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Food Logistics
TRACK AND TRACE:
ENHANCING VISIBILITY AND QUALITY THROUGHOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN
The Food Logistics Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award profiles people in our industry whose hard work and vision are driving the global food and beverage supply chain forward. Represented on the list are industry veterans and newcomers; corporate executives and entrepreneurs; and those with backgrounds in academia, agriculture and related industries. Congratulations to these deserving champions!
7
™
®
Global Supply Chain Solutions for the Food and Beverage Industry
CHECK OUT THE FOOD LOGISTICS
2017 CHAMPIONS
7
SCOTT CARTER National DCP LLC
JOE CURRY Universal Lumpers/ American Lumping Association
KATIE CURRY Zipline Logistics
™
PARIS GOGOS NeoGrid
PLUG IN TO FUTURE FOOD CONNECTIONS
ROB NEMETH Allied Distribution Services LLC
RICK HASSLER Nature’s Frequencies
SANDEEP PATEL Veridian Solutions
TONY VLAHOS NECS Inc.
USING THE IOT CAN REDUCE FOOD LOSS AND MAKE FOOD SAFER TO EAT
Issue No. 184 March 2017 FoodLogistics.com
MITCH WESELEY 3Gtms
RICK ZAFFARANO Transportation Insight
BECAUSE TH UPSIDE TO D INTRODUCING THE FORD
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ON THE MENU
OCTOBER 2015 ISSUE NO. 171
ON THE MENU
March 2017 ISSUE NO. 184 COLUMNS FOR STARTERS
A One-Two Punch Hits Farm Exports
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Agricultural exports are a consistent bright spot for U.S. foreign trade, but the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was an unexpected hit to the industry. COOL INSIGHTS
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COVER STORY
Plugging in to Future Food Connections
Greater use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the food and beverage industry will reduce food loss and make food safer to eat.
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Annual conference reveals opportunities surrounding waste in the global food supply chain. FOOD (AND MORE) FOR THOUGHT
SECTOR REPORTS
22
WAREHOUSING
38
52
A dding Flexibility to the Cold Chain
Cold storage operators gravitate toward automation and smaller facilities to stay nimble and control costs. TRANSPORTATION
FEATURES
THIRD-PARTY & REFRIGERATED LOGISTICS
22
Enhancing Visibility and Quality throughout the Food Supply Chain
The Food Safety Modernization Act, consumer demands and other pressures are helping to evolve tracking and tracing. SPECIAL REPORT
28
7
™
F ood Logistics’ Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain
The annual list observes influential individuals in the food and beverage industry who are helping shape the global supply chain.
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T he Outlook for Air Cargo Remains Up in the Air
SOFTWARE & TECHNOLOGY
Telematics enable a connected food and beverage logistics network that can improve fleet management, enhance safety and facilitate regulatory compliance.
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S eaLand, Port Hueneme Partner on Perishables
Containerized service targets fresh fruit and other agricultural goods.
In the midst of a digital transformation, the manufacturing industry continues to evolve to find better and faster ways to push products out the door.
08 12 51
T he Connected Fleet
OCEAN CARRIERS & PORTS
T ime’s Up; Pencils Down—Are You Ready for Industry 4.0?
DEPARTMENTS
As food and beverage transporters vie for a spot at the top, the air cargo sector looks toward collaboration.
44
W orld Cold Chain Summit Reveals Opportunities amidst Challenges
Supply Scan Food on the Move Ad Index
WEB EXCLUSIVES
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• Food and Beverage Distributors Are Ripe for Business Transformation foodlogistics.com/12309612
• How to Optimize Fuel Supply for Food Distribution Companies foodlogistics.com/12308191
• Food Logistics’ Educational Webinar Series foodlogistics.com/webinars
Published and copyrighted 2017 by AC Business Media Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Food Logistics (USPS 015-667; ISSN 1094-7450 print; ISSN 1930-7527 online) is published 10 times per year in January/February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November/December by AC Business Media Inc., 201 N. Main Street, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Food Logistics, P.O. Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605. Canada Post PM40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Food Logistics, Station A, P. O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Subscriptions: U.S., one year, $45; two years, $85; Canada & Mexico, one year, $65; two years, $120; international, one year, $95; two years, $180. All subscriptions must be paid in U.S. funds, drawn from a U.S. bank. Printed in the USA.
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FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017
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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Photo Credit: www.emaze.com
A ONE-TWO PUNCH HITS FARM EXPORTS A BY LARA L. SOWINSKI
SOWINSKI
EACH DOLLAR OF
AGRICULTURAL
EXPORTS STIMULATE
$1.27
IN BUSINESS ACTIVITY.
6
gricultural exports are a constant bright spot for U.S. foreign trade. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Economic Research Service estimates that each dollar of agricultural exports stimulates another $1.27 in business activity; that adds up when you consider, in 2015, the $133.1 billion in agricultural goods exported from the U.S. produced an additional $169.4 billion in economic activity for a total economic output of $302.5 billion. Though it was expected, the Trump administration’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on January 23 was a hard hit to American agricultural exporters. Ron Moore, an Illinois farmer and American Soybean Association president, said in a statement, “We’re very disappointed to see the withdrawal today. Trade is something farmers take very seriously.” Tracy Brunner, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, echoed those sentiments. “[The] TPP and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have long been convenient political punching bags, but the reality is that foreign trade has been one of the greatest success stories in the long history of the U.S. beef industry.” He added, “The fact is American cattle producers are already losing out on $400,000 in sales every day because we don’t have TPP and, since NAFTA was implemented, exports of American-produced beef to Mexico grew by more than 750 percent.” Brunner explained that
FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017
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cattle producers are “especially concerned that the administration is taking these actions without any meaningful alternatives in place that would compensate for the tremendous loss that cattle producers will face without TPP or NAFTA.” The second hit to American farmers is the Trump administration’s still unfolding immigration policy. Given California’s prominent contribution to the U.S. agricultural sector and heavy reliance on migrant workers, there is plenty of news on this topic in the Los Angeles Times, and as a subscriber, I monitor the paper’s coverage regularly. It’s striking just how worried farmers are right now, and some are already feeling the effects as fear and rumors grow in migrant communities statewide. The bottom line is this: Picking crops is backbreaking work, and being bent over for hours in the hot sun or cold rain, all while exposed to pesticides, and doing it for low pay, makes it nearly impossible to find people other than migrants who will do the work. I’m certainly not opposed to ongoing and thoughtful evaluation of U.S. trade and immigration policy, and believe there are aspects of both that are ripe for change. However, if there is one lesson from globalization, it is this: Economies and supply chains today are highly integrated and complex. True ecosystems. Therefore, a single change and the resulting effect aren’t isolated; it affects the whole. Enjoy the read.
LARA L. SOWINSKI, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR LSOWINSKI@ACBUSINESSMEDIA.COM
Published by AC BUSINESS MEDIA INC. 201 N. Main Street, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 (800) 538-5544 • www.ACBusinessMedia.com
WWW.FOODLOGISTICS.COM PRINT AND DIGITAL STAFF Group Publisher Jolene Gulley Associate Publisher Judy Welp Editorial Director Lara L. Sowinski lsowinski@ACBusinessMedia.com Editor Ronnie Garrett rgarrett@ACBusinessMedia.com Managing Editor Carrie Mantey cmantey@ACBusinessMedia.com Assistant Editor Amy Wunderlin awunderlin@ACBusinessMedia.com Senior Production Manager Cindy Rusch crusch@ACBusinessMedia.com Creative Director Kirsten Crock Sr. Audience Development Manager Wendy Chady Audience Development Manager Angela Kelty ADVERTISING SALES (800) 538-5544 Associate Publisher (East Coast) Judy Welp (480) 821-1093 jwelp@ACBusinessMedia.com Sales Manager (Midwest and West Coast) Carrie Konopacki (920) 542-1236 ckonopacki@ACBusinessMedia.com National Automotive Sales Tom Lutzke (630) 484-8040, tlutzke@ACBusinessMedia.com EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jaymie Forrest, Chief Supply Chain and Commercial Officer, ScanTech Sciences Inc. John Haggerty, Vice President of Business Development, Burris Logistics Robert A. Norton, Ph.D., Professor of Veterinary Microbiology, Public Health and Biosecurity, Auburn University; Coordinator of National Security Initiatives, The Futures Laboratory Jon Shaw, Director of Sustainability and Global Marketing Communications, UTC Climate, Controls & Security Smitha G. Stansbury, Partner, FDA & Life Sciences Practice, King & Spalding CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS P.O. Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605 (877) 201-3915, Fax: (800) 543-5055 circ.FoodLogistics@omeda.com LIST RENTAL Elizabeth Jackson, Merit Direct LLC (847) 492-1350, ext. 18; Fax: (847) 492-0085 ejackson@meritdirect.com REPRINT SERVICES Carrie Konopacki (920) 542-1236 Fax: (920) 542-1133 ckonopacki@ACBusinessMedia.com AC BUSINESS MEDIA INC. Chairman Anil Narang President and CEO Carl Wistreich Executive Vice President Kris Flitcroft CFO JoAnn Breuchel Vice President of Content Greg Udelhofen Vice President of Marketing Debbie George Digital Operations Manager Nick Raether Digital Sales Manager Monique Terrazas Published and copyrighted 2017 by AC Business Media Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
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SUPPLY SCAN
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN Daily Updates at FoodLogistics.com
AGRI-TECH STARTUP REVOLUTIONIZES PRODUCTION OF DISTILLERS GRAIN
Platte Valley Distillers, a Nebraska-based agri-tech startup, is revolutionizing the production of distillers grain, a livestock feed product in ample supply in the Midwest, with a technology process that compacts the flour-like grain, so it becomes easier to handle and transport, and lasts longer. Distillers grain is an agricultural byproduct of ethanol and grain production used by cattle feeders because it is rich in protein. In bulk form, it is hard to handle and spoils easily. The technology turns the grain into a feed cube and pellet products for livestock. Platte Valley Distillers is sharing its patented technology with other plants to help expand the international export market and lessen pressure on commodities markets in Nebraska.
CDC SAYS RISING FOODBORNE ILLNESSES ASSOCIATED WITH IMPORTED FOODS
GROCERY INDUSTRY GROUPS TAKE STEPS TO STANDARDIZE SELL-BY LABELS
The Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association adopted standardized, voluntary regulations to clear up confusion over sell-by labels. Currently, there are 10 different label phrases, but manufacturers will be encouraged to use only two: use by and best if used by. The former is used to indicate when perishable foods are no longer good, while best if used by is a quality descriptor—a subjective guess of when the manufacturer thinks the product should be consumed for optimum flavor. One industry survey found that 91 percent of consumers mistakenly threw away expired food when the label merely suggested it should be consumed by a certain date. The two industry groups are urging manufacturers to adopt the voluntary regulations immediately, even though they have until 2018. Even then, the voluntary standards mean there may be some companies that opt not to follow the regulations.
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FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says more Americans are getting sick from imported foods, particularly fish and produce. About 19 percent of the food consumed by Americans is imported, including approximately 97 percent of fish and shellfish, 50 percent of fresh fruit and 20 percent of fresh vegetables. While most imported foods are from countries under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) jurisdiction, only a tiny percentage of food imports are inspected when they enter the U.S. However, researchers with the CDC say that “new rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) … will help strengthen the safety of imported foods by granting the FDA enhanced authorities to require that imported foods meet the same safety standards as foods produced domestically.”
CONSUMERS WILLING TO PAY MORE FOR MEAL KITS AND FOOD DELIVERY
A report from Lux Research shows consumers are willing to pay 11 percent more for the convenience of meal kits, UberEATS and other services that bring food to their homes. Matt Salzberg, the founder and CEO of Blue Apron, told CNBC in a recent interview that “every other retail category has been disrupted by e-commerce, and the same is now happening with food. It’s interesting to see all of this innovation happening.”
MEAL KIT STATISTICS TO MUNCH ON …
MORE THAN
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GLOBALLY.
MEAL KIT SERVICES GENERATED ABOUT
$1.5
BILLION IN GLOBAL SALES
IN 2016.
U.S. IS 40%
OF MEAL KIT MARKET. THE AVERAGE MEAL KIT DINNER COSTS BETWEEN
$8 AND $12 PER PERSON.
AVERAGE MEAL PREP AND COOK TIME IS
30 MINUTES TO AN HOUR.
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SUPPLY SCAN
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN Daily Updates at FoodLogistics.com
CHINA TO PURSUE MORE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
China’s release of its first policy statement of the year in February signaled that Beijing would pursue more sustainable agricultural policies. Part of that effort includes pushing organic products by promoting favorable taxes for startups in rural areas and the creation of innovation centers to help support the production of high-quality farm produce. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also is reported to be working with China to help its farming sector improve resilience in the face of climate change, especially for poor farmers in high-risk areas. In an interview with Modern Farmer, Vincent Martin, the FAO representative for China, said: “Reducing pollution, lowering carbon emissions and conserving water is key to maintain and sustain the food and nutrition security of the Chinese people, especially in the context of increasing population, rapid urbanization and rather limited natural resources per capita. Meanwhile, this will definitely be for the international common good when it comes to global agricultural trade and global carbon governance, in particular.”
VERTICAL FARMING STARTUP SOWS ITS SEEDS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Plenty United, a startup in southern San Francisco, California, is embarking on a plan to grow leafy greens and herbs in a 51,000-square-foot renovated warehouse that will rely on vertical farming techniques to potentially grow 3 million pounds of fresh produce, annually. The startup says it can lower costs by farming in large warehouses on cheap land outside of city centers. In addition, computers and machine learning will make decisions on how to optimize growing, based on light, humidity and temperature data collected by sensors. Plenty United says it eventually could produce more than 150 times as much lettuce per square foot a year as an outdoor farm and do it with 1 percent of the water.
