The cost and availability of labor and transportation are two recurring pain points in the produce industry, and retail distribution centers are facing these issues by developing new and effective strategies through technological development.
Advanced shipping notifications (ASNs), which save time and money for carriers and receivers alike, have moved out of the age of the fax machine and into email alerts, smartphone apps, and web-based compliance modules that assure products arrive on time at facilities and ready for storage or cross docking.
Electronic monitoring also allows warehouses to preschedule off loading and pickups, so shipments can be sorted quickly into zones demarcated for pallets, cases, and individual units as needed.
All of this, as well as optimized storage space, AS/RS (automated storage and retrieval systems), and new developments in robotics, get distributors closer to alleviating worker and/or truck shortages.
Ramping up efficiency
One company that looks to automation and robotics to solve thorny distribution issues is Fabric, formerly known as CommonSense Robotics. The company’s infrastructure-as-a service platform is designed to reduce last-mile bottlenecks and speed up processes without affecting quality—using a new buzzword in the industry, ‘micro-fulfillment.’
Combining existing automation technologies with new developments in cloud computing and a model based on understanding specific geographical needs, micro-fulfillment allows companies to expand their customer base, vary inventory levels, and still be close to customers without costly investment in new infrastructure.
“When it comes to fulfillment, retailers need absolute flexibility, whether it’s their technical and operational requirements or their business needs,” notes Steven Hornyak, Fabric’s chief commercial officer, in a press release announcing the company’s rebranding.
“You need to get closer to get bigger, and our platform enables retailers to grow their business while also bringing them closer to their customers, whether it’s 5,000 SKUs or 50,000 SKUs that need to be fulfilled and delivered on demand,” Hornyak says.
Another company with its eye on building efficiencies via technology is HarvestMark, BB #:311190 a division of Trimble, Inc. In today’s marketplace, data is king, and a field as time-intensive and detail-oriented as produce is no exception.
A 2018 survey by JDA Software noted that 68 percent of retailers are facing rising fulfillment costs, and streamlined data management can reduce these costs by as much as 20 percent the first year. With this in mind, HarvestMark developed a mobile app that assists retailers in managing fruit and vegetable quality at the RDC level.
“This application, which is used by retailers like Aldi, Ahold Delhaize-Food Lion, and Meijer, prioritizes and guides quality inspections so every inspector at every distribution center is using consistent criteria in receiving product,” says Minos Athanassiadis, HarvestMark’s business area director.
“It also provides analytics for improved buying, and it creates visibility with supplier performance reports—all resulting in measurably higher gross margins.”
Meijer, Kroger/Ocado, and behemoth Walmart are all building high-tech facilities across the country. Walmart, which has 47 distribution centers, opened a “distribution center of the future,” in Shafter, CA, outside Bakersfield.
The center is over 600,000 square feet and employs 300 workers, adding to the hotbed of activity in Kern County where Amazon and others are opening warehouses. Walmart has opened half a dozen RDCs specifically for perishable groceries in the last decade, with a total of over 3 million square feet of storage.
The Shafter facility is the crown jewel, servicing 200-plus stores in the Southwest and using Germany-based WITRON technology to allow fewer employees to process 40 percent more orders in less time through the use of customized algorithms for optimal case and pallet stacking, as well as trailer loading.
This is multi-part feature on retail distribution centers adapted from the January/February 2020 issue of Produce Blueprints.
