Food Logistics December 2015

Food Logistics ANNUAL LISTING OF TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS THAT ENSURE AN EFFICIENT, RELIABLE FOOD AND BEVERAGE SUPPLY CHAIN

2015

PG. 30

®

Issue No. 172 Nov/Dec 2015

+

Global Supply Chain Solutions for the Food and Beverage Industry

SECTOR REPORTS

• RFID • Internet Of Things • Fuel Efficiency • Econ Dev: The Americas

3PLS/ REFRIGERATED LOGISTICS: SIX STEPS TOWARD OPTIMIZING WINE & SPIRITS OPERATIONS Pg. 26

TRACKING THE FUTURE OF FOOD LOGISTICS ▼

Editors Blog: Customer Data And The Supply Chain: P&G’s Approach Reveals The Scope Of The Challenge

▼

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Reports From The International Foodservice Distributors Association 2015 Distribution Solutions Conference In Phoenix, Ariz.

▼

How transportation fundamentals contrast with developments in food safety and security, telematics, the IoT, grocery e-commerce and more. Pg. 18

FL’s Educational Webinar Series

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ON THE MENU

NOV EMBE R/D EC EM B ER 2015 • ISSU E N O . 172

COVER STORY

18 Tracking The Future Of Food Logistics

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A focus on transportation fundamentals contrasted with developments in food safety and security, telematics, the IoT, grocery e-commerce, and new ways to think about agriculture and consumption.

By Lara L. Sowinski

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Target Corp.

Scrutinizes Its Food Supply Chain

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The Top 10 ‘Must Reads’ Of 2015

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THIRD-PARTY & REFRIGERATED LOGISTICS

Six Steps Toward Optimizing Wine & Spirits Operations

TRANSPORTATION

U.S. Fleets Post Improved Fuel Economy Using Efficiency Technologies

SOFTWARE & TECHNOLOGY

Are You Prepared For The Brave New World of IoT?

The Internet of Things is changing how information travels from farm to fork. By Elliot Maras

Borrowing proven strategies from the grocery sector is a good starting point. By Paul Laman

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RFID: A Tool For Tracking Products, Assets And More

A North American Council for Freight Efficiency study finds fleets accelerating the adoption of fuel efficiency technologies.

By Elliot Maras

Take a look at the 10 best-read Food Logistics articles from the past year.

By Eric Sacharski

FEATURES

WAREHOUSING

With the emergence of real-time data networks, RFID tags provide accurate status reports and can pinpoint inefficiencies in the food supply chain. By Elliot Maras

The nation’s second largest retailer seeks to correct out of stocks and make food a shopping destination for consumers. By Elliot Maras

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SECTOR REPORTS

64

SPECIAL REPORT

The 2015 FL100+

Food Logistics’ annual list of the software & technology providers that ensure a safe, efficient, and reliable global food and beverage supply chain. By Editorial Staff

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Florida: Prepared For Perishables

Across the Sunshine State, ports and infrastructure and ready for the expansion of the Panama Canal with hopes to become the preferred destination of perishables from the Americas. By Eric Sacharski

COLUMNS

STARTERS 6 FOR Software &

Technology: The Wow Factor

Appreciating the multiple benefits that technology provides to our industry.

By Lara L. Sowinski

INSIGHTS 16 COOL How The Sanitary

Transport Rule Will Change Life For Refrigerated Fleets And Carriers

Several aspects of the rule scheduled for release in March 2016 will change the way carriers and shippers handle food. By Bud Rodowick and Patrick Brecht, Ph.D.

(AND MORE) FOR THOUGHT 68 FOOD How To Improve

Supply Chain Sustainability: The Collective Impact Model

Key players can partner on a common agenda and create a shared vision for sustainability.

By Dave Feldman

DEPARTMENTS

8 Supply Scan 12 Food on the Move 67 Ad Index

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www.foodlogistics.com

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DELAYS CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING. That’s why Penske Logistics has customized supply chain solutions to help keep your business moving forward.

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FOR STARTERS FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

WWW.FOODLOGISTICS.COM Published by AC Business Media Inc.

Software & Technology: THE WOW FACTOR

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his is the twelfth year Food Logistics has published its list of software and technology providers who play a significant ole in the global food supply chain. Each year the list grows longer as more companies join this exciting sector. New products, expanded capabilities, more affo dability— it’s easy to see why this is such an important sector today as food-related companies and logistics service providers alike search for solutions to address challenges associated with end-to-end visibility, regulatory compliance, and cold chain integrity.

SOWINSKI

Congratulations to all the companies that earned a spot on this year’s FL100+.

They represent a wide range of technologies and innovations that support and influence our industry. I encourage Food Logistics’ readers to spend some time checking out the companies on this year’s list and reviewing the graph of attributes we compiled highlighting their capabilities.

Our November/December cover story, entitled “Tracking The Future Of Food Logistics,” is a collaborative effort from our editorial staff. It’s a compilation of trends and developments in our industry, along with a profile on Target Corp.’s strategy to forge deeper into the food space, and a list of Food Logistics’ Top 10 articles for 2015.

Not surprisingly, software and technology is a prominent theme in each of these editorial pieces. Looking ahead to 2016, Food Logistics will continue exploring the ways technology is supporting our industry. Our coverage of ports and ocean carriers is also set to expand as we devote more attention to food imports and exports—a constant bright spot when it comes to global trade.

And while technology surges ahead, the human aspect of the global food supply chain is truly exceptional. From farmers to grocers, truckers to business execs, people in our industry take great pride in the work they perform, knowing that the production, transportation and consumption of food is more than just getting something “from farm to fork,” it’s about assuring food is safe to eat, plentiful, nutritious and tasty.

People and relationships are the keystone of our industry. I think about this often during the year when attending various trade shows or getting out to meet readers and spending time with colleagues. It’s energizing, insightful and inspiring. Mostly, it compels all of us at Food Logistics to put our best effort towards consistently turning out a publication and content that reflects the integrity of our industry.

Enjoy the read.

LARA L. SOWINSKI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LSOWINSKI@ACBUSINESSMEDIA.COM

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201 N. Main Street, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 (800) 538-5544 • www.ACBusinessMedia.com PRINT AND DIGITAL STAFF Group Publisher Jolene Gulley Associate Publisher Judy Welp Editor-in-Chief Lara L. Sowinski lsowinski@ACBusinessMedia.com Managing Editor Elliot Maras emaras@ACBusinessMedia.com Assistant Editor Eric Sacharski esacharski@ACBusinessMedia.com Ad Production Manager Cindy Rusch crusch@ACBusinessMedia.com Creative Director Kirsten Crock Senior Audience Development Manager Wendy Chady Audience Development Manager Tammy Steller ADVERTISING SALES (800) 538-5544 Associate Publisher/East Coast Sales Manager Judy Welp (480) 821-1093; jwelp@ACBusinessMedia.com Midwest/West Sales Manager Carrie Konopacki (920) 542-1236; Fax: (920) 542-1133 201 N. Main Street, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 ckonopacki@ACBusinessMedia.com National Automotive Sales Tom Lutzke (630) 484-8040; tlutzke@ACBusinessMedia.com EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Smitha G. Stansbury, partner, FDA & Life Sciences Practice, King & Spalding Raymond J. Segat, director, cargo & business development, Vancouver Airport Authority Dr. Barbara Rasco, professor and interim director, School of Food Science, Washington State University Adriano Melluzo, vice president, national sales, Ryder CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS PO Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605 (877) 201-3915, Fax: (800) 543-5055 Email: circ.FoodLogistics@omeda.com LIST RENTAL Elizabeth Jackson, Merit Direct LLC (847) 492-1350, ext. 18, Fax: (847) 492-0085 Email: 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 VP Content Greg Udelhofen VP Marketing Debbie George Digital Operations Manager Nick Raether Digital Sales Manager Monique Terrazas

Published and copyrighted 2015 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

D A I LY U P D AT E S AT WWW.FOODLOGISTICS.COM

NE WS FROM A CROS S THE F O O D SU PPLY C H AIN

FDA Finalizes FSMA Rules For Produce, Verification And Third Party Certification

tive practices in food processing and storage facilities.

increase as new border control measures are put in place.

Terror Attacks Bring More Scrutiny To Food Shipments In Europe

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized rules for safety standards for produce farms and for making importers accountable for verifying the safety of imported food.

The agency also issued a rule to establish accreditation of thirdparty certification bodies, also known as auditors, to conduct food safety audits of foreign food facilities.

The rules, which implement the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, will help produce farmers and food importers take steps to prevent problems before they occur. They build on the preventive controls rules the FDA finalized in September 2015, mandating preven-

FDA Approves Genetically Modified Salmon

Food shipments in Europe are starting to slow down on account of increased inspections caused by the recent terror attacks in Paris, according to marketplace.org. Businesses are expecting the slowdowns to

Based on what it calls “sound science and a comprehensive review,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its first approval for a geneti-

cally engineered (GE) animal intended for food. The FDA approved AquaBounty Technologies’ application for AquAdvantage Salmon, an Atlantic salmon that reaches market size more quickly than non-GE farm-raised Atlantic salmon.

Kroger To Acquire Roundy’s For $800 Million The Kroger Co. and Roundy’s, Inc. announced a merger agreement under which Kroger will purchase all outstanding shares of Roundy’s for $3.60 per share in cash. The price is estimated at around $800 million, according to Supermarket News.

U.S. Imports of Fruit and Frozen Juices (By Total Value)

$1,800 $1,600 $1,400 $1,200 $1,000 $800 $600 $400 $200 $0

2014 Imports

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2015 Imports

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U.S. IMPORTS OF DAIRY

U.S. Exports of Fruit and Frozen Juices (By Total Value)

$1,000 $900 $800 $700 $600 $500 $400 $300 $200 $100 $0

Canada 4%

Guatemala 7%

2014 Exports

Mexico 35%

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Chile 15%

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Top Countries of Origin (U.S. Imports of Fruit and Frozen Juices Jan.-Sept.)

Costa Rica 6%

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All data provided by U.S. imports of fruit and frozen juices Zepol. Visit zepol.com have been tracking above last year’s for a Free Trial levels consistently while exports have been slightly below 2014’s activity.

Mexico remains far and away the largest exporter of fruit and frozen juices to the U.S. Besides Mexico, countries south of the border comprise the largest base of fruit and frozen juices to the U.S., with Chile, Guatemala and Costa Rica following Mexico. Canada is the fifth largest exporter to the U.S.

Source: Zepol, www.zepol.com

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FOOD ON THE MOVE LOGISTICS TRENDS IN OUR INDUSTRY

Congress Reaches Accord On $305 Billion Highway Bill House and Senate negotiators struck an agreement on a $305 billion highway bill that would extend federal transportation funding for five years, setting up an eleventh-hour dash to win approval in both chambers, according to The Hill. The resulting 1,300-page bill, paid for with gas tax revenue and a package of $70 billion in offsets from other areas of the federal budget, came just days before transportation spending is set to expire on Dec. 4.

The measure calls for spending approximately $205 billion on highways and $48 billion on transit projects over the next five years. It also reauthorizes the controversial Export-Import Bank’s expired charter until 2019.

AGRO Merchants Acquires Nordic Logistics And Warehousing LLC AGRO Merchants Group has acquired Nordic Logistics and Warehousing, LLC, located in Atlanta, Ga. The company’s latest partnership with Nordic expands its North American footprint and value-added service offerings, and adds Savannah, Ga., as another key U.S. port of entry/exit for its global customers. The deal will add a total of 12 facilities, 70 million cubic feet of refrigerated and frozen space, and 218,000 pallet positions to the AGRO network – making it the fifth largest global third-party temperature-controlled provider.

ORBCOMM Inc. To Acquire WAM Technologies LLC ORBCOMM Inc., a global provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of WAM Technologies LLC (WAM), an affiliate of Mark-It Services, Inc. Based in Skillman, N.J., WAM is a global provider of remote wireless 12

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U.S. And Pacific Rim Nations Agree On Transpacific Partnership

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he U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations recently agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia, according to The New York Times.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress Ambassador Michael Froman and ministers gathered in Atlanta, Ga. and will inject a new flash for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Ministerial. point into both parties’ Image courtesy of the U.S.Trade Representative. presidential contests. But the accord — a product of nearly eight years of negotiations, including five days of round-the-clock sessions — is a potentially legacy-making achievement for President Obama, and the capstone for his foreign policy “pivot” toward closer relations with fast-growing eastern Asia, after years of American preoccupation with the Middle East and North Africa.

management and control solutions for ocean transport refrigerated containers and related intermodal equipment.

Maersk Line To Slash 4,000 Jobs In Response To Market Outlook In response to both the short-term and long-term market outlook, Maersk Line is accelerating a number of cost and efficiency initiatives, including eliminating 4,000 jobs.

Maersk Line will reduce its network capacity and postpone investments in new capacity, while at the same time reducing operating costs by escalating already-announced plans to simplify the organization. In light of the lower demand, these initiatives will allow Maersk Line to deliver on the ambition to grow at least in line with the market to defend the market leading position. Over the next two

• FOOD LOGISTICS

years, Maersk Line expects to lower the annual sales, general and administration (SG&A) cost run-rate by $250 million with an impact of $150 million in 2016. SG&A savings will be derived from already-initiated transformation projects and the standardization, automation and digitalization of processes.

Canadian Pacific Railway Seeks Merger With Norfolk Southern Canadian Pacific Railway formally proposed a merger with U.S. rail company Norfolk Southern in the hopes of creating a transcontinental railway, a deal that would extend the already vast reach of Canada’s secondlargest railway, according to globalnews.ca. CanadianPacific Railway said it was confident it could satisfy the concerns of regulators on both sides of the border. www.foodlogistics.com

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www.foodlogistics.com

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FOOD LOGISTICS

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FOOD ON THE MOVE LOGISTICS TRENDS IN OUR INDUSTRY

Triton Container International And TAL International Merge Triton Container International Ltd. and TAL International Group, Inc. signed an agreement under which the companies will combine in an all-stock merger of equals transaction. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, will create the world’s largest lessor of intermodal freight containers with a combined container fleet of nearly 5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU).

Burger Chain Sues DoorDash For Unauthorized Deliveries In-N-Out has sued Palo Alto, Calif.-based food delivery service DoorDash, which deliv-

Transportation Insight Acquires Parcel Logistics Provider BirdDog Solutions

ers meals from restaurants for a fee, according to The San Francisco Business Times. The suit alleges that DoorDash is infringing on InN-Out’s trademark. In-N-Out accuses the startup of unfair competition, seeking a permanent injunction to get DoorDash to stop delivering its food..

Transportation Insight, a global third-party logistics (3PL) provider, has acquired BirdDog Solutions, a provider of parcel logistics solutions in North America. The transaction advances Transportation Insight’s small package offering to a more robust suite of services that includes parcel logistics optimization, parcel auditing and advanced parcel analytics.

The technology infrastructure created by the merger gives Transportation Insight clients tier one solutions across all transportation modes and enables shippers to leverage an optimized supply chain as a competitive advantage.

DAT SOLUTIONS’ MONTHLY FREIGHT REPORT

Mind the Gap By Mark Montague

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he number of available refrigerated loads on the spot market rose just 1 percent in November compared to October while available capacity declined 9 percent.

The result was a reefer load-to-truck ratio of 4.2, meaning there were roughly four available loads for every truck posted on DAT load boards. That’s a little better than October, but 62 percent lower than November 2014 when the load-totruck ratio was 11.0.

Spot rates tell a similar story.

At $1.94 per mile, the national average spot reefer rate in November was unchanged from October, but is down 43 cents compared to November 2014. Nearly half the decrease—22 cents—is due to a falling average fuel surcharge (spot rates typically include the surcharge).

From the moment the snow started flying, 2014 was an odd year for freight, and carriers and shippers reacted to it in ways that stick with us today. Carriers added trucks and boosted driver pay, and shippers have been willing to pay premium pricing to lock in capacity and minimize supply chain disruptions.

As a result, the gap between contract rates and spot market rates has grown throughout 2015. Last month, the difference between the national average contract rate and spot-market line-haul rate for truckload reefer freight was 17 percent (32 cents per mile). A year earlier, there was no difference: in fact, in November 2014, the spot reefer line-haul rate was 1 cent higher ($1.92 per mile) than the contract rate.

When will the gap start to close again? Let’s look at three conditions.

A gap between spot and contract rates represents an opportunity for freight brokers, who can offer competitive pricing to their shipper customers while paying a fair rate to carriers who

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haul spot market loads. Typically, the gap will start to close as contract carriers adjust their pricing to avoid losing market share to freight brokers and 3PLs. Also, carriers that have been able to scrape by in an environment of low fuel prices will exit the market if rates drop below their break-even threshold, or if increased costs and new regulations hamper productivity. Less capacity could lead to higher spot prices.

An increase in overall freight volume would also tip the balance as the additional demand would likely exceed contract capacity. Shipper, carrier, broker, spot, contract—having more freight to move is probably the best scenario for everyone.

Mark Montague is 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, Ore. For information, visit www.dat.com. www.foodlogistics.com

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• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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COOL INSIGHTS B Y B U D R O D O W I C K A N D P AT R I C K B R E C H T

RODOWICK (L) AND BRECHT

How The Sanitary Transport Rule

Will Change Life For Refrigerated Fleets And Carriers

I

n an effo t to streamline the process of identifying key areas of concern for refrigerated fleets and carriers we reviewed and carefully evaluated the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act’s (FSMA) “Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food” proposed rule, line by line.

As we plowed through the proposed rule, we relied on decades of direct involvement and experience with food safety, best practices and management of domestic and international refrigerated fleets. We highlighted sections of the proposed rule that refrigerated fleets and carriers can access and review without undertaking the burdensome task of meticulously reviewing the entire proposed rule.

Before expanding on the sanitary transport rule, keep in mind that this rule is one of two that the FDA has not yet finalized. In mid-November, FDA finalized rules that establish safety standards for produce farms, make importers accountable for verifying that imported meats meet U.S. safety standards, and establishing a program for accrediting third-party certification bodies to conduct safety audits in foreign facilities. The sanitary transportation rule and the intentional adulteration rule were scheduled to become final in spring of 2016.