QPS TEAMS WITH RISKPULSE TO IMPROVE COLD CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Q Products & Services (QPS) is partnering with Riskpulse to improve cold chain management with predictive analytics to help make better decisions regarding weather, and when to apply passive thermal protection to reduce risk and protect temperature-sensitive shipments. In addition, the QPS and Riskpulse partnership gives customers the ability to reduce unnecessary freight spending, and avoid losses caused by seasonal and extreme weather risk.
WILL THE U.K. ACCEPT CHLORINATED CHICKEN FROM THE U.S.?
A potential trade agreement between the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the United States may be distasteful to British consumers if the deal opens up the U.K. to beef from cattle implemented with growth hormones, chlorine-washed chicken and unlabeled genetically modified (GM) foods. Europe banned the import of these controversial foods, but U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is evasive on whether the ban would continue under a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. Meanwhile, in a report in The Guardian, Bob Young, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, was more forceful in his assertion that any trade deal would include access to the U.K. market for these foods.
10
FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017
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FOOD ON THE MOVE
LOGISTICS TRENDS IN OUR INDUSTRY
UP ACQUIRES RAILEX
Union Pacific Railroad (UP) announced the acquisition of Railex LLC’s refrigerated and cold storage distribution assets in Delano, California; Wallula, Washington; and Rotterdam, New York, in January. The deal does not include Railex Wine Services LLC. Railex, a refrigerated rail service and 3PL provider, plays a role in UP’s food network, transporting fruits, vegetables and other temperature-sensitive shipments across the U.S. “The Railex team developed a fantastic business that changed how fresh food arrives on America’s tables, offering food shippers fast, reliable door-to-door-based transportation solutions,” said Brad Thrasher, vice president and general manager of agricultural products, UP. “The integration of its highly efficient cross-dock facilities and logistics capabilities into UP’s broader food network allows us to offer our customers increased access to a wider range of capacity and service solutions in a rail-centric cold chain.” UP Food Trains directly serve Railex’s Delano and Wallula facilities. The Food Train network then provides service from these growing regions to the Midwest and into the Northeast via CSX.
NEW COLD CHAIN FACILITY PLANNED FOR DFW
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is building a 37,000-square-foot cold chain facility, which is due to open this summer. The facility will support temperature-controlled shipments of fresh food, pharmaceuticals and flowers, an area of tremendous growth for domestic and international cargo customers, says John Ackerman, an executive vice president at DFW.
RANDALL TEMP CONTROL INTRODUCES PULL-DOWN TRAILER CURTAIN
Randall Temp Control introduced a new pull-down trailer curtain with a retractable design, which helps foodservice and grocery distributors improve temperature control at the rear and side doors of the trailer. Fred Jevaney, president of Randall Temp Control, said, “Today’s demands on the supply chain with the enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) are driving temperature control innovation and agility. We are designing and manufacturing new products that leverage our temperature control experience to help minimize risk, reduce energy costs and protect perishable inventory.”
OTTO SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES NOT ONE AND THE SAME
An article, “The Future of Self-Driving Vehicles,” in the January/February issue of Food Logistics inaccurately depicted OTTO Motors and Otto as a joint company. OTTO Motors, a division of Clearpath Robotics, focuses on self-driving materials-handling vehicles, while Otto, which was acquired by Uber in August 2016, specializes in autonomous systems that can be retrofitted and installed on existing vehicles. Though both important when discussing the future of self-driving vehicles, the two companies are in no way connected. The editors of Food Logistics regret the error and apologize for any confusion in regard to the earlier story.
DAT SOLUTIONS’ MONTHLY FREIGHT REPORT
Truckload Rates on the Rise? By Mark Montague Mark Montague is an industry rate analyst for DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT network of load boards and RateView rate analysis tool. He has applied his expertise to logistics, rates and routing for more than 30 years. He is based in Portland, Oregon. For more information, please visit www.dat.com.
12
While we’re starting 2017 in a seasonal slowdown, spot market volumes are higher than usual in some places for this time of year. In fact, the January 2017 DAT Freight Index closed near January 2014 levels, when “snowmageddon” and revised hoursof-service rules propelled spot freight volume and rates to new records, and January 2015, when activity was coming off exceptional highs in 2014. The spot van load-to-truck ratio was up 76 percent year over year and the reefer ratio was up 62 percent. Yet compared to January 2016, the national average spot van rate was just 1.3 percent higher (at $1.68 per mile) and the reefer rate was up
FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017
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3.2 percent ($1.96). Why didn’t rates keep pace with volume? The strength of the spot market attracted more trucks from contract carriers, and the extra capacity has tamped down rates on a lot of high-traffic van and reefer lanes. By mid-February, with spot rates on a typical decline, contract van rates firmed up to the point where there was roughly a 25-cent difference between the national average spot and contract line-haul rates. Contract and spot reefer rates were separated by 17 cents. A growing gap between spot and contract rates suggests that the beat-down many large contract carriers felt in the middle of last year—as shippers took
advantage of a capacity glut—appears to have abated. In the meantime, spot market volumes are still solid with spring produce to come, a sign that capacity may tighten. Are higher rates on the way? Stay tuned.
www.foodlogistics.com
3/3/17 12:04 PM
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3/3/17 12:04 PM
COOL INSIGHTS
BY STEVEN M. FINN
WORLD COLD CHAIN SUMMIT REVEALS
OPPORTUNITIES AMIDST CHALLENGES
I
FINN
Steven M. Finn is co-founder and managing director of ResponsEcology USA (www.responsecology.com), an environmental consultancy facilitating strategic initiatives in the pursuit of sustainability excellence. His blog can be found at www. foodforthoughtfulaction.com.
14
n December, I joined colleagues from around the world in Singapore for Carrier’s (part of United Technologies Corporation or UTC) third annual World Cold Chain Summit to reduce global food loss and waste. Refrigeration has a huge role to play in preserving food, particularly in less developed countries, and Carrier is playing a key role in driving the conversation on the need to reduce loss and waste along the global food supply chain. It’s a critical challenge that has significant social, environmental, financial and security implications. It’s also a monumental opportunity. The 2016 summit convened 163 multi-disciplinary delegates from 36 countries, all with an interest in addressing the challenge of reducing global food waste. David Appel, Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems president, outlined Carrier’s role in preserving and protecting the world’s food supply from harvest to consumer. A key theme in this space is innovation, and Appel highlighted Carrier’s investments in digital and wireless technologies that allow the company to track the temperature and geo-location of more than 10 million customer shipments annually (and, importantly, to predict failures before they occur). He also detailed Carrier’s work in engineless technology and natural refrigerants—important innovations to reduce the emissions impact of the
FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017
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cold chain in the future. John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer at UTC, followed with an overview of global food loss and waste, noting that, while the world currently produces enough food to feed 10 billion global citizens, we are only feeding 6 of 7 billion. At the same time, we waste 40 to 50 percent of our food (about 1.3 billion metric tons of food annually). That coexistence of hunger and excessive waste makes no sense, prompting him to ask the compelling question: “Where else in society would we tolerate that level of waste?” He added that the global population would grow by 30 percent by 2050, with 70 percent living in cities. In other words, we continue to move further away from our food, and that presents additional logistics and storage challenges (and opportunities). Pointing to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) classification of food waste by type, Mandyck noted that refrigeration has the potential to reduce loss and waste among all of them. Furthermore, he mentioned the enormous environmental impact of food loss and waste in terms of emissions (3.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually)—pointing out that, if ranked as a country, food waste would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Those emissions not only are concerning from a climate change standpoint, but they also lead to an increase in ocean acidification and threaten global seafood stocks. Mandyck followed with two key points. First, less than 10 percent
of the perishable foods in the world are refrigerated today. Second, if we extend the current cold chain from developed countries to less developed countries, there is a 10-to-1 benefit in terms of carbon reduction. Clearly, there is an opportunity to bolster food security through cold chain advancements, while achieving environmental benefits. The second day of the summit began with a panel exploration of various cold chain ideas. Pankaj Mehta, country head and director of Carrier Transicold India, discussed the results of a pilot project to reduce fruit loss in India involving kinnow—a variety of mandarin orange. Mehta noted that, while India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, only 1 percent of that production is exported due to a lack of cold chain capabilities and much goes to waste—yet another statistic that screams opportunity for cold chain development. Comparing results for a specific farmer with 800 hectares, Mehta showed the benefits in terms of increased profit and reduced environmental impact from a shift to proper cold chain procedures. Eric Prieur, director of cold chain sustainability at Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems France, discussed the potential benefits of eco-labels and cold chain certification. He referenced the Forest Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council and the U.S. Green Building Council as existing programs that provide good models for proposed labeling and certification. Mandyck concluded the summit with a final motivational thought for attendees: We should continue to look at food loss and waste not as a challenge, but an opportunity. www.foodlogistics.com
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COVER STORY
BY RONNIE GARRETT
PLUG IN TO FUTURE FOOD CONNECTIONS The Internet of Things (IoT) will better connect the food and beverage industry to reduce food loss and make food safer to eat.
I “The IoT’s uses in the cold chain are a no-brainer. Companies are looking at how they can monitor the condition of their products within the supply chain in a way that can
minimize the risk of spoilage and loss.” Sanjay Sharma, Roambee Corporation
16
n the United States, food waste is estimated at 30 to 40 percent of the total food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service. The USDA responded to this by calling for a 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sees food safety as a prime issue. So much so that, on January 4, 2011, then-President Barack Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Action (FSMA), a ruling designed to shift focus from responding to food contamination to preventing it. And, 2017 is being hailed by some as the year of FSMA compliance, as many mandates set by this law must be met by year’s end. As those in the food industry race to meet these regulations and goals, it also might be the year of the Internet of Things (IoT) for an industry that traditionally lags behind other trades in its adoption of technology. Consumers already employ the IoT in their homes to turn on the lights and adjust the temperature, and in using high-tech appliances that alert them when they need milk or when the wash is dry. But the IoT has the power to transform more than just how people live, it also can enable the food and beverage industry to monitor shipments in real time to ensure products are always stored at the right temperature, and are fresh and safe for consumers.
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“The IoT provides a completely transformational set of capabilities and business models for companies that embrace it, think creatively, and understand the power of what connectivity and the resulting data can do for them,” says Neil Hampshire, chief information officer of ModusLink Global Solutions, a provider of supply chain management services.
The IOT’s Fast Fixes for Food LoadDelivered, a freight broker and logistics services provider, identifies ways the IoT might revolutionize the food industry in
an article titled, “Five Ways the IoT Impacts the Supply Chain.” They include: ① Farms. By using IoT sensors and drones, farmers can capture data on crop growth and livestock health, monitor weather patterns, control water and energy use, and use predictive analytics to better understand their operations. Will Yapp, vice president of business development for Senet, an IoT network provider, sees huge opportunity with irrigation. He explains that soil monitoring for irrigation purposes is very costly. “In the past, the only way to monitor the soil was to stick a $1,000 probe www.foodlogistics.com
3/7/17 8:45 AM
in the ground. Because of the expense, a farmer could only do this every five to 10 acres,” he says. “But with a $20 IoT sensor, a farmer can now put in hundreds of devices to better monitor the soil and manage yield. There is a tremendous return on investment (ROI) in that.” ② Warehouses and production facilities. In food warehouses and production facilities, the IoT can help tighten quality control, replenish inventory, monitor production and worker productivity, and better maintain production equipment. Dr. Achim Kruger, vice president of operational excellence solutions at SAP, stresses that, with the IoT, there is “a lot more information available from products or assets that can help [food and beverage manufacturers] make optimal decisions. The IoT is really about combining data from the business and the shop floor to make better business decisions.” The IoT also can help companies keep tabs on when their products leave the warehouse and their estimated time of arrival (ETA) for customers, states Sean Riley, global manufacturing and supply chain solutions director at Software AG, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions provider. When a third-party is transporting products and customers start calling to learn where their shipment is, using the IoT puts that information at the warehouse operator’s fingertips. ③ Food safety and recalls. The IoT can enable shippers to monitor food containers and trucks, and trigger alerts that head off spoilage or replace bad products before they reach customers. It also makes it easier to pinpoint contamination and spoilage to launch recalls. There even are emerging applications that enable shippers to better meet FSMA requirements. “The IoT’s uses in the cold chain are a no-brainer,” says Sanjay Sharma, CEO of Roambee Corporation, an IoT supply chain and enterprise asset visibility company. “Companies are looking at how to monitor the condition www.foodlogistics.com
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of their products within the supply chain in ways that can minimize the risk of spoilage and loss.” ④ Logistics. Here, companies can shift their approach from reactive to proactive. According to LoadDelivered, “advanced RFID tracking offers unparalleled visibility into the food supply chain, monitors and controls temperature, and automates shipping and delivery processes.” In addition, shippers can track product location with GPS, optimize routes and gauge fleet performance. Sharma sees shipment security as key for the IoT in regions of the country where shipments are routinely lost. High-value food and beverage shipments, like alcohol, are particularly at risk. “In California, a lot of dried fruits are getting stolen in transit or at checkpoints,” he says. Putting the IoT on these shipments lets shippers know where they are at all times while in transit. By leveraging telematics data in real time, food and beverage companies can continuously calculate ETAs and should there be a deviation, they can take action. They can reschedule a shipment’s arrival time or even schedule a second shipment via air to get products there on time when time is of the essence. “Your options for taking action are somewhat limited when you’re receiving data after the fact,” Riley says. ⑤ Consumer applications. Finally, consumers can have a better handle on the products they buy.
