How Monson Fruit achieved a 4,000% increase in early fruit size sampling

Fruit Types

Apples, Pears, Cherries, Cranberries

Farms & Manages

Close to 8,000 acres / 3,237 hectares

Using Hectre App

Since 2022

Modules In Use

How Monson Fruit achieved a 4,000% increase in early fruit size sampling, improved decision-making, and gained a more efficient pack.

Accurate Data. Easy to Use. Better Decisions and a Better Pack.

Monson Fruit is a family-owned and operated premier fruit packer located in Yakima County, Washington. They are one of Washington State’s top 5 apple packers, with around 189,000 bins of apples processed per season.

Established nearly 25 years ago, Monson Fruit is dedicated to ensuring both global and domestic deliveries of only the highest quality produce throughout the year.

Monson Fruit was one of the first packhouses in the world to receive Hectre’s Spectre Top Down technology and is now gaining massive volumes of fruit size data, detecting and sizing up to 5,000 apples per truck as they arrive at Monson’s receiving sites.

During the 2022 US apple season, Monson Fruit claimed the record for the most number of trucks scanned and apples sized in one day with 43 trucks and more than 103,000 apples sized!

We sat down with Operations Manager Rudy Gout and Master Controller Jaritt Hays to discuss how Spectre Top Down has supported Monson Fruit’s success during the recent 2022 US apple harvest.

Why did you decide to get Spectre Top Down?

We are always looking to continue to grow and for ways to speed up the receiving process. Prior to implementing Spectre Top Down, like most packhouses, we had a very cumbersome, time-consuming process, requiring a lot of employees at a very high cost. Spectre Top Down offered a much speedier and efficient process, with larger sample sizes and incredibly accurate results.

The proof is in the pudding. Spectre is accurate and fast, and the data is easy to access.

I was very skeptical when Spectre Top Down was first brought to my attention by our field team. How do you just take a picture of the top of the bin and get accurate results? I didn’t think it was possible. I have been very pleasantly surprised. The proof is in the pudding. Spectre is accurate and fast, and the data is easy to access. I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen and how it has helped with the scheduling process.

Early Fruit Sizing Yields Higher Returns

Fruit size is a factor for all areas of the business, especially production, with the production flow being a crucial part of our business model. We have to keep the production line moving as efficiently as possible. Understanding the size of every lot coming in helps us plan and yield higher FOBs (the return on packs per bin).

Understanding the size of every lot coming in helps us plan and yield higher FOBs (the return on packs per bin).

Size can also make a significant difference for growers. For example, if they have small fruit, three or four months from now, it will be worth a lot more money. If we know that it is smaller fruit, we can put it in a long-term CA (controlled atmosphere) room and save it for when it will yield a higher return on the pack per bin and gain a higher return for the grower.

Before Spectre Top Down

Before Spectre Top Down, we relied on people in the field and the receiving docks to size the apples with sizing rings and calipers. People would also estimate – this seems like an 88 or a 138. Obviously, that’s not very accurate or efficient, and they are handling the fruit, which isn’t ideal.

It was time-consuming and not always accurate.

Previously, for every 60-bin truckload, we would aim to sample maybe 50 apples per truck. It was time-consuming and trucks would get skipped due to the pace we needed to keep.

Spectre Top Down gives us a lot more data, from a lot more apples, without having to handle the fruit, and it’s ten times faster.

Spectre gives us a lot more data, from a lot more apples, without having to handle the fruit, and it’s ten times faster.

Easy to Use and Implement

We found Spectre Top Down very easy to use. You have the dashboard with the day, variety, and the truck – which can be labeled any number you like. Hectre also assigns a group ID, which is very useful for our in-house tracking. All you need to do is select the lot number and variety and hit record when the truck passes under the camera. The Spectre app does the rest.

In the beginning, it was a little daunting for some of our people who have been here a few years and are used to the old system. However, implementing new tools, especially technology, just takes a bit of time to get used to. Our team did a phenomenal job getting up to speed, and the support from Hectre has been fantastic.

Better Decisions For A More Efficient Pack

With Spectre Top Down, we can decide right off the bat where we will allocate the fruit. Having certainty around allocation means we can keep the packline running with fewer stops and starts. It also avoids having 100 people standing around waiting for decisions or changes to be made, which is not very cost-efficient.

The optimum size and the optimum color give the optimum return, which provides the greatest return for the grower and that’s what we’re focused on. With Spectre Top Down, we can be consistent with the lot sizes that are hitting the line and schedule appropriately.

We can also avoid situations where the sales team has made commitments only to discover the fruit we actually have, is too small or large. In those situations, we have to hold the fruit until it gets repacked, which decreases returns for everyone.

Spectre provides me with a breakdown of the percentage of each individual size in a particular bin, which saves me time every week.

Results that Pay for Themselves

Having Spectre Top Down is a no-brainer. We can easily see that within a short period of time, the return on investment means it will pay for itself.

We can easily see that within a short period of time, the return on investment means it will pay for itself.

The data that we’ve collected this year has been amazing and has definitely helped us to make decisions that would have otherwise been harder. It has been a low crop yield year in the industry, but with Spectre Top Down’s size and color data, we’ve been able to hold fruit back until we see higher prices in the market.

How does it feel to hold the record for the most number of trucks and apples scanned in one day by Spectre Top Down?

Forty-three trucks, 103,000 thousand apples in one day is absolutely fantastic. It would usually take a full team of 10 people a week to manually size the volume of apples we now get from Spectre Top Down. It’s an amazing number!