Transporters treated as one The sanitary transport rule would regulate food transporters in a similar manner regardless of 16

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the risk. It would establish the responsibilities for shippers, carriers and receivers. These definitions, roles and responsibilities are confusing and, if implemented, will adversely affect how operations are conducted and the bottom line.

Onerous temperature rule The FDA also addressed time and temperature as an overly protective and redundant preventive control. Time and temperature should be considered during transport to maintain food quality and condition, but it is of questionable relevance regarding food safety for many, if not most, food items.

Another concern is how the FDA identifies the “shipper.” The definition is unclear as to whether or not certain entities in the supply chain meet the definition and are covered by this regulation. It is unrealistic and inaccurate to assume that the “shipper” always controls the transportation of the food and specifies the transport conditions.

Shippers must specify to carriers in writing the sanitary requirements for transportation equipment to be provided for foods subject to temperature control requirements.

Procedures subject to recordkeeping must specify practices for cleaning, sanitizing, and inspecting transportation equipment.

The rule also establishes requirements for training carrier personnel and trainers must • FOOD LOGISTICS

document the training.

The term “carrier” means a person who owns, leases, or is otherwise responsible for the use of a motor vehicle or rail vehicle to transport food. A carrier may also be a receiver or a shipper if the person also performs those functions.

Thus the carrier, being ultimately responsible for the use of the vehicle, would be responsible for ensuring that a driver functions in a manner that enables the carrier to comply with all of his responsibilities.

“Transportation equipment” is defined as equipment used in transportation operations other than vehicles, e.g., bulk and non-bulk containers, bins, totes, pallets, pumps, fittings, hoses, gaskets, and loading and unloading systems. It also states that transportation equipment would include a railcar not attached to a locomotive or a trailer not attached to a tractor.

Shippers to be accountable The shipper must specify to the carrier, in writing, all necessary sanitary requirements for the carrier’s transportation equipment, including any specific design requirements and cleaning procedures deemed necessary by the shipper.

The FDA’s standards for cleaning and sanitizing equipment are an area of uncertainty relating to the standard of cleanliness. How clean is clean?

The rule requires that

transportation equipment be “adequately” cleanable for their intended use to prevent the food that they transport from becoming filthy, putrid, decomposed or otherwise unfit.

Regardless of the standard, cleaning of equipment poses possible conflicts with environmental laws.

More training is needed There are training requirements for carriers (as opposed to shippers) in this proposed rule. It could be provided in a half-day, online format similar to training referred to as DOT HM 181 – basic hazmat employee training – which is readily available in the private sector. The provision would require that the training be provided upon hiring and as needed thereafter.

Carriers will be required to establish and maintain records that document training. Such records would include the date of the training, the type of training, and the person(s) trained. Given the importance of adequate training, we believe this rule should also require that carriers maintain records documenting they have provided the required training.

For an extended version of this article, visit foodlogistics. com/12144229 ◆ Patrick Brecht, Ph.D. is president of P.E.B. Commodities Inc. and Bud Rodowick is manager of strategic relations for food safety and OEMs for Thermo King Corp. www.foodlogistics.com

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C O V E R

S T O R Y

TRACKING THE FUTURE OF FOOD LOGISTICS

A focus on transportation fundamentals contrasted with developments in food safety and security, telematics, the IoT, grocery e-commerce, and new ways to think about agriculture and consumption are leading the list. BY LARA L. SOWINSKI

T

he global food supply chain is arguably one of the most vibrant industries operating today. It’s no wonder considering humans’ relationship with food, which is both basic and complex. Food sustains life, yet it is also pleasurable, even decadent, at least for most of the developed world. Food is also social, communal and ceremonial. It can be healthy and nutritious or over-processed and tasteless. Sometimes we eat on-the-go, other times we cook from scratch and savor every bite.

Meanwhile, how we grow, process, transport, warehouse, sell, consume and dispose of food is in the midst of radical change. There is not one aspect of the global food supply chain that is untouched by transformations taking place in agriculture, weather and climate change, regulatory compliance, labor, consumer preferences, sustainability, technology, and retailing.

Following are a handful of observations I compiled, all of which are part of the larger story about what’s important to the global food supply chain now and what we’re likely to see more of in the coming year. On the subsequent pages, Elliot Maras, managing editor, takes a close look at Target Corp.’s strategy to build a competitive and reliable food supply chain after several missteps, while Eric Sacharski, assistant editor, serves up the Top 10 Food Logistics stories for 2015—

Lara L. Sowinski, editor-in-chief

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Rail on the rebound The rail sector embarked on a comprehensive “improvement plan” in recent years that involved network and infrastructure upgrades, along with new equipment and more employees aimed at recapturing a piece of the growing volume of freight moving in and out of North America, particularly intermodal freight that included everything from consumer goods to fresh and frozen food and all kinds of beverages.

Railroads understood that it wasn’t enough to simply transport freight; they needed to adhere to just-in-time requirements and do so with minimal damage too.

There are plenty of bright spots that illustrate the success of the rail sector’s efforts.

One is Florida East Coast Railway (FECR), whose 351-mile rail system runs along the east coast of Florida, connecting shippers and freight from PortMiami, Port Everglades, the Port of Palm Beach and JAXPORT to global markets and customers.

Dixie Egg Company, one of the largest egg producers in the U.S., relies on FECR to transport reefer trailers of fresh shell eggs from Jacksonville, Fla., to Miami. Initially, Jacques Klempf, CEO, was hesitant to include rail as part of the company’s transportation strategy. But, he praises FECR for moving the trailers efficiently and getting the eggs to their destination in good condition.

In July, FECR celebrated the one-year anniversary of its new Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) adjacent to Florida’s Port Everglades. The ICTF is used to transfer international intermodal containers arriving or departing by ship—both north/south and east/west trade lanes—as well as domestic containers and trailers with cargo moving to and from South Florida.

• FOOD LOGISTICS

The pending completion of the Panama Canal expansion project this spring will further position Florida as a key gateway for food imports/exports, while FECR and its various port, cold chain and logistics partners continue to prove the viability of rail in today’s food supply chain.

The B2B sharing economy Uber is piloting its grocery delivery service, UberFRESH, and a restaurant delivery service, UberEATS, in several U.S. markets.

The sharing economy, marked by the rise of services such as Uber and Airbnb, is making its way into the B2B space.

During this year’s Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) conference in San Diego, Calif., I met with the CEOs of two companies at the forefront of this model.

Russell Jones, CEO of Cargo Chief, aims to connect shippers with truck capacity using very robust technology and a giant network of over 500,000 trucks. Small- and medium-sized shippers transporting cargo weighing 200 pounds or more over 100 miles are the targets. The model also helps private fleets fill up their excess capacity. The team of about 50 people have a good mix of industry experience and Silicon Valley tech backgrounds.

Flexe, based in Seattle, Wash., offers an on-demand service for the warehousing sector. According to CEO Karl Siebrecht, even he was surprised that a “matchmaking” service such as Flexe wasn’t already in use. Given the seasonal nature of food, the service is a good option for those whose warehousing and cold storage needs fluctuate throughout the year. The two-year-old company has expanded to 30 markets throughout the U.S. www.foodlogistics.com

12/4/15 10:54 AM

Food safety & security In November, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration released three more rules pertaining to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), leaving two more rules of the total seven—sanitary transportation and food defense—for release in 2016. While the FSMA generally brings additional costs and procedural changes to the trade, most concede that the new rules will ultimately improve food safety, visibility, tracking and tracing, and recall response throughout the industry.

It’s worth mentioning that risks associated with terrorism and the potential for attack on the global food supply chain are making compliance with the FSMA more palatable for many these days.

Food security, meanwhile, is also getting more attention as governments, corporations and NGOs work to assure people have access to nutritious food. In 2012, DuPont put forth ambitious goals to improve global nutrition and food security by 2020. The company is investing $10 billion towards R&D to enhance agricultural sustainability, extend food freshness and reduce waste. Training small farmers in developing countries how to improve their crop yield is another facet of DuPont’s overall goals.

Cold chain integrity More perishable food is moving throughout the world and imports/exports are only expected to continue rising. The advancements in cold chain technology and transportation are supporting this growth. As controlled atmosphere technology becomes more sophisticated, greater opportunities are emerging for shippers, especially those who can now transport their perishable foods via ocean instead of air cargo thanks to more precise temperature, humidity and oxygen levels inside the shipping container.

Major ocean carriers are investing heavily in their reefer business, buying new equipment and boosting their reefer fleets to hanwww.foodlogistics.com

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dle more fresh and frozen food shipments, not to mention pharmaceuticals, which are also migrating from more expensive air cargo to ocean with the innovations in controlledatmosphere technology.

Key ports in every global region are also helping support the cold chain with investments in reefer racks and plugs and other infrastructure enhancements. More cold storage capacity is also coming online to support the increase in temp-controlled cargoes.

Meanwhile, equipment manufacturers such as Carrier Transicold are introducing new equipment that is not only able to support the cold chain, but do it sustainably and cost efficiently too. The company’s NaturaLINE container refrigeration unit uses non-ozone depleting CO2 as the refrigerant, which has a global warming potential (GWP) of one, compared to the conventional synthetic refrigerants widely used today that have a GWP of 1,430 and 3,922.

Telematics, IoT Telematics and the Internet of Things (IoT) are creating better visibility of assets and cargo throughout the global food supply chain, improving freshness and providing more and better intelligence, which ultimately leads to more responsive and efficient logistics decision-making. (See Page 56).

In November, Thermo King debuted the TracKing genset telematics solution at the Intermodal Europe show in Hamburg, Germany.

Raluca Radu, product manager of marine telematics, explained that, “Telematics is becoming a crucial component of transport fleets across the world, where food safety regulations and enforcements are growing and shippers are looking for monitoring and management technology that can protect their cargo, fleets and reduce operating costs.”

This fall, ORBCOMM, a global provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT solutions, acquired WAM Technologies, a provider of wireless management and control solutions for ocean reefer containers. The acquisition expands ORBCOMM’s cold chain monitoring solutions from trailers, rail cars and gensets to now include ocean containers.

Maersk Line North America announced in March that it had selected WAM Technologies’ solution to enable remote management worldwide of reefer containers, gensets, chassis and other transport equipment moving by road, rail and sea.

How we eat, how we shop Consumer preferences are driving multiple changes throughout the global food supply chain. One important trend is consumers’ growing desire for “quick, easy and simple,” states customer science company dunnhumby.

“People feel increasingly stretched, so think of convenience from the perspective of the consumer; making the entire shopping experience from planning through to use as simple, easy and quick as possible,” the firm suggests.

Hello Fresh and Blue Apron are two examples of potentially disruptive business models in the global food supply chain, says dunnhumby. The weekly delivery services feature menu-planning, ingredients for the meals provided in the correct quantities, all brought to the consumer’s door.

Another trend is consumers’ desire for more locally-produced food. Standard Foods is a new grocery store in downtown Raleigh, N.C., with produce, dairy, meat and seafood sourced directly from small family farms throughout the state and in the South.

“Standard Foods’ mission is unmistakable—to reintroduce the food, farmers and artisanal production methods of the region,” states the company.

Of course, e-commerce and mobile technology both are making significant impacts in our industry as well. Consumers want to order groceries online and it’s prompting companies like Amazon, Kroger, Walmart and Target to respond. Likewise, transportation providers, 3PLs and others are reengineering their capabilities and networks to support the changing logistics requirements. ◆

For more information: CARGO CHIEF, cargochief.com CARRIER TRANSICOLD, carrier.com COUNCIL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS, cscmp.org DIXIE EGG, dixieegg.com DUNNHUMBY, dunnhumby.com DUPONT, dupont.com FLEXE, flexe.com FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY, fecrwy.com ORBCOMM, orbcomm.com THERMO KING, thermoking.com U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, fda.org UBER, uber.com

FOOD LOGISTICS

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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C O V E R

S T O R Y

TARGET CORP. SCRUTINIZES ITS FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN The nation’s second largest retailer seeks to correct out of stocks and make food a shopping destination for consumers. BY ELLIOT MARAS

T

he myriad challenges facing food retailing today are forcing serious players to re-evaluate their supply chain strategies.

Target Corp., the nation’s second largest retailer, has openly acknowledged many of these challenges and has engaged in some thought-provoking, if uncertain, food initiatives.

plagued by grocery out-ofstocks and needs to improve its supply chain. Sources interviewed by Food Logistics agree that the company has made progress under its new CEO, Brian Cornell, but more improvement is needed.

John Mulligan, Target’s chief operating officer, has described the company’s fresh food supply chain as a “Frankenstein.”

He acknowledged the company’s supply chain for fresh food isn’t reliable in many parts of the country.

In early November, the company announced it is considering partnering with outside companies to strengthen its fresh food supply chain. The move comes as Target also seeks to revamp its food business with newer offerings and aims to get a bigger share of e-commerce grocery sales.

Food has not been a shopper destination

Target to spend $1 billion on supply chain In March, Target told investors it intends to spend $1 20

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billion to improve its supply network and online sales technology. Mulligan said he wants to make Target competitive with Walmart and Amazon without following their capitalintensive strategy of rolling out multiple warehouses and distribution centers.

Burt Flickinger, managing director of New York Citybased retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group, told Reuters that partnerships could mean billions of dollars for wholesalers, food distributors, and food and grocery manufacturers who have existing infrastructure to store and ship food to Target stores.

Target grocery suppliers and food supply chain consultants agree that Target has been • FOOD LOGISTICS

Jim Tompkins, CEO of the Raleigh, N.C., supply chain consultancy Tompkins International, says Target faces a unique set of challenges in the grocery environment. Because the company expanded into food from a general merchandise foundation, the grocery section has never been exciting.

As consumer grocery expectations increased over the years, this needed to change. “Target needed grocery to become a destination unto itself and this meant fresh, organic and store brands,” Tompkins says. “And so Target has had a long way to improve.”

Target’s challenge is to strengthen the outer ring of

the store (fresh, refrigerated and frozen food), Tompkins says. This outer ring contains the products that can be more profitable but have shorter shelf life and face higher quality expectations from customers.

Under Cornell, who became CEO last August, Target has begun making strategic changes to its business, Tompkins says.

He gives the following examples: • On Target’s intl.target. com website, customers can order food from about 200 countries and have the currency exchange, shipping and delivery managed for them. Borderfree, a technology provider, manages the website.

• The eBay Global Shipping, makes 200,000 products available in the U.K. • The company introduced an e-commerce offering in Canada after closing its Canadian stores last year.

• In September, the company partnered with Instacart, a delivery service whose personal shoppers pick and deliver grocery items from local stores, www.foodlogistics.com

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in Minneapolis, Minn., Target’s home base.

Target’s plans to rely on outside companies to handle wholesaling and distribution of fresh food has met varied reactions from retail veterans.

Food supplier cites challenges One food supplier who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Food Logistics that relying on 3PLs for warehousing and distribution is nothing new for Target since the company has always used third party support for its food busi-

ness. If the company plans to improve its food logistics performance, it could be signaling a need to change which 3PLs it relies on.

The executive further observes that Target has followed a “lean inventory” strategy with grocery, in marked contrast to Walmart and Kroger Co. Walmart and Kroger want stores to be fully stocked, and actually run the risk of overstocking them, in contrast to Target’s strategy.

Walmart and Kroger have the advantage of company-owned DCs and fulfillment centers.

Walmart and Kroger also are more flexible in allowing their stores to order product directly from food suppliers, he notes.

Outsourcing: pro and con Tompkins, for his part, thinks Target’s approach of outsourcing fresh food distri22

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bution makes sense. “I think piggybacking with someone else makes sense. You need to move quickly.”

Target also has an opportunity to improve its distribution by combining its existing DCs for physical stores with fulfillment centers (FCs) for their e-commerce customers, Tompkins says. The advantages of combined DCs and FCs are lower inventorying costs, less automation equipment and lower transportation costs.

offering of its larger retail rival Walmart, and to Amazon, the e-commerce leader.

Target expands vision Target has undertaken some other initiatives that indicate some level of commitment to improving its food supply chain. Most of these initiatives reflect Cornell’s vision for making the food presentation relevant to growing consumer demands for organic, fresh and locally-sourced foods.

• Target has partnered with MIT’s Open Agriculture Lab to help determine how best to scale new food innovations.

The company is not presently combining these functions since adding fulfillment functions to existing DCs would be too costly, he notes.

Mark Heckman, a supermarket veteran who currently runs a Bradenton, Fla.-based marketing and supply chain consultancy, questions Target’s approach since he sees the supply chain as an area where retailers need to take as much direct ownership as possible.

“When you lose control over the quality of the cold chain, it’s very difficult to keep the standards,” he says. He calls the strategy “180 degrees” different from Walmart’s.

Heckman sees the move as especially challenging for Target since its core customer is more quality-focused than Walmart’s.

He even views Target’s Instacart partnership as a weak response to the e-commerce • FOOD LOGISTICS

The company recently introduced a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, based in Cambridge, Mass., and Palo Alto, Calif.-based global design firm IDEO, on a multi-year collaboration, known as the Food + Future coLAB, to explore the future of food. Target says the work will focus on areas such as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health. Target and MIT’s Open Agriculture initiative will also begin a multi-year collaboration to explore city farming.

The company will collect and analyze billions of data points. These will include brand communications, traditional and social media messages and supply chain information, in an effort to map global conversations related to food.

“Target is collaborating

with MIT – combining their research and technical expertise with our knowledge of retail – to reimagine the future of food,” Jenna Reck, Target’s manager of public relations, told Food Logistics. “We’re working with MIT’s Open Agriculture Lab to help determine how best to scale new food innovations to the world.”

MIT’s Open Agriculture Lab is building platforms to develop an open-source ecosystem of food technologies that promotes transparency, networked experimentation, education, and local production. It includes a “food computer,” a controlled-environment agriculture technology platform that uses robotic systems to control and monitor climate, energy, and plant growth inside of a specialized growing chamber.

