Increasingly demanding consumers are putting pressure on cold chain logistics providers in the food industry.
That’s the view of Anthea Van Breemen, projects leader at Forte Warehouse Solutions, who says changes in temperature can change the texture and taste of a product and it’s something of which the consumer is aware.
“In the whole supply chain each leg has to account for their portion – and as new products are being brought to market more needs to be tracked and reported to the end user.”
Van Breemen believes this is the prime motivator for the introduction of more value added services by the temperature-controlled stores.
“Case picking is an example,” she points out. “This requires a different setup within your area for a picking store. There needs to be controlled picking where the bulk items are identified, but the case items also need their own identification to ensure the correct stock is being dispatched. Many items have different or shorter expiry dates with different production batch numbers that can vary from item to item even on one pallet in a store.”
In Van Breemen’s view, e-Commerce has brought a whole new level of “pick phase” to the industry with turnaround times of hours not days.
“This requires special interfaces between software products in the supply chain from the order through to expected on-time delivery to the customer.
“A Warehouse Management Software package helps to provide a framework from which to set up your own specific requirements from this.”
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As new products are brought to market more needs to be tracked and reported to the end user. – Anthea Van Breemen
