Interview Extract
Magazine: Agriflortec
Interviewee: Marco Orlandelli
Question Marco, Organizzazione Orlandelli has worked in the sector for over forty years. Why did you decide to invest in SYNKRO?
Marco Orlandelli "Our company has always lived the operational dynamics of the floriculture supply chain. In this sector, the trolley is the tool that allows plants to travel protected from the producer to the store. It is a fundamental logistical element, but it is often underestimated. In reality, the trolley is a true corporate asset: it has economic value and represents an important part of a company's logistical capital. Many companies only realize its importance at two specific moments: when they suddenly run out of trolleys, or when the credit of trolleys circulating among customers and transporters reaches very high values.
This is why we decided to support SYNKRO. It’s not simply about investing in the development of an App, but about supporting an innovative startup that wants to tackle a structural problem in the chain: the management of the 'give and take' accounting of trolleys. If we manage to improve this process, it benefits not just a single company, but the entire sector."
Question Where does the problem in trolley management originate?
Marco Orlandelli "The trolley itself is a very simple object: a base, four posts, and shelves. The complexity arises when companies have to manage the exchange of trolleys along the supply chain. Let’s look at a concrete example. A company might send a shipment of plants—for instance, 20 trolleys of cyclamens with four shelves per trolley. A transporter arrives, loads the plants along with the trolleys, and takes them to their destination, such as a garden center. At the moment of delivery, a so-called 'exchange' should take place: the transporter should collect the same number of disassembled trolleys as a return. When this doesn't happen—and it happens very often—they proceed with a paper voucher that records the difference between the trolleys delivered and those returned. In practice, a debit or credit position is created between the companies. The problem is that over time, these paper vouchers accumulate, get lost, or become difficult to interpret. They are often signed quickly during loading and unloading operations and carry illegible signatures that are hard to trace back to a specific person. It can also happen that the transporter does not return the received trolleys or only returns a portion of them In the end, months later, it becomes extremely difficult to accurately reconstruct the real situation. For this reason, calling it 'trolley management' today is almost a euphemism: in practice, it often generates great confusion, and it is not uncommon to see strong friction between companies specifically over these counts."
Question In this context, you talk about transforming the paper voucher into a digital voucher. What does this mean in practice?
Marco Orlandelli "Today, the exchange of trolleys is mainly recorded via paper vouchers. The SYNKRO App does nothing more than transform this same voucher into a digital one, thus maintaining the same operational logic but leveraging all the advantages of digitalization. Every step is recorded in the system and becomes part of a true 'chain of custody' for the trolley—a clear and verifiable sequence of all the exchanges that occur between companies in the supply chain. This allows every logistical step to be certified simply and unequivocally. The benefits of digitalization are significant. On one hand, there is greater data security, because information no longer depends on paper documents that are easily lost or difficult to interpret. On the other hand, there is a sharp reduction in the time required to manage trolley accounting, as information is immediately available and shared between parties."
Question So the goal is not just technological.
Marco Orlandelli "Exactly. The goal is not simply to introduce a new App. The interest lies in the sector progressively adopting a common system to manage the debit and credit of all types of trolleys. When every company uses different methods to record exchanges, the risk of errors and misunderstandings increases. When, instead, there is a shared language and a clear recording of steps, everything becomes simpler. This is why we believe that investing in the development of a tool like SYNKRO can bring concrete benefits to the entire supply chain."
Question What kind of change does this require from the sector?
Marco Orlandelli "I believe the first step is recognizing the logistical value of trolleys. They are not just a support for transporting plants, but a work tool that continuously circulates between different companies. Managing them in a more structured way means protecting an asset that belongs to the supply chain. Digitalization can help in exactly this: making the management of an element that is essential for the system to function—even if often taken for granted—simpler, more transparent, and less prone to conflict."
MORE INFO: Synkro