“By combining the boundless curiosity and discovery of MIT’s Media Lab and IDEO’s human-centered approach to design with Target’s knowledge of retail, we can reimagine the future of food,” says Greg Shewmaker, one of Target’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, who is leading the Food + Future coLAB. “We know more about what’s in our smartphones than we do in the last meal we ate. And that’s something we want to change. This collaboration will help to unlock more options and create more transparency not just for Target’s guests, but consumers everywhere,” he says. ◆

For more information: BORDERFREE, borderfree.com IDEO, ideo.com INSTACART, instacart.com MIT MEDIA LAB, media.mit.edu STRATEGIC RESOURCE GROUP, srginsight.com TOMPKINS INTERNATIONAL, tompkinsinc.com www.foodlogistics.com

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THE TOP 10

“MUST READS” OF 2015

B

Take a look at the Food Logistics articles your peers made the most popular from the past year. BY ERIC SACHARSKI

ig data and analytics have become a necessary tool for every business involved in every stage of the global food supply chain. The same can be said for publishing too.

As a fun way to wrap up our coverage in our final issue of 2015, we decided to take a look at our analytics and see exactly what articles from this past year have had the most impact on our readers. The following list is the top 10 most clicked on stories at FoodLogistics.com in 2015 as determined by our readers and our own “big data.”

1. Food Logistics 2015 Top 3PL & Cold Storage Providers By Editorial Staff – August 2015

The trend for providers in the third-party logistics and cold storage sectors on our annual award issue in August were noted for adding new services to their portfolios to meet industry demands, which range from compliance with food safety and transportation regulations to customer-driven requirements for real-time tracking of cargo and temperature monitoring. The list recognizes 3PLs and cold storage providers for their commitment to improving their existing services to achieve more accuracy, improved efficiencies and cost reductions.

2. The Warehouse As A Competitive Advantage By Elliot Maras – January/February 2015 The warehouse plays a bigger role in driving growth and profitability in the food supply chain, and according to January/February’s cover story, evolving warehouse automation technologies is the main reason. Automation continues to add ways to streamline inventory flow as companies install automated storage and retrieval systems, automated guided vehicles, goods-to-person picking systems, voice recognition picking and software-managed inventory systems to improve operating efficiencies.

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3. The 2015 Food Logistics Champions

By Editorial Staff – March 2015

Our inaugural “Food Logistics Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain” recognized influential individuals in the industry whose achievements, hard work and leadership have shaped and helped reach milestones in food safety, efficiency, productivity and innovation throughout the global food supply chain.

4. How Robots Will Tackle Challenging F&B Demands By Elliot Maras – August 2015 The expansion of goods-to-person picking in food and beverage operations has brought about a bigger role for automated material handling systems, including more complex systems such as robots, according to this warehouse sector report from August. Robots, defined as machines that resemble humans and perform tasks on command, are still rare in food and beverage facilities in the U.S., but as technology solutions continue to evolve it will only increase the transition to more robots in the warehouse.

5. Traceability Toolkit: Software, Automation, Data Standardization

By Elliot Maras – March 2015

Food and beverage shippers have a host of technology tools available to improve traceability in their supply chains, according to our feature story from the March issue. Shippers looking to improve food safety and meet stricter government regulations are finding that traceability tools also yield additional benefits like improved inventory management. As the global food supply chain adopts uniform data standards, many find these standards allow them to track inventory faster.

6. Want A Safer Warehouse? Start With Forklift Users By Eric Sacharski – January/February 2015 This warehouse sector report from the first issue of the year looked at how keeping lift truck operators safe plays a major role in improving overall warehouse safety. It also explored the safety features that lift truck manufacturers introduced at the start of 2015, and how data is used to manage a fleet of trucks to pinpoint forklift safety issues.

7. How Agile Are Today’s Foodservice Supply Chains By Elliot Maras – October 2015

on growing demand for immediate-consumption food, and the key supply chain challenges the industry faces in accomplishing the task. The supply chain must allow foodservice providers to meet stricter safety rules at a time when foodservice faces rising commodity costs, higher transportation expenses, increasing labor costs and the need for more sophisticated management tools.

8. Mobile Apps Evolve, Empowering Managers And Employees In The Food Supply Chain By Elliot Maras – June 2015 Food and beverage businesses are now using smartphones, tablets and PCs to manage their operations, according to this software/technology sector report from the June issue. The tools give both managers and employees real-time feedback and direction; and work on a range of operating systems to improve performance in nearly every type of work environment. While these mobile networks are largely in their infancy, growers, processors, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, carriers and 3PLs are all finding mobile management makes them more productive.

9. Food Logistics 2015 Top Green Providers By Editorial Staff – June 2015 Our annual list of Top Green Providers represents the best of transportation providers, 3PLs, cold storage providers, technology companies, pallet and facility manufacturers and other companies helping to support a more sustainable global food supply chain.

10. Analyzing The Rise In Global Cold Storage Capacity By Elliot Maras – January/February 2015 In his “Cool Insights” column to kick off our first issue of 2015, managing editor Elliot Maras summarizes the results of the Global Cold Storage Capacity Report released by the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW) and the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA). To nobody’s surprise, the report detailed how total capacity of refrigerated warehouses was up 20 percent at the end of 2014 and how analysts predicted this year to continue along the consistent growth curve. Judging by all of the announcements this year of new cold storage construction projects in the works, the report for 2015 could bring similar news for 2016. ◆

The cover story from our most recent issue details how the U.S. foodservice industry can try to capitalize

• FOOD LOGISTICS

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Is your business exactly the same as your competitor’s business?

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The implementation of the right standard, a flexible standard, provides value to your organization. If you are not a food processor, why would you put food processing criteria to work in an environment meant for storing and distributing or transporting food?

Building a strong food safety program for your warehouse, distribution, or transportation organization is critical to your customer’s needs, and to your ability to ensure the delivery of a safe product. Why not build a program that suits you – as you are today, and not how someone else wants you to be!

When you select a standard, select one that works for you.

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3 P L / R e f r i g e r a t e d L o g i s t i c s Image courtesy of the Robert Mondavi Institute and UC-Davis at www.robertmondaviinstitute.ucdavis.edu.

Wine & Spirits Operations Six Steps Toward Optimizing

Borrowing proven strategies from the grocery sector is a good starting point.

W

arehousing and distribution for the wine & spirits industries is more than just moving, storing and distributing products; it requires tight operational tolerances to ensure safe and accurate handling, efficient inventory management, traceability and other compliance issues. We can take some of the ideas set forth by grocery stores to achieve efficiency and profitability.

For decades successful supermarkets have implemented scientific principles of psychology to increase retail sales and margins. Retail floor plans and shelf layouts are designed to maximize the amount of consumer time and travel in the store. Strategic product placement helps entice shoppers into purchasing additional items, while an inviting retail environment increases consumer confidence and satisfaction.

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While the goals of wine & spirits logistics may be different, many of them are still the same – and the results of maximizing sales, optimized inventory turnover and streamlined efficiencies still apply.

1.

Keep best sellers within easy reach

In the warehouse, it is practical to store high-volume, highvelocity items in close proximity to picking and shipping.

• FOOD LOGISTICS

Proper product placement and slotting increases order fulfillment speed and accuracy, decreases picking and travel time, and helps avoid congestion. Use historical sales data and demand forecasts to determine which products should be slotted where, and use appropriate picking technologies to support your strategies.

Speaking of inventory management – one story about the lack of inventory control made the news in mid-October when it was suspected that an “insider” took 65 cases of high-dollar, 20-year old bourbon, and a few cases of less-expensive, 13-yearold rye whiskey from a distillery in Kentucky. The retail value of the 200-plus bottles is roughly $26,000, although on the black market, the rare and prized spirits would sell for much more.

BY PAUL LAMAN

The product had been bottled, labeled and packed by case on pallets. The pallets were stored in a secure location behind two sets of locked doors. About 50 employees had access to the stored product.

To those of us in the distribution industry, the heartbreaking thing about the heist is that management has no way to find out when the bottles were taken. The stolen cases were taken from the back of pallets, so nothing seemed amiss at a glance. By the time the shortage was discovered, there were no tracks to follow. Investigators believe the cases were removed a few at a time over at least a two-month period.

In early December, law enforcement officials offered a $10,000 reward for tips, but still no arrests have been made.

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FOOD LOGISTICS

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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tant it is to count and account for your inventory. But too many companies count just once or twice a year. Occasional inventory counts don’t provide a timely way to identify inaccuracies, discrepancies, shrinkage or other issues so that they can be corrected before losses mount. Enhanced security systems also play an important role in keeping an “eye” on one’s inventory.

6.

Movement matters

Just as retailers study consumer pathways and behaviors to create effective store layouts, DC managers need to continually track employee activity and efficiency in order to determine how and where productivity can be increased. Automated monitoring and evaluation systems can yield superb insights that yield measurable results.

For picking operations, using pick-to-voice systems can speed movement as workers are hands free, compared to holding a barcode reader or RFID device, allowing them to pick much faster. Voice picking systems also reduce fatigue, improve productivity and enhance safety.

Pickers wear a small headset/ microphone combination that attaches to a small control unit that’s usually worn on the belt.

The picker receives instruction through the headset via voice command; the picker responds by confirming the action taken, asking the command to be repeated, or requesting clarification. The immediate action-and-feedback cycle produces highly accurate results much faster than methods that require the picker to look from one task to another, scan items, or document exceptions. With both hands and eyes freed, workers can move quickly from one location to another and select items more accurately and efficiently.

28

gives you the opportunity to think through and test options to build a realistic strategy for meeting unexpected demand, instead of having to scramble to recover under pressure.

ter? Just as scanners, conveyors and online payment systems have transformed the retail checkout experience, DC automation technologies are vital for a warehouse that’s effective, efficient, and accurate; providing excellent customer service.

One DMW&H Systems’ customer deployed state-ofthe-industry conveyors and sortation equipment, including zero-pressure accumulation

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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Image courtesy of twww.commercial-wineracks.com.

2.

Because voice-picking systems communicate directly with individual pickers, they have become remarkably sophisticated. Systems can be set up to use different languages or dialects to accommodate a range of workers; at the same time, voice recognition software learns individual speech patterns and accents quickly.

The result is reduced training time and clear communications

• The U.S. is the world’s largest market for wine consumption and will remain in the top spot through 2018 by quite a margin, says International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR).

in both directions. For one DMW&H Systems’ customer, each picker can exceed 600 bottles per hour using voicepicking technology.

3.

Look outside your own operation

Retailers regularly shop the competition, borrow ideas from other sectors, and communicate extensively across locations and divisions. Most DCs operate independently, without nearly enough interaction among divisions. An experienced 3PL provider can often make introductions and share connections to establish mutually beneficial relationships.

4.

Embrace new technologies

When was the last time you saw a supermarket checkout lane with a manual cash regis-

• FOOD LOGISTICS

conveyor and a sliding shoe sorter with “soft touch” diverts to meet fulfillment rates, plus spiral conveyors were used to save space. Another client uses an AS/RS that manages a thousand of the fast-moving SKUs while replenishing the pick locations which are located in two five-level, full-case pick modules.

5.

Plan ahead

Contingency planning is a vital part of any business.

Many distributors have learned strategies to cope with natural disasters, unexpected weather events, fluctuating demand and other possibilities in order to not be caught off guard. Empty store shelves are an uncommon occurrence, which is why it makes the news on those rare occasions when it does happen.

In the DC, pre-planning

Add value

Grocers are continually adding value to customer relationships – offering prepared foods, home delivery, pharmacy services and other nontraditional services. A focus on meeting customer needs builds loyalty and often increases revenue as well.

What value-added services could you provide in the wine and spirits industry? Are your drivers trained to facilitate customer interactions and needs? To assist with in-store merchandising? Do you ask customers what types of valueadded services they would like to see?

In a nutshell, the successful wine & spirits DC must work hard to gather and analyze operational metrics and balance those findings with the need to also supply outstanding customer service across the industry. There’s no single solution – each operation has to develop its own recipe, and many have. ◆

Paul Laman is vice president of DMW&H Systems (www. dmwandh.com). He is responsible for all revenue acquisition as well as all of the design application to the fastest growing segment of DMW&H’s business. Laman joined W&H Systems in 1989 after holding various sales positions in the finance and insurance industries. He is a graduate of New Jersey Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree of science in mechanical engineering. www.foodlogistics.com

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Selective Pallet Rack

Pallet Flow

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Wide Span

Drive-In / Drive-Thru

www.interlakemecalux.com (877) 632.2589 12/7/15 10:32 AM

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2015

The 2015 FL100+ Food Logistics’ annual list of the software & technology providers that ensure a safe, efficient, and reliable global food and beverage supply chain.

E

very year, the list of software and technology companies that provide the products and services food and beverage companies need to support the most productive and efficient supply chain gets longer.

For the 12th consecutive year, Food Logistics surveyed software and technology companies that specialize in the unique challenges of the food and beverage supply chain to come up with this key industry resource. These are the companies whose products and service ensure efficient transportation and warehousing, minimize food waste, facilitate safe operations and assure regulatory compliance.

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Company: AFS Technologies, Inc. Web site: afsi.com Year founded: 1985 Number of employees: 500 Number of food/bev customers: 580 Solution name(s): Trade Promotion Management, Sales Intelligence, Warehouse Management Systems, ERP, Direct Store Delivery, Order Management Systems, Data Synchronization, Systems Integration Worth noting: AFS believes its WMS is the only software available with single-scan traceability with GS1, GTIN and PTI to support inventory management and product recalls. The WMS also provides companies a foundation of best practices for receiving goods, put-away/flow-through, inventory management, order processing, replenishment, pick/pack, loading and shipping, in addition to improved labor management.

WMS is part of an enterprise software suite including ERP, order management and data discovery that is purpose-built for food and beverage companies. This combination of capabilities streamlines key business processes, enables collaboration with partners and delivers visibility into the business.

• FOOD LOGISTICS

Company: Allen Lund Company Web site: allenlund.com Year founded: 1976 Number of employees: 430 Number of food/bev customers: Not revealed Solution name(s): ALC Logistics, TMS Worth noting: ALC offers a customized supply chain solution. The company takes every effort to ensure the solution fits the customer’s business needs. Multi-tenant applications can make a software provider’s life easier, but the customer has to work with what others are using. This is why many customers seek an in-house solution which they can customize. ALC provides a solution that overcomes the drawbacks of both in-house and multi-tenant systems. ALC seeks to provide the best of both worlds.

Company: ARMADA Web site: armada.net Year founded: 1890 Number of employees: 400 Number of food/bev customers: Approximately 25 Solution name(s): 24TRACC Worth noting: ARMADA created 24TRACC as a proprietary supply chain visibility and management application to provide insight into supply chain attributes with the ability to impact these attributes in order to maintain the health of the supply chains. The application is based on comwww.foodlogistics.com

mercial integration and data warehousing platforms supporting both internal and external clients. It supports a multi-tenant paradigm and is provided through an SaaS model to clients and trading partners.

Armada employs integration tools to support all modes of data transmission. These tools support antiquated batch environments as well as the preferred, real-time data transmission. They also facilitate the validation of the data into actionable information.

The company’s integration platform is paired with a proprietary supply chain visibility platform that aggregates the collected data and provides information visualizations and actions to diagnose and remedy supply chain challenges.

Company: Avercast, LLC Web site: avercast.com Year founded: 2008 Number of employees: 63 Number of food/bev customers: 20-plus Solution name(s): Avercast Business Forecasting, Avercast Supply Planning, Avercast Sales & Operations Planning, Avercast Rough Cut Capacity Planning, Avercast Retail Analysis Worth noting: The forecasting engine is powered by 205 forecasting algorithms. The suite of supply chain forecasting and demand planning software solutions transcends the entire end-to-end value chain.

Avercast automatically receives point of sale (POS) data from retailers, provides store-level product analysis, generates forecast (finished goods and bill of materials) based upon a variety of historical data points (POS data, demand history, sales orders, shipping history, bookings history, etc.), manages events and promotions, develops time-phased demand plans to execute the forecast, and shares net projected orders with suppliers/vendors or other trading partners over the web.

provides solutions to maximize customer investment in technology and gain a competitive advantage in an industry of razor-thin margins.

Company: CaseStack Web site: casestack.com Year founded: 1999 Number of employees: 250-plus Number of food/bev customers: 500-plus Solution name(s): NA. Worth noting: CaseStack offers a customized procurement platform (EDI) for processing shipment-related transactions, quoting, shipping records, customized reports, demand planning tools and business analytics.

Powerful dashboards allow users to slice, dice, and drill-down to discover trends. Robust data visualizations give immediate insight into a customer’s supply chain. Real-time visibility technology is available 24/7 and accessible through standard web browsers, anywhere in the world.

Company: Cass Information Systems, Inc. Web site: cassinfo.com Year founded: 1906 Number of employees: 1,075 Number of food/bev customers: 25 Solution name(s): NA Worth noting: Cass transportation expense management services assist in several areas. These include: reducing expenses through an outsourced freight rating, audit, payment and business intelligence solutions; achieving processing efficiency through process automation such as increased use of EDI, online reporting, document and payment visibility, etc.; obtaining operational enhancements through tactical performance improvements and use of metrics; and decision support to aid in strategic planning and execution.

Company: Blue Horeshoe Solutions Web site: bhsolutions.com Year founded: 2001 Number of employees: 175 Number of food/bev customers: 32 Solution name(s): Supply Chain Suite for Dynamics AX Worth noting: Blue Horseshoe designed and sold to Microsoft the new warehousing and transportation modules found within Dyanmics AX 2012 R3. The Dynamics AX space put the company in contact with top food and beverage distributors and provided an unmatched supply chain experience.

Full visibility into the supply chain allows efficient movement, storage, retrieval and transportation. Blue Horeshoe believes its solution and experience can streamline one or all of these needs.

Company: CAMS Software Web site: camspro.com Year founded: 1998 Number of employees: 20 Number of food/bev customers: Not applicable (All are grocery wholesalers or retailers.)

