More companies with refrigerated and frozen temperature-controlled facilities are adopting automation as a means to enhance the productivity of their existing team .
AUTOMATION & TECHNOLOGY
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Automation as a cold chain labour strategy
By Fred Albrecht , chief executive officer of Logistics Systems Engineering
More companies with refrigerated and frozen temperature-controlled facilities are adopting automation as a means to enhance the productivity of their existing team .
Logistics Systems Engineering
Once again , the most recent Annual Industry Report – which puts questions to 1 000 supply chain leaders every year – found that hiring and retaining qualified workers persists as their top challenge .
If you ’ re a warehouse or distribution centre operator , you ’ ve likely experienced this within your own four walls . And , if you ’ re running a temperature-controlled , cold or frozen storage facility , you likely struggle more than ambient operations to find and keep employees .
There is , however , an alternative to the workforce challenge : automation . Indeed , more companies with refrigerated and frozen temperature-controlled facilities are adopting automation as a means to enhance the productivity of their existing team .
A recently published Research Paper by the author , on Automation in the Cold Chain , shows effective labour strategies in cold chain warehousing and distribution , and intensely explores this approach . The white paper examines both partial and comprehensive
Operations that implement automation as a labour strategy in their temperature-controlled warehouses and distribution centres will realise numerous benefits . applications of automation in such facilities . It also details the benefits , including the ability for an operation to achieve higher standards of productivity , dependability , sustainability , accuracy and safety .
WHY IS LABOUR SO HARD TO FIND ? There are a variety of reasons temperaturecontrolled operations faced multiple hiring and retention struggles prior to Covid-19 , and why those struggles are likely to persist in the ‘ new normal ’.
• Record-low unemployment prior to the pandemic .
• Network optimisation strategies that located multiple warehouses and distribution centres in close proximity , creating tough competition for a finite number of workers .
• Retiring Baby Boomers , many of whose supply chain jobs are unlikely to be filled by Generation X-ers and Millennials disinterested in working in the field .
• The continued perception that warehousing and distribution jobs are unappealing .
• Workers who lost jobs due to Covid-19 were primarily in hospitality , tourism , travel and foodservice — fields they will likely return to as the economy recovers .
• Re-shoring strategies are bringing manufacturing and supply sources back to each country of use and increasing labour demand to each country .
• Pandemic countermeasures that safeguard employees ’ health , such as social distancing , result in fewer workers assigned to the same areas to handle the same amount of work , reducing productivity .
WHAT PROCESS ( ES ) SHOULD BE AUTOMATED FIRST ?
The average operations budget doesn ’ t allow for the automation of every process within a refrigerated or frozen facility . Therefore , it ’ s important to first quantify the anticipated productivity increase an automation investment will deliver across a variety of areas . By comparing the expected gains , automation projects can be prioritised . Areas to consider include :
• Yard and site management
• Inbound and unloading
• Receiving and inspection
• Put-aways
• Retrieval
• Replenishment
• Layer picking
• Case picking
• Palletising
• Stretch-wrapping
• Staging
• Outbound and loading
8 www . coldlinkafrica . co . za COLD LINK AFRICA • June 2023