This is a guest post by ACSIS, one of our partners at IBIE.

In response to the environmental crisis unfolding around us, we need to protect our natural environment and make the world a better place. For all companies – including those in the perishable food industry – moving from a linear to a circular supply chain is a huge step towards increasing sustainability. Yet, while many businesses have begun to eliminate single-use packaging from their supply chains by introducing returnable transport items, such as totes, baskets, or baking trays, 20-30% of these items are lost, stolen, misplaced, or damaged. Depending on the scale of operations, the cost to replace these items can run into millions of dollars. What’s alarming, is that a lot of companies aren’t even aware of the extent of this problem and the impact it’s having on their ROI. And with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters sitting at the top of the agenda, how can a business meet its commitments if it doesn’t have a system in place to monitor these items?

100% visibility of returnable transport items with RFID technology

What companies need is 100% visibility of their returnable transport items. Digital transformation is already well underway in the perishable food industry, with the widespread digitization of processes to streamline operations, increase productivity, and reduce operating costs. Returnable supply chain asset management, however, goes one step further by harnessing automation and cloud-based applications to connect companies’ networks and systems with innovative RFID technologies. Custom RFID tags, barcodes, and scanning devices are used to serialize, track, and trace each returnable transport item, so the company knows where all of these items are 24/7, and can make sure they’re returned for continuous use within their supply chain. Although RFID tech has been around for some time now, it’s proving to be increasingly essential in helping companies keep their food supply chains efficient and safe, while complying with government and industry regulations.

Integrated traceability approach

This approach goes a long way towards establishing a circular supply chain and comes with multiple benefits: 20-30% reduction in the cost of replaceable returnable assets, 15-20% accuracy of the returnable supply chain asset inventory, reduced operating expenses, increased productivity and transparency, and lower expediting costs. From an ecological perspective, returnable asset management plays a key role in protecting our planet for today’s and tomorrow’s generations. With ESG initiatives moving up the agenda, businesses are introducing measures to meet industry and government targets. And with a system in place to track returnable transport assets via RFID, companies have the visibility they need to better achieve these targets and increase operational efficiency.

At ACSIS, our motto is “visibility made for sustainability”.  We leverage the latest technologies to give our customers a proven visibility solution, making it extremely easy for them to track and trace every single returnable transport item in their supply chain throughout its entire lifetime. This level of visibility is geared towards maximizing ROI, enhancing sustainability, and meeting ESG targets. Our team of experts develop a tailored approach for tracking asset usage via cloud-based ACSIS software. Thanks to advanced analytics, our customers can identify trends and bottlenecks in their supply chains, detect potential issues early on, and take appropriate steps to remedy the situation before problems arise.

Future-focused partnership with Harvest Food Solutions

ACSIS and Harvest Food Solutions have joined forces to support customers in the perishable food segment with game-changing tech incorporating automation and machine learning. Our two businesses combined provide an unrivalled level of innovation leadership – helping companies to accelerate their digital transformation while meeting ESG targets.

Meet us at IBIE in Las Vegas!

We’re looking forward to connecting with baking industry professionals from around the world at IBIE in Las Vegas, in September 2022. Our team will show how we help companies achieve 100% visibility of their returnable supply chain assets, increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and become more sustainable. We’d love to see you there.

Visit us in the Harvest Food Solutions booth #957 where we’ll be demonstrating our solutions alongside our partner Harvest Food Solutions. Take advantage of our discount code EXH957 to receive 20% off your ticket to the event!

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