Solution name(s): CAMS Prospero, CAMS Profiler, CAMS Professional, Backhaul Optimizer, Salvage Optimization, Tour Builder, MultiSite Director Worth noting: CAMS Software has become a leader in grocery transportation systems by listening to clients and understanding their business, then by providing products and services designed to assist in running the business more efficiently and more profitably.

Whether it’s enterprise-wide visibility of transportation data or backhaul revenue optimization programs, or driver efficiency and incentive programs, or increased efficiency in the transportation department, CAMS www.foodlogistics.com

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Company: Demand Management, Inc. Web site: demandsolutions.com Year founded: 1985 Number of employees: 28 Number of food/bev customers: 150 Solution name(s): Demand Solutions Worth noting: The flagship product, DSX, is developed on a single database, allowing for all relevant information to be readily available and support different integrated business planning maturity models. DSX’s ability to easily merge demand, supply, and financial information allows all levels within the organization time for data analysis, not data gathering. Companies are able to spot trends, develop action plans to address trends, and measure the impact of implementing various options.

Company: ExtenData Web site: extendata.com Year founded: 2002 Number of employees: 25 Number of food/bev customers: 20 Solution name(s): MobileConductor Delivery Management System Worth noting: ExtenData’s goal is to make its customer’s job easier. With that in mind, the company created a white paper that cuts through the “clutter and noise” of a very confusing and at times misleading market place. This white paper provides common definitions; a company and product “cheat” sheet; and a diagram explaining how all of the supply chain technologies work together. ExtenData believes its knowledge can simplify the process of finding and vetting the right software for supply chain needs.

Company: EXTOL International Web site: extol.com Year founded: 1989 Number of employees: 100 Number of food/bev customers: 110 Solution name(s): EXTOL Business Integrator (EBI) Worth noting: EXTOL believes it provides a better integration experience and that it is ranked higher in customer satisfaction than any North American B2B technology vendor. Its solution does not require custom programming to implement or manage, or specialized skills to run.

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EXTOL integration solutions onboard new trading partners 50 percent (or more) faster than traditional methods. All integration solutions are built in-house (the company has not acquired or merged with other technologies) with direct influence from customers.

Company: Fleet Advantage Web site: fleetadvantage.net Year founded: 2008 Number of employees: 41 Number of food/bev customers: 18 Solution name(s): ATLAAS (Advanced Truck Lifecycle Analytic and Administrative Software) Worth noting: Fleet Advantage is the only company providing the type of software and data analysis that it provides to its clients. The company is just scratching the surface on the amount of data intelligence and analysis that will become available in future versions of ATLAAS to assist clients in making logical, data-driven decisions that will drive the lowest cost of operations of their distribution fleet.

Combining ATLAAS with the company’s financial acumen and industry expertise on truck specifications, utility cycles and cost containment make Fleet Advantage unique in the food service industry.

Company: IFS North America Web site: ifsworld.com Year founded: 1983 Number of employees: 2,700-plus Number of food/bev customers: 88 Solution name(s): IFS Applications Worth noting: Gartner Research has named IFS a leader in its Magic Quadrant for SingleInstance ERP for Project-Centric Midmarket Companies. IFS has also been named as a leader for its Enterprise Service Management solution in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management.

Company: Intesource,

company

a PROACTIS

Web site: intesource.com Year founded: 1999 Number of employees: 27 Intesource, 110 Proactis Number of food/bev customers: 20 Solution name(s): eSourcing as a Managed Service Offering, Contract Center (contract management), Vendor Management, Commodity Center (commodity tracking and his-

• FOOD LOGISTICS

tory), Milestone Manager (project management) Worth noting: Intesource offers the industry’s only enterprise-wide, unlimited, fullservice eSourcing package. The company’s proven approach drives double-digit savings (18 percent on average) without requiring additional staff or process overhauls – an approach that saves time and frees up staff to focus on strategic initiatives.

Intesource believes the biggest challenge facing the food and beverage industry is supply chain continuity. Hence, it offers a proven approach to allow organizations to quickly collect pricing and information from multiple, vetted vendors. The company brings a history of success in challenging sourcing climates and expertise in both direct and indirect categories.

Company: Lean Logistics Web site: leanlogistics.com Year founded: 1999 Number of employees: 185 Number of food/bev customers: 40 Solution name(s): LeanTMS, Managed Transportation Services, LeanSource, LeanDEX, LeanGlobal Worth noting: Transportation network intelligence is something that should be top of mind today. In order to improve cost and service, there is a need to have visibility into transparent data. Lean Logistics believes the data should be coming from a transportation network that is much broader than what is seen on a daily basis.

A network provides a lens into the trends, metrics, outliers and warning signs. With a transparent SaaS network, a manager can run comparison studies, review best practices, provide predictive analysis and carrier health checks allowing for fact-base decisions to implement intelligent business processes and deploying continuous improvement strategies that teams can execute on.

Company: MercuryGate

International Inc.

Web site: mercurygate.com Year founded: 2000 Number of employees: 185 Number of food/bev customers: 20 Solution name(s): MercuryGate TMS, Mojo, Carma, MercuryProcure, Mercury Fleet Worth noting: MercuryGate offers the industry’s only cloud-based, single-platform, omni-modal transportation management system. Companies of all sizes quickly locate www.foodlogistics.com

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2015

1 3GTMS 3gtms.com X X X X X 2 4SIGHT 4sightsolution.com X X X X X X X X X X X 3 4SIGHT Supply Chain Group go4sight.com X X X X 4 AFS Technologies, Inc. afsi.com X X X X X X X X X X X X 5 Allen Lund Company allenlund.com X X X X X X X X X X 6 Aptean aptean.com X X X 7 Arkieva arkieva.com X X X X X X X 8 ARMADA armada.net X X X X X X X X X 9 ArrowStream arrowstream.com X X X X X 10 Avercast, LLC avercast.com X X X X X 11 Blue Horseshoe Solutions bhsolutions.com X X X X X X X X X 12 Blue Link Associates Limited bluelinkerp.com X X X X X X X X X Lot tracking, traceability, reporting and

analytics, accounting, order entry/processing

13 Blue Ridge blueridgeglobal.com X X X X X X 14 BravoSolution bravosolution.com X Strategic procurement 15 BRdata Software Solutions brdata.com X X X X X Pricing management 16 C3 Solutions c3solutions.com X X X 17 CAMS Software camspro.com X X X X X X Backhaul and salvage optimization 18 Cardinal Logistics Management cardlog.com X X X X X X X X X X X X 19 Cargo Chief cargochief.com X X X X X X 20 CaseStack casestack.com X X X X X X X X 21 Cass Information Systems, Inc. cassinfo.com X 22 Ceebron Pty Limited smart-trace.com X X Cold chain monitoring 23 CHEP Container Solutions cheppallecon.com X X X X X X X X X X 24 Cimcorp Automation Ltd. cimcorp.com X X X X X 25 ClimaTrack Corporation climatrack.com X X X X X X X Wireless tracking of temp and humidity 26 Columbus columbusglobal.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 27 Cooltrax Americas cooltrax.com X 28 Corcentric corcentric.com X X 29 Coyote Logistics coyote.com X X X X X X X X X X X 30 Crown Equipment Corporation crown.com X X X X X X X X X Forklift fleet and operator management 31 Culinary Software Lot tracking, HACCP, waste tracking, Services, Inc. (ChefTec) cheftec.com X X X production mgmt, mobile inventory-taking 32 Dade Service Corporation dadeservice.com X X 33 Datex datexcorp.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X 34 Demand Management Inc. demandsolutions.com X X X X 35 Dematic Corp. dematic.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X 36 E-Mist Innovations, Inc. emist.global X Vehicle/container sanitizing & disinfection 37 Elemica elemica.com X X X X X X X X B2B supply chain operating network 38 enVista envistacorp.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X 39 Epidemico Inc. epidemico.com X X X X Food safety digital surveillance 40 Esipo Technology esipotech.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 41 EtQ, Inc. etq.com X X X X X X X X 42 ExtenData extendata.com X X X X X X X X Proof of delivery, direct store delivery

(DSD), delivery management system

43 EXTOL International extol.com X 44 Financial Transmission Payment processing software, receivables, Network, Inc. (FTNI) ftni.com X X X X management solutions

capacity, select carriers and rates, and significantly reduce their transportation spend.

Using any mode of transportation, shippers and LSPs optimize 100 percent of domestic and international shipments. The TMS offers rapid deployment of an easy-to-use and configurable system in any language, currency or unit of measure. Service companies leverage the TMS to support their 3PL, brokerage, or freight forwarding business – or all three.

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Company: NCR Corp.

Web site: ncr.com Year founded: 1884 Number of employees: 26,000-plus Number of food/bev customers: 500 (1,000-plus sites) Solution name(s): Power Enterprise, Power Warehouse, Power+ Purchasing, Power Analyzer, Power Data Staging, Power+ MDM, Power OMB, Power Sell, Power Net, Power Mobile,

• FOOD LOGISTICS

Power Delivery, Power Dock, Power Yard, Power Transportation, Power DAX, Power HQ, Power Inventory, Retail ONE Worth noting: NCR Corp. solutions have a unique focus on food, and a proven track record of 30-plus years helping companies ensure accurate inventory, fresh and traceable products, strategic pricing and real-time data access across the supply chain.

The company’s logistics portfolio optimizes www.foodlogistics.com

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2015

45 Fleet Advantage fleetadvantage.net X X X X Equip financing, equip specifications 46 FourKites fourkites.com X X X X X X 47 FreightCenter, Inc. freightcenter.com X X X X X X X X X X X 48 GreenMile greenmile.com X X X 49 HighJump highjump.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X E-comm, EDI, labor planning

and management., 4PL

50 Honeywell Sensing & Productivity Solutions honeywellaidc.com X X X 51 ICIX icix.com X X X X X Supply chain risk management 52 IFS North America ifsworld.com X X X X X X X X X X 53 InfinityQS International, Inc. infinityqs.com X X Manufacturing intelligence hub/quality hub 54 Infratab, Inc. infratab.com X X 55 Inmar inmar.com X X X 56 INSIGHT, Inc. insightoutsmart.com X X X X X X Supply chain network design 57 Instructional Technologies Inc.

instructiontech.net X X Employee and driver training 58 Intelligrated intelligrated.com X X X X X X Whse execution systems, labor mgmt sys.,

business intel (BI), voice solutions, light

picking and putting solutions

59 Interlink Technologies thinkinterlink.com X X X X X X X X X X 60 International Business Systems (IBS) ibs.net X X X X X X X X X X X X 61 Intesource, a PROACTIS company

intesource.com X Sourcing solutions 62 JDA Software jda.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Location, fulfillment, workforce mgmt.

63 JLT Mobile Computers jltmobile.com X X X Rugged vehicle mount computers 64 John Galt Solutions johngalt.com X X X 65 Junction Solutions junctionsolutions.com X X X X X X 66 Jungheinrich jungheinrich-lift.com X 67 Kewill kewill.com X X X X X X X X 68 LANSA datasyncdirect.com X X X X 69 LeanLogistics leanlogistics.com X X X X X X X X X X 70 LINKFRESH Inc. linkfresh.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Quality control & traceability (PTI) solutions 71 Locus Traxx Worldwide locustraxx.com X X X X X X 72 Logility logility.com X X X X X 73 Logistix Solutions LLC logistixsolutions.com X X X X 74 Lucas Systems, Inc. lucasware.com X X X Mobile voice-directed whse applications 75 MADE4NET made4net.us X X X X X X X X X 76 MercuryGate mercurygate.com X 77 Microlistics Warehouse 3PL billing, business intel (BI), analytics, Management Systems microlistics.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X FEFO reporting 78 Minotaur Software minotaursoftware.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X Quality assurance, food safety mgmt.

79 NCR Corporation ncr.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 80 NECS, Inc. necs.com X X X X X X X X X X X X Digital pen technology 81 NeoGrid neogrid.com X X 82 NetSuite netsuite.com X X X X X X X 83 Omnitracs omnitracs.com X X X X X 84 Onset onsetcomp.com X X X Data logging 85 Open Sky Group openskygroup.com X X X X Warehouse labor management

operations within the warehouse enroute with reduced labor requirements, fewer miles driven, and efficient inventory movement at every step.

NCR’s CRM solutions drive customer engagement, increase average orders and provide a unified customer experience across channels.

NCR’s enterprise solutions provide demanddriven inventory replenishment, proper data governance, and actionable business insights.

The company helps businesses better interact

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with vendors, customers, and associates – providing transparency, accuracy and efficiency for complex supply chains.

Company: NECS, Inc. Web site: necs.com Year founded: 1987 Number of employees: 25 Number of food/bev customers: 1,500

• FOOD LOGISTICS

Solution name(s): entrée food distribution software Worth noting: NECS’ entrée ERP software solution includes everything a food distributor needs to be successful. The most recent software introduction is an interface with the Anoto Digital Pen which will save food distributors invoice paper costs and organizes money collections from customers.

www.foodlogistics.com

In the end-to-end supply chain, we never forget this end.

At DSC Logistics, we have nearly 55 years of experience as the supply chain partner to some of the leading food companies in the world. From our customers who make delicious food…to their customers who buy it, we’re all part of the supply chain.

As we help our customers achieve their goals through changing circumstances – that’s one thing that will never change.

Innovative Thinking…Strategic Partnerships…High-Performance Operations

Lead Logistics Partner • Third-Party Logistics • Supply Chain Analysis & Design Network Management • Logistics Center Management • Transportation Management Value-Added Services • Business Process Integration • Supply Chain Visibility Dynamic Supply Chain Management

www.dsclogistics.com 1.847.635.4952

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2015

86 Optricity optricity.com X X X X X X X X X Slotting optimization software 87 ORBCOMM orbcomm.com X X X X X X 88 Paragon Software Systems

paragontruckrouting.com X X 89 Pcdata Inc pcdatainc.com X X X X X X X X X X X Order fulfillment 90 PeopleNet peoplenetonline.com X X X X X X X 91 PINC Solutions pincsolutions.com X X X 92 Plug Power Inc. plugpower.com X X X X Turn key hydrogen and fuel cell solutions

for electric material handling equip.

93 Positioning Solutions International Ltd. - PSI Technics Ltd. psi-technics.com X X X ASRS intelligent positioning 94 Power Automation Systems

powerautomationsystems.com X X 95 Printronix printronix.com X X X X X X 96 ProCat Distribution Technologies procatdt.com X X X X X X 97 Protekto Americas protekto.net X X X Real time telemetry (location, temp, CO2,

humidity) for perishables/pharma

24/7 tower mgmt.

98 Quest Solution, Inc.

questsolution.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X Direct store delivery (DSD) and wholesale

ordering applications for order mgmt.

99 RedLine Solutions redlineforproduce.com X X X X X X X X 100 Redwood Logistics redwoodlogistics.com X X X X X Middleware/logistics data integration 101 Retrotech, Inc. retrotech.com X X X X X X 102 SafetyChain Software, Inc. safetychain.com X X X Food safety & QA, doc mgmt., food safety

regulatory/GFSI compliance & audit mgmt.,

supplier compliance

103 Safeway Management Group, Inc.

smgsafety.com X X X X X X Quality management system 104 SAP America sap.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 105 Schaefer Systems International ssi-schaefer.us X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Company: Omnitracs Web site: omnitracs.com Year founded: 1983 Number of employees: 1,000 Number of food/bev customers: 1,800 Solution name(s): Omnitracs Roadnet Transportation Suite Worth noting: Omnitracs offers a unified suite of solutions for fleets with a broad variety of operational profiles and technology and service needs.

Omnitracs Roadnet Transportation Suite is a flagship routing, planning and delivery solution that represents a core component of Omnitracs’ unified product and business strategy.

The company delivers a comprehensive suite of solutions based on the collective strength of its varied expertise, continuous innovation, drive to revolutionize the transportation industry, and ability to deliver best-in-class solutions to customers.

Boosting Ecommerce for Food Merchants Find out more at

bit.ly/FoodCommerce

Unified Commerce Platform 38

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

• FOOD LOGISTICS

Company: Optricity Web site: optricity.com Year founded: 2005 Number of employees: 11 Number of food/bev customers: 25 Solution name(s): OptiSlot DC, Slotting Optimization Software Worth noting: Optricity leaders bring 30-plus years’ experience leading workplace optimization software companies. They drive market awareness and promote innovation by sharing thought leadership via published whitepapers, speaking at conferences and serving as a resource to trade media.

OptiSlot DC utilizes combinatorial and deterministic algorithms to achieve true optimization. Holding patented and patent-pending optimization processes, Optricity demonstrates intellectual capital and innovation. The company’s ability to modify the math to fit the problem www.foodlogistics.com

demonstrates that the underpinning mathematics of OptiSlot are based on research while the software design promotes use in real distribution environment applications.

Company: ORBCOMM Web site: orbcomm.com Year founded: 2001 Number of employees: 400-plus Number of food/bev customers: 300-plus Solution name(s): ReeferTrak, ColdChainView, Carrier Datacold Worth noting: ORBCOMM has a leading position in the transportation of temperature-sensitive cargo for the food industry.

In North America, ORBCOMM solutions are used by 90 percent of the fleets with refrigerated tracking services. In Europe and Asia, ORBCOMM is a leading supplier of temperature compliance recording systems for the safe and secure transportation of food throughout the supply chain.

The combined global experience and presence enables ORBCOMM to provide food logistics providers access to expertise, experience and knowledge not found in other companies.

Company: Plug Power Inc. Web site: plugpower.com Year founded: 1996 Number of employees: 300-plus Number of food/bev customers: 14 Solution name(s): GenDrive, GenFuel, GenKey Worth noting: Walmart, Newark Farmer’s Market, Kroger, Golden State Foods – all have high-volume distribution operations and all have adopted GenKey hydrogen fuel cell technology for their forklift truck fleets.

GenKey is an important advance in the industry since it offers a dramatically simplified path to a cost-effective, complete hydrogen fuel cell system. With GenKey, customers have a single-source vendor to enable a smooth transition away from traditional power sources to hydrogen fuel cell power solutions that make sense economically, operationally and sustainably.