They will know how fresh the food they are buying is and how long it will last. With all of the potential applications, one would think that the use of the IoT would be more widespread across the food industry. But despite its utility, Riley says adoption is actually very low. He explains, “Food manufacturing, transportation and sales are not the highest margin businesses in the world, so investments in new technology have to be very vetted out with an ironclad ROI.” Sharma agrees, “This visibility requires an investment in infrastructure, regardless of whether it is in hardware, software or people, and infrastructure is not cheap.” However, Riley adds that food industry players can expect a clear-cut ROI in reduced overages, shortages and damages. “There will be a reduction in damages when products reach their destination and are unusable because they were maintained at the incorrect temperature,” he says. It is for this reason that Sharma predicts, in seven to 10 years, “all shipments, no matter how small or how valuable they are, are going to be real-time monitored.”
IOT Tech Trends Greater use of IoT data in the food industry is going to take time, education and
30%- 40%
of the total U.S. food supply is annually.
wasted
$161 billion was the cost of food loss in 2010.
50%
is the USDA’s
targeted reduction
in food waste by 2030.
Food waste is …
the single largest component going into landfills. MARCH 2017 | FOOD LOGISTICS
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COVER STORY continued
advance, trims that number to only those that require action. “Anybody can collect data, but how do technology, states Joe Scioscia, vice you take 5,000 alerts and bottle them up into five alerts that are president of sales at VAI, an ERP solutions provider. “We are very problematic?” asks Sharma. “This much at the tip of the iceberg,” he is something that requires a lot of says. “But I predict we are going to data mining, artificial intelligence see more use of the IoT in the years and machine learning. Just because to come.” a load’s temperature goes up 1 Riley states that, at minimum, degree doesn’t mean action needs food and beverage to be taken, but if it keeps going companies up, a few decisions may need to be need the made.” following IoT data from the Bee can help in terms of companies forecast better. If a technolocompany is shipping avocados from gy. “No. 1, South Africa to the United States, they need it’s important to monitor the carthe ability bon dioxide (CO2) being released by to ingest the produce to manage the ripening data fairly easily, process. Sharma states that, while which means they there are many sensors that promust have robust connectivvide this information, there needs ity to their partners [in the supply to be a dashboard that explains • Flexstr8’s chain],” he says. “The second tool what the readings mean. “Will the SmartLabel they need is continuous streaming avocados be ripe provides by the time they a complete analytics, which enables collecting reach their destitemperature data in real time and analyzing it to history for understand what it means. Finally, nation? Will they perishable they need a tool to aggregate the be under-ripe? goods. roof data, which allows them to run And what kind of short-term predictions fluidly and changes do you ions: 3.6” x 2.4” x 0.10” respond to them.” need to make in One technology poised to take transit so that rature Range: -20 oC to 50theoCIoT world by storm, especially the ripening in the food and beverage indusprocess is accuo cy: ± 0.5 C try, is Roambee’s Bee, which is a rate by the time portable wireless locator packed it reaches the fe: 2 yrs with a variety of sensors. This GSM grocery store?” tracker is essentially a mini circuit he asks. life: 1 yr + (depending on logging rate) board that houses a variety of senAnother IoT technology helping sors designed to monitor shock and the cold chain is Flexstr8’s Smarty: 10000 measurements. Nonvolatile: retrieve dataineven vibration, temperature, humidity, Label, which provides users with a tampering and more. The device complete temperature history of attery dies Your also has a global SIM within it that perishable goods. This disposable enables customers to monitor device is small enough to be inteerval: 5 s to 10 options h for their shipments locally, as well as grated into packaging and is an adunication: NFC (ISO 14443A) or 15693 globally. The device then collects vantage over current temperature taking loggers, which are “expensive, bulky action are this data in real time and connects ith Android App somewhat it to various back-end devices, such and have poor battery life,” reports Eric Casavant, head of product limited as an ERP solution from SAP. And development for Flexstr8 Inc. when you’re the system enables the company to This logger has a lifespan of one receiving set rules based on the data in order year and comes with a 28-kilobyte data after to take actionable intelligence. This technology takes 5,000 to memory that enables it to collect the fact.” 10,000 alerts about a shipment, 14,000 measurements. It has a temwith all Android devices Sean Riley, with NFC and then, using rules defined in perature sensor embedded inside Software AG
and uses near field communication (NFC), available on most mobile devices, to allow users to download temperature information. “Accurate temperature logging and time stamping allows detailed analysis across the increasingly complex cold chain supply,” says Ralph Roessler, president of Flexstr8 Inc. He reports that this enables companies to make corrections in real time and assign liability. “This device introduces transparency,” adds Howard Pakosh, who represents Flexstr8. “When a product arrives at its destination, workers can use their smartphones to scan and see that, three days ago, there was a temperature spike with this product, and the ripening process artificially accelerated because the truck driver left the reefer door open.” FreshSurety also has an IoT product set to change produce transport. Its Assured Freshness system was trialed with
ABEL SPECS
TURES
temperature compliance verification 18 FOOD LOGISTICS | MARCH 2017 emperature data with 1 button
• Roambee’s Bee contains
sensors that collect data on vibration and shock, temperature, humidity and more.
leading producers and grocery retailers, and employs the IoT to measure and report fresh produce’s quality and shelf life throughout the supply chain. This enables retailers to manage sourcing, inventory and merchandising based upon the actual shelf life of each pallet. Tom Schultz, FreshSurety CEO, says: “For the first time in history, producers and retailers will know the shelf life and value of every pallet anywhere in the supply chain. This information will reduce waste and improve quality.” The utility of this product can be readily seen with strawberries, which are only good for 16 days after picking, and with pitted fruits. The FreshSurety device has a www.foodlogistics.com
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COVER STORY
ONE SYSTEM BRINGS ORDER TO CHAOS, IMPROVES CASH FLOW
continued
sensor and analytics rules engine embedded within it that Jerry Robertson, chief technology officer, If there’s one lesson we saw reinforced over helps detect if a load and Gayle Robertson, president, founded and over when we ran our own truckload (TL) of strawberries is good BOLT System, a cloud-based fleet manand less-than-truckload (LTL) freight transor bad. agement and dispatch system developed portation company, it’s that onboard devices “If a load of strawspecifically for the Internet and trucking can either help bring order to chaos or chaos berries, for instance, is operations to enable food distributors to to order. maximize efficiencies while reducing costs. Several years ago, we started a software bad, you might only get For more information, please visit company that develops and operates a hosted 20 cents on the $1 for www.boltsystem.com. fleet management system. To develop the systhose strawberries. That is tem, we bought and ran a trucking company. a huge economic loss,” says This experience taught us that, with all of the Marc Rippen, chief sales officer of complexity and variability in running trucks, the interconnected Internet of Things (IoT) can potentially revolutionize a fleet’s operation, or wash FreshSurety. away its managers and owners in a data tsunami. That’s especially true The system prevents such losses when the freight is food. by using low-cost chemical sensors Our experience reinforced the necessity of electronic logging devices to to measure metabolites emitted help carriers and their drivers keep track of hours of service, and monitor by fresh produce as it ages. This vehicle diagnostics, alerting drivers and the maintenance shop when trucks need servicing. We saw firsthand how the devices help drivers information is transmitted to the capture images of proof-of-delivery documents, photographs of damage, cloud, where it is converted by prodsignatures and details about the load, and the pickup and delivery conuct-specific food spoilage algorithms ditions. We saw how dispatchers can keep track of shipments in transit, into a quantitative freshness score for and those being picked up or delivered. And we saw how shop and fleet individual cartons and pallets. managers can monitor information from vehicle telematics devices, and make critical operational decisions based on immediate alerts to operatThe system includes a light bar on ing conditions and potential issues with the trucks. each produce pallet that signals real-time The experience also taught us how difficult it can be for fleets to deterproduct quality and remaining shelf life. mine what is meaningful, and make accurate and timely decisions. We The device collects data every 10 minutes learned how a decision to bring in a truck to the shop might adversely imthroughout the life of each pallet, and pact a fleet’s ability to complete deliveries scheduled for that same truck later in the day. While it might be the right call, when such a decision is collects information on temperature, made without the involvement or awareness of the fleet’s dispatching humidity and pallet geolocation. operation, dispatchers are then hard-pressed to come up with options. “We can see information about the Distributors need fleet management systems that can aggregate key product from picking to the flat level. We information, including driver hours of service, truck miles, fuel consumed, can see the worker who picked it, and if etc., so everyone can examine the same data set and do their jobs more efficiently. Good fleet management systems can break information down the fruit was picked carefully or handled into complete route analysis, including route revenue and other costs, roughly. We can see the cold chain data such as fuel, lumpers and detention. With this analysis capability, food and how the temperature was maintained,” distributors can evaluate the elements of billing and driver settlement, says Rippen. and determine if changes can be made to improve efficiency and perhaps He adds, “This IoT solution combines even introduce greater automation. With the right fleet management system, drivers can provide shippers food science and electronics. The system and consignees invoices with load details and billing information, and measures at multiple points to deterdispatchers can collect driver pay elements, and generate reports for humine the trajectory of the food and helps man resources and billing at the time of delivery. They don’t have to wait companies make decisions on which food for driver-generated trip data or dispatchers to calculate mileage before must be sold first. It’s no longer a first-intheir bills can be faxed or emailed out. The right system can calculate address-to-address mileage, automatically generating the appropriate first-out policy, but a decision based on billable mileage. scientific data.” Fleet customers can review invoices at any time and consolidate them The IoT provides real-time visibility to one invoice delivered at the desired intervals. At the end of the week, into the food chain. “That visibility can all consolidated invoices can be reviewed and automatically transmitted be translated into actionable business via electronic data interchange (EDI) to the shippers. The right fleet management system can deliver accurate invoices for information,” says Sharma. “The IoT makes improved billing and payroll processing. That’s especially important things work smarter, and makes them to distributors with round-the-clock operations like Salisbury, North more transparent and more collaborative.” Carolina-based Sharp Transit, which saw the time it takes to get paid The benefit, he adds, is greater food by shippers reduced from 30 days to as little as seven with its new fleet safety and security, and reduced food management system. waste.
20
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3PL/REFRIDGERATED LOGISTICS
BY MARY SHACKLETT
ENHANCING VISIBILITY AND QUALITY
THROUGHOUT THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility
The FSMA, consumer demands and other pressures are helping evolve track and trace capabilities.
22
W
hen the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama in January 2011, it was the most sweeping reform of food safety laws in more than 70 years. However, for restaurants, food retailers, food transporters and warehouse distributors, other forces, besides the FSMA, are at work to ensure food chain safety and visibility from farm to fork. “Increasingly, food brands want to strategically leverage information from the food supply chain,” says Katy Jones, chief marketing officer of FoodLogiQ, a software as a service provider of food safety, traceability and supply chain transparency solutions. “Their end customers want to know what country the tomatoes in their salad came from, and whether or not the ingredients in their food contain certain allergens. Consumers are also interested in the country of origin, because they want to purchase food from countries with ethical labor practices. A track and trace capability enables brands to give this information to their consumers.”
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Companies also want to closely monitor food quality and safety throughout their supply chains. “Restaurant brands are a prime example of this,” says Jones. “Trying to monitor and track food safety and quality issues across all of your locations is difficult to do without a robust system, and sophisticated brands are ditching their manual, time-consuming processes
and implementing supplier management software to get complete visibility in their supply chains.” The answer for many has been a supply chain system that can give end-to-end visibility through “a single pane of glass,” reducing the person-hours formerly spent on manually monitoring food safety. The automation provided by today’s supply chain software has the ability to deliver this kind of endto-end visibility, and consequently, enables companies to focus more
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proactively on compliance and on audits of their food supply chain suppliers instead of on manually tracking food safety and quality issues. “This makes food supply chain management more efficient, and also contributes to companies’ return on investment (ROI) in the technology,” says Jones, who added that while no one wants to face the adverse publicity and the expense of a food recall, brand damage can be significantly limited if a company can reduce the duration of an incident from weeks to days because of earlier incident detection and ability to respond. “There’s no doubt that companies understand that their brands are always at stake when goods are sourced and shipped,” says Kirk Steinhoff, an owner and operator of ClimaTrack, which provides cold chain management solutions. “Inside distribution facilities and
warehouses, temperatures for perishable goods can be monitored and regulated, but this visibility gets lost once the goods are loaded and transported. There is a general assumption that everything remains OK, but the only way to really know is through sensor-based monitoring coming from the transport vehicles in the cold chain.” ClimaTrack’s real-time barcode and sensor data are compared to food storage requirements profile data stored on a central supply chain network. If there is a variance, an alert is issued. “We can do this operation without having to place sensors on every single pallet,” says Steinhoff. “This is a savings to transporters, because to put a data logger or sensor that can only be used one time on each pallet, you can incur a cost of $10 to $20 per sensor. With our solution, a trailer can be equipped with four sensors placed at the front, back and sides of the trailer. These sensors give true representations of the cycling of coolant throughout the trailer, and can immediately detect aberrations in temperature.”
