# Farm gate to dark store at BigBasket

> Eleven workflows on one platform, from a farmer selling leafy vegetables at a collection centre to a crate coming back from a customer's door.

- **Page** - https://iotready.com/case-studies/bigbasket-farm-to-fork
- **Client** - BigBasket
- **Published** - 2024-01-15
- **Industry** - [Quick Commerce](https://iotready.com/industries/quick-commerce.md)
- **Solution** - [Warehouse Management](https://iotready.com/solutions/warehouse-management.md)

## Results

- **99%** Inventory accuracy, up from 85%
- **100%** Labelling errors eliminated
- **90%** Wastage reduction from over-packing
- **30%** Reduction in crate and pallet losses

## The operation

BigBasket buys fresh fruit, vegetables and meat from thousands of farmers every
day, then packs and delivers it through 40 sourcing centres, 30 fulfilment
centres and more than 600 dark stores. Two and a half million returnable crates
and pallets move between those locations.

Before the platform, produce was weighed and quality checked by hand and the
numbers were typed into a tablet afterwards. Labels were printed from prices
that had been updated station by station. Crates left a site and nobody knew
where they went.

## Procurement at the collection centre

Video: [Real-time procurement at a BigBasket collection centre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E0t8xtv0Bc)

_A farmer sells leafy vegetables. The crate is scanned, weighed and validated in under three seconds, and the goods receipt is posted to the WMS._

Wi-Fi scales capture the weight themselves. A scanner reads the farmer, the
crate and the produce type. The mobile app walks the operator through the
quality check and shows a green light when the crate is good. The goods receipt
reaches the warehouse management system in under three seconds, and the payout
to the farmer follows from the same record.

## The eleven workflows

**Sourcing** - At the collection centre

1. Procurement and goods receipt
2. Dump recording with reason codes
3. Audited stock transfer out

**Fulfilment** - At the centre and the dark store

1. Transfer in with discrepancy detection
2. Centralised labelling
3. Packed material transfer
4. Palletisation and putaway
5. Bulk weighment
6. Cycle count

**Last mile** - Out of the door and back

1. Delivery tracking and payouts
2. Crate and pallet asset management

## Labelling across 650 locations

More than a thousand IoT label printers run at packing stations across every
sourcing centre, fulfilment centre and dark store. Each one is paired with a
Wi-Fi scale and manages 25 to 30 packs a minute.

Prices and SKUs are updated once, centrally, and every printer in the country
picks up the change. Nobody prints yesterday's price any more. The automatic
weight capture is what surfaced the over-packing, and the barcode on the label
links a pack back to the farm, the batch and the quality check it came from.
Packing stations save roughly six hours a week each.

## Crates as assets

Every crate and pallet carries a QR code and is checked in and out at each
handoff: sourcing centre, fulfilment centre, dark store, customer. Ageing and
utilisation analytics show which ones are sitting idle and which have gone
missing, and returns from customers come back through a workflow of their own.

## How it scaled

From a pilot to 650 locations in under two years. A new site goes live in days.
When a workflow needs to change, BigBasket changes it themselves on the
dashboard rather than raising a change request and waiting.

## What was deployed

- [Weighing Scale Data Logger](https://iotready.com/hardware/weighing-scale.md): Turns an existing RS232 scale into a connected station - weight and a scan together, shown on a jumbo display and published over Bluetooth LE.
- [Label Management & Printing Station](https://iotready.com/hardware/label-printer.md): Puts an existing weighing scale and an off-the-shelf barcode printer under one central label catalogue, so the price and the weight on the label are the ones the system holds today.
- [QR & Barcode Scanner](https://iotready.com/hardware/qr-fixed.md): A fixed-mount, IP68 scanner that reads every common 1D and 2D code over one RS232 cable, built for washdown lines a handheld will not survive.
- [GPS Tracker](https://iotready.com/hardware/gps-tracker.md): A battery-powered GPS unit for vehicles and outdoor assets that never come within range of a fixed reader.