Company: Printronix Web site: printronix.com Year founded: 1974 Number of employees: 360 Number of food/bev customers: 500 Solution name(s): Printronix T8000, Printronix T4M/SL4M, Printronix T2N, Printronix M4L2, Online Data Validation (ODV™), Print Cart, PrintNet Enterprise Worth noting: Printronix has been serving global food and beverage companies reliable printing solutions for over 40 years.

Its barcode label printers withstand cold operwww.foodlogistics.com

ating temperatures, GS1 industry label compliance and high-volume printing requirements. Its exclusive online Data Validator solution ensures real-time label quality assurance and traceability and provides real-time supply chain information required by FSMA and other food safety compliance regulations.

The combination of verifying and capturing barcode label output and easily uploading into the ERP system for traceability compliance delivers significant benefits to customers.

Company: Retrotech, Inc. Web site: retrotech.com Year founded: 1985 Number of employees: 155 Number of food/bev customers: 59% of clients Solution name(s): Retrotech WCS/WCS+ Worth noting: Retrotech offerings are primarily in Linux/Unix operating systems to deliver WCS/WCS+ because of its robustness in both stability and performance. The company’s warehouse control system (WCS) can unify and

If it’s not fresh, you need to know.

Before she does.

Product temperature and location visibility— in real time.

For perishable products, the sooner you know about a potential delivery problem or temperature excursion, the better. With Sensitech’s Inbound Real-Time System, you see the what, where, when, and why of your entire global cold chain in time to make critical decisions.

• Know where and when things go wrong, so you can take proactive steps—like re-routing a delayed shipment or filing a claim.

• Get transparent, real-time visibility of carrier performance, so you know whether you’re getting what you commissioned.

• Simplify cold chain monitoring with a comprehensive solution that includes data collection, analysis, and expert support.

Sensitech helps you protect product freshness every step of the way.

A Part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security www.sensitech.com Amsterdam

Bangalore

Boston

Hong Kong

Melbourne

Santiago

Shanghai

© 2015. Sensitech Inc. All rights reserved.

FOOD LOGISTICS

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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2015

106 Seagull Scientific seagullscientific.com X X 107 Sensitech Inc. sensitech.com X X X X Cold and supply chain visibility 108 ShipXpress Inc. shipxpress.com X X X X X X X X X X X 109 Silvon Software, Inc. silvon.com X X X Business intel (BI) and decision support 110 SmartDrive, Inc. smartdrive.net X X X X Video-based safety solution 111 Sologlobe sologlobe.com X X X X X X X X Manufacturing execution system 112 Sparta Systems, Inc. spartasystems.com X X Quality mgmt. supply chian mgmt.,

audit mgmt.

113 SPS Commerce spscommerce.com X X X X 114 Supply Chain Optimizers, LLC. supplychainoptimizers.com X Packaging optimization for supply chain

savings and sustainability

115 Supply Chain Services supplychainservices.com X X X X 116 Swisslog swisslog.com X X X 117 Symphony EYC eyc.com X X X X X X X X X X 118 SYSPRO syspro.com X X X X X X X X X X X 119 Tadbik tadbik.com X 120 TAKE Supply Chain takesupplychain.com X X X X X X 121 Technology Group International, Ltd. tgiltd.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 122 TEKLYNX International teklynx.com X X 123 Telogis telogis.com X X X X X X X X 124 Teradata teradata.com X X X X X X X X Data analytics, mktg resource mgmt.,

cloud solutions

125 Terra Technology terratechnology.com X X X X Transportation forecasting 126 The Raymond Corporation raymondcorp.com X X X X X X X X 127 TopVOX Corporation top-vox.com X X X X X X Voice directed solutions 128 TraceGains, Inc. tracegains.com X X X Supplier relationship mgmt.

129 TrakLok International traklokintl.com X X X X X X Security product 130 Transplace transplace.com X X X X X X X X X 131 Transportation Insight transportationinsight.com X X X X X 132 Tyco Integrated Security tycois.com X X X Security systems integration 133 TZA tza.com X Labor management 134 UltraShipTMS ultrashiptms.com X X X X X X X 135 UNEX Manufacturing, Inc. unex.com X X X X 136 VAI vai.net X X X X X X X X X X 137 viastore systems viastore.com X X 138 Virtual Logistics Inc. virtuallogistics.ca X X 139 Voxware http://voxware.com X X Voice management., picking,

supply chain analytics

140 W&H Systems whsystems.com X X X X X X X X X 141 Werner Enterprises/ Werner Global Logistics werner.com X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 142 West Monroe Partners westmonroepartners.com X X X X X X X X X X X X Labor mgmt. sys., engineered labor

standards, sales and ops planning (S&OP)

143 Westfalia Technologies, Inc. westfaliausa.com X X X 144 WITRON Integrated Logistics witron.com X X 145 Wolters Kluwer Transport Services Transwide.com X X X X X X Transportation sourcing and procurement 146 Zethcon zethcon.com X X X X X X X X

manage all automation control throughout the facility, regardless of the OEM, and it works extremely well in an environment with a mix of old and new technology.

Company: SafetyChain Software, Inc. Web site: safetychain.com Year founded: 2011 Number of employees: 100-plus Number of food/bev customers: 100-plus Solution name(s): SafetyChain for Food

40

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

Suite, SafetyChain Supplier Compliance, SafetyChain Food Safety Management, SafetyChain Food Quality Management, SafetyChain Regulatory/GFSI Compliance & Audit Management, SafetyChain Mobile Worth noting: SafetyChain provides a complete FSQA solution in one integrated platform and has powerful mobile applications for anywhere, anytime FSQA. Its solutions go far beyond document management for audit readiness; they actually automate management

• FOOD LOGISTICS

of food safety plans to help pass audits by ensuring that programs, such as GFSI, are carried out to plan.

Company: Safeway

Group, Inc.

Management

Web site: smgsafety.com Year founded: 2004 Number of employees: 14 Number of food/bev customers: 48 Solution name(s): Quality Management Systems www.foodlogistics.com

Worth noting: Safeway Management Group’s system has tools for streamlining processes, conducting assessments, identifying root causes and documenting corrective action, which leads to continuous improvement for compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and limiting food safety risk exposures that come from a lack of quality control processes.

Company: Schaefer

International

Systems

Web site: ssi-schaefer.us Year founded: 1937 Number of employees: Close to 10,000 Number of food/bev customers: Not available.

Solution name(s): WAMAS Worth noting: Schaefer Systems International believes it is important for software to keep up with internal logistics trends. The company’s software is continually developed with new functionalities and is upgradeable, providing customers investment security, low maintenance costs, optimal system support and sustainable savings.

Company: Seagull Scientific Web site: seagullscientific.com Year founded: 1985 Number of employees: 130

www.foodlogistics.com

Number of food/bev customers: 4,000 Solution name(s): BarTender by Seagull Scientific Worth noting: In 2015, AIM, the global industry association that connects auto ID and mobility manufacturers, standards organizations, sellers and users, relied on Seagull Scientific’s leadership and expertise as the organization convened its first food and beverage industry committee.

The AIM Global Food and Beverage Track and Trace Committee’s mandate is outreach, educating the global food industry about how automation technology can be used to enable regulatory compliance, and to gain supply chain efficiencies. The committee includes representatives from food producers and processors, GS1 and technology providers, and is chaired by a representative of Seagull Scientific.

Company: Sensitech Inc. Web site: sensitech.com Year founded: 1990 Number of employees: 950 Number of food/bev customers: 25,000 Solution name(s): TempTale(R), ColdStream(R) Worth noting: Real-time visibility that meets the demands of complex, global supply chains has become a major industry concern. A complete integrated solution – hardware, software, data analysis – backed by 25 years of cold chain expertise makes a difference in meeting this concern.

Data security assurance can be provided by controlled-user access, PDF download for regulatory compliance, and private cloud data storage. Flexible notifications enable supply chain partners to act immediately. Sensitech supports a culture of continuous improvement for every supply chain partner.

Company: Supply Chain Services Web site: supplychainservices.com Year founded: 2002 Number of employees: 49 Number of food/bev customers: 197 Solution name(s): Zebra Technologies, Honeywell Scanning and Mobility, JLT, Datalogic, Advantech DLOG, Panasonic, Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus

FOOD LOGISTICS

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

41

S P E C I A L

R E P O R T :

F L 1 0 0 +

Worth noting: Supply Chain Services has received awards from Motorola Solutions, Datamax-O’Neil and Twin City Business for exceptional performance. The company has also been a contributor to trade publications.

For the past five years, the company has grown by double-digits, with a CAGR of 23 percent, in an industry growing at 4 percent.

Company: Technology

tional, Ltd.

Group Interna-

Web site: tgiltd.com Year founded: 1990 Number of employees: 30-plus Number of food/bev customers: 400-plus Solution name(s): Enterprise 21 ERP Worth noting: TGI is a unique organization in the ERP industry in that Enterprise 21 ERP is developed, sold, implemented, and subsequently supported directly by TGI. No sales, implementation, software development, and/or technical support services are outsourced to third-party companies or sent offshore.

This allows customers to have a single point of contact and partnership with their software provider for all of their software development, implementation, training, and business process consulting needs.

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Company: The Raymond Corporation Web site: raymondcorp.com Year founded: 1922 Number of employees: 1,622 Number of food/bev customers: NA Solution name(s): iWAREHOUSE GATEWAY, CustomCare, ACR System Worth noting: Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE fleet management system contains two solutions tailored to a business’ needs, iWAREHOUSE Essential and iWAREHOUSE Enterprise. These solutions combine fleet efficiency, warehouse

• FOOD LOGISTICS

optimization and professional services. iWAREHOUSE Essential provides access control and compliance and monitors and collects lift truck and operator data in real-time, allowing warehouse managers to increase visibility of assets and labor. iWAREHOUSE Enterprise turns collected asset and labor information into actionable data that helps warehouse managers identify opportunities for fleet and warehouse optimization. The solution integrates with select labor management systems to help increase productivity and reduce operating costs.

www.foodlogistics.com

PURPOSE-BUILT FOR PRODUCT RECALL Improved Inventory Accuracy | Complete Traceability | Simplified Recall Process

TM

www.afsi.com/WMS Company: Transplace Web site: transplace.com Year founded: 2000 Number of employees: 1,234 Number of food/bev customers: 17 Solution name(s): iWAREHOUSE GATEWAY, CustomCare, ACR System Worth noting: Transplace provides a variety of offerings and flexible solutions based on customers’ unique requirements, desires and strategies. The company’s focus on North America transportation management services, aligned with its core verticals including CPG, retail and industrial manufacturing, is also perceived as a meaningful and sustainable differentiator compared to those that have a broader market focus.

Transplace’s other supporting business units also provide value to customers who use the technology platform to operationalize their logistics networks.

Company: Transportation Insight Web site: transportationinsight.com Year founded: 1999 Number of employees: 400 Number of food/bev customers: 32 Solution name(s): Technology-Driven Endto-End Supply Chain Solutions Worth noting: Transportation Insight is one of the largest and most experienced full-service 3PLs in North America, delivering custom logistics solutions to more than 1,000 corporate clients. Its service and technology offerings span domestic transportation, international logistics, www.foodlogistics.com

and warehousing — creating end-to-end supply chain solutions.

The company provides carrier sourcing, logistics-related cost reduction, a web-based transportation management system (TMS), freight bill audit and payment services, and supply chain analytics and business intelligence reporting. The company’s consulting services create winning solutions for clients — maximizing profits, improving customer service, enhancing visibility and gaining more supply chain control.

Company: VAI Web site: vai.net Year founded: 1978 Number of employees: 153 Number of food/bev customers: 40 Solution name(s): S2K Enterprise for Food Worth noting: VAI is a two-time winner of the IBM Beacon Award, recognized for the Most Innovative “Built On IBM Express Portfolio” Solution and for Outstanding Solution for Midsize Businesses. Selected by leading industry influencers and IBM executives from among hundreds of nominations, IBM’s Beacon Awards recognize a select number of IBM Business Partners who have demonstrated business excellence in delivering IBM-based solutions resulting in client transformation and business growth.

Company: Wolters

Services

Kluwer Transport

Number of employees: 250-plus Number of food/bev customers: 38 Solution name(s): Transwide TMS Worth noting: 2015 marked the opening of the company’s newest regional sales and support office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as well as its first implementation in sub-Saharan Africa. This extended the company’s global deployment footprint and capabilities to 225-plus companies in 80-plus countries across five continents and in 13 languages.

Company: 3GTMS Web site: 3gtms.com Year founded: 2010 Number of employees: 75 Number of food/bev customers: 6 Solution name(s): 3G-TM Worth noting: 3GTMS has identified the elimination of stock outs without carrying excess inventory as the biggest supply chain challenge facing the food and beverage industry.

Hence, the company has addressed the complex optimization and rating for any size shipper, 3PL or larger broker.

3GTMS has noticed that over the last 15 years, the needs of food industry logistics professionals have changed immeasurably. What has also changed immeasurably, however, is the potential to apply technology to address customer needs. 3GTMS has designed its system to address companies looking to achieve higher service levels, lower freight costs or both.

Web site: transwide.com Year founded: 2000 FOOD LOGISTICS

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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SECTOR REPORTS

WARE HOUS E : RF ID

RFID: A Tool For Tracking

Products, Assets And More

With the emergence of real-time data networks, RFID tags provide accurate status reports and can poinpoint inefficiencies in the food supply chain. BY ELLIOT MARAS

E

ver since Dole Foods experienced an E.Coli outbreak that sickened 200 people nearly a decade ago, radio frequency identificatio (RFID) technology has emerged as a promising tool in the food supply chain. Dole Foods launched an RFID tracking initiative in 2006 to improve traceability and product safety. Th company used RFID and GPS to track vegetables from harvest through processing, packaging, and delivery to stores.

While RFID began as a tracking tool for inventory and assets, the emergence of real-time networks has since enabled RFID data to deliver insights in areas such as product status reports and inefficiencies in the supply chain. RFID enables faster and more comprehensive views into potential inventory problems, allowing companies to take preemptive action and reduce the need for expedited

freight. As a data capture technology, RFID also promises more accurate inventory tracking, faster inventory picking, reduced out-of-stocks, and less shrinkage.

According to the Material Handling Institute’s 2015 annual industry report, logistics companies are using RFID today to achieve near 100 percent accuracy in shipping, receiving, orders, and inventory accuracy, 30 percent faster order processing, and 30 percent reduction in labor costs.

While some large players like PepsiCo and Walmart have embraced RFID, the food chain in general has been slow to adopt it, mainly on account of cost. In addition to the deployment cost, many say bar codes, which are pervasive throughout the supply chain, have proven effective in monitoring inventory and asset data.

But there are signs that the tide is turning. Heightened safety concerns are causing many players to reconsider RFID due to the improved accuracy it provides for tracking products and assets. The rising omni-channel also creates a greater need for visibility of inventory throughout the supply chain.

RFID tags allow large amounts of data to be captured in real time.

Tag costs have declined over the years.

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• FOOD LOGISTICS

The case for RFID has also become stronger in recent years due to increased reliability of RFID systems and a reduction in costs. According to SICK, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based manufacturer of automatic identification solutions, the cost of RFID tags has dropped from $1.00 or more several years ago to less than $0.10 apiece.

As RFID becomes more cost justifiable, companies can implement it in stages. A retailer or wholesaler might choose to use RFID for tracking perishable products and continue to rely on bar codes for capturing data on extended shelf life products. “It’s never going to be just RFID,” notes Tom O’Boyle, director of RFID for Barcoding Inc., the Baltimore, Md.-based provider of data capture solutions. “There will be a combination of data collection methods.”

PepsiCo gets better data on assets Last year, PepsiCo’s North American beverage unit purchased 200,000 Rehrig Pacific shells equipped with RFID tags and tested them at seven plants, according to a Rehrig Pacific white paper. This allowed the company to get reliable data on their assets and develop an improvement plan.

PepsiCo trained drivers to understand that tracking shells is a part of their responsibilities and to make sure that what goes out comes back. The company also educated grocers to be good stewards of assets – from proper storage of empties to being more aware of who’s picking them up.

Using both RFID and GPS tracking on even a test scale provides reporting, visibility and actionable items that can be leveraged in the fight to control losses. Recovwww.foodlogistics.com

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Logistics for the fresh and frozen food industry!

Brown Line provides reliable temperature-controlled transportation of less than truckload and full truckload freight. From fresh vegetables to frozen fish, we move temperature-sensitive commodities while maintaining the product in top quality condition.

We offer scheduled service from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska to Boston, British Colombia, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Spokane, and Northern and Southern California. In addition, Brown Line offers charter service to most locations in the US and Western Canada. Since Brown Line is part of the Lynden family of transportation providers, we can work with customers to solve their transportation challenges by offering solutions and expertise in handling even the most complex logistics challenges.

www.lynden.com 1-800-426-2050 FLOG1215_44-49_SpecRptRFIDL EM_ES_LS.indd 45

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The advanced yard management solution from PINC Solutions includes a facility map and status reports.

ered data identifies the trail of accountability so that uncooperative players are called out and put on notice to change behavior.

RFID improves yard management systems East Coast Warehouse & Distribution, a provider of temperature-controlled logistics located on the Port of New York/ New Jersey, recently launched a cloud-based yard management system to help manage imports and exports for its food and beverage customers, and U.S. Customs & Border Protection Centralized Examination Station and container freight station services.

RFID readers and GPS sensors mounted on spotter trucks track magnetic RFID tags placed on containers moving in and out of the warehouse. This gives both employees and customers visibility into the status of the containers – whether they are in transit, have arrived at the facility, are in process of being unloaded, unloaded or have been emptied and checked out.

The cloud-based, advanced yard management system automates yard operations including check-in, yard moves and checkout, and provides automatic asset tracking to ensure a continuously updated yard situation. Electronic tasking, reefer checking and spotter monitoring increase efficiency and yard safety.

East Coast Warehouse & Distribution uses a yard management solution provided

by Alameda, Calif.-based PINC Solutions.

