Cold Link Africa Jan/Feb 2017 | Page 15

EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS

INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN

Continued from page 13

distributors and even body builders like African Bodies.

motivating factors for optimising cold chain operations. The group broke into smaller sub-groups to share ideas and discuss before feeding back to the greater workshop what the‘ team’ had

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Challenges in the industry

come up with.

The group discussed various challenges

The list was long, including everything

facing the cold chain logistics industry in

from customer satisfaction and cost

South Africa, including the issue that the

savings to environmental responsibility and

industry needs to take responsibility for

energy saving.

regulation, as it won’ t be driven by the

The issue was raised that in South

government.

Africa( like most of Africa) we’ re still just

The issue of education was raised and

hoping to get the product there and on

emphasised the need for a cold chain

temperature; we haven’ t reached the

module at university level.

stage where we try to optimise— our

The group also discussed the use of

problems are much bigger still.

telematics: is the market ready for new

The groups presented solutions for

and sophisticated solutions? Not everyone was convinced. We have the technology available, but there seems to be a lot of resistance in the local market to this, mostly because of price and the fact that people aren’ t skilled enough to use it.

Optimising cold chain operations The discussion then moved on to

optimisation, such as addressing the shortage of skills by improving education possibilities, and working with regulators to raise the bar with regard to body manufacturing and standards. But the issue isn’ t just educating the industry— there is a need for the end-user to start insisting on better quality, driving the change and demanding value for money.

After the afternoon break, talks moved to outsourcing partners and opportunities for vertical and horizontal co-operation, with the groups discussing possible examples of these.

Durban and Cape Town The Durban workshop followed the next day at the Garden Court South

as current operations of service providers, retailers and suppliers. Thank you for this experience!”

GIZ has promised to follow up on some of the discussion items, such as driver training and certification, and will give feedback during its next project steering committee.

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Process distribution Before lunch, the discussion moved towards core process management and the importance thereof. The trainers’ advice: start simple.

After an enjoyable lunch where everyone was eager to receive advice from their German guests, all returned to the conference room to continue the discussion on process distribution, using Burger King as an example.

The trainers shared examples of how they do things in Germany and what works there. There they even have their drivers do the offloading! A definite nono here because of safety and labour relations.

Beach, with Cape Town on 7 October at Lagoon Beach Hotel, Milnerton. The workshops followed the same format as in Johannesburg, and the industry put their heads together in an attempt to improve cold chain efficiencies across the board.

From GIZ“ We have very much enjoyed the positive atmosphere, lively discussion, and exchange of thoughts and ideas on operations in the cold chain sector,” said Schuster afterwards.“ During the workshops and when visiting some of your companies, the trainers had a great chance for insights to South Africa’ s cold chain community, the challenges, as well

R290 The field trial of the joint venture between Transfrig and GIZ on the R290 prototype successfully kicked off on 29 November last year at Transfrig’ s premises in Linbro Park, Johannesburg.

“ I’ d like to thank everyone involved for their valuable contributions,” said Schuster.

The next step is for Transfrig and GIZ to approach suitable customers for an extended field trial with 10 units in January / February 2017.

Test chamber update The testing facility to measure the thermal performance of refrigerated vehicles in South Africa at the SABS has been built

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and is in commissioning phase. SANS 1744 has been drafted to

standardise the testing of refrigerated

vehicles in South Africa and be similar to

that of the ATP agreement. It is currently

out for public comment and will hopefully

be published soon.

The official launch event has been

earmarked for 2017( presumably early

April), but we will keep you posted.

CLA

1. The R290 trial unit.

2. The group who attended the Cape Town workshop.

3. The trainers during their Johannesburg session: Konstantin Schüssler( left) and Prof. Dr Michael Huth.