Conforming to FSMA Collecting data from sensors and consolidating it on a central network also enables more effective tracking of food shipments that regulations like FSMA
• By using cloud-based technology,
FoodLogiQ solutions allow customers to manage and monitor their supply chains via a supplier dashboard.
www.foodlogistics.com
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• DeltaTrak’s FlashLink VU data
logger works well to record the storage and transport conditions of temperature-sensitive products.
require—and that end consumers of food also want to know. “Retailers are taking new measures to monitor incoming goods for quality, and I also anticipate that companies will perform more audits of imported goods,” says Fred Wu, president and CEO of Deltatrak, which manufactures and sells cold chain data collection instruments and software that provides real time and recorded environmental temperature and humidity conditions during transit of perishable commodities. It’s a good thing because actual FSMA enforcement is low—and levels of enforcement are not likely to change with the new administration in Washington. “People want to comply with FSMA because it makes sense, but it continues to be a problem of not having enough inspectors out in the field,” says Steinhoff. Regardless of how FSMA regulations and enforcement play out, companies still have work to do to ensure they get the end-to-end visibility they want. “One challenge in the cold chain in particular is that there are multiple players, and not all of these players have the same visibility of the supply chain,” says Wu. “If you own your own fleet, the process is easier—but a majority of companies employ third parties, so you have manufacturers, shippers, transporters, warehouses, MARCH 2017 | FOOD LOGISTICS
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3PL
continued
The key to success is
distribution centers and receivers at your retail stores. A central supply chain management network can plug all of these parties into a single supply chain where everyone gets end-to-end visibility.”
that make up the supply chain.”
tracking and tracing issues throughout the supply chain, but companies also have to know how to use this technology to their best advantage. “You have to be able to take the information that you get from your system and make it actionable,” says Brad Bartlett, senior director of sales for CoolTrax Americas, which provide real-time temperature monitoring across the cold chain. This means that technology and business processes have to be integrated so that at one end of the supply chain, a restaurant can tweet out to a customer where the lettuce in her salad came from, and at the other end of the supply chain, a company can quickly pinpoint a problem with contamination or inadequate refrigeration and intervene.
highquality data on the suppliers, locations Using Track and and Trace Technology products Technology can solve food Katy Jones, chief marketing officer, FoodLogiQ
“There are inherent challenges when it comes to achieving this end-to-end supply chain visibility,” adds Steinhoff. “One challenge companies using 3PLs (third party logistics providers) have is that the transporter needs some kind of cellular connection or gateway in the truck to transmit environmental sensor information to the company’s central network in real time while the vehicle is traveling. This is very expensive, and there is also risk that companies may not get the technology they lend out back. There are also dead spots along the roadways that do not enable continuous real-time transmissions from moving vehicles. Telecommunication companies have to work on the transmission problem— but for the cellular or gateway connections themselves, this is where Internet of Things (IoT) investments come in—and it is one criterion that many companies are now adding to their lists when they evaluate which 3PLS to use.” Steinhoff believes that one
day, Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) solutions will communicate with IoT towers along highways and emit very small messages that would be sufficient to transit food environmental status from moving vehicles. ClimaTrack already is working with these solutions. Regardless of how new technologies for the supply chain and food tracking trace evolve, the best news for companies of many different sizes is that supply chain and sensor-based track and trace technologies are becoming more affordable.
• Temperature indicator labels are a low-cost solution for auditing the supply chain.
“We work with all different size manufacturers, restaurants, retailers, distributors and growers, and our pricing structure allows companies to scale with the software as they grow,” says FoodLogiQ’s Jones. “We also recognize that many companies want to have the option of onboarding their suppliers onto their supply chains without the suppliers having to pay a fee.” Steinhoff advocates that companies focus on software, not hardware. “If a company only has to buy a sensor once and can continue to reuse it at a minimal fee without having to reinvest $10 to $20 per sensor each time, it can concentrate on tracking food transport throughout its supply chain with state-of-the-art software, and fine-tuning operations. This is where you get the full benefit.”
Onboarding New Track and Trace Capabilities What changes do companies need to make to their business processes when they introduce
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3PL
continued
You have to know where the problem occured
if you are going to avoid waste in the future.”
Fred Wu, president of Deltatrak
or add new supply chain and track and trace technology? “We can onboard a company’s suppliers all at once or in a phased approach, but the key to success is high-quality data on the suppliers, locations and products that make up the supply chain,” says Jones. “We work with companies to ensure that the data being brought into the system is accurate, and this is not always the same process for every company. For example, how one customer defines compliance for their suppliers can be different compared to another customer. Our software allows a tremendous amount of customization to capture the unique needs of the food supply chain.” Wu says that the IoT and many web-based applications have made it is easier to import data that uses common structures into a supply chain network, but like Jones, he
sees compliance requirements that change from company to company. “This is why it is very important for companies to define their SOP (standard operating procedures) agreements with the suppliers that they deal with, and what the expectations of those agreements are,” he adds. “It’s also important to note that the industry has done track and trace for many years, but the problem was that the information wasn’t necessarily visible to all parties,” Wu continues. “Without this visibility, it is very difficult to track so you can prevent something from happening, and this costs companies money. If a customer returns a head of lettuce to a retailer because it spoils, it is possible that its shelf life was reduced because it wasn’t properly refrigerated at the initial pre cool processing point even before it entered into the supply chain—but you have to know where the problem occurred if you are going to take
meaningful steps to avoid waste in the future.” Steinhoff believes companies must advance beyond tracking and tracing and into next stage predictive analytics that can better inform them about what operationally is going on. “As an example, you can review your historical data, which can tell you if a particular transporter or refrigeration unit had difficulty maintaining the environmental conditions for perishable food,” he says. “If you find that 80 percent of your alerts are coming from one refrigeration unit, you might need to replace that unit.”
Best Practices in Track and Trace What best practices can companies adopt to improve food track and trace and the overall performance of their supply chains? “The industry is just starting to identify best practices that will extend the usefulness of track and trace technology, but by visualizing
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the data that you get from track and trace, you can see how drivers are opening doors and delivering goods—and if this has an impact on food environmentals,” says Bartlett. “In the future, we may even see automation of trailer door opening and closing for optimal environmental protection.” A second concern that automatic door opening and closing could address is product theft, which can only occur if doors are left open for longer periods. Bartlett notes there also is a benefit for transporters when their retail customers try to send back goods that they say are spoiled. “In some cases, perishable goods are unloaded, and the receivers at the dock don’t reload them into refrigerated compartments right away,” he says. “If the goods spoil, the retailer insists that the transporter take the goods back, but with automated track and trace systems, transporters now have documentation on when they delivered the
OD Domestic offers:
goods. This places more pressure on receivers at retailers to unload in a timely manner.” Finally, many companies are cognizant that sensors placed on transport vehicles can fail. For this purpose, they generally include spare sensor units on the vehicles that drivers can easily change out. The combination of real-time food track and trace sensors and barcodes and end-to-end supply chain management helps food shippers, retailers and restaurants track food from farm to fork, and ensures that the food they serve or sell is of high quality and will serve their brands well. “Wherever problems manifest themselves in food supply chains, there are probably underlying issues,” says Wu. “The best way you can find these issues and solve them is to get total visibility of your supply chain. When you use a web-based supply chain data as a service (DAAS) platform, you should be able to customize it to
your needs, and it should be easy for your suppliers, receivers and service providers to use. It should add value instead of forcing you to change every business process, and it should be able to interface with your other systems, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).” Steinhoff adds: “Some people begrudgingly monitor their supply chains and have a false sense of security—but when something goes wrong, they’re glad to have the technology. The goal should always be to be proactive and to intercept food quality and safety issues before they turn into problems and publicity nightmares—because there is no price you can put on the value of your brand.”
Mary Shacklett is the president of Transworld Data, a technology analytics, market research and consulting firm.
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| FOOD LOGISTICS
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2017 CHAMPIONS
BY FOOD LOGISTICS EDITORS
7
ROCK STARS OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN
™
The third annual Food Logistics’ Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award recognizes influential individuals in our industry for their hard work, vision and leadership in shaping the global food supply chain. Those who made notable contributions in 2016 are listed below.
Bruce Bleikamp
Jackson Bilbrey
Bruce Bleikamp invests a tremendous amount of time and effort to understand customers’ businesses and is able to then apply his expertise to assist them in reaching their overall operational goals. By understanding the full flow of materials, where the products come from, how and where they are going, how the customers expect to receive them, as well as all the nuances of date codes, lots, freshness and traceability, he is able to recommend and implement successful systems in a wide range of environments and business situations.
Jackson Bilbrey, with the help of both peers and his team, was able to bring to life Brewers Edge, a solution set designed to improve the most critical areas of the craft beer industry, including increasing brand awareness, reaching customers, managing vendor relationships and controlling inventory. The combination of Bilbrey’s deep market experience, passion and product capabilities across the HighJump family created transformational value for the Brewers Edge customer base.
Sales Manager, Cimcorp
Vice President of Product Management, HighJump
Matthew Brosious CEO, FreightCenter
Matthew Brosious’ entrepreneurial mindset is the backbone behind FreightCenter’s core values and name, and his vast understanding of the freight industry, along with his savvy computer, technical and networking skills, are proving to be an invaluable asset to the company’s rapid success and growth. In 2016, Brosious implemented a new and refreshed logo, a mobilefriendly website, and new levels of managed logistics and transportation management system (TMS) features. Brosious declared 2017 to be the Year of the Customer, a testament to his devotion toward delivering quantifiable results to the customer.
Scott Carter
CEO and Executive Director, National DCP LLC (NDCP) Foodservice supply chain has been a lifelong passion for Scott Carter. His father owned a foodservice distribution company serving international brands and, rather than have a paper route or mow lawns, Carter’s first job at age 15 was working in a distribution center selecting cases for routing to stores. With more than 25 years of experience in business strategy, and supply chain innovation and management, Carter played a major role in helping NDCP evolve from five separate operating companies into a nationally unified cooperative. He began working with the organization in 2009 as a consultant, board member and interim CEO in order to transform the capabilities and performance of NDCP. He took the
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role of CEO again in 2013. Under his leadership, NDCP generated more than $340 million in cumulative savings for members, made significant improvements in service performance, and launched an unprecedented business and IT transformation—all of which were recognized with Partnership Gwinnett’s 2015 Supply Chain Pioneer Award for innovative supply chain management practices and a No. 28 ranking on the 2016 InformationWeek Elite 100 list. Under Carter’s leadership, NDCP served as the vital supply chain backbone needed to help Dunkin’ Brands open 400 new stores a year without sacrificing food quality and innovation. Perfect order metrics improved by more than 38 percent, while the company’s extensive distribution network
makes 650,000 deliveries of more than 75 million cases annually, driving more than 30 million miles. Leveraging leading enabling technology, Project Freshstart, NDCP’s significant technology and business process transformation initiative, was recognized at international conferences, and by leading influencers like Computerworld, SAPinsider and Gartner Inc. Moving forward, Carter sees a great opportunity to share NDCP’s model of providing the lowest sustained cost with other restaurant brands that don’t compete with Dunkin’ Brands, while providing further opportunity for its current members.
www.foodlogistics.com
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Katie Curry Senior Operations Executive and Hiring Manager, Zipline Logistics Since joining Zipline Logistics in January 2012, Katie Curry helped grow the company’s specialized food and beverage customer base, personally overseeing more than 18,550 customer shipments. She is a rock star because of the monumental solutions she implements for her customers’ supply chains, the partnerships she builds and the overall impacts she has on her employer. Most notably, Curry aided her largest customer, a global producer of snack foods, in a 2016 savings program that cut hundreds of thousands from its transportation expenses, while also improving service. With her hard work and supply chain savvy, the client is now able to meet deadlines, while also cutting costs and making larger margins. In fact, in 2016, the client achieved a total on-time rate of 97.66 percent for
Tim Cox
Vice President, Liberty Cold Storage Liberty Cold Storage was born in 2015, beginning as a dirt field where Tim Cox directed the building of a premier cold storage facility from the ground up. This was to serve not only the parent company’s needs (West Liberty Foods), but also to begin to create a client base for Liberty Cold, turning a business asset into a revenue stream. Cox’s goals for Liberty Cold include assembling a team that is devoted to the services it provides, and creating an atmosphere in which the team can laugh and argue at the same time.
Mark A. Duffy
CEO, Universal Pasteurization Company and Universal Cold Storage Mark A. Duffy oversees all long-term organizational goals for Universal, including a brand revamp and short-term execution excellence. As the company went from one facility to four in the past four years and as high-pressure processing becomes increasingly popular, Duffy’s focus and vision for bringing about safer foods with extended shelf life helped facilitate stronger communication and best practices to propel the industry forward.
www.foodlogistics.com
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6,251 pickups and deliveries, and handling and compliance improved with the use of significantly fewer carriers. Over her tenure, Curry built strong relationships with her customers and their receivers based on trust and excellent service. It is because of this that she can take control of her customers’ supply chains, communicate directly with their customers and partners—big and small—and identify opportunities for efficiency and cost savings. Her consolidation solution is now being rolled out to other Zipline Logistics accounts, and is being used to grow new business opportunities and expand existing partnerships. Curry stepped up as a leader at Zipline Logistics, going far outside her assigned job duties in customer operations. From rebuilding an entire set of training
materials used for new hires to establishing operational improvements for the entire company, she goes above and beyond. After working at Zipline for two years, Curry identified the need for someone to own and improve the new hire process. With no human resource manager at Zipline, she volunteered to take on the responsibilities, while also taking on the added role of recruiter, choosing and attending college trade shows to introduce Zipline to soonto-be graduates Curry is the 13th employee ever hired by Zipline Logistics. She plays an integral role in the company’s growth. In fact, every single year since she joined the team, Zipline was awarded with inclusion on the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies list and the local Columbus Business First Fast 50 listing.
