Clive Bratt from Abacus Guardian has worked in the food sector for over 2 decades.

chazIn that time he has been involved in creating technology that not only reduces the likelihood of food being scrapped, it also helps food companies plan ahead and detect when units are likely to go wrong. Warehouse News asked him about his experience of working with the chilled warehousing and storage industry.

WLN – How has the industry changed over the last 10 years?

With the continued rise of supermarkets margins are tighter, but the public have a higher expectation of fresh food. As with many industries, technology has made things cheaper, faster and more effective. Whilst working with several businesses, we have replaced ‘hard wired’ systems where alerts were possible, but not the most effective way of protecting stock in the chillers or freezers.

WLN – What was the problem with that type of system?

In the main it’s down to flexibility. The wires would run from the unit in question to a single point or two points within the company. One fish processer we met had just such a system set up. The MD worked from 4am till about 3pm. If the temperature dropped in his freezer unit, bells would ring and lights would flash. However, this meant that if a chiller unit failed the alarm would go off – with nobody to hear it for 13 hours of the day. Our system operates 24 hours a day, can be checked and monitored from anywhere in the world, and sends him (or any of his staff) a text when things go wrong.

WLN – Had that company ever had issues with wastage in the past?

Yes, they had situations where thousands of pounds worth of stock had to be scrapped, which is not unusual in this industry. One meat processor we work with had previously experienced 5 freezer units failing over the course of one weekend, which meant that over £11,000 worth of meat had to be thrown away.

WLN – How much time do companies have to recover the situation if things go wrong?

It varies a lot depending on the size of the unit in question. As a general rule, food in chiller units have a shorter window of recovery than freezer units where the core temperature is lower. The key concept to grasp is that the sooner you find out the temperature has risen, the sooner you can either mend the problem or transfer the food into an alternative storage place.

WLN – Does it help to detect issues in advance?

Not directly but several customers use the hysteresis of a freezer or chiller unit as a way to detect future issues. When a pattern of temperature ranges starts to deviate from the norm (but still within the safe range) it will often mean that the unit should be looked at or serviced ahead of schedule. We always think that prevention is better than cure. So if it’s possible to save or stop a breakdown, that is always better than reacting to save a freezer load of food.

WLN – What about mobile units?

As the distance between producer and distributor has increased over time this has become more of an issue. If you take abattoirs for example; their numbers have decreased considerably over the last few years, so the meat is travelling further to either reach the processors or the retailers. The longer that food is in storage, the greater the chances are that its freezer or chilling mechanism will fail.

WLN – How can that be resolved?

There are plenty of ways, but they’ve typically involved increasing the manual checking by drivers. The solution that we developed sends a text message to either the driver or to a central control unit of both. That way the driver can then attempt to work out what the problem is – such as a loose connection – or change their route so that the load can be diverted before it gets spoilt.

WLN – What other sectors are using the technology?

It’s always a question of economics. The more valuable the commodity that can perish, the more likely a business is to invest in methods to prevent that happening. As well as food processors and retailers we work with a lot of pharmaceutical companies, as vaccines stop working if their storage temperature is not within a specified range. Similarly, server storage companies need to keep their equipment within specified ranges otherwise £ multi-million processors will start to fail. The good news for many of the food companies that we work with is that the cost of the system is more than offset by the savings on their business insurance. That way, they effectively get a new remote temperature monitoring system that ends up saving them money on their insurance premiums. That means that they can protect their stock, stop waste and actually save money by reducing their insurance premiums.

WLN – Have you noticed any rules that seem to apply around the failure of chilled warehouse or mobile storage units?

Only the oldest rule in business. If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. And if it does go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time. So failure seems to happen more often in the early hours of the morning rather than during working hours. Units seem to fail when they are full, rather than when they empty. Problems seem to happen in the run up to delivering that all-important order for a major new client that you want to impress. Whether that’s the truth or just the perception that our clients have its hard to say. However, it does help the owners (especially of smaller firms) to know that even if they are away from their desk, they can check on temperature of all of their mobile units and warehouse storage units in real time to make sure that they are all functioning perfectly.

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