Reducing Loss in the Bakery Supply Chain with Asset Tracking

Transcription

1 Reducing Loss in the Bakery Supply Chain with Asset Tracking Bob Klimko, Director Marketing Orbis Corporation Pat Kennedy, VP Marketing/Sales The Kennedy Group

2 History of Alpha Baking National distributor of fresh and frozen breads, rolls and buns since the late 1970 s Nationwide reputation for high-quality products Headquartered in Chicago Established distribution network Four plants and 17 distribution points Popular Brands: S. Rosen, Natural Ovens, Mary Ann

3 Alpha Baking s Reusable Tray Program Integrated tray/dolly program Stack and nest tray design 350M trays in the system Direct-store delivery 117 ship-to locations

4 Bakery Industry Challenges Tray Loss/Misuse: For decades the bakery industry has been using reusable trays to transport product. As a whole, the industry has experienced significant tray loss every year. Supply Chain Complexity: More retailers, more brands, challenging distribution. High volumes of transactions in a short period of time. Bakery Product Loss: No system in place that provides visibility and tracking for lost bread trays. Cost of doing business has increased, so any kind of loss is heavily scrutinized.

5 What Tray Loss is Costing Alpha Believe the loss occurs at distribution to the end customer. Trays are often retrieved from customers by other bread companies or stolen. The costs are staggering: No tracking system and thus no visibility of trays. As a result significant tray loss exists. Lost trays require bakery to carry extra inventory of corrugated boxes, thus increasing labor and inventory cost. No accountability by the driver or customer. Labor costs for moving what inventory is available in one location to areas of shortage. Intangible costs: Significant People watch what we watch. If the depots know that we are watching the bread trays, they will watch them too. Bob McGuire Alpha Baking

6 Asset Tracking Considerations BARCODE RFID Labor intensive increases labor costs Low visibility line of sight required. Requires human intervention, thus invasive to environment Not scalable for fluctuating volumes No line of site required, thus reduced labor cost Noninvasive to environment, thus does not require human intervention Scalable for fluctuating volumes Developed unique software (epreusable ) to trace reusable assets as it relates to the bakery industry workflow Lower cost provides the opportunity to run a more cost effective pilot System has been running and is proven product

7 Recommended Solution for Alpha Baking: RFID for Asset Tracking Implement web-based middleware that ties together RFID and browser based technologies to collect, assemble, integrate, and deliver asset movement information. Tagged and utilized existing fleet of trays; installed RFID hardware & portals. Launched and managed a pilot program for validation. GOAL: Provide solution with no interruption of production activity and maintain current workflow. Allow Alpha Bakery to collect data while maintaining the same flow.

8 Pilot objective: Identify where the losses are occurring Pilot participants: Pilot Details The Kennedy Group, RFID Supplier: End-to-End RFID solution provider, offering asset management software, tags, hardware, and professional services ORBIS, Tray Supplier: Tagging, project management, feedback collection Alpha Baking: Project management, site layout, reader installation, feedback collection Pilot length: 120 days 4 Participating Plants, 17 Distribution Points, 117 Ship-To Locations PILOT GOAL: Reduce lost trays by gaining better visibility of trays in the Alpha supply chain

9 How the System Works Bread trays in Alpha Baking inventory uniquely identified with a multi-trip RFID tag. Destination tag (D tag) is attached to every pallet or stack of trays which denotes the destination of the product. When loading trucks, workers pass through a portal that reads individual trays and associates it to the destination. Upon loading the trays onto the truck, destination tags are removed and deposited into a collection receptacle for later reuse. Able to generate a variety of reporting to help Alpha make business decisions.

10 RFID in Action Video, Alpha Baking Company

11 Reducing Loss in the Bakery Supply Chain with Asset Tracking Thank you. Bob McGuire, Alpha Baking Pat Kennedy, The Kennedy Group Bob Klimko, ORBIS Corporation

12 Questions/Answers