Ron Dutt CEO and Interim CFO, Flux Power Holdings Inc. At Flux Power, Ron Dutt led the commercial development of new lithium battery technology that replaces lead-acid batteries to bring significant performance, cost and environmental benefits to food logistics and other material handling-intensive businesses, such as beverage, retail and shipping. With limited resources, he and Flux’s small, but talented team executed a business plan to bring their vision for transforming motive power to nextgeneration lithium battery power. Flux is harnessing the benefits of lithium-ion technology, which already transformed mobile devices and launched the electric car industry, to far more rigorous and challenging uses in forklifts and other material-handling equipment.
Joe Curry
Vice President of Operations, Universal Lumpers Inc. (UL) and American Lumping Association Inc. (ALA) For nearly 20 years, Joe Curry has led and developed the companies he has worked for in all facets of operations management. Recently, at UL as vice president of operations, he has driven continual year-over-year growth. Curry’s expertise in process improvement, lean systems, project management and business development firmly holds his place as an invaluable leader and partner to the unloading and logistics company. In 2016, UL facilitated more than 500,000 deliveries into distribution centers across the United States, bridging the gap between carrier/vendor and UL’s warehouse/distribution center partners with excellent customer service and cutting-edge technology. Under Curry’s leadership, UL uses an internal damage on-site control system (DOCS), contributing to the critical documentation process necessary to meet the needs of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Because UL teams often are the first point of contact upon delivery, they developed best practices to mitigate the risk of subpar product being received, saving clients money. Curry’s career is built on surrounding himself with hard-working people, making a tangible contribution every day, sprinting forward to new opportunities and doing more than what’s expected.
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Paris Gogos
Vice President of Product and Marketing, NeoGrid
Alison Forsythe
Managing Director, Macola Division, Exact Under Alison Forsythe’s leadership, Exact’s Macola division transformed to focus on consistent innovation in order to bring the best experience and service to its customers. Since April 2013, she championed and led positive cultural change, including reinvigorating the development team’s focus on J.B. Wood’s points made in “Consumption Economics: The New Rules of Tech.” She also helped revitalize the strategies and products of Exact’s Macola division, bringing the company’s latest enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, Macola 10.4, to life with the intent of helping market-leading customers maximize efficiencies and expand service offerings to their own clients through one seamless platform.
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Paris Gogos leverages his experience working with some of the world’s most successful consumer packaged goods companies and retailers to help NeoGrid customers align supply with demand, and improve on-shelf availability. Gogos previously worked with leaders in demand visibility and retail execution practices, including Nielsen, relative strength index (RSI) and efficient market services. For more than 10 years, Gogos has seen many manufacturers, distributors and retailers struggle with turning market insights and supply chain data into practical actions. With Gogos’ leadership, NeoGrid continues to expand its supply chain solutions to help food and beverage manufacturers and retailers leverage their newfound visibility for real, tangible business improvements. In addition, by working closely with clients, Gogos understands their challenges, and works with NeoGrid engineers to develop additional features or functionalities that are required to meet specific needs. Food and beverage manufacturers, distributors and retailers obtain accurate information about individual product performance at points of sale (POSs) through NeoGrid’s EPOS Visibility solution. Gogos believes one of the most important things a company can do is make sure its supply chain is being measured by the right key performance indicators (KPIs). The right KPIs focus on fully meeting demand without having an excess of inventory. Instead of measuring individualized activities within the chain and trying to optimize their individual span of control, Gogos encourages companies to take a holistic view of the supply chain and measure shared KPIs across various points in the supply chain. Also, since data drives business initiatives and supply chains, he believes it is critical that businesses have the most accurate, timely information, which better reflect the situations at hand. So, while data management is not a glamorous part of the business, acting on incorrect data can derail the success of a project and cause a loss in revenue.
www.foodlogistics.com
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Sam Freni
Regional Vice President, Echo Global Logistics Sam Freni joined the Echo team when the company acquired Purple Plum Logistics, which he founded in 2008 and managed until its 2012 acquisition. At Purple Plum, Freni created a unique culture and combined it with cutting-edge track-and-trace technology to excel in the complex temperaturecontrolled freight sector, driving a 42 percent increase in annual sales revenue. Now his startup is a key part of a company that is transforming logistics worldwide, with 34 offices and 2,300 employees across the country.
Steve Hermanson
Director of Product Allocation and Slotting Optimization, C&S Wholesale Grocers
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Through Steve Hermanson-led initiatives, C&S was able to reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction, while continuing to grow its network. He now supports operations and efficiency projects, which include leading national teams that analyze and execute projects across more than 70 distribution centers. His primary focus is on slotting, training, data and warehouse management system (WMS) tools, new business integration and warehouse efficiency projects.
Jonathan Greene
Vice President of Customer Development, Supply Chain Division, AFS Technologies Inc. Jonathan Greene is a driving force at AFS Technologies and has been a key advocate for many distributor partners throughout the decades. Many of his accounts grew from small local distributors to large regional powerhouses. He regularly facilitates open communications, industry roundtables and promotes successful idea sharing through AFS distributor communities onand offline. As a product manager, Greene also spearheads the AFS Data Exchange, an electronic trading solution that has a 99 percent satisfaction approval rating.
Chandler Hall
Vice President of Enterprise Relationships, BravoSolution Chandler Hall developed and leads a solution practice that delivers ground-breaking logistics procurement capabilities to a long list of world-class shippers. Once shippers consistently realized hundreds of millions of dollars in collective savings from this work, Hall identified the need for better integration of his clients’ sourcing and procurement processes with the rest of the business and supply chain partners, and designed and launched a platform to integrate these functions. The platform is now used by dozens of companies globally, including Unilever.
www.foodlogistics.com
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FOOD LOGISTICS ACKNOWLEDGES THESE PREVIOUS
CHAMPS AWARD WINNERS FOR THEIR CONTINUED SERVICE TO OUR INDUSTRY: Abtin Hamidi, co-founder, board member and executive vice president, Cargo Chief, 2016 Colby Beland, vice president of sales and marketing, CaseStack, 2015 Dan Labell, president and owner, Westfalia Technologies Inc., 2015 Derek Rickard, distribution systems sales manager, Cimcorp, 2015, 2016 Don Durm, vice president of customer solutions, PLM Trailer Leasing, 2015, 2016 Doug Niemeyer, general manager of TEKLYNX Americas, TEKLYNX International, 2016 Frank Morgiewicz, CEO, ArrowStream, 2016 Jeff Silver, CEO and co-founder, Coyote Logistics, 2016 Joey Benadretti, president, SYSPRO USA, 2015, 2016 Kristy Knichel, CEO and president, Knichel Logistics, 2016 Lee Neal, vice president and general manager, KTI Logistics, 2015, 2016 Michael D. Johnson, president and CEO, Elite Transit Solutions LLC, 2015 Michael Lyle, president and CEO, InfinityQS International, 2015, 2016 Paul Laman, vice president of the food and beverage group, DMW&H, 2016 Sean Smith, supply chain director, Agropur, 2015, 2016 Steve Sager, president and CEO, ExtenData, 2015, 2016 Leonard (Bud) Rodowick, manager of strategic relations for food safety and OEMs, Thermo King, 2015 Ann Drake, CEO, DSC Logistics, 2015, 2016
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Rick Hassler
Co-Inventor, Nature’s Frequencies Working with his sons and their U.S. patent-pending technology, Rick Hassler was determined to assist with the food and beverage industry’s $135 billion food waste problem. After years of trial and error, the Food Freshness Card was successfully tested and shown at INPEX, America’s largest invention show, and won the Grand Prix Award for Best Invention International and Domestic. The Food Freshness Card also was awarded a bronze medal for Best Invention at iENA in Germany and is entered in the FRUIT LOGISTICA Innovation Award 2017 in Germany. The Food Freshness Card is easy to use, and works inside or outside of a refrigerator, or in an open area or a container, and can double the life of many fresh fruits, vegetables and breads. The use of the Food Freshness Card can be implemented from the farm to the container to the handler and finally to the end user—or at any of these points—and greatly extends the life of fresh produce. In university testing by Sodexo, using 36 Food Freshness Cards, savings in one month were equal to 15 pounds of food waste, representing a 2.5 percent savings on produce purchases.
David P. Holmes
General Manager, The Corr-Williams Company Before his promotion to general manager in 2016, David Holmes led Wal-Mart’s entire supply chain network in outbound productivity for 12 consecutive years. At Corr-Williams, Holmes utilized his extensive knowledge of distribution operations to redesign processes and procedures across the entire company. As a result of his efforts, expenses were reduced 14 percent, resulting in the Columbia distribution center’s recognition as Distribution Center of the Year in the Corr-Williams network.
Sam Hughes
Assistant Vice President of Food and Refrigerated Products, Union Pacific Railroad Through his extensive experience working with food shippers, Sam Hughes developed the Food Train, a service specifically created to meet the increasing demands within the food industry to deliver food and beverage products at their freshest. Understanding this growing need, he seized the opportunity to create the new, expedited service, utilizing Union Pacific’s extensive rail network and refrigerated boxcar fleet—the largest in the industry. Most recently, Hughes led Union Pacific in its acquisition of Railex’s refrigerated and cold storage distribution assets.
Jason Lee
Logistics Manager, Five Guys Enterprises Jason Lee built a logistics program from scratch for Five Guys by creating a free on board (FOB) plus freight pricing model across all suppliers, establishing a core carrier base, identifying shipping efficien-
cies and bringing freight savings of $4.2 million (25 percent). Freight previously was managed by each individual supplier under a delivered cost model. Now each supplier unbundles the freight cost for a greater level of transparency. From there, Lee was able to benchmark and host carrier bids to ensure Five Guys was paying competitive rates, while using high-quality carriers.
Srini Muthusrinivasan
Senior Global Industry Strategies Director, JDA Software Group Srini Muthusrinivasan built and managed teams globally to define and drive business value transformations through disciplined innovations for Fortune 500 and 1000 companies, and continues to redefine supply chain best practices that positively impact both long- and shortterm investment strategies of leading companies. As a result, Muthusrinivasan grew JDA’s manufacturing business at 25 percent year over year. He brings a rare combination of industry and sub-industry depth, business acumen and technology strength.
Marco Nielsen
Vice President of Managed Mobility Services, Stratix Corporation Marco Nielsen has a passion for using mobile technology to bring about positive transformation for global businesses. He works with enterprises across many verticals to develop mobile solutions that help navigate the global supply chain efficiently. He understands that supply chain modernization is key to solving the challenges today’s businesses face, such as end users’ expectations for faster deliveries and order accuracy, all while delivering a high level of service cost-efficiently. www.foodlogistics.com
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Kinedyne Kaptive Beam Regional Supermarket Chain Cuts Reefer Run Schedule by One Third, Saves Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars with Kinedyne’s Kaptive Beam Decking System A large East Coast supermarket concern used to distribute its seafood much the same way as others still do – inefficiently and at great cost. As a cargo, seafood presents a number of challenges. The containers come in odd shapes, and because the goods are often still alive, can be easily damaged, so loads can’t be stacked. Additionally, seafood is a value-dense cargo and even minor product losses can be extremely expensive. Like most others engaged in moving refrigerated seafood, the supermarket chain was forced to floor-load everything and was unable to fit more than 24 pallets in any load. In order to satisfy demand, the supermarket chain was making two to three runs a day from its central Pennsylvania shipping location to its distribution hub in central New York State. Enter Kinedyne and its unique Kaptive Beam Decking System. With the Kap-
tive Beam System, a fleet can immediately reduce its run schedules and overhead costs. Fleets can minimize the number of tractors, trailers and drivers required to move their freight, because they’re maximizing the capacity of every load their fleet moves. The system easily handles mixed cargo and it can also help reduce damage to freight due to double stacking and load shifting. The supermarket chain worked with its dealer, Southside Trailer in Buffalo, NY, to order a new Vanguard reefer outfitted with the Kaptive Beam System. When the new Vanguard reefer arrived, a Kinedyne representative trained six of the supermarket’s staff members on best practices and overall use of the Kaptive Beam System. The results were astonishing right from the start. The supermarket chain was able to double the load capacity of its new 53-foot reefer, moving from 24 palletized containers to 48, essentially taking the original loadable floor space from 450.5 square feet to 901 square feet of loadable area. Kinedyne usually tells customers to expect a Kaptive Beam System to pay for itself within three months. The supermarket chain has reported that it calculates the savings associated with this single Kaptive Beam System to be about $400,000 annually.
One Double-Decked Reefer Saves Carrier Up to $400,000
Facts about the Kaptive Beam System:
1. The system can almost double the load capacity of a refrigerated trailer, while reducing damage by up to 50% 2. Increased load capacity improves the profit on every load carried (on average between 25% to 50%) 3. The system immediately reduces run schedules and cost 4. Insurance, fuel, maintenance and dock labor costs are lessened 5. Driver HOS are reduced 6. Fewer tractors and trailers are needed to move the same amount of cargo — so capital equipment utility increases with capacity 7. The system reduces cargo damage by reducing double stacking and load shifting, and the system easily handles mixed cargo 8. The system reduces a fleet’s exposure to cargo-related CSA infractions 9. The system stores out of the way at the ceiling level when not in use 10. The system can be retrofitted on most dry van trailers and can be specked on new refrigerated trailer builds by all major OEMs
YouTube video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM7csC-bl3s
Kaptive Beam Decking System Boosts Trailer Load Capacity by Up To % ®
Before
50
After
Increase Profits While: • Reducing freight claims • Reducing run schedules • Reducing vehicles and drivers
Second Deck Provides Total Asset Utilization
Standard palletized cargo loaded in traditional fashion
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Find out more in booth N807 at ProMat 2017 or call (800) 848-6057 www.kinedyne.com
Same palletized cargo loaded with Kaptive Beam
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Richard O’Connell
CEO and Founding Partner, Primus Builders Inc. Richard O’Connell started Primus Builders Inc., a provider of design-build services to some of the largest food logistics companies in the world, from the ground up. Under his guidance, Primus grew from a single office with three employees to a focused core group of related companies whose reach stretches across the United States and Canada. Recent projects include automated systems and sustainable components that allow owners to improve speed to market, while remaining good stewards of the environment.