“Having instant visibility into container locations will boost our operating efficiencies, help reduce errors, risk and exposure, and allow customers to have a clear window into our operations,” says Jamie Overley, CEO of East Coast Warehouse & Distribution.

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In the meantime, technology does not stand still. RFID tags can record temperatures and freshness in real time, making the technology even more relevant to the food supply chain. According to some industry observers who did not want to be named, Walmart has begun testing freshness monitoring with RFID in addition to tracking crates.

Champagne processor gains supply chain visibility Mumm, a champagne producer owned

by Pernod Ricard, wanted to improve traceability of champagne crates throughout production. The company wanted a solution to allow radio frequency waves to pass through metal crates and withstand the cellar’s climatic conditions. Kurt Mensch, principal RFID product manager for Honeywell, says a benefit of RFID tags is they are more durable than bar codes.

Mumm stores up to 500 bottles in crates in cellars in Reims, France. The bottles are stored for three years for proper bubble formation and aging, then undergo riddling and disgorgement to remove sediment. A change in batch number during an intermediate stage could make it hard to know the contents of a particular crate.

Honeywell and Acteos, a France-based supply chain software provider, designed a solution to manage the traceability of wire crates between disgorging and labelling, the last two stages of production. The system consists of handheld readers, fixed readers and encapsulated, moisture-resistant RFID tags.

Once a crate is filled, it passes in front of a fixed RFID portal that reads the tag’s information. The information corresponds to the crate’s identification number throughout production. Readers positioned

• FOOD LOGISTICS

along the production and conveying process capture the data and enter it into the traceability management system.

Crate traceability allows for defective batches to be identified so they are not sent back to the production process. The system identifies all defective batches. Since the crate can be associated with its contents, the batches can be secured. Should an operator make a routing error for a crate, the tag read will automatically alert the supply chain management system.

Mumm can automatically monitor stock movement in its enterprise resource planning system using the Acteos solution.

Hy-Vee manages complete cold chain Hy-Vee, the Des Moines, Iowa-based supermarket chain, has used TempTRIP RFID temperature tags to deploy the first complete retail cold chain management system from perishable suppliers to their DCs, then from the DCs to all 235–plus stores in the past two years. The TempTRIP tags on the packages record the time and temperature readings at set intervals throughout shipping and receiving. As deliveries enter the DCs, the tags pass RFID readers on dock doors where the data on the tag is uploaded to TempTRIP’s cloud-based system.

With data integration into the TempTRIP system, Hy-Vee evaluates temperature readings on a product-specific basis which allows Hy-Vee to provide feedback to drivers, carriers and suppliers. The data provides a complete temperature record throughout transport.

Phaedra Culjak, COO at Broomfield, Colo.-based TempTRIP, says the system has delivered a 20 percent savings over the data loggers Hy-Vee was previously using.

The more important benefit, Culjak says, is utilizing temperature and other data, along with business intelligence tools, predictive analysis and trends over time to provide ongoing improvements.

Real-time freshness and temperature readings Oxnard, Calif.-based Infratab Inc. has developed RFID tags that can record freshness readings in addition to temperature readings. Terry Myers, CEO, says the company’s Freshtime tags can monitor fluctuations of temperature and freshness during transport. While Infratab has primarily tarwww.foodlogistics.com

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What if?

You can change the way ©2015 Rehrig Pacific Company

you see your supply chain asset.

As experts in logistics optimization, and partner to many of the world’s leading brands, Rehrig Pacific moves beyond the status quo and delivers sustainable results to improve productivity, lower costs, reduce shrink, and build brand awareness. If you are looking to change “What ifs” into reality, we have the answers.

Phone: (800) 421-6244 or (323) 262-5145 Email: info @rehrigpacific.com Web: www.rehrigpacific.com

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How RFID Differs From Other Automatic ID Technologies

U

nlike laser scanners and camera-based, omni-directional code readers, RFID does not use an integrated light to decode data encoded into a printed code pattern. Instead, RFID uses tags at the item level with an Electronic Product Code (EPC) containing product information and serialization data.

The EPC is embedded in a tiny microchip attached to a small antenna and adhered to a paper tag. Two-way RFID readers wirelessly transmit a high frequency or an ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio signal that encodes and decodes tag data. As it relies on radio frequency technology, RFID does not require direct line-of-sight or close proximity to read the tag’s EPC. It can also identify multiple objects simultaneously in a single read almost instantaneously.

While RFID is not as prevalent as laser- and camera-based AIDC solutions, the technology enables retailers to improve the efficiency of receiving processes, increase inventory accuracy, enable real-time visibility, and monitor shrinkage more closely throughout their operations. In today’s environment, based on existing infrastructure and technologies, hybrid systems, with both bar codes and RF tags exist, and the technologies complement one another.

The tagging of individual stock keeping units (SKUs) (in addition to the tagging of pallets and cases) as a complementary AIDC technology to laser scanners and camera-based image readers adds a layer of information encoded into the item in real time. In a DC, automated data capture (which includes RFID, bar code scanning and voice picking) delivers similar efficiencies to processes beyond inventory tracking such as receiving, put-away, picking and shipping. ◆ Source: SICK Inc.

geted the produce industry, the company has been expanding into seafood, where the need to monitor freshness is even more important.

Monitoring shelf life of seafood is harder than produce since it is much harder to assess shelf life visually, Myers says.

Fishing boats haul in fish for several days at a time. The fish caught on the first day do not have the same shelf life as those caught on the last day. By placing RFID tags on fish, the party receiving the delivery can know the shelf life of the fish by batch. A

Icicle Seafood uses Infratab’s RFID tags to track temperature readings for fish throughout the supply chain.

fish wholesaler might choose to sell the fish with the shortest shelf life to local customers who can receive the fish faster.

Icicle Seafoods in Seattle, Wash., recently tested Infratab’s Freshtime system to monitor salmon freshness and will be expanding the project to halibut. The biggest challenge has been tracing the condition of the fish from a land-based station, the first stop in the supply chain, says Brandii Holmdahl, Icicle Seafoods’ quality operations manager. The RFID tag provides an accurate record of what tempera48

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ture the fish has been exposed to and for how long. “We see the full impact of what happens when you leave fish at a certain temperature,” she says.

The fishermen attach an RFID tag to one fish in a 900-pound batch of fish held in a tote. The batch consists of fish caught in the same haul. The tag has information including where the fish was caught. From that point on, the Freshtime software will record what temperature the batch was at and for how long. The RFID tag holds information in a computer chip embedded in a label that wraps around the fish, secured to the fish by a rubber band.

Holmdahl says there are factors that can impact the temperature and freshness the fish travels at, such as the weather and the amount of ice in the truck or at the wholesale facility. This software gives Icicle Seafood a way to evaluate carriers’ handling of the fish. “Freshness always varies,” she says.

Historically, fish wholesalers used sensory evaluation methods that were subjective.

Optimizing lift trucks in the warehouse RFID is also finding use as a navigation tool for lift trucks in the warehouse.

The Jungheinrich Warehouse Navigation system allows lift trucks to identify aisle locations and distances in the warehouse, optimizing the lift truck’s activity in the warehouse. RFID transponders positioned at specific locations communicate with the RFID reader/writer in the

• FOOD LOGISTICS

lift truck, enabling the lift truck to identify aisle locations and distances.

The navigation system can program the lift truck to reach specific pallet positions by selecting the most efficient combination of traveling and lifting.

The navigation system also integrates with WMS systems, allowing the system to send orders to a lift truck operator. The operator can then travel to the designated pallet position, where the operator can store or retrieve a pallet.

Customers can realize up to 25 percent productivity improvement in addition to reduced traveling and handling costs, improved order picking and stacking accuracy, says Perry Ardito, general manager of warehouse products at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. (MCFA).

Other benefits include improved operational flexibility, enhanced flexibility of warehouse layout, pinpointing the fastest route to a destination, and improved throughput.

RFID data loggers placed inside a box can measure the temperature of the product and on the box for measuring ambient temperature. The data is available immediately at the delivery to be checked on a mobile RFID reader and afterwards stored in the traceability systems.

All across the food supply chain, companies are scrambling to improve traceability.

Be it the continuing product recalls, the pending food safety regulations, or the lawsuits that recalls and regulations sometimes encourage, supply chain players want better traceability. RFID has emerged as one of the most promising automatic identification technologies to meet the need for improved traceability. ◆

For more information: ACTEOS, acteos.com BARCODING INC., barcodinginc.com EAST COAST WAREHOUSE & DISTRIBUTION, eastcoastwarehouse.com HONEYWELL, honeywellaidc.com INFRATAB INC., infratabinc.com MATERIAL HANDLING INSTITUTE, mhi.org MITSUBISHI CATERPILLAR FORKLIFT AMERICA INC., mcfa.com PINC SOLUTIONS, pincsolutions.com ★REHRIG PACIFIC CO., rehrigpacific.com SICK, sick.com/us TEMPTRIP, temptrip.com www.foodlogistics.com

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SSI SCHAEFER is a complete, data driven solutions provider. We offer: • • • • •

Consulting & Data Analysis In-house Manufacturing Most Extensive Range of Intralogistic Product Solutions Full Warehouse Management Software Suite Implementation & After Sales Support

Give us a call. We will take care of the rest.

Schaefer Systems International, Inc. 877.724.2327 | www.ssi-schaefer.us

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SECTOR REPORTS

TRA NS P ORTATION: F UE L

US Fleets Post Improved Fuel Economy Using Efficien y Technologies North American Council for Freight Efficiency study finds fleets accelerating adoption of fuel efficiency technologies.

BY ELLIOT MARAS

D

6.90

40%

35%

6.70

30%

$9,000 in fuel savings per truck per year

MPG

6.50

6.30

25%

20% 6.10

15% 5.90

10%

Average MPG Business as Usual

5.70

5%

All US Trucks (FHWA) Adoption

5.50

0%

14

20

12

11

10

09

08

13

20

20

20

20

20

20

07

20

05

06

20

20

04

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45%

20

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7.10

03

50

MPG And Fuel Savings Over Time

20

epressed fuel prices have been one of the bright spots for flee operations in 2015. But most industry observers don’t expect diesel prices to remain where they are indefinitel . Which is why the North American Council for Freight Efficien (NACFE) has been hard at work studying alternative fuels and strategies for economic alternatives.

Earlier this year, NACFE released its 2015 annual fleet fuel study, which reported on the status of various practices and technologies for improving freight efficiency among 14 major North American fleets. The report examined the progress of fuel efficiency technologies’ adoption and highlighted benchmark competencies in several different areas.

The participating fleets include several logistics and food companies: FritoLay, C.R. England Global Transportation, UPS, Challenger Motor Freight, Conway Truckload, Crete Carrier, Real Fleets, Nussbaum, Paper Transport Inc., Prime Inc., Ryder, Schneider National, Bison Transport and Werner Enterprises.

The study’s goal was to quantify adoption levels for 68 transportation technologies and practices and the results they drove for the participating organizations. All 68 technologies are commercially available and are not prototypes.

The study gathered data on the habits of the 14 fleets representing more than 53,000 tractors and close to 160,000 trailers. Fleets

Figure 1: The 14 fleets participating in the NACFE study improved miles per gallon as they adopted alternative fuels and strategies from 2003 to 2014.

provided data on the vehicles, specified technologies and purchased the fuel for the tractors.

The survey encompasses Class 8 day cab and sleeper tractors and trailers in long haul

• FOOD LOGISTICS

and regional applications.

The report presents adoption rates by fleet for each technology, in addition to highlights on transmissions, aerodynamics availability for CNG tractors, and www.foodlogistics.com

12/7/15 3:35 PM

A Fearless Future: Brian Webb Senior Vice President Business Development J.B. Hunt

How to protect your supply chain

Managing a private fleet in the food services industry presents unique challenges that are not experienced by most other private fleet operators. Many companies have a hard time meeting the regulatory requirements while retaining drivers to keep their fleet running smoothly. Brian Webb is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at J.B. Hunt Transport. Among other areas, he oversees the food services specialty for dedicated customers. He has worked closely with hundreds of companies that face these challenges.

Food service jobs are among the most difficult driving positions to fill and traditionally demand higher pay. What actions can companies take to protect their labor force and attract new talent?

Great question. The driver shortage has wreaked havoc on companies that employ class A CDL drivers who execute food product deliveries into stores and restaurants. Engaging in a wage war with companies competing for labor is not a long-term solution. We must challenge the status quo of the traditional manual unloading process or a ramp and dolly delivery. Working with shippers and suppliers, we evaluate more efficient delivery methods utilizing palletized shipments, power pallet jacks and other mechanized material-handling tools to reduce the manual requirements of these deliveries.

We believe that these changes coupled with an appropriate compensation package will extend the careers of our current labor force and attract new talent moving forward.

What value does a third-party dedicated fleet bring to a company in the food and restaurant industry?

Operating a fleet becomes a bigger challenge every year.

Ever-increasing regulations and accident and injury liability exposure force companies to re-evaluate fleet ownership more and more. Many companies are not comfortable growing their private fleet or are seeking an alternative that has the same branded touch of their existing fleet. A dedicated fleet is essentially a private fleet management solution. These fleets allow the company to maintain control of the delivery without sacrificing service quality.

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Is it critical to have industry specialists in food logistics manage the accounts for food and restaurant customers, or does the skillset from other areas, such as retail, transfer?

Food safety and product handling expertise cannot be compromised. While I would acknowledge that there is a meaningful amount of those skillsets that are transferable, I don’t believe that companies will have the appetite to train a new service provider in those skillsets because of the risks associated with mishandling food products. We realize there is a different level of service expectation from a restaurant or store owner.

What challenges can over-the-threshold food delivery present for private fleets? What can a dedicated fleet provider do to assist with these challenges?

Again, our biggest challenge today is the shortage of qualified drivers in the marketplace followed by various risk exposures related to operating those delivery fleets. There are pressures being applied from every angle of the transportation business. Equipment and labor costs are outpacing price increases. The Food Safety Modernization Act and provisions in the highway bill, currently making its way through Congress, have added and will continue to add safety and accountability measures that will also add costs. A dedicated fleet provider must be equipped to take on these challenges and provide solutions.

For information about finding an expert 3PL for private fleet management, please visit www.jbhunt.com/dcs.

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Adoption of new technology gains momentum

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Figure 2: The study grouped fuel saving technologies into seven segments.

Adoption increased for all of these segments.

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The main finding is that the 14 fleets are expanding their adoption of the new technologies and they are experiencing improved fuel economy. The fleets reported average fuel savings in 2014 between 6.1mpg and the 7.0 mpg, which translates into a $9,000 annually per truck. This marks an improvement over the 2011 report where the original eight fleets reported annual savings of $4,000 per truck.

Three additional highlights emerged: • The growth in electronically-controlled transmissions and automated manual transmissions.

• Frito Lay’s adoption of aerodynamic day cabs – for diesel tractors and for natural

60%

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All fleets improved their fuel economy

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The study found the adoption of fuelsaving technologies increased from 18 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2014.

The fleets achieved an average 7.0 mpg for all trucks, while 2015 model year trucks reached as high as 8.5 mpg, compared to the 5.9 mpg national average reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.

The fleets adopted a combination of the 68 available technologies and engaged the resources of Trucking Efficiency, a joint effort of NCFE and Carbon War Room, a non-profit organization that seeks to reduce carbon emissions globally.

“The dramatic improvement in fuel economy of the leading fleets this year is exciting,” says Mike Roeth, operation lead for Trucking Efficiency and executive director of NACFE. “If we can get the owners and operators of the 1.5 million tractortrailers on the road today to invest in more of these technologies, we will see significant reduction in fuel consumptions.”

For every 1 percent reduction in fuel use industrywide, 260 million gallons of fuel ($1 billion per year) is saved.

Adoption by Technology Category

All NACFE Fleets Adoption

engine parameters. In addition, it provides information on recent tractors and trailers placed into service in 2014.

The fleets adopted 30 percent to 54 percent of the available technologies.

From 2011 to 2014, average fuel efficiency improved on account of an increase in the adoption of new fuel efficiency technologies, as shown in Figure 1.

Tractor Aerodynamics Practices Powertrain

gas tractors.

• Small fleet utilizing engine parameters.

The report noted Cummins’ sharing large uptake in PowerSpec downloads, indicating the level of end users taking advantage of electronic engine parameters.

2014: Fuel costs were higher The study was conducted in an environment with fuel costs averaging $4.00 per gallon in the four years up until the end of 2014 for the tractor-trailer industry. The costs have caused fleets to seek fuel efficiency in new equipment specifications and operating strategies.

NACFE grouped technologies into seven segments: tractor aerodynamics, trailer aerodynamics, powertrains, tires/wheels, idle reduction, chassis, and fleet practices.

All categories posted increasing levels of adoption. Trailer aerodynamics increased the most in the last five years. (See Fig. 2).

Adopting technology brings challenges to fleets The diversity of industry needs can make adoption of fuel technology difficult. Needs are driven by multiple and sometimes

• FOOD LOGISTICS

incompatible Tires/Wheels demands, such as Idle Reduction access to capital, Chassis risk tolerance level, Trailer Aerodynamics and business model (i.e., lease versus purchase, in-house operation or leased fleets, in-house or contracted maintenance.)

Fleets also operate in different duty cycles due to the type of operating location (rural versus urban) and geographic factors.

Such difference can make it challenging to decide which technologies to pursue.

NACFE developed a methodology for sharing best practices to allow companies to learn from data-driven fleets. The organization wanted to provide a roadmap for new technologies.

The survey gathered information on the percent of the fleets’ annual purchases that include any of the 68 technologies for lowering fuel consumption from 2003 to 2014. Fleets also shared fleet-wide fuel efficiency information in terms of miles driven and fuel consumed.

The survey provides nearly 11,500 data points of buying behavior on new features.

The report developed adoption curves www.foodlogistics.com

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Aerodynamics On CNG Tractors 100%

CNG Tractor Chassis Skirts Cab Extenders

Frito Lay Adoption

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Firgure 3: Frito Lay has driven the adoption of aerodynamics on CNG-powered trucks beginning in 2011.

for all 68 technologies, diversity of adoption, and the fuel economy average for all 12 years studied.

