Light on their feet

Dave Van Belle strives for extreme efficiency with equipment and people. Photos by Revival Arts Studio.

In an industry where variables are frequent, Van Belle Nursery has built an exceptionally efficient growing facility that fosters people, plants and processes.

The Van Belle family modeled its expertly organized growing operation after the Dutch system including automation and high-tech greenhouses. Van Belle grows young plants and finished containers in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada—a locale of like-minded and high-tech growers.

Company President Dave Van Belle is in a perpetual state of observing, analyzing and fraternizing. Of course he strives to improve production and his product, but he inspires his entire staff to do the same.

The company recently refined its core values: Respect people; Find a better way; Always positive; Best effort; and Do it now.

“These five values help shape how we conduct ourselves, how we approach business and market challenges, and who will make up the team to build our company for the future,” Van Belle said.

And these core values are the foundation on which the nursery’s impressive efficiency is built.

Instant access
Van Belle Nursery developed its own ERP software system, which enables the grower to be extremely flexible in production and shipping. Information is made as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. All managers can access the software through their iPhones and iPods. Wi-fi is available all over the nursery.

The nursery is “on the front end” of the benefits that the custom system can and will provide, Van Belle said. The nursery started using the system for production planning, and is almost done implementing all the other modules.

With this system, Van Belle prints all of its tags on demand. There is no tag inventory at the 80-acre nursery. A crew of five makes tags all day during the spring based on orders. For the young plant division, a scout looks at perennials for a couple of hours each morning during the shipping season. That person gives the plants a “hot rating,” which identifies the plants that look the best each day. This process is done on the iPhone through the ERP software and information is updated immediately.

“That way, we’re shipping out what looks absolutely the best,” Van Belle said. “This system has radically changed how we do things. Without the software, we couldn’t do what we’re doing.”

The ERP software also is helping the nursery forecast better and improve labor planning. Van Belle plans to use the software for its costing system later this year.

“Once that’s implemented, we’ll have an incredible handle on what everything costs,” he said.

Lean but not mean
The ERP software works in tandem with the grower’s Lean manufacturing principles, which were adopted a few short years ago. Lean is a philosophy of reducing waste.

The grower hired Gary Cortes of FlowVision to implement Lean and streamline production processes.

“Lean has been extremely successful and allowed us to grow our sales, as well as lower our costs,” Van Belle said.

Lean not only reduces waste—which can be defined in a number of ways, Van Belle said—but it also empowers the grower’s employees.

“With Lean, our production processes are way more visual than a typical nursery,” he said. “We have flow rate boards all over the nursery so employees can see every hour if we’re behind or ahead of schedule. We use fewer words and more symbols and pictures.”

At the propagation line, for example, a photo is posted that demonstrates the correct process and another photo of the incorrect process with a big red circle and slash through it.

“We have people from 10 different countries working here. With the photos, there’s no confusion,” he said.

Adding to the efficiency, all people are cross trained, creating a much more flexible workforce.

“Consequently, we need fewer supervisors,” he said.
 

1. Scouts tour the entire facility each morning, surveying crops and giving plants a ‘hot rating.’  2. Precise irrigation application in greenhouses is delivered through automated systems. 3. Both Lean principles and the grower’s custom ERP software allow Van Belle to offer same-day turnaround and next-day shipping. 4. Van Belle’s 4-inch liners are sold in 5-gallon containers. The liners are planted in spring and ready by fall. 5&6. Van Belle adopted quite a bit of automation, including Dutch-style rolling benches; a mobile automated pruner (pictured); and an automated herbicide and mulch applicator (pictured).

The nursery also used FlowVision to help refigure its propagation and shipping processes. Now the grower can pack and ship 12 semis a day without using overtime. Remember, this is not a few large trees on a truck—this is a huge amount of plant material.

One of Van Belle’s mass merchant customers is on a pull system—the nursery replenishes plants as the retailer sells them.

“At 8 a.m. we don’t know what we’re shipping to them. But by 9 a.m. we have our instructions and get the plants tagged, loaded and shipped for the next day,” he said. “Lean makes us so flexible.”

Lean also allows for far greater creativity, if you do it right, Van Belle said.

“We expect our people to innovate. It should be a bottom-up driven thing,” he said.

With Lean and its ERP software, Van Belle Nursery has been much more vigilant when it comes to production planning.

“There must be a plan for each plant before it gets produced,” he said. “We want to have an idea of where we want to sell the plant and which customer to sell it to.”

Van Belle constantly reviews production planning, looking backward and forward with the help of its ERP software.

“We keep tweaking and refining production. We’re not long on anything, and we’ve reduced the amount of plants we have to dump,” he said.

Although Van Belle grows a wide variety of deciduous flowering shrubs, evergreens, broadleaves and perennials, the nursery wants to mirror an annual grower’s production system.

“Annuals are beautiful things—you sell them first then grow them. We’re trying to move to that model, even with our liner production,” he said.
 

1. Van Belle Nursery sells both liners and finished stock to both Canadian and U.S. customers. 2. A rolling herbicide applicator allows for precision delivery while using less product. 3. After implementing Lean, Van Belle Nursery can pack and ship 12 semis a day without using overtime. Its shipping area is equipped with tools to increase efficiency.

For more: Van Belle Nursery, www.vanbelle.com. FlowVision, www.flowvision.com.