between retailer and supplier, resolving perishable quality
issues before the produce reaches the retail stores.
SUPPLY CHAIN VISIBILITY
Quality assurance in produce inspection starts well before
the load arrives at the distribution center.
“From the supplier to the buyer, and ultimately to the
recipient of the produce at the retail level, our customers
are able to see, track, and trace the product by case as it
comes through the supply chain,” said Ed Krupka, chief
information officer at Burris Logistics. “If a load of straw-
berries is coming from California to one of our distribution
centers on the East Coast, in real time the supplier can
see exactly what we are seeing as
we are unloading the truck and
capturing data relating to tem-
perature, quality, and quantity of
product. At the same time, the
intended recipient of the load, the
retailer at the other end of the sup-
ply chain portal, can see exactly
what we are seeing.”
Although complete supply
chain visibility via the cloud is a
capability shared by many tem-
perature-controlled distribution
facilities handling produce, mak-
ing this information available to
its retail customers in real time
is not. Burris, however, provides
a comprehensive supply chain
portal to help retailers manage
their inbound and outbound ship-
ments, and do demand planning.
“The company recently developed a customer-specific produce
inspection application within its
supply chain portal to help with
the processing of inbound produce inspection for its customers,” added Krupka. “This
allows for real-time sharing of information, pictures, grading, and feedback for all fresh produce being brought into
its buildings and facilitates clear, concise, and immediate
feedback between shippers and receivers.”
MULTIMODAL FLEXIBILITY SIMPLIFIES PRODUCE
INSPECTIONS
Produce distributors are beginning to employ software
applications that permit product data to be manually input
into a mobile device as the produce is being inspected in
the distribution center, with cloud connectivity for real-
time sharing between parties. Although this is an obvious
improvement over clipboards and Excel spreadsheets, it still
requires manual data entry and independent uploading of
produce images (photographs) from an external device, like
a cell phone, all of which is time consuming.
State-of-the-art systems like the one deployed by Burris
do away with all that. “The platform that Burris chose
for our produce inspections is one that Honeywell developed specifically around inspection types of applications,”
Krupka said. “It is a multimodal platform that permits
interaction with the system via voice, touchscreen, and typing. This data is being uploaded to the cloud as it is being
entered in real time.
“As the inspectors are going through the produce inspec-
tion process, they can use a head-
set to listen to options but also
tap on the screen to input infor-
mation,” Krupka explained. “Or
they can speak something, then
read the screen to see what they
have just recorded. The system
permits a tremendous amount of
flexibility for inspectors to input
and verify inspection data.”
The device used by inspectors
to record information is like a
miniaturized tablet that has an
onboard camera that syncs direct-
ly with the recorded data. So the
photographed images are time/
date stamped in direct reference
to the produce item being
inspected.
Off-color produce, bruising, damaged packaging, stacking shifts during transport, mold
decay, temperature, serial number, other electronic data on the
temperature recorder … all of this
information becomes immediately visible to interested parties that have access to that particular purchase order in real time.
ENSURING AVAILABILITY OF QUALITY PRODUCE
Logistics technology transforms not only the way Burris
manages temperature-sensitive products, but also the way
it fulfills the needs of its customers, company leaders say.
The sooner an inspector knows about the quality of a
produce load and the issues that need to be resolved, the
more latitude he has to seek out alternative solutions. That
extra time gained may be just enough to source product
from another supplier, keep his inventory stocked, and stay
one step ahead of his competition. n