The report acknowledges that diesel fuel prices declined to their lowest level in five years, but it notes the prices will not stay low indefinitely. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts onhighway retail diesel will return to $3.25 per gallon by 2016. It also predicts that prices will rise to more than $6 per gallon by 2040.

The report further notes there are other reasons than fuel price to improve fuel economy. Better fuel economy reduces bottom-line expenses.

The report does not weight the data by the number of tractors or trailers the fleet bought per year. It measures fleet decisions as opposed to the number of vehicles with the technologies. A small fleet’s decision to buy 100 trucks per year carries the same value as a larger fleet buying thousands of trucks.

The report also has a spreadsheet giving miles travelled by each fleet as an adoption percentage. This provides a representation of the mount of new technology purchased each year. The methodology values the purchase of 2,000 vehicles of a given technology as 20 times more than a fleet buying only 100 trucks.

NACFE evaluated consistency of adoption by fleets. It compares each of the 68 54

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technology decisions (to adopt or not) by each of the fleets using a methodology indicating if the technology is purchased by the fleet, how fast the fleet moved from testing to specifying it on all purchases, or if it decided to stop buying after an initial deployment.

Frito Lay explores aerodynamics and CNG Frito Lay has been pursuing fuel savings and freight efficiency on its tractors and trailers for about 10 years. Aerodynamic devices were not generally offered on day cab tractors, like the ones operated by Frito Lay, as it was assumed the benefit was not sufficient as those trucks usually operated at lower average speeds compared to sleeper tractors in long-haul applications.

From 2004 to 2006, Frito Lay spearheaded an effort with a number of tractor manufacturers to add more aerodynamic devices to its day cabs, and by 2007 the company introduced cab extenders, with chassis skirts following in 2009. (See Figure 3.) These were two of many features adopted by Frito Lay that increased its fleet-wide average fuel economy over the last few years.

In 2011, Frito Lay decided to pursue CNG-powered trucks, beginning procurement in 2012 and ramping to about 80 percent of purchases by 2013. The company found these trucks were not available

• FOOD LOGISTICS

with cab extenders and chassis skirts, as fuel tank package designs were emerging to satisfy the fuel capacity for the required range of these trucks, which interfered with available designs of the aerodynamics.

Meanwhile, in spite of Frito Lay’s requests, tractor OEMs remained focused on improving the aerodynamics of sleeper tractors, and struggled to justify the product development of these aerodynamic devices on the smaller purchase volume of CNG day cabs.

By collaborating with tractor builders and aerodynamics and fuel tank manufacturers, Frito-Lay’s 2015 purchase of CNG tractors will have the aerodynamics desired included. This is important as the fleetwide fuel efficiency of the Frito Lay fleet has dropped a bit in the last few years due to this issue.

By 2008, 90 percent of the trucks in this study had optimized electronic engine parameters for fuel economy, and 100 percent did by 2014. Choosing the appropriate settings for the initial electronic engine parameters of a truck, then going through the process to optimize them, delivers fuel savings of as much as 8 percent.

Large fleets lead in exploiting engine parameters The report also found that large fleets are exploiting engine parameters but that smaller fleets lack the resources to manage the selecting and upkeep of the parameters on their trucks. Hence, the small fleets do nothing to customize these parameters for their operations.

The survey indicates a growing use of fuel savings systems and procedures. Since not all fleets operate under the same philosophies and operating conditions, strategies and results differ among fleets. NACFE, in conjunction with Trucking Efficiency, presents workshops to allow fleets, dealerships and industry suppliers to gather in an environment of open discussions regarding these technology changes. ◆

For more information: CARBON WAR ROOM, carbonwarroom.com NORTH AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR FREIGHT EFFICIENCY, nacfe.org TRUCKING EFFICIENCY, truckingefficiency.org U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION, eia.gov

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SECTOR REPORTS

SOF TWA RE /TE CHNOLOGY: INTE RNE T OF THINGS

Are You Prepared For THE BRAVE NEW WORLD? The Internet Of Things is changing how information travels from farm to fork. BY ELLIOT MARAS

I

t’s dinner time at Jane Q Consumer’s house. She takes a leftover roasted chicken and vegetables from the refrigerator and sets them on the kitchen table. A camera imbedded in the wall scans the food and within minutes, four recipe options appear on a tabletop touchscreen, each designating the required prep time. She selects the Mongolian “hot pot” and a recipe appears with cooking instructions.

As she busies herself preparing a Thursday night meal, the touchscreen quietly sends an updated inventory of her refrigerator to a central server in the Internet cloud. Later that evening, she notices a text message alerting her to coupons to consider for her weekly home food delivery.

By Friday morning, Jane Q has sent in her weekly shopping list on her grocery app.

Her poultry order goes to a local butcher. Her vegetables, beverages and frozen food requests go to a supermarket.

Her espresso order goes to a

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specialty coffee roaster two states away.

Up in the cloud, a host of grocery brands update Jane Q’s personal profile and send the information to various databases. Grocery marketers who subscribe to these databases download reports periodically for marketing and product development.

Visions of the future? The scenario described reflects only some of the changes the Internet of Things (IoT) is bringing to the food and beverage (f&b) supply chain.

By 2020, the “connected kitchen” will leverage analytics from sensor-based data and save at least 15 percent of the world’s food and beverage costs, according to Gartner Research, the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm.

“The connected kitchen creates digital business opportunities at several levels in the food supply chain and retail food service,” says Satish R.M, a Gartner principal research analyst. “A real-time inventory data collection from sensors related to • FOOD LOGISTICS

 A camera and projector above the table, along with a custom computer vision software developed by IDEO, recognize foodstuffs, suggest ingredients to go with them and even recommends seasonal recipes.

kitchen ingredients enables automated generation and ordering of shopping lists, resulting in a streamlined and efficient inventory and optimized supply chain management.”

Earlier this year, a fast food chain overseas used the connected kitchen concept to deliver consistent quality across its restaurants. Sensors were imbedded in food preparation equipment to monitor the french fryer oil temperature, cooking time and drain time.

The solution reduced wait times for customers and delivered higher throughput at the restaurants. Revenue increased and return on assets improved.

The restaurant did not supply the data to its supply chain, but this would be a logical continuation, notes Ralph Rio, research director at Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group who is familiar with the case study. The sensor-based data could be used to program

a replenishment order once potatoes go into the fryer.

“That would be an interesting enhancement; they certainly have the capability to do it,” Rio says.

Welcome to IoT, an environment where smart sensors imbedded in various tools – appliances, vehicles, pallets, cases and even individual products – enable sensors to share information with each other and to a back office over the Internet. This data can provide intelligence to make better business decisions on farms, on factory production lines, in warehouses, in retail outlets and even in the home. The capabilities being unleashed are still in their infancy.

The McKinsey Global Institute’s recent report, “The Internet Of Things: Mapping The Value Beyond the Hype,” notes that most IoT data currently in use is for security alarms and monitoring devices. But in the www.foodlogistics.com

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Go green Ikea Kitchen Concept 2025 Uses Sensor Technology To Optimize Space

F

 The table’s technology developed by IDEO in collaboration with Ikea suggests recipes based on ingredients pushed together on the surface, step-bystep cooking instructions, and information on healthiness, seasonality and cost.

urniture retailer Ikea’s Concept Kitchen 2025, recently displayed at the Ikea Temporary gallery in Milan, Italy, is designed to allow more to be done in a smaller space and to economize the use of natural resources. IDEO, a global design firm with a focus on human-centered design, teamed with design students from the School of Industrial Design at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre at Lund University and the industrial design department at Eindhoven University of Technology.

The kitchen appliances are equipped with sensors, central processing units and transmitting devices that enable communication with the user and with each other, creating self-regulating systems.

“You get to the point where your food pantry and fridge almost become redundant: with a short-enough delivery window, the Amazon warehouse essentially becomes an extension of your kitchen,” says Marty Brown, IDEO communications design lead. “What are some of the consequences of that? Well, one is that you need less room in your kitchen for food storage, and there’s an opportunity to make the food storage that you do have more about optimizing quality than maximizing quantity.”

“The big questions are, how fast does delivery need to be before people don’t need any home food storage?” Brown asks. “How does the supply chain flex to allow for these micro-delivery moments? Less waste at home is great, but if all that means is there’s more waste in the supply chain, then we haven’t really progressed at all.” ◆

near future, IoT will improve order optimization for retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers.

And where much of the current IoT use is for consumer applications, business-to-business applications will more than double consumer use.

The promise of IoT – which New York City-based McKinsey defines as sensors and actuators connected by networks to computing systems – is already taking hold in the f&b industry.

According to ARC, f&b leads all industry sectors in global warehouse robot market revenue www.foodlogistics.com

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since 2014 and will continue to do so through 2020. (See chart on page 58.)

For retail, the two biggest drivers of IoT are the “connected consumer” as described above, and operational analytics, according to Michael Day, retail global program director for industry marketing solutions at Teradata, the Dayton, Ohiobased analytics provider.

Data analytics, in combination with mobile apps, can guide consumers to an item they find online and text a coupon for them to redeem at a physical store.

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WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION EXPENDITURES accidents. “Analytics can help The technology can also FORECASTED THROUGH 2020 pay for the PTC-mandated generate data to improve store investment,” he says. layouts, allow fully-automated Steady growth is expected in warehouse automation, with food and beverage, retail, and automotive companies leading the way Sensors will eventually store checkout, and fine-tune GLOBAL WAREHOUSE ROBOTS MARKET REVENUE be imbedded in all trucking inventory using automated shelf fleets, at the warehouses and replenishment and real-time in stores. When coupled with inventory monitoring. Sensors other data, like weather, supcan track the weight or height ply chain execution decisions of items in inventory and trigwill become more accurate. ger automatic reordering based Deliveries will improve and on specific conditions. customers will know about One of the most significant order changes immediately. changes ahead for the retail supply chain is predictive Collen cited a study that maintenance of equipment, estimates IoT analytics in the says Scott Collen, Teradata’s logistics industry will deliver senior business consultant for the following savings through transportation and logistics.

2025: $460 billion in routWarehouses in particular will ing, $50 billion in driverless glean measurable data from vehicles, $131 billion in preautomated cranes, conveyors, sorters and dictive maintenance, and $46 billion in For Collen, the most interesting aspect lift trucks. productivity. for fleet optimization is personalized estimated time of arrival (ETA). He says UPS Route optimization is another area “The science of (inventory) assortment is already using an integrated routing syswhere sensor technology will yield major is still evolving,” says David Ciancio, senior tem that offers ETA. dividends, Collen says. Electronic on-board customer strategist at Dunnhumby, a North Data analytics will also help rail carriers recorders (EOBRs) and sensors will deliver America-based customer science company. comply with the government-mandated savings for truck fleets in improved routCiancio is one of many observers who Positive Train Control (PTC), a system of ing, reduced idling, improved maintenance, thinks data analytics will make the biggest controlling train movements to prevent fewer accidents and better fuel management. difference in improving customer experi-

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• FOOD LOGISTICS

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 Pepsi promoted a mobile offer on branded shells from Rehrig Pacific that provide real-time information.

ence. But this is not divorced from inventory assortment, which relies on the supply chain.

One goal of the Food Marketing Institute’s “Collaboration 2.0” project is to unify the supply chain to “close the loop” on out of stocks, overstocks, distribution voids and supply chain disruptions. A key step for retailers and suppliers alike is to get a unified view of distribution and use analytics to identify inefficiencies.

Ciancio, formerly corporate vice president of loyalty at Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger Co., says suppliers need an accurate view of inventory throughout their supply chains in order to make use of the more sophisticated shopper level insights that data analytics provide.

One of the best examples of how IoT directs the supply chain to support a customer engagement initiative is the Pepsi Frozen Face Off Promotion, launched last year in the Twin Cities. Pepsi Bottling in Burnsville, Minn., equipped its entire fleet of 2-liter beverages with Rehrig Pacific Co.’s engagement-enabled shells. Pepsi promoted a mobile offer for discount hockey tickets on Pepsi-branded shells in Target stores. Rehrig Pacific, based in Los Angeles, Calif., managed the customer data and delivered the content. The company combined 2-dimensional QR barcode and NFC-enabled shells. The customer response to this promotion surpassed that of previous direct mail, post cards, email, display ad and paid search campaigns.

Another benefit of the campaign, which is currently expanding, is that it allows Pepsi to track the shells since the NFC provides real-time information for each shell, says Kaley Parkinson, Rehrig’s director of applied technology sales.

Rehrig is also exploring the potential for the use of NFC data for measuring freshness at Walmart. The NFC data generated could optimize transportation routing and reduce waste.

Parkinson stresses that deploying new technology in the supply chain is not easy.

“The art is in the deployment,” he says.

“It’s really in the system implementation, www.foodlogistics.com

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not the technology. If you do it wrong, it’s really expensive. It’s taken us a while to figure out what its limitations are.”

Several grocery retailers are attaching sensors to reusable plastic crates that allow

tracking of produce as it’s picked in the field, says Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL, a Montreal, Canada-based supply chain consultancy firm. The plastic crates replace the corrugated boxes that have to be disposed of. “It’s a way of eliminating cost from the system and it works well when the distribution center is positioned geographically close to the farmer’s field,” Wulfraat says.

Energy management in warehouses is an area where IoT is expected to have a signifi-

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cant impact, according to Daintree Networks, a Los Altos, Calif.-based provider of building control solutions. By equipping material handling systems, electrical systems, HVAC systems, lighting fixtures, fan controls and water run-off controls with sensors, warehouses can save energy.

Amazon, with its highly-automated fulfillment warehouses, has pioneered IoT in e-commerce. Electronic sensors allow Amazon’s Kiva robots and laser-guided vehicles to navigate throughout the warehouse. The Kiva robots move portable racks, known as pods,

for order picking throughout the warehouse.

The system has eliminated the need for human order pickers to travel to pick orders.

When an Amazon customer places an order, the system locates the requested product(s) in the DCs. The system priorittizes each order based on customer delivery needs. The Kiva robots locate the appropriate pod and move it to a picking location to prepare the order for shipping. After the picker takes the item from the pod, the robot transfers the pod back to a storage area or wherever it is needed next.

Such integrations can only work if the wi-fi network is robust enough to carry all the data traffic and the order optimization can handle it, notes John Rosenberger, manager of iWAREHOUSE Gateway and global telematics for Raymond Corp., the Greene, N.Y.-based material handling solutions provider. The warehouse management

Overstock. com Deploys Analytics Companywide, Reaps Benefits

D

eploying data analytics requires the commitment of a company’s leadership and it has to be embraced by everyone. To utilize the benefits that data analytics can bring, an organization usually needs to integrate departments that oftentimes operate independently of one another.

This was the experience of Overstock.com, the e-commerce retailer. Nicholas Humphreys, senior director of enterprise business intelligence, says that a year and a half ago, different departments were working with data analytics. Around this time, the company decided it wanted data to play a bigger role in decision making and enacted structural changes to support this direction.

One change was for analytics to be visible to the company’s executive leadership. The analytics managers reported directly to the CEO. The company also committed to deploying automation in its warehouses.

The use of data visualization tools has allowed the company to not only gain better insights into its business, but to reduce duplication of many tasks.

Data visualization tools have also given employees a sense of ownership for their reports. They now seek ways to improve company performance. ◆

 Overstock.com, an ecommerce company that delivers local fresh food through its Farmers Market business, has gained better insights into its operations and reduced task duplications by paying closer attention to data analytics.

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• FOOD LOGISTICS

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 Kroger’s “smart shelf,” a plastic screen beneath the shelf in the store, displays the price and other information that the store can now change remotely.

person having to change the price,” Rosenberger says. “I did nothing as a human to make that happen other than program it. It’s just software.”

IoT has already launched a new phase of

Always Supplying Advanced Flexible Excellence

system (WMS) must know where the lift trucks are in the warehouse and the system must know where all the products are.

“You have to have guidance,” he says. “You don’t want to pick the wrong stuff.”

Rosenberger concurs that Amazon has done an excellent job mining warehouse data to improve efficiencies. One measure of this is the number of times a delivery vehicle — be it a Kiva robot or a laser guided vehicle — moves without product.

“Within the warehouse, you don’t want to move (a delivery vehicle) empty,” he says.

Order optimization is improving thanks to indoor GPS. The WMS now knows where the lift trucks are at any given time.

Lift truck manufacturers are taking a cue from delivery vehicle manufacturers by introducing onboard computers to enable more efficient management.

The warehouse operation falls under what Rosenberger refers to as “inside IoT.”

factory automation called “Industry 4.0,” which describes the digitization of production processes, the McKinsey report notes. This includes using data from production machinery to adjust workflows by remotely tracking, monitoring, and adjusting machinery.

In a manufacturing environment, predictive maintenance deploys sensors to monitor machinery to prevent breakdowns and determine when maintenance will be required, rather than regularly scheduled maintenance.

IoT can improve inventory management by automatically restocking bins based on weight or height data recorded by sensors.

Analytics support new applications The “outside IoT,” on the other hand, refers to activity outside the warehouse and is an area that offers a range of possibilities.

One example could be the Kroger “smart shelf,” a plastic screen beneath the shelf in the store that displays the price and other information that the store can now change remotely. USA Today reported on this test in October. With the right analytics, the company can choose to change the price for an item to move it faster. “I’m replacing that

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IoT can further improve manufacturing productivity by using sensor data to evaluate tasks. By equipping workers with badges and tags, manufacturers can track activity to better understand how each function works.

Predictive agriculture progresses On the farm, sensors eliminate much of the guesswork from planting and harvesting.

Connected via the cloud, sen-

sors report weather conditions, humidity, temperatures and wind speeds. The data enables actionable insights and helps increase crop yields.

A grower can create a barcode or RFID tag for totes holding a newly-harvested crop.

The code or tag enables product tracking throughout the supply chain: from the farm to the processing plant; from processing plant to wholesaler; from wholesaler to retailer; from retailer to consumer.

