Orca Cold Chain Solutions is delivering security to food-industry customers while reducing labor and energy costs—all thanks to a fully automated cold storage facility designed to maximize an urban footprint.
Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
Leaders at Orca Cold Chain Solutions are modernizing the food supply chain, one facility at a time. Automation is the centerpiece of that strategy, and the company is reaping the rewards of a recent project designed to meet the needs of the cold chain market in the Philippines, where Orca handles chilled and frozen food products for fast-food restaurants, exporters, importers, and small entrepreneurial food businesses. The project? Construction of a fully automated cold storage warehouse in the densely populated city of Taguig.
“When we first conceptualized this, we found out that a lot of clients were not satisfied with the service level of cold chain operators here,” says Yerik Cosiquien, Orca’s president and CEO, explaining that cold storage facilities in the region are often outdated, making it difficult for them to keep up with the market’s growing volume demands as well as changing safety requirements. “These things really mattered to our clients. Also, we lacked a lot of cold storage [locally], so the demand was always there.”
Located in metropolitan Manila, Orca’s first automated facility—and the first of its kind in the country, according to company leaders—delivers temperature-controlled logistics, warehousing, and pre- and post-storage value-added services to help food businesses and the agriculture industry prolong and maintain product freshness. The facility is also helping Orca meet internal goals and objectives, including reducing human intervention in the food supply chain, trimming labor costs, and maximizing space and energy efficiency in a densely populated urban marketplace.
BUILDING FOR SAFETY, SECURITY, AND SAVINGS
Planning and development for the Taguig facility began in 2015, construction began in 2017, and the building was fully operational by October 2019. The material handling systems were integrated into the building’s construction from the start, Cosiquien explains, crediting systems developer SSI Schaefer with helping Orca create a seismic-proof structure capable of withstanding the region’s harsh weather conditions. The building is a rack-clad warehouse, meaning that the storage systems form part of the building’s structure, rather than just supporting the stored goods, reinforcing the building’s stability and resistance to earthquakes, typhoons, and other storms.
The warehouse is powered by an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) and features high-bay storage in a small footprint: it accommodates roughly 20,000 pallet positions in 86,111 square feet of space. The system can move up to 4,800 pallets in one day, using a combination of conveyor technology
, pick-to-tote workstations, and SSI Schaefer’s “WAMAS” warehouse management software (WMS). The WMS is a key differentiator for Orca, Cosiquien adds, explaining that it provides real-time tracking of goods that essentially automates the “first expiration, first out” (FE/FO) system that is central to maintaining freshness and reducing contamination in a cold storage facility.
Automation also means less human intervention, which contributes to product safety and energy savings. Cosiquien points to temperature fluctuations within a cold storage warehouse as one example.
“Every time you open the door [in a cold storage facility], the temperature changes,” he explains. “In a manual operation, that takes a minute or two. With automation, it takes a few seconds. You are conserving that energy, [and] you are keeping the cold in [to preserve freshness].”
Automation also reduces the facility’s reliance on lighting—primarily because there are fewer people on staff—which adds up to even more energy savings. Cosiquien says the Taguig facility uses about 30% to 40% less electricity than a comparable manual facility and about 30% less labor.
DESIGNED FOR THE COLD
Interest in material handling automation within cold storage environments is on the rise, driven by increasing e-commerce, last-mile delivery, and other demands. But it’s no small undertaking, as Cosiquien and his partners at SSI Schaefer emphasize. Automated equipment needs to be adjusted to operate at lower temperatures; this includes almost everything in the system, explains Matt Rivenbark, SSI Schaefer’s director of sales for food and beverage.
“Special gearboxes, dry pipe fire-protection systems, specific conveyors, special greasing and oiling protocols, isolated and heated control cabinets, and just about all the electrical components are [designed] to handle lower temperatures,” he says. “Even the little things are critical. At SSI Schaefer, we design our systems to incorporate air locks and other components that help the freezer system work efficiently. In these types of environments, warm and cold air can clash and cause condensation, which in turn can cause damage to the products themselves. This is something that can’t [be tolerated] in a freezer and cold chain environment. Therefore, all components must be designed to withstand these harsh conditions.”
The WMS works differently as well.
“With cold chain and freezer environments, the WMS … controls all warehouse functions. Two important cold chain features that are built into [SSI Schaefer’s] WAMAS are the tracking of inventory through temperature zones to ensure that the cold chain isn’t disrupted, and the ability to track lots and expiration dates to ensure [FE/FO] principles are followed and that the correct inventory is picked,” Rivenbark adds.
The WAMAS system also incorporates preventive maintenance scheduling, another key to keeping products fresh and safe as they move through the handling process.
HIGH-TECH FINDS A HOME
In addition to safety improvements, energy savings, and labor reduction, Orca is also benefiting from faster delivery to customers. Daily throughput has increased exponentially, Cosiquien says, comparing the thousands of pallets processed per day at Taguig to just a few hundred per day at Orca’s conventional facilities.
“At the end of the day, when it comes to the supply chain, it’s all about turnaround,” he says. “The faster [you can] get [product] out of the facility and to retail areas—the better.”
Orca is applying its lessons learned in Taguig and is building a second fully automated facility in partnership with SSI Schaefer. Slated to open in April, it will include similar technology designed to improve the food supply chain and maximize urban development.
“We are building another fully automated facility near the port in Manila,” Cosiquien explains. “I really believe in automation, especially in urban areas. Where traffic is quite bad and where real estate is quite expensive, automation is the way to go. It really makes a difference.”
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.