The cold food supply chain is undergoing a transformative phrase with companies responding by leveraging innovative software and technologies to address challenges, increase efficiency and ensure the integrity of perishable goods.

Adoption of these technologies for supply chain visibility is critical for modernizing processes, optimizing logistics, and navigating global supply chain complexities.

A driving factor for the significant changes in which the cold food supply chain is undergoing is that it is grappling with challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matt Heerey, president of manufacturing for ECI Software Solutions, indicates its capacity is at 70% of previous levels. He identifies key issues as limited capacity, resource shortages, disrupted material flow, transportation, and logistics problems.

As the industry moves to return to 100%t, “one of the major trends we will continue to see evolve is the integration of robotics and software to streamline repetitive and mundane processes such as packing, sorting and processes,” adds Heerey.

Heerey also emphasized the importance of automation and technology in cold food systems in enhancing inventory management, temperature control, and reducing manual processes.

This not only increases efficiency, but contributes to the quality of perishable goods, he adds.

Glenn Koepke, FourKites’ general manager of network collaboration, notes one trend in the cold food chain is the use of sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) engines for accurate forecasting, addressing growing season challenges, capacity allocations, distribution, and order demand.

The adoption of AI- and ML-based tracking to collaborate with third-party logistics (3PL) providers, temp control carriers and the end customer grows each quarter, he adds.

Another trend: companies are faced with legacy technical debt from acquisitions and/or a lack of investment in overall infrastructure, Koepke says, adding many cold food chains start with farmers in the field whose core business is growing and harvesting, not supply chain tech.

“As part of modernization efforts, companies continue to invest in their enterprise technology stacks to digitize their process from farm to final customer,” he says.

Profitability and growth are being slashed up to 10 times or more in certain cold chain commodities, putting pressure on budget priorities, leading companies to prioritize roadmaps addressing infrastructure impact, process optimization, growth, and customer experience.

Jonathan Raemdonck, Trimble’s director of operational marketing, notes companies realize the dispersed set of systems they are using need to work more closely together, not just within the boundaries of their companies, but also in between companies.

Real-time visibility into goods’ conditions, such as temperature ranges, is crucial for both inbound and outbound traffic flows.

Carriers shipping perishable goods want to know a shipment has been delivered on time and within allowed temperature ranges.

“When a critical production error has occurred, a food manufacturer wants to immediately identify impacted batches, which stores they have been delivered to, and which impacted products are still in transit,” says Raemdonck.

Food and beverage companies are starting to integrate spot transportation into their tactical toolset for assigning transports, enabling them to manage seasonal volume spikes and reduce costs in times of a loose market, he adds.

Addressing the benefits software and technology brings to the industry, Heerey notes numerous ones, including resiliency, reliability, sustainability, and integrity of perishable goods throughout the supply chain to minimize risk and enhance product quality and safety, especially cold stored.

Advanced analytics and data-driven insights enable proactive decision-making, optimizing logistics and reducing operational costs through supply chain traceability, fostering transparency and accountability, he adds.

David Warrick, Overhaul’s EVP of enterprise, notes the transformation of technology in the supply chain industry from potential possibilities to practical realities. Automation, enhanced visibility, and real-time processing have become key components, allow the industry to anticipate and act proactively.

Barry Bradley, Crisp’s supply chain expert notes improved forecasting through the provision of visibility to real time demand from retailers and distributors.

That mitigates the challenge brands face through sales data that is siloed and distributed, with getting an accurate picture of holistic demand to use in forecasting supply, manufacturing, and logistic needs being “incredibly time-consuming,” he says.

Sales information can be automatically ingested, cleaned, and routed to analytics and a brand’s internal systems, providing an accuracy level and granularity not previously available to demand planning teams, Bradley says.