Customer story – Global furniture retailer ships frozen goods for in-house restaurants

A global furniture retailer produces and transports chilled and frozen goods for in-house restaurants. Recently, they developed a new packaging method that saves them both time and money. However, the retailer ran into a troubling issue in their cold chain: the new packaging impacted temperatures. To put the new packaging to the test, they used Visilion. Along the way, they learned a lot more about supply chain control.

Challenge

The retailer’s chilled and frozen cargo has small margins on acceptable temperatures: between 0°C and 4°C for chilled goods and -20°C and -18°C for frozen goods. Temperature deviations increase the risk of food arriving unfit for sale or consumption, and they expose the supply chain to the threat of costly messes and delays. In other words: shipping conditions are one of their top priorities.

However, a new cost- and resource-effective packaging method altered the layout and airflow of the container. Without any actual data, the retailer had no way to know whether this would negatively impact their cold chains.

They had other concerns about their cold chain as a whole. They wanted to see where things went wrong, and why. They also wanted to see whether they could hold logistics service providers more accountable in the way they handle the retailer’s sensitive cargo.

Solution

The retailer used Visilion to monitor shipments on international road and maritime shipments. With Visilion, they tracked their shipments with traditional packaging methods and the newly developed method. They kept a close eye on the condition data, particularly temperature, but used the location data for scheduling and shipment management..

Results

With data from Visilion, the retailer had evidence to prove the value of their new packaging method. They found that their new time- and money-saving packaging method did not differ in any meaningful way from their traditional method. This data allows the retailer to invest in their new packaging method with confidence.

Along the way, the retailer discovered other insights. Firstly, they were pleased to find that continuous shipment locations provided data for accurate truck detention costs. Unlike before, they could pinpoint arrival times and offloading times. Secondly, instant access to real-time location data made it easy to see at a glance whether their shipments had departed. If not, they could immediately reschedule or roll the shipment as needed. Thirdly, the combined condition and location data gave them the necessary insights to hold logistics service providers accountable. In one instance, location data helped the retailer inquire about a truck shipment taking a peculiar, unplanned detour.

With access to this information, the retailer is on their way to a complete understanding of their supply chain – where they understand what actually happens and not what they believe to have happened.