tomatoes at a greenhouse complex in the Leningrad Region has been reduced by almost a thousand minutes

The greenhouse complex in the Leningrad region has completed the active stage of the implementation of the national project "Labor Productivity".

The time for picking tomatoes at the "Gifts of Nature" greenhouse complex in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region has been reduced by almost a thousand minutes. The collection and care of Merlis tomatoes was chosen as a pilot stream here, since its share in the company's revenue is 88%.

Together with experts from the Regional Competence Center (RCC), the project team worked for six months to reduce manual labor and organize work spaces and places. In total, the experts identified 50 points of process improvement, including the loss of time explaining instructions, searching for materials and tools, different speed of operations, and others.

As a result of the implementation of the national project, the time for the entire cycle of the tomato picking process was halved - from 1876 to 957 minutes. In order to remove unnecessary movements at the enterprise, a scheme was developed for arranging empty pallets with boxes, with finished products, tanks, the preparation of workplaces for vegetable growers was carried out, the removal of waste and finished products was organized strictly on time, and the delivery of boxes and pallets in the evening before collection. In addition, the standards for picking and sorting tomatoes were visualized for employees. For six months, the output of one employee increased by 35% - from 150 to 202 kg per hour, work in progress decreased by 23%, and unnecessary movements - by 20%.

“Thanks to a set of implemented lean manufacturing tools and improvements, 17% more tomatoes were harvested in November 2021 than planned. We have already assessed the real economic result, and we plan to further replicate the innovations that have shown their effectiveness - we will optimize the processes of harvesting Aficion lettuce and Volantis tomato, ”commented Denis Budanov, DIRECTOR of the greenhouse complex.

Today, 45 enterprises of the Leningrad Region have already joined the national project "Labor Productivity".