Advanced Surveying Technology Monitors Salmon Watersheds

T

he Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission uses advanced surveying technology to fulfill its goal of improving habitat conditions for salmon in the Grande Ronde River basin in Eastern Oregon. The commission has improved its ability to monitor habitats using total station surveying equipment to create three-dimensional maps of stream reaches.

One worker walks the stream and selects points to measure that outline the general topography of the stream such as the water’s edge, the deepest point in the stream, and bars and islands. The worker uses a surveying rod with a prism to identify the location of each measurement point. An additional team member uses a Topcon total station, a type of electronic distance meter to measure the distance and angle to the prism.

The points collected by the total station are uploaded onto a computer and processed using a geographical information system (GIS) to create a three-dimensional representation of the stream or a digital elevation model (DEM). This DEM then analyzes with specialized software tools to  The Topcon station generate a series of metrics that describe allows distances to be measured accurately. The the condition of the fish habitat. The total Columbia River Inter-Tribal station surveying equipment provides Fish Commission uses the more accurate and repeatable measurements of fish habitats than using conven- system to monitor salmon habitats. tional stick and tape methods and allows for efficient calculation of habitat metrics.

Watershed restoration improves fish habitats by creating pools, increasing habitat complexity, providing cover from predators and high flows, reducing water temperature through vegetative shading, and restoring stream processes.

“We can get very accurate and highly repeatable measurements of the stream channel,” says Casey Justice, an aquatic habitat scientist for the commission. It allows the team to retest conditions at different times to measure changes.

The commission is participating in a large regional program called Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program, which has collectively surveyed 15 watersheds in the Columbia River basin, with a goal of expanding to 26 watersheds in the future. The program has ordered 15 Topcon stations from Rocky Mountain Transit, an equipment dealer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to using the Topcon station, the data was less precise and it was difficult to quantify habitat changes, Justice says. ◆ www.foodlogistics.com

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In the farming sector, IoT applications are oftentimes known as predictive agriculture.

Growers use sensors to monitor production conditions, shipping time, temperature and freshness.

RFID tags are playing a growing role in the food chain.

According to McKinsey, sensor-based data can guide a seeding machine to the optimum depth based on soil conditions at specific field locations and increase yields by up to 25 percent. IoT applications also include using sensors to determine when to irrigate and spray insecticides. Health monitors on livestock can help avoid losses and improve productivity.

Arial imaging technology will allow Toronto, Canadabased McCain Foods Limited to know the most opportune times to apply fertilizer and pesticides to potato plants, says Lenny Colborne, manager of enterprise analytics architecture for the company.

Overstock.com, the Salt Lake City, Utah-based e-retailer, has been able to match customer zip codes with farms for its Farmers Market operation using geo-mapping software and census records, says Jeff Sugden, senior business intelligence developer. Visualization software allows the company to gain business insights that would not be available using traditional charts and graphs.

IoT improves safety IoT also brings health and safety benefits to the f&b supply chain.

McCain Foods has been able to gather and analyze injury information much faster, says Colborne. This enabled them to develop a safety plan that reduced injuries by 75 percent.

Sensors imbedded in rodent traps alert maintenance staff in food warehouses, says Mark Smith, CEO at Bend, Ore.based Ventana Research.

FOOD LOGISTICS

Toyota Material Equipment Handling’s telematics systems are hosted wireless solutions for managing lift trucks that allow a warehouse manager to monitor peak activity times, impact occurrences, etc. “It leads to awareness, improved safety and cost savings, knowing that impacts are being monitored,” says Jewell Brown, national manager, fleet manager/telematics.

More data brings challenges One of the biggest challenges for most companies is how to make use of all the new data.

IoT challenges include ROI, technical education, data security and privacy, integration of different databases and software systems, and management and prioritization of geometricallyexpanding data.

Companies should first decide what business areas make the most sense. They then need to work with their technology partner(s).

To remain competitive, the McKinsey report notes companies will need to collaborate with technology and data vendors. ◆

For more information: ARC ADVISORY GROUP, arcweb.com DUNNHUMBY, dunnhumby.com FOOD MARKETING INSTITUTE, fmi.org GARTNER, gartner.com IDEO, Ideo.com MCKINSEY & CO., mckinsey.com MWPVL, mwpvl.com ★RAYMOND CORP., raymondcorp.com ★REHRIG PACIFIC CO., rehrigpacific.com TERADATA, Teradata.com TOPCON POSITIONING SYSTEM INC., topconpositioning.com TOYOTA MATERIAL HANDLING CO., global-toyotaforklifts.com VENTANA RESEARCH, ventanaresearch.com

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SECTOR REPORTS

ECO NOMIC DE V E LOP ME NT: THE A ME RICA S

Florida:

PREPARED FOR PERISHABLES Across the Sunshine State ports and infrastructure are ready for the expansion of the Panama Canal with hopes to become the preferred destination of perishables from the Americas. BY ERIC SACHARSKI

D

espite the recent news from Panama about leaky locks and cargo ships being backed up on both sides of the Panama Canal for up to 11 days waiting to go through while they make repairs, it’s hard to temper the anticipation of the expanded Panama Canal in Florida.

After all, Florida is home to four of the country’s 10 fastest growing ports, and when the Post-Panamax ships start crossing the expanded canal sometime in the spring of 2016, 64

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those numbers are only going to rise.

According to Miami, Fla.based import/export trade data provider Datamyne, perishables coming from Latin America and South America are already coming into Florida ports in droves. Fruit and perishables are already up 44 percent over 2014 numbers at PortMiami, and Port Everglades is the state’s largest refrigerated cargo port and seventh largest in the country, which makes it the number one gateway for trade with Latin America.

• FOOD LOGISTICS

Better yet, thanks to the foresight of port leaders and legislators throughout Florida, the state stands to gain a considerable share of trade with the Americas once the expanded Panama Canal opens in the spring.

USDA program puts Florida out front Up until 2013, perishables, regardless of their destination, were required to enter Northeastern ports for cold treatment and clearance. This increased costs across the board because the cargo then had to be trans-

Image courtesy of Crowley.

ported to southern states for distribution to stores.

But late in 2013, the Florida Perishables Coalition, a nonprofit association developed to increase trade in perishable products through Florida’s airwww.foodlogistics.com

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Image courtesy of PortMiami.

• An aerial view of PortMiami’s recently completed deep dredge project that makes the port the only global trade hub south of Virginia capable of handling post-Panamax ships.

ports and seaports, kicked off a new, 6-month pilot program that allowed for the clearance of cold-treatment perishables, such as blueberries and grapes from Peru and Uruguay, through south Florida, as an www.foodlogistics.com

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alternative to Northeast ports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture cold treatment pilot program has benefitted shippers and consumers alike, with shippers seeing lower transportation costs and a longer shelf life for their products while southern-based consumers have enjoyed lower grocery store prices on fruits and vegetables. Additionally, there are environmental benefits from reduced emissions related to the shortened transportation of these perishables.

Late in 2014, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) added new commodities to the program, including citrus fruits from Peru and blueberries, apples and pears from Argentina. The program also expanded in October when the USDA added Port Manatee and Port Tampa Bay to the cold treatment program, giving shippers multiple destinations across the state to ship their perishables.

According to Coral Gabels, Fla.-based Flagler Global Logistics CEO Chris Scott, the shorter route for perishables through south Florida ports can save customers up to $2,000 per truckload or container, as well as an • Crowley intangible value employees in of offering Guatemala higher quality prepare fresh fruits that can produce for last up to seven shipment to the United days longer.

States.

This is important as countries in Central America and Peru plan to increase production of fruit in perishables as the Panama Canal expansion ramps up and gets closer to completion.

“Peru is planning to increase its blueberry production while also continuing to supply the U.S.’ growing demand for avocados, grapes, mango and

• Representatives of Flagler Global Logistics and Port Canaveral pose at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Titusville Logistics Center in July.

Image courtesy of Port Canaveral.

asparagus,” says Nelly Yunta, vice president of logistics at Crowley, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based logistics provider.

“Central America will continue to be an important supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables for the U.S. as well. So Crowley is investing in new equipment and additional sailings and will continue to provide full logistics services including ocean,

FOOD LOGISTICS

customs clearance, warehousing and trucking in the region to serve the increasing trend.”

Improving infrastructure on their own One of the biggest reasons Florida is ahead of the curve in preparations for the expanded Panama Canal opening is because most of the logistics providers in the state didn’t

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

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Image courtesy of PortMiami.

Bring On The Big Ships!

T

rade with Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for approximately 50 percent of PortMiami’s shipping traffic in 2015, so now that over $1 billion of capital infrastructure projects are now completed, the port is no doubt ready for the post-Panamax ship era and potential increased perishables trade with the Americas.

Back in 2011, PortMiami started installing super post-Panamax gantry cranes that can service cargo vessels up to 22 containers wide and up to nine containers above deck and 11 containers below.

The recently-completed, 50- to 52-foot dredge project now allows the Port to accommodate the largest container vessels sailing the oceans, including neoPanamax vessels that can carry up to 13,000 TEUs that will be able to transit the new Panama Canal. In addition, the on-dock intermodal rail service in partnership with Florida East Coast Railway links PortMiami to 70 percent of the U.S. population in four days or less.

Plus, a recently-completed, fast-access tunnel connects the Port directly to the interstate highway system, providing rapid turnaround time for the movement of import and export goods. The tunnel provides two dedicated lanes in each direction connecting the airport and Interstate Highway I-395 directly to and from PortMiami. Prior to the tunnel being built, the only way into the port was through Port Boulevard, which caused heavy truck traffic and congestion in the narrow central business district in downtown Miami.

“I am proud to say that PortMiami is now able to berth Post-Panamax ships; and we are able to expedite the movement of goods throughout Florida, the continental U.S., and the world, fast and efficiently,” PortMiami director and CEO Juan M. Kuryla said at the celebration in September. “We are grateful to the vision of our state and local leaders for making this critical infrastructure project a reality. The completion of PortMiami’s deep dredge and intermodal on-dock rail projects cannot be overstated. PortMiami is now positioned as the most reliable, convenient and efficient global hub on the North American East Coast ready to service the world’s leading ocean carriers.” ◆

wait for the federal government to allocate funds for infrastructure improvements.

Leaders and legislators realized the importance of upgrading facilities, roads and cold storage facilities right away without wading through all of the red tape and restrictions in securing federal funds.

Port Everglades increased its chances at securing more traffic from the Americas when it partnered with Jacksonvillebased Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) on a new $72 million intermodal container facility on 43 acres near the sea-

port. The facility, constructed with the help of $48 million in loans from the state, not only can transfer goods across the FECR’s 351-mile rail network across Florida, but also connects with Eastern railroads operated by CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Railway.

This allows delivery as far north as Cincinnati, Ohio, and as far west as Dallas, Texas, to reach 70 percent of the U.S. population within four days.

Port Everglades will also begin a project to extend the turning basin to 2,400 feet and add five new cranes to the sev-

•The PortMiami Access Tunnel opened in August and gives the port direct dedicated access to and from the Miami airport and Interstate I-395.

en-crane infrastructure in late 2016 and early 2017 to accommodate the megaships coming through the expanded canal.

Flagler Global Logistics and Port Canaveral broke ground back in July on the new Titusville Logistics Center aimed at attracting new traffic to the inland port facility. The stateof-the-art, 246,240-square-foot facility is set to be completed in early 2016 and offers quick and easy access to US1 and I-95 highways and is also connected to the FECR railroad network.

PortMiami stands to be the biggest benefactor in all of Florida due to all of its recent infrastructure upgrades, which include a new Miami Access Tunnel that offers a direct connection to and from the port to the airport and the Interstate I-395 highway.

In September PortMiami also celebrated the completion of its deep dredge and on-dock intermodal rail project that positions the port into a major U.S. global gateway (see sidebar above).

When leaders celebrated the completion of the deep dredge project, Gov. Rick Scott emphasized the most important part the $1 billion capital improvement.

“We did not wait on the federal government to fund this important project, we stepped up because we want Florida to be the global leader in trade,” Scott stated. “The completion of the PortMiami deep dredge project is historic for all of Florida as PortMiami becomes the only major global trade hub south of Virginia capable of handling bigger, more modern, post-Panamax ships.”

When the expanded Panama Canal finally does open for business sometime in 2016, there’s little to no doubt that the state of Florida will be in a prime position to reap the rewards and gain their share of the expanded refrigerated cargo traffic coming to and from the Americas. ◆

For more information: CROWLEY, crowley.com DATAMYNE, datamyne.com FLAGLER GLOBAL LOGISTICS, flaglergl.com FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY, fecrwy.com PORT CANAVERAL, portcanaveral.com PORT EVERGLADES, porteverglades.net PORTMIAMI, miamidade.gov/portmiami USDA APHIS, aphis.usda.gov

ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER......................... PAGE 3GTMS.............................................42 AFS Technologies Inc.......................43 A-Safe USA......................................61 Bastian Solutions.............................27 CAMS Software Corp.........................9 CaseStack Inc..................................35 Cubic Designs, Inc...........................58 DSC Logistics...................................37 ExtenData.........................................23

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ADVERTISER......................... PAGE Fleet Advantage...............................53 Ford Motor Co................................ 2-3 GoECart............................................38 IFS Management GmbH...................25 iGPS Logistics LLC..........................57 Interlake Mecalux.............................29 J.B. Hunt Transportation Services, Inc.....................................51 Johnson Refrigerated Truck Bodies.70 Kenworth Truck Corp.......................17

ADVERTISER......................... PAGE LeanLogistics, Inc............................33 Lynden Inc........................................45 MercuryGate International Inc..........69 NECS, Inc.........................................41 Old Dominion Freight Line Inc......10-11 Omnitracs.........................................13 Optricity............................................31 Penske................................................5 Port of Long Beach..........................59

FOOD LOGISTICS

ADVERTISER......................... PAGE The Raymond Corporation...............21 Rehrig Pacific...................................47 Rubbermaid Commercial Products....7 Ryder System, Inc............................15 Schaefer Systems International, Inc... 49 Sensitech, Inc...................................39 Superior Tire & Rubber Corp............65 Veritiv................................................60 Vormittag Associates, Inc.................55

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FOOD (and More) FOR THOUGHT

DAVE FELDMAN

How To Improve Supply Chain Sustainability:

The Collective Impact Model

E

very player in the food supply chain recognizes the importance of sustainability. But why are so many players still not onboard with clearly-defined p ograms in this area? One reason is there is no clear industrywide defin tion of sustainability. The e is little agreement on what sustainability means which is why it is often difficult f companies to agree to one particular standard.

The de facto definition of sustainability, established by the United Nations in 1987, is: “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” Businesses that strive to be sustainable create products and services that meet the diverse needs of existing and future customers, are sensitive to the environment, and contribute to a high quality of life for all their stakeholders.

Sustainability in the agriculture sector is even more urgent than ever, with climate as a driver. Currently, agriculture is a big contributor to greenhouse gases. And, it is also potentially a climate super hero. With new data showing that soil can be a significant carbon sink with soil-restoring agriculture practices. Agriculture could potentially sequester enough carbon that is already in the atmosphere to mitigate the two-degree Celsius temperature rise that climate scientists forecast.

What hampers sustainability efforts?

What is lacking for businesses striving for sustainability is several-fold. For some, there is a lack of willingness or interest because changes are perceived, at times incorrectly, to be costly or time consuming. The belief is that the investment doesn’t bring a return or increased market share -- there is not a clear ROI. Or the company may be looking at “return” in too short of a time frame.

For others, it is a lack of a clear path or set of standards. Every sector differs and businesses have unique operations, goals and relationships. There are several certification programs to choose from, but this adds complexity because of different recommendations for key sustainability factors such as waste management, energy use, transportation, toxic ingredients, and water use.

There are many examples of how businesses have approached sustainability to reduce costs, create better products and increase employee motivation.

The Green America Center for Sustainability Solutions is one such example. The Center, just publicly launched, works with companies to promote a sustainable supply chain. The projects will focus on clean energy, sustainable agriculture, fair labor practices and responsible finance.

The Center’s approach is based on a collective impact model where key players establish agreement around a common agenda 68

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• FOOD LOGISTICS

and create a shared vision to solve it. The Center team maintains ongoing communications to build trust and relationships.

The Center brings together diverse groups of stakeholders in “innovation networks” to solve problems that no one company, FELDMAN investor or organization can tackle alone.

The Center builds on Green America’s 30-plus year record as a sustainability thought and action leader of broad economic and environmental change. For example, the Center is running a national working group to generate sustainable agriculture solutions and pilot projects in the Northeast U.S. for the animal feed and dairy industry.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream steps forward Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is an example of a food company that has successfully used a collaborative market approach, particularly in its work with the Center for Sustainability Solutions. “Through its work with the Center” says Andy Barker, social mission strategy and policy manager, “Ben & Jerry’s has accelerated and deepened their ability to drive change inside and outside the company, especially in finding whole system solutions to the task of rebuilding non-GMO supply chains.”

Whole Foods Inc. is another company that has found the collaborative market approach to sustainability. “Everyone is so focused on their part of the supply chain, so no one can see the big systemic problems,” says Errol Schweizer, executive global grocery coordinator. “The process we’re doing with the Center is exactly what we need to create real change.”

The Center is in early stages of launching several new innovation networks to move big systems. These include collaboration within the electronics industry to move towards zero toxic chemical exposure for workers in the manufacturing process, and new investments to support sustainable agriculture.

The next two innovation networks that the Center plans to launch are RESET, -- Renewable Economics for Sustainable Energy Transition -- in the energy sector and Cocoa Livelihoods in the intersection between agriculture and fair labor.

RESET will focus on optimizing the design of electricity markets and grid systems for the coming renewables dominant energy systems.

Cocoa Livelihoods will focus on improving the incomes of families living in cocoa growing areas of Ghana and Cote d’lvoire.

The Center is online at www.centerforsustainabilitysolutions.org. ◆ Dave Feldman is the director of The Green America Center for Sustainability Solutions. www.foodlogistics.com

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