Cory O’Connor
Logistics Manager, The Jel Sert Company Starting with The Jel Sert Company shortly after college, Cory O’Connor was successful in grasping principles of warehouse management and streamlining inventory management within a very short time period. Moving from transactional to
Rob Nemeth
President, Allied Distribution Services LLC Rob Nemeth is one of the who’s who of the supply chain, transitioning from many roles throughout the food and beverage industry over his expansive career. Nemeth started off at Winn-Dixie in Florida before moving to Colorado to help start McLane Company. He then transitioned to the 3PL side of the industry with Christian Salvesen (now XPO Logistics) and then to Acme Distribution, where he was the vice president of sales, and then Inland Star. After that, he put in 13 years with Affiliated Warehouse Companies as the vice president before taking a business development position with Kane Is Able. The last four years, he’s led the Allied Group. Nemeth not only has a phenomenal network of trusted and valuable contacts, but he also has an incredible ability to connect partners together that can benefit from one another. He believes the most important thing you can do for a customer is be honest with them and help them find a solution to their problem, no matter what it takes. vested business- and performance-based models, O’Connor successfully lowered over-the-road and intermodal yearly costs at The Jel Sert Company by more than 12 percent, while strengthening longterm relationships.
Melissa Parker
Vice President, Client Relations and Operations, Inmar Throughout her career, Melissa Parker maintained the highest standard of providing top-notch customer service, conveying her goals to the team through the motto:
“Customer satisfaction is valuable, but customer loyalty is priceless.” Under her oversight, teams manage the logistics, processing and value recovery of billions of products, resulting in many millions of dollars saved through optimized returns processing that reduces supply chain operational cost, transportation cost and value retention. Her teams are recognized for excellence on many levels, including an award from Altria for Excellence in Warehouse Operations, receiving an unheard-of perfect audit score in 2015.
Sandeep Patel Managing Partner, Veridian Solutions
Sandeep Patel, a former Manhattan Associates standout consultant, founded Veridian Solutions in 2011, with the goal of helping customers implement Manhattan’s Warehouse Management for Open Systems (WMOS) solution faster and more efficiently by automating much of the implementation process. Since then, he spearheaded the design and development of powerful software tools that automate configuration management and regression testing of warehouse applications. Patel believes implementing supply chain systems is a lot like solving an incredibly complex puzzle. “It is easy to deliver a solution that meets most of companies’ needs, but delivering a great solution requires mastery of the tool and a deep desire to understand clients’ businesses. Only then can you solve the puzzle that will allow them to use their unique business qualities as a competitive advantage,” he says.
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www.foodlogistics.com
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Robert Peck
Board of Advisors, LoadDelivered Logistics Robert Peck began his career with LoadDelivered as a carrier relations representative. He progressed to management positions on both the carrier and customer sides of the company because of his commitment to innovating their service. He works closely with every department at LoadDelivered to ensure the company is challenging norms, breaking personal bests, and securing reliable coverage and stable pricing for their food and beverage customers.
Wendy Prosser Director of Logistics, Werner Enterprises Wendy Prosser drives continued customer excellence through supply chain and logistic solutions for several leading food companies. Before her employment with Werner, she spent five years with Olam Spices and Vegetable Ingredients, where she created an environment fostering the development of women’s
leadership. She continued her support in women’s leadership at Werner by earning a seat on its Women’s Forum Steering Committee.
incorporated proven technology from other industries, and revamped the walkie and rider series by implementing features such as Lift and Go.
Travis Rhyan
John Rosenberger
CEO and President, 10-4 Systems
Manager of iWAREHOUSE GATEWAY and Global Telematics, The Raymond Corporation
Through a fortuitous set of events, Travis Rhyan was given the opportunity to start 10-4 Systems in 2012, where he uses his experience to innovate and create solutions in the supply chain industry. Drawing from his experience in logistics and transportation, he focused his passion for technology to drive a company that increased efficiency in the food logistics industry, as well as reduced the overall carbon footprint of the diesel-heavy transportation industry.
John Rosenberger is an integral part of Raymond’s initiatives for iWAREHOUSE, providing frequent insights to trade publications and educating customers at trade shows, which reaffirms his dedication to keeping up with trends and sharing his industry knowledge. A few of his recent focuses include energy efficiency, specifically optimal battery management in cold-storage facilities, and machine-to-machine (M2M) technology.
Sue Rice
Davison Schopmeyer
Product Manager of Pallet Trucks and Stackers, The Raymond Corporation
Senior Managing Partner of Supply Chain Solutions, enVista
Sue Rice’s product management has grown the distinction of the Raymond line for its energy efficiency, durability, productivity and ease of maintenance. Since 2008, Raymond redesigned its pallet truck line with a focus on meeting or exceeding customer expectations, even in harsh work environments, such as food and grocery logistics. Rice’s team
Davison Schopmeyer brings more than 25 years of experience in leading consulting and software implementations that drive value to the bottom line. Schopmeyer has been a part of multiple food and beverage projects from start to finish throughout his career. From regional supermarkets to leading global beverage companies, he has led various projects that last months to years.
IMPROVED ORDER PROCESSING
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Automated Streamlined Intralogistics AUTOMATED TRACKING AND TRACEABILITY
REDUCED HUMAN ERRORS
LOWER LOGISTICS COSTS
Together we conquer the myriad of challenges along the food and beverage supply chain – from SKU proliferation to new regulations to labor shortages. viastore integrated solutions optimizes your material flow and order picking processes, giving you the competitive edge. www.us.viastore.com/FLMarch VISIT US AT
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www.foodlogistics.com
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Anthony (Tony) Vlahos Senior Software Engineer, NECS Inc.
Jay Justin Shrager President and CEO, Somerset Industries Inc. Jay Justin Shrager began his career in a family business that not only survived two major fires, but also maintained sales and profit. In 2000, he acquired the former Rotelle Foods building, rehabbing it and growing Somerset Industries into a $45 million company. Over his expansive career, Shrager created hundreds of jobs, as well as the largest rehabilitation program for the state of Nevada.
Dustan Skidmore Vice President of Engineering, Plug Power Inc. Dustan Skidmore led his team on a quest to provide consistent, predictable power 24/7, increasing efficiency and productivity; full power over a range of ambient temperatures, including freezing; safe, quick and convenient refueling; and zero emission performance. Launched as a solution for Plug Power’s own products, ProGen engines are flexible power building blocks designed for companies to use in their motive products under development.
Vishy Visweswaran Chief Technology Officer, SCA Technologies Vishy Visweswaran helped to evolve supply chain management technology for the restaurant business, most notably for McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, two of the world’s largest supply chains. As SCA chief technology officer, Visweswaran implemented critical tools used in the development of SCA Planner, helping customers make data-driven decisions, thereby mitigating risks and volatility associated with fluctuating supply, demand and costs.
Tony Vlahos was born into food distribution, growing up in the trucks delivering orders, unloading freight cars and picking orders in the warehouse. He spent summers working for the family business and learning the food distribution industry. With time, Vlahos took on more responsibilities and eventually became the warehouse manager. While working for the family company, he also took on freelance programming and network installations for local businesses, designing systems for oil delivery trucks, computer numerically controlled (CNC) manufacturing machines and a comparative market analysis generator for a local Century 21 office. The skills Vlahos earned during his time in the family business would eventually lead to a partnership with NECS, where he would use his industry knowledge to build better systems to increase productivity and profitability for food distributors. Over his 16 years at the company, he has designed and written software for a dynamic reports system, document scanning and management, and truck routing and tracking. His recent work includes an interface with the Anoto digital pen, a system that revolutionizes the way distributors manage delivery invoices, cash collection sheets and other documentation. Leaving his family business to take a job at NECS was a difficult choice, but Vlahos was driven by his passion for the foodservice industry and his commitment to improving it.
Mitch Weseley CEO, 3Gtms
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With more than 30 years in the logistics industry, Mitch Weseley is widely regarded as the father of the TMS industry, having created six successful companies in the technology and logistics software industry. Notably, he foresaw the market demand for the first and second TMS generations. Weseley wrote the first TMS, as a developer, in the mid-1980s, and created new companies and products to address the opportunities for each generation. He started early on by consolidating less-than-truckload (LTL) to truckload (TL) with an independent algorithm execution system, and then, expanding to decision support capabilities to better drive cost savings. As the industry evolved in the late 1990s, he focused on systems that prioritized the management of complex global shipments. Today, the focus shifted to providing the right blend of flexibility and ease of use that can handle complex scenarios, while also focusing on achieving cost savings. Weseley builds systems based on the premise that it is essential to understand what problem you are trying to solve, then designing a system that supports the business properly. He is a visionary who listens to the food industry’s challenges, and delivers transportation solutions that make operations faster, better and more efficient. Additionally, Weseley prioritizes customer satisfaction above all else and emphasizes this to his employees. Regardless of a customer’s size or tenure with 3Gtms, he makes himself available by contacting these companies regularly during implementation and post-implementation to ensure needs are being met and problems are being solved. As a result, he led 3Gtms to a 100 percent customer satisfaction rate. www.foodlogistics.com
3/3/17 10:41 AM
Rick Zaffarano Vice President of Consumer Products Solutions, Transportation Insight Rick Zaffarano is a tremendous asset for companies operating in the fresh logistics, grocery retail, and wholesale and consumer packaged goods industries. The 3PL’s portfolio of enterprise logistics solutions for the end-to-end supply chain, combined with Zaffarano’s expertise in the marketplace, enables supply chain executives to create optimal logistics and supply chain strategies that achieve greater control, real-time visibility and chain-of-custody awareness. By providing an independent supply chain review for verification and validation, Zaffarano and Transportation Insight help clients identify opportunities for supply chain improvements that place procurement practices in the optimal buying brackets to reduce landed cost. Transportation Insight clients consider Zaffarano an innovator, a change agent, and an internal consultant who brings a breadth of knowledge and experience that can be leveraged in many different industries and situations. His unique background in
operations, major company project management and high-performance workplace design, allows Transportation Insight to deliver solutions that are especially effective across the fresh logistics and consumer packaged goods industries. While working for a $14 billion retail grocery company, the sixth largest in the United States, Zaffarano led the development and implementation of all supply chain strategic initiatives through cross-functional teams. His team was directly responsible for analyzing, improving and supporting the ability of the company’s supply chain to meet customer demand. This applied to all of the grocery retailer’s business processes and systems for procurement, inventory, inbound freight, warehousing, transportation and outbound delivery to retail stores, and improved service to end customers. Zaffarano’s supply chain expertise enables him and his team to create a process to plan
and aggregate loads in ways that better utilize capacity, and allow grocery clients to buy more frequently in lower quantities and improve their turns. By establishing a culture focused on balancing product quality, customer service and cost—instead of maintaining hyper-focus on being cost-, quality- or service-driven—Zaffarano helps clients realize cost savings through inventory reduction and improved transit times, while achieving higher service levels, increased visibility regarding temperature and food safety compliance issues, and improved fresh food quality. This process was utilized with a key client to achieve a $25 million reduction in inventory expenses and $8 million reduction in freight spend. These solutions also delivered a service-level improvement from 94 to 97.5 percent for this client and a 15 percent improvement in the client’s shrinkage/waste.
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SECTOR REPORTS WAREHOUSING
Cold storage operators gravitate toward automation and smaller facilities to stay nimble and control costs.
