La Doria: partnership with KFI to improve product traceability

The aim of the collaboration is to offer more precise control of goods identification, laying the foundations for improved product traceability and promoting digitalization, with increased security, speed and reduced errors in production and logistics processes.

 Founded in the 1950s as a family business specializing in tomato processing, today La Doria is a food company of excellence, an international leader in the canning sector and in the production and marketing of ready-to-use sauces, canned legumes, fruit juices and beverages. In 2022, the Group, which achieved consolidated sales of over EUR 1 billion, employed a total of almost 900 people, including over 800 in Italy and 90 in the UK, plus around 850 seasonal workers.

The use of KFI's software platform, and the corresponding implementation of RFID technology at La Doria's production sites, is part of a wider project to adopt innovative technological solutions to improve the traceability of its food products, starting with the resolution of one of the problems that arose in the pallet packaging process.
An integrated technology has therefore been installed to improve traceability downstream of the production process. At the various line exits, La Doria has inserted three advanced KFI automatic applicators (AP 150 – AP 190) which affix RFID tags displaying key information on palletized products. The RFID tag adds a radio-identification element to the traditional barcode, making a substantial contribution to the overall improvement in traceability. During the process, the pallet is moved by the RFID tag to the packing station, where the system reads the data stored in the chips. A label is then produced and printed with all the information to be applied to the parcel once it has been packed. This system implements a higher level of control to send customers a signal of increasing vigilance, and to ensure that they receive the right products.

The introduction of RFID technology, which is crucial to the design of smart factories, has revolutionized the way products destined for warehouses and customer deliveries are identified and managed. What's more, this technology will provide the basis for future advances in the packaging, shipping and storage phases, including integration with the process logic of automated warehouses now integrated into factories.

"In the corporate context, the IT department emerges as strategic, contributing significantly to cost management and revenue growth through the effective integration of processes, systems and human resources," said Raffaele Todisco, La Doria's Director of Information Systems. "In-house IT is a catalyst for innovation, but choosing the right partner is critical to success. In this journey of continuous innovation, close collaboration between the departments and people involved makes all the difference. KFI, aware that simply supplying hardware is no longer enough, has committed to supporting La Doria in optimizing processes, recognizing the importance of offering systems assistance to support activities and guidance in application modalities." »

Thanks to the introduction of RFID technology and the new technological philosophy, enthusiastically adopted by users, the incidence of shipping errors has been almost completely eliminated, while enabling a significant increase in operational efficiency.
"We are very proud to have helped such an important group as La Doria move towards Industry 5.0, combining advanced technical solutions and human skills," said Antonino Lanza, Strategy and Corporate Development at KFI. "The success of this project has been the result not only of the right choice of technologies, but above all of their synergistic integration. In this sense, KFI has played a key role both as a technology supplier and as a guide in introducing solutions into industrial processes."

Sources: corriereortofrutticolo.it