Albert Heijn is a Dutch supermarket chain and part of the international
food retailer Ahold. Until 1994, fresh foods were supplied to Albert Heijn
in a wide variety of crates. The varied crates could not be stacked. Crates
for return had to remain in storage until suppliers came to collect them.
In 1994, the company took the decision to develop a new logistics
concept based on a modular approach to crate sizes and multi-product
usage. In cooperation with crate manufacturer Wavin, Albert Heijn
developed the specifications for a standard crate concept: the ‘freshcrate’.
The idea behind the freshcrate was that it would offer the potential
to cut costs throughout the supply chain by simplifying the exchange
between the company’s various outlets and its fresh food suppliers. It
presented the potential to create more space, as the new standard crates
would easily stack and this in turn would simplify and speed up the
supplier’s collection of used crates