Y
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I
n many ways, cold storage facilities are the antithesis of flexibility with their high-priced construction, operating costs, and sheer physical size and space. Yet, the demands of today’s cold chain mean facility design, location and even refrigeration systems are under greater pressure to adapt to constant changes in the marketplace while keeping operating costs in check. Simply put, a cold storage facility essentially is “a giant refrigerator for everybody’s products,” says Tim Nguyen, regional vice president at ESI Group USA. It’s no surprise then that automatic storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) continue to generate buzz in the sector because of their ability to boost storage density and eliminate the need for forklift aisles, not to mention reduce labor and energy costs, he adds. The downside is the initial cost. ASRS requires a substantial investment. “Secondly, there are costs associated with maintenance,” says Nguyen. “All the robots, gears and hydraulics moving in a very cold
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BY LARA L. SOWINSKI
environment require a lot of mainTacoma Automated Coldstore will tenance.” Additionally, these types open by year’s end, with Trident of facilities are not very versatile, Seafoods as the primary tenant of because they typically are designed the multi-customer facility. to accommodate a specific pallet Dutch firm NewCold is the owner or carton size in order to achieve of the facility, which will rely heavily uniformity and consistency, which on automation to control costs then becomes an issue (if there is a related to labor, land and energy, desire to make a change), says Jonas Swarthe says. touw, the company’s You have to go Wholesalers who business developwhere your manufacturer their own ment manager for customers product(s) tend to make its North American are, but at the better fits for ASRS. operations. same time, you have But, operators still can Automation also is to be flexible in achieve flexibility if they key to responding to case your business use the ASRS for bulk customers’ expecchanges.” storage, then use worktations for faster ers to break down pallets and more efficient Tim Nguyen, ESI Group USA into cases or smaller shipping options. components, which can It’s difficult to find then be placed in totes or employees to work trays and put onto conveyors. This at night, not to mention working in type of operation is becoming more a cold storage facility with below common as online grocery shopping freezing temperatures, adds Swartand home delivery grows. touw. One of the biggest automated The facility will employ some cold storage facilities in the U.S. forklift drivers, although robots will currently is under construction in primarily be used to move product Tacoma, Washington. The 25-milinside the facility and fulfill orders. lion-cubic-foot, 130-foot-high Computer tracking of products www.foodlogistics.com
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inside the facility also will provide faster response time in the event of a recall. According to Swarttouw, “The advantage [of automation] is that you are performing in a very stable and controlled way, and with limited human-product interactions and limited chances the humans will damage the product or pick the wrong pallet.” As for cold storage trends related to location, the buildup of cold storage facilities around key gateway ports remains strong. “You have to go where your customers are,” acknowledges Nguyen, “but at the same time, you have to be flexible in case your business changes.” For instance, Nguyen says the industry is trending toward smaller cold storage warehouses in multiple locations versus one huge cold storage warehouse. He compares this to the air transport industry’s wide-body passenger jets, which need a lot of
people to fill seats and big “hub” airports. Increasingly, people—and products—want to get closer to their end destination, though. A distribution center that is closer to the consumer market is more efficient in terms of logistics and other supply chain considerations. “The bottom line is you’ve got to react to your customer, and you want to be flexible; you want to be fast. That’s the model I see the industry going toward,” says Nguyen.
Evaluating Refrigeration Systems The options surrounding which type of refrigeration system to implement comes down to energy efficiency and safety—and operators need both. A cold storage facility’s biggest cost is energy, so energy efficient motors and energy management systems add up over time, making a significant dent. Meanwhile, ammonia remains the cheapest refrigerant and uses
less electricity than other systems. However, “the downside is there are some safety issues with ammonia,” Nguyen says. Another issue is water. Ammonia systems use a lot of water for their evaporative condensers. In states such as California The bottom line is where water prices are at you’ve got to a premium, these types react to your of systems present real customer, and you problems. want to be flexible; you For these reasons, want to be fast.” cascade systems are a Tim Nguyen, ESI Group USA good alternative for some facilities. It’s basically comprised of two refrigerants, whereby one refrigerant cools the other refrigerant, which then cools the facility. A cascade system is favored for its safety aspect, because ammonia is isolated from workers in the facility. It also reduces the total amount of ammonia charge in the plant, Nguyen says, which helps address certain regulatory issues.
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SECTOR REPORTS TRANSPORTATION
BY AMY WUNDERLIN
THE OUTLOOK FOR AIR CARGO
REMAINS UP IN THE AIR T
As food and beverage transporters vie for a spot at the top, the air cargo sector looks toward collaboration.
he air cargo sector remains an important component of the global supply chain. Despite the loss of market share to other transportation modes, WorldACD reported earlier this year an increase of 7.5 percent year on year in weight terms during the final quarter of 2016, making the final three months of the year, the air cargo industry’s best quarter since 2010. Food Logistics recently checked in with carriers and airports to find out what may have led to the uptick and how the sector is responding to increased competition.
Ocean-to-Air Program Propels MIA In a move to remain on top of the industry, Miami International Airport
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(MIA) recently launched Florida’s first ocean-to-air perishables trans-shipment program. Through a special permit approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last fall, the No. 1 port of entry in America for international air freight now is receiving perishable freight imports by sea as well. This collaboration between MIA and PortMiami—two of the United States’ largest economic engines— is an innovative move in an effort to better serve the local cargo industry and strengthen the global marketplace. “Yes, we compete, but now we are cooperating with the maritime industry because consumers are demanding it,” says Emir Pineda, manager of aviation, trade and logistics, MIA. E-commerce, mobile com-
merce, and a host of new consumer preferences are placing more demands on the food and beverage supply chain, and at a faster pace than ever. In order to meet the demand for fresher food, all segments of the foodservice supply chain—including the transportation sector—are realizing that a more collaborative system is needed. The ocean-to-air pilot program, which allows the logistics company to coordinate the ocean shipment of perishable products from Latin America to PortMiami or Port Everglades and then transport them to MIA, where they will depart by air via KLM Cargo or Centurion Cargo to foreign destinations in Europe and Asia, will save both time and money for cargo shippers, who will receive expedited air transport for perishable products and will not be required to pay U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) duties. It also will allow European and Asian households to receive produce from Latin America at the peak of freshness, extending in some cases the seasonality for certain available items. The new freight shipments from local seaports also will strengthen MIA’s cargo business, adding to the 1.98 million tons of international air freight
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SR: TRANSPORTATION
• Through MIA‘s oceanto-air program, perishables arrving via cargo ship are transported directly to the airport, without U.S. Customs and Border Protection fees.
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handled annually at MIA—the most for any U.S. airport and the 10th most in the world. Customized Brokers, a subsidiary of Crowley Maritime Corp., partnered with MIA to gain approval for the pilot program. Additionally, CBP has granted first-ever approval for expedited processing of these ocean shipments before they depart by air. “Cargo shippers now have an additional, expedited channel for transporting perishables through the U.S., which incentivizes them to do more business at MIA and PortMiami,” notes Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio T. Gonzalez in a news release. “The pilot program also continues our efforts to grow cargo at MIA through outside-thebox initiatives.” The pilot program is the latest innovation the Miami-Dade Aviation Department is launching to strengthen MIA’s position as America’s cargo gateway to the world, with others including Pharma.
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the region than any other U.S. airport. The global freight hub handles 83 percent of air imports and 79 percent of exports to and from the region. World-class facilities also impact MIA’s continued success, boasting 445,000 square feet of on-airport cooling facilities among its 18 warehouses, amounting to more than 3.4 million square feet of warehouse, office and support space. Many of the airport’s facilities also offer airside-to-land-side access, facilitating the multimodal movement of cargo to and from the airport in addition to their recent relationship with the maritime sector. “We work in conjunction with the trucking industry…it’s a symbiotic relationship between trucking and air,” adds Pineda. A corridor stretching from MIA’s Westside Cargo Area to the warehouse district west of the airport is the access lifeline of MIA’s air cargo industry and the primary connector to the Florida Intrastate and Federal Highway System. This corridor handles an estimated 200,000 aero, a Foreign Trade Zone magnet cargo truck trips per year. In 2016, site designation, and the Cargo MIA partnered with the Florida Optimization, Redevelopment and Department of Transportation to Expansion (CORE) Program. widen the existing roadway to six “For the last five years, MIA has lanes and construct an elevated viaalways been a dominate player duct to improve ground movement (in the global supply chain),” says of air cargo trucking operations. Pineda, who notes increased comMaybe its most undervalued aspetition from set, Pineda believes the trucking and is MIA’s level of Yes, wec ompete, but maritime secexperience, which now we are cooperating tors “really isn’t he says within the with the maritime industry affecting us.” cargo community is because MIA cargo unmatched. consumers are planes carried “We know how to demanding it.” 2.18 million handle perishables tons of freight here,” he says. “OthEmir Pineda, manager of aviation, trade and logistics, MIA in 2016, about er airports just don’t a 1 percent have the volume or increase from experience.” 2015. In 2015, MIA’s market share Delta Undeterred of the world’s fruit and vegetable Despite Losses imports was about 72 percent; seafood made up about 52 percent. Another key player, Delta Cargo Pineda credits MIA’s dominance actually saw a slight decline in both in part to its extensive network cargo revenues and demand in within Latin American and the 2016. The U.S. airline saw cargo revCaribbean, offering more flights to enues decline by 17.8 percent year www.foodlogistics.com
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on year during 2016 to $668 million, with declines being particularly strong in the first half of the year. The airline remains optimistic, however, about the future of air freight, having recently undergone a change in leadership. Transitioning from his role of CEO and president of Mercedes-Benz Canada to president of Delta Cargo in March 2016, Gareth Joyce voiced plans early on to shift the airline from a transactional approach to business to a more consumer-centric focus, while also leveraging Delta’s domestic network. On a more global scale, he also is looking to co-locate some of Delta’s European operations with partners Air France KLM and Virgin Atlantic. But as Delta Cargo works toward these long-term goals, it presently is offering a service Joyce says is comparable to none. Variation Fresh offers temperature-controlled service ideal for shipping perishable commodities with a short life span
and products that rapidly deteriorate when exposed to adverse conditions. Items shipped via Variation Fresh are promised “an unrivaled network of high-quality cooler systems, specialized containers and high boarding priority with quick connection times.” About 20 percent of all kilograms flown in 2016 were flown via Variation Fresh on Delta. “We move an incredible variety of fresh commodities such as live lobsters, tuna, salmon, sea urchins, green peppers, asparagus, basil, mangoes, blueberries, cherries, a large array of cut flowers, to highend chocolates and cheeses—we do it all,” notes Joyce. Specialty perishables can be shipped through three Variation Fresh options. “We aim to move perishable shipments safely, quickly and within the expected temperature controlled parameters; this is the foundation of our Variation Fresh
product offering,” says Joyce. “We work very closely with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and other global agencies to ensure the commodities we move are within the safety and regulatory standards of the nation we are importing into.” And though its numbers may be falling, Delta remains confident they offer consumers something no other mode of transportation can— speed and security. “Atlanta to Memphis is about an eight hour truck drive; with Delta Cargo, in eight hours we can get you to any main city in the U.S., as well as (several international destinations) in the same time,” Joyce adds. “Delta Cargo gets the product there faster and fresher, giving the product more shelf time to sell. Additionally moving by air, Delta’s Variation Fresh Cargo operates under the strictest security regulation of any transportation mode, a clear advantage and benefit to customers and consumers.”
Delta Cargo gets the product there
faster and fresher, giving it more shelf time to sell.” Gareth Joyce, president, Delta Cargo
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SECTOR REPORTS WAREHOUSING
BY CARRIE MANTEY
Telematics enable a connected food and beverage logistics network that can improve fleet management, enhance safety and facilitate regulatory compliance.
onnectivity now seems to be at the center of everything we do. By connecting people to equipment to achieve intelligence, telematics can help food and beverage organizations keep tabs on the location, movement, status, behavior and performance of vehicles within their fleets. Telematics devices—which can range from video cameras to electronic logging devices (ELDs) to temperature sensors to GPS— wirelessly connect to a vehicle’s engine control module, then collect, store and transmit data to a mobile computer or application. The kinds of data these telematics devices transmit depend on the intended application of the device, but the data transmissions provide actionable intelligence to fleet managers or operators who can modify processes based on fact-based (often real-time) analytics.
Fleet Management
Photo Credit: GPS Insight
Preventive maintenance, or proactively scheduling maintenance at specified mileage or hourly intervals, is an effective way to ensure continuous and consistent vehicle health by averting breakdowns and maximizing uptime. Rather than inspecting a vehicle every quarter, a fleet manager can schedule it by the mile, which is a more accurate representation of when the vehicle
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requires service. Not only does it save time, but also resources, as unnecessary maintenance can be prolonged. An under-utilitzed vehicle, for example, does not need as many inspections as a fully utilized vehicle. Because telematics can integrate vehicle data with other systems, like preventive maintenance programs, as vehicles reach certain thresholds, the program can trigger alerts to return the vehicle to the terminal for service. “Management can schedule all maintenance for the fleet within software, receive reminders for each service and view maintenance reports. Users have the ability to respond quickly to customer delivery inquiries, service more customers per day, confirm job completion and bill more accurately,” Ryan Driscoll, marketing director at GPS Insight, elaborates. Norm Ellis, president of EROAD, confirms telematics also allow fleet managers and operators to better manage the number of vehicles they have in a fleet, thereby avoiding the under- or over-utilization conundrum. “If you’re operating a 100-truck fleet, how efficient is it? How many hours per
Photo Credit: GPS Insight
THE CONNECTED FLEET C
truck are you running daily, weekly and monthly? The tools and data different telematics providers supply make it easier to understand how efficient the fleet really is. Are trucks being used only 20 or 30 percent of the time? Maybe there are too many assets deployed in a certain area.” If so, telematics can help determine how to most efficiently divert these vehicles, and allocate them to an area that can deploy them more effectively.
Vehicle, Driver and Cargo Safety Vehicle and driver safety is of utmost importance in food and beverage fleet operations. Telematics not only can reduce risk to vehicle and driver safety, but also decrease liability, improve training, and even exonerate innocent drivers if and when an accident does occur. Because many telematics devices incorporate accelerometers, they can sense and report on rapid acceleration and deceleration, as well as hard braking and turns. When fleet managers have this data in hand, they are able to tailor their training programs to better avoid these risky driver behaviors—whether it be through a reward and punishment system, rerouting drivers www.foodlogistics.com
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SR: WAREHOUSING continued
around risky areas, or simply calling attention to risky scenarios. Because video telematics integrates data from both telematics sensors and video data, it can deliver critical insights that can be used in training. Video telematics can help drivers avoid accidents by generating statistics and reports
to identify risks within the fleet, so training time and resources can be better allocated. In addition, this data can help fleet managers establish benchmarks and safety goals. “Members of the food and beverage industry have many things to protect, including their drivers, their cargo, and of course, their brand. Every person behind the wheel is a brand ambassador that can add to—or detract from—a
brand’s image. Each vehicle in your fleet, too, is a brand asset, and keeping the vehicle free from collision damage helps you put your best foot forward,” explains Kara Kerker, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Lytx Inc. Furthermore, Ellis says that most driving accidents are not caused by the commercial driver, but the motoring public. However, the burden of liability often lies on the commercial truck driver who is operating the larger, heavier vehicle on the road. Video telematics can assist in exonerating the driver because, if the other driver runs a red light, for example, the video provides a record of all of the details that led to the accident, thus decreasing liability. Kerker concurs, “Safety telematics aims to tell you what happened, or even where or when it happened based upon GPS data, but telematics can’t tell you why it happened. Video telematics, on the other hand, delivers the clarity and certainty of video that answers the question of why, along with the analytic insights to help prevent the event from happening again.” According to Sue Rutherford, vice president of marketing at ORBCOMM, in order to protect the cargo vehicles are transporting from the point of origin to destination, telematics also can: • Detect theft and ensure cargo is secure by monitoring door sensors. • Keep drivers safe in high-risk areas with the use of two-way communications, panic buttons and geofences. • Help prevent hijacking by detecting the use of GPS and cellular technology signal jammers. • Track stolen vehicles using GPS location information.
