Use of IT
“The ethos which drives our company is that of working continually to meet the needs of our customers, and their customers, better than anyone else”, says Ross Reed, Interfrigo’s Managing Director. “To meet this commitment, we set out to make the cold store in Antrim the most modern operation in Ireland. We invested in the most sophisticated warehouse management system (Chess Empirica Level Three) to ensure that we’re making the most of the technology available.”
How the Interfrigo system works
With the cold store receiving up to 250 deliveries a week, our operation is continuous, therefore reliability is critical. At the heart of our efficient and productive operations is a computerised cold store management system supplied by Chess Logistics Technology. It ensures maximum efficiency and accuracy.
Goods Inwards
We require if possible 24 hours advance notice of incoming goods, so that we can produce a receipt advice. When the goods arrive, the load is checked against the receipt advice, any differences marked and a “putaway” sheet is produced, which gives store locations. This data is automatically transferred by the computer to the equipment in the fork-lift truck via radio-frequency and the appropriate racks are opened automatically as each pallet is put away, thus ensuring optimum speed, which is essential with frozen and chilled goods.
Goods Outwards
We require if possible 24 hours notice. A picking sheet is prepared according to customer’s requirements and again the data is transferred to the radio equipment in the fork-lift truck which will open the appropriate racks to enable quick loading. Stock control and rotation is totally computerized. The computer also operates a batch system, to allow picking of specific products, i.e. for samples and to allow our customer to recall product in case of problems.