Regulatory Compliance Because food and beverage regulations require more tracking than most other industries, telematics are a boon, especially for food and beverage fleets. With the advent of the ELD mandate, however, is the
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easing of compliance with hours-ofservice regulations, which stipulate when and how long drivers can be active on the road. The ELDs required by December 2017 are considered telematics technology based on the fact that they digitally communicate driver and vehicle information, as well as location data to verify hours-of-service and driver vehicle inspection reporting, thus eliminating paper logs, which can be inaccurate and time-consuming. Because ELDs monitor and record many data points, they facilitate the fulfillment of many food- and beverage-related regulations, as digital reports can be culled much more rapidly than manual auditing. Temperature sensors and monitors also are telematics devices, because they transmit and record information about the temperature inside the reefer trailer, which can help prevent spoilage and verify food is safe. “By installing a temperature sensor in the trailer, management can see temperatures in real time and react quickly to avoid costs associated with food spoilage,” according to Driscoll. “Reports can also be pulled to investigate the temperature of a trailer at a certain time, day or customer site in the case of any customer complaints.”
The Future of Telematics Raymond Zujus, director of business development for food and beverage at Telogis, believes, “Telematics is just the beginning, but connecting and optimizing vehicles is really where the true savings lie. Utilizing analytics to mine for insights can help identify trends, predict behavior and empower decision-makers. What’s more important is taking that data, and turning it into real value by analyzing it and using the intelligence you derive to gain a desired business outcome.” In the case of telematics, which connects people to devices to beget fleet intelligence and operational optimization, those outcomes include better fleet management, safety and compliance. www.foodlogistics.com
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• Pictured is a
screenshot from the DriveCam outward-facing camera from Lytx, Inc. The camera can capture events that could be caused by risky driving. This telematics data can then be uploaded to a wireless network for review and analysis.
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SECTOR REPORTS OCEAN CARRIERS & PORTS
BY LARA L. SOWINSKI
SEALAND, PORT HUENEME PARTNER ON PERISHABLES L
Containerized service targets fresh fruit and other agricultural goods.
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ast September, SeaLand, the intra-Americas regional ocean carrier of the Maersk Group, launched its West Coast Central America (WCCA) service, targeting fresh fruit and other agricultural goods traded between Southern California, Mexico, Central America and the west coast of South America. The Port of Hueneme, located 60 miles northwest of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, currently is the sole U.S. port of call in the WCCA rotation. Ranked as one of the top U.S. ports for bananas, the port also maintains a workforce with deep experience handling perishable goods, close proximity to major population centers, ample cold storage capacity and quick turnaround to assure optimum shelf life for perishable goods. “SeaLand brings a valuable weekly service to the port, supporting those regional customers that grow and handle fresh fruit, vegetables, dried fruits, nuts, cotton and hay. Additionally, the service strengthens the port’s connections with Central and South America, our long-term target trade lanes, which promise to enhance our longstanding relationships with fresh fruit importers and exporters,” says Kristin Decas, CEO and port director at the Port of Hueneme. Ariel Frias, SeaLand’s head of marketing, says shipper response to the WCCA service already has exceeded expectations. Perishable shippers are always looking
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• SeaLand’s West Cost Central America (WCCA) service brings goods traded between California, South America and Mexico to consumers faster.
for ways to get cargo closer to the consumer as fast as possible, and SeaLand’s newest service provides a critical third entry point into the U.S. West Coast, complementing the carrier’s existing services that serve seaports in the U.S. east and gulf coasts, he says. “We’re giving shippers a constellation of service options,” notes Frias, referring to the multiple U.S. port options now served by SeaLand. Shippers using the WCCA service not only enjoy expedited service in and out of Southern California, but quick access to Northern California and even Utah, Nevada, Portland (Oregon) and Idaho, too.
Nurturing the CarrierPort Relationship A key component of SeaLand’s success is the relationship that exists with the Port of Hueneme. Known as the “Port the Farmers Built,” it is a niche port that specializes in automobiles and a variety of agricultural goods, including bananas, pineapples, avocados, frozen vegetables, grapes, apples and pears. Frias says SeaLand and the Port of Hueneme are similar in that they are both niche players that cater to perishable shippers. This shared focus and common goals “definitely makes the relationship easier,” www.foodlogistics.com
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SR: OCEAN CARRIERS & PORTS continued
THE PORT OF HUENEME STAYS remarks Frias. Shippers want their product to arrive fast. They want speedy processing, inspection and dispatch so the shelf life isn’t compromised and there are no breaks in the cold chain, and that’s what the partnership between SeaLand and the Port of Hueneme can deliver, he says. The cold storage capacity in and around the port is another attractive consideration for shippers. There is 256,000 square feet of on-dock refrigerated warehouse and another 1 million-plus square feet of temperature-controlled facilities nearby, which also provide transloading, repacking and fumigation services. The Port of Hueneme handles both breakbulk and containerized fresh produce, although SeaLand’s service is 100 percent containerized. Frias emphasizes that building strong relationships with all the ports that SeaLand calls is critical. Recently, SeaLand hosted a customer event in Costa Rica to promote its North Atlantic Express (NAE) service, which includes the Port of Philadelphia as a port of call. Representatives from the port were on hand to talk face-to-face with shippers and discuss the advantages of shipping through the Port of Philadelphia. “It was beneficial to have the port representatives there to answer questions and also explain how the close working relationship with [SeaLand] is good for the shipper,” explains Frias. “Ultimately, it’s comes down to where the customer wants their cargo to be moved to,
FOCUSED ON FRESH The Port of Hueneme provides California’s central coast agricultural industry with an ocean link to global markets, and consistently ranks among the top U.S. ports for bananas. Port customers—Chiquita and Del Monte—import more than 30 million boxes of bananas annually, equaling 3.3 billion bananas and weighing over 1.5 billion pounds, with a market value of $885 million. A VACIS (vehicle and cargo inspection system) is used for all cargo departing the port at no extra charge. The X-ray imaging and radiation scanning system assists security personnel to screen for weapons, nuclear material or other contraband hidden in containers. In addition, the port is actively pursuing completion of a state-of-the-art ECU (Ecological Compliance Unit) to treat imported fruit. This latest control technology has been successfully tested along California’s central coast and Florida’s east coast. In California, the USDA and APHIS have certified the system and unit. After passing all of the required testing, operating permits were granted and issued by the California Air Resource Board.
and we want to give customers more choices. That’s what makes this new WCCA service with the Port of Hueneme a winning proposition,” says Frias. “The response from customers has been very favorable, and because SeaLand and our port partners think alike and understand how to handle specific commodities, it makes the whole relationship easier to pitch to the market.” While SeaLand focuses on the intra-Americas markets, Frias says Maersk Group’s pending acquisition of Hamburg Sud, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year, will add an expanded and more efficient network, more port calls, and more opportunities to support global reefer shippers. “There is a lot of excitement in the reefer community right now about some of the things that we’re creating, bringing value to shippers, ports and ourselves as a shipping line,” says Frias.
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TranSolutions
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FOOD (AND MORE) FOR THOUGHT
BY MICHAEL LYLE
Time’s Up; Pencils Down— Are You Ready for Industry 4.0? M BY MICHAEL LYLE
LY L E
Michael Lyle is the founder and CEO of InfinityQS International, a global authority on data-driven enterprise quality. His leadership and vision for InfinityQS is the foundation of the company’s success and rapid growth. Lyle’s adherence to a customer-driven development approach ensures InfinityQS’s solutions continue to address the growing, complex needs of the manufacturing industry.
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oving from handmade products to assembly lines, mass production and computerized systems, the manufacturing industry is continuously evolving to find better and faster ways to push products out the door. Today, we are in the middle of a digital transformation called Industry 4.0, wherein cloud computing, the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and cyber-physical systems are melding to create the smart factories of the future. These factories connect a menagerie of advanced digital and manufacturing tools and systems, such as smart devices embedded with sensors, robotics, process control systems, self-operating vehicles and more, to improve efficiency and optimize production. They run with minimal human intervention and smart components that can autonomously make adjustments based on the data collected from the plant floor. With less human intervention at this level, there are fewer defects and errors, resulting in higher quality products and increased customer satisfaction. Beyond the factory floor, Industry 4.0 enables personnel at all levels to make better data-based decisions about overall operations. If a production line in a carbonated beverage facility refines its target fill amounts to not only be within specification limits, but also to reduce overfill, this best practice can be identified at the corporate level, and replicated across all facilities to maintain product consistency and minimize waste. While adjustments on the plant floor can amount to incremental cost savings, imagine what it means if that same change is made
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across operations with dozens or the need to rip and replace existing hundreds of plants. For instance, a hardware at individual locations. leading North American consumOnce data is unified in a centraler packaged food and beverage ized repository that is accessible company implemented quality to all stakeholders within the ormanagement software with a cenganization, it’s possible to visualize tralized database to collect, analyze more than a single aspect of operaand monitor data in real time for tions. The outcome is real-time visthree of its plants. The company ibility of the entire enterprise from was able to react to variances and end to end. This enterprise visibility out-of-spec issues as they arose, identifies potential opportunities to and quickly make adjustments to increase output, decrease costs and prevent scrap, reduce giveaway improve quality across manufacturand maintain a consistent taste ing operations. profile. This one initiative resulted A transformation of this magin a $2.1 million annual, sustainable nitude can be daunting. Luckily, improvement in savings. Extended Industry 4.0 isn’t an all or nothing to its more than dozen plants, the proposal. Food and beverage manannual improvement in savings nears $10 million. The foundation of Industry 4.0 is automation and data exchange. However, a recent survey USE PENCIL & PAPER. by InfinityQS of 260 manufacturers found that 75 percent of ufacturers can take respondents still are an agile approach manually collecting to adopt Industry data. Worse yet, 4.0 components at 47 percent of a pace that is better those rely on pencil aligned with their and paper. financial and human To achieve the resource capabilidigital transformaties. Starting with a STILL tion that Industry single system—like a MANUALLY 4.0 promises, quality management COLLECT DATA. manufacturers must system—can help put down their companies better clipboards and understand and automate their optimize operations, MANUFACTURERS data collection while determining processes. Implethe next step in their menting a cloud-based overall digital transforquality management mation. system centralizes data collection in a secure, reliable hosted AUTOMATE DATA COLLECTION. environment, without
47%
75%
25%
www.foodlogistics.com
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The Food Logistics Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award profiles people in our industry whose hard work and vision are driving the global food and beverage supply chain forward. Represented on the list are industry veterans and newcomers; corporate executives and entrepreneurs; and those with backgrounds in academia, agriculture and related industries. Congratulations to these deserving champions!
7
Global Supply Chain Solutions for the Food and Beverage Industry
™
SCOTT CARTER National DCP LLC
JOE CURRY Universal Lumpers/ American Lumping Association
KATIE CURRY Zipline Logistics
GET THE RECOGNITION YOU DESERVE! Each year, Food Logistics recognizes individual and corporate leaders in the food and beverage industry. Plan now to enter your company — or a cutting-edge client or vendor — in one of these industry-leading recognition programs:
PARIS GOGOS NeoGrid
2017
2017
TOP GREEN PROVIDERS
TOP 3PL & COLD STORAGE PROVIDERS
In recognition of companies demonstrating leadership in sustainability in the food and beverage supply chain
Honoring the leading 3PL and Cold Storage Providers that support the food and beverage supply chain
FL100+ TOP SOFTWARE & TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS
RICK HASSLER Nature’s Frequencies 2017 TOP PROVIDERS
ROB NEMETH Allied Distribution Services LLC
SANDEEP PATEL Veridian Solutions
TONY VLAHOS NECS Inc.
Nomination deadline: March 31, 2017 Winners announced in June 2017 issue
Nomination deadline: May 26, 2017 Winners announced in August 2017 issue
Recognizing top software and technology providers supporting the global food and beverage supply chain Nomination deadline: Sept. 22, 2017 Winners announced in Nov/Dec 2017 issue
O n l i n e n o m i n a ti o n s o p e n a p p r o xi ma t e l y e i g h t w e e k s b e f o r e t h e d e a d l i n e s l i s t e d a b o v e . Aw a rd r e s u l t s , i n f o r ma t i o n a n d n o mi n a t i o n s p o s t e d o n : MITCH WESELEY 3Gtms
RICK ZAFFARANO Transportation Insight
FoodLogistics.com/Awards Nomination dates and issues may change. Consult the call-for-entries email and nomination